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Explore the historical events that shaped our world on December 28th. From major milestones to cultural achievements, see what happened on this day in history. Dates for earlier events may be approximate.
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Westminster Abbey, located in London, is consecrated by Edward the Confessor on December 28, 1065, although he was too ill to attend and died just days later, being buried there. The Abbey became the site of coronations and other ceremonies of national significance in England.
The first observation of Neptune is recorded by Galileo with his small telescope on December 28, 1612. He believed it to be a fixed star rather than a planet. More than 200 years later, on September 23 1846, the ice giant Neptune became the first planet located through mathematical predictions rather than through regular observations of the sky. More
Spain finally accepts Mexico’s permanent independence with the Santa Maria-Calatrava Treaty on December 28, 1836. Spain had previously attempted to re-invade Mexico in 1829, leading to the Battle of Tampico where Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, defeated the Spanish and became a war hero.
Iowa is admitted into the United States Union becoming the 29th State of the Union.
The first session of the Indian National Congress (INC), A key moment in the Indian Independence Movement, takes place in Bombay (now Mumbai) from December 28 to 31, 1885. The historic meeting took place in the hall of the Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College, with 72 delegates in attendance, and was presided over by Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee.
The world’s first commercial movie screening takes place at the Grand Cafe in Paris on December 28, 1895; showing a series of short scenes from everyday French life and charged admission for the first time.
The film was made by Louis and Auguste Lumiere, two French brothers who developed a camera-projector called the Cinematographe. They had unveiled their invention to the public in March 1895 with a brief film showing workers leaving the Lumiere factory. More
The Messina Earthquake, Europe's most powerful earthquake shook southern Italy on December 28, 1908. The epicenter was in the Messina Strait, which separates Sicily from Calabria. The quake's magnitude equaled a 7.5 by today's Richter scale.
Moments after a devastating tsunami formed, causing forty-foot waves to crash down on dozens of coastal cities. Most of southern Italy's cities lost as many as half their residents with the total death toll throughout Italy was estimated at nearly 200,000. More
U.S. President Richard Nixon signs the Endangered Species Act on December 28, 1973. The Act obligated federal and state governments to protect all species threatened with extinction that fall within the borders of the United States and its outlying territories. More
Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the first American born via in vitro fertilization (IVF), was born in Norfolk, Virginia on December 28, 1981. Her birth was the first in the U.S. using IVF, a process where eggs are fertilized outside the body before implantation. She was the world's 15th IVF baby, following the first-ever IVF birth in England in 1978.
