48 BC – Pompey is assassinated by order of King Ptolemy upon arriving in Egypt.
235 – Pope Pontian resigns. He is exiled to the mines of Sardinia, along with Hippolytus of Rome.
351 – Constantius II defeats the usurper Magnentius.
365 – Roman usurper Procopius bribes two legions passing by Constantinople, and proclaims himself emperor.
935 – Duke Wenceslaus I of Bohemia is murdered by a group of nobles led by his brother Boleslaus I, who succeeds him.
995 – Boleslaus II, Duke of Bohemia, kills most members of the rival Slavník dynasty.
1066 – William the Conqueror lands in England, beginning the Norman conquest.
1106 – King Henry I of England defeats his brother, Robert Curthose.
1238 – King James I of Aragon conquers Valencia from the Moors. Shortly thereafter, he proclaims himself king of Valencia.
1322 – Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor, defeats Frederick I of Austria in the Battle of Mühldorf.
1538 – Ottoman–Venetian War: The Ottoman Navy scores a decisive victory over a Holy League fleet in the Battle of Preveza.
1542 – Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo of Portugal arrives at what is now San Diego, California.
1779 – American Revolution: Samuel Huntington is elected President of the Continental Congress, succeeding John Jay.
1781 – American Revolution: American forces backed by a French fleet begin the siege of Yorktown.
1787 – The Congress of the Confederation votes to send the newly-written United States Constitution to the state legislatures for approval.
1821 – The Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire is drafted. It will be made public on 13 October.
1844 – Oscar I of Sweden–Norway is crowned king of Sweden.
1867 – Toronto becomes the capital of Ontario, having also been the capital of Ontario’s predecessors since 1796.
1868 – The Battle of Alcolea causes Queen Isabella II of Spain to flee to France.
1871 – The Brazilian Parliament passes a law that frees all children thereafter born to slaves, and all government-owned slaves.
1889 – The General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) defines the length of a meter.
1892 – The first night game for American football takes place in a contest between Wyoming Seminary and Mansfield State Normal.
1893 – Foundation of the Portuguese football club FC Porto.
1901 – Philippine–American War: Filipino guerrillas kill more than forty American soldiers while losing 28 of their own.
1912 – The Ulster Covenant is signed by some 500,000 Ulster Protestant Unionists in opposition to the Third Irish Home Rule Bill.
1912 – Corporal Frank S. Scott of the United States Army becomes the first enlisted man to die in an airplane crash.
1918 – World War I: The Fifth Battle of Ypres begins.
1919 – Race riots begin in Omaha, Nebraska.
1924 – The first aerial circumnavigation is completed by a team from the US Army.
1928 – Alexander Fleming notices a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as penicillin.
1939 – World War II: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agree on a division of Poland.
1939 – World War II: The siege of Warsaw comes to an end.
1941 – World War II: The Drama uprising against the Bulgarian occupation in northern Greece begins.
1941 – Ted Williams achieves a .406 batting average for the season, and becomes the last major league baseball player to bat .400 or better.
1944 – World War II: Soviet Army troops liberate Klooga concentration camp in Estonia.
1951 – CBS makes the first color televisions available for sale to the general public, but the product is discontinued less than a month later.
1961 – A military coup in Damascus effectively ends the United Arab Republic, the union between Egypt and Syria.
1970 – Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser dies of a heart attack in Cairo.
1971 – The Parliament of the UK passes the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, banning the medicinal use of cannabis.
1973 – The ITT Building in New York City is bombed in protest at ITT’s alleged involvement in the coup d’état in Chile.
1975 – The Spaghetti House siege, in which nine people are taken hostage, takes place in London.
1986 – The Democratic Progressive Party becomes the first opposition party in Taiwan.
1991 – The Strategic Air Command stands down from alert all ICBMs scheduled for deactivation under START I, as well as its strategic bomber force.
1992 – A Pakistan International Airlines flight crashes into a hill in Nepal, killing all 167 passengers and crew.
1994 – The cruise ferry MS Estonia sinks in the Baltic Sea, killing 852 people.
1995 – Bob Denard and a group of mercenaries take the islands of the Comoros in a coup.
1995 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat sign the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
2000 – Al-Aqsa Intifada: Ariel Sharon visits Al-Aqsa Mosque known to Jews as the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
2008 – Falcon 1 becomes the first privately developed liquid-fuel ground-launched vehicle to put a payload into orbit.
2009 – The military junta leading Guinea attacks a protest rally, killing or wounding 1400 people.
2012 – Somali and African Union forces launch a coordinated assault on the Somali port of Kismayo to take back the city from al-Shabaab militants.
2014 – The 2014 Hong Kong protests begin in response to restrictive political reforms imposed by the NPC in Beijing.
2016 – The 2016 South Australian blackout occurs, lasting up to three days in some areas.
2018 – The 7.5 Mw 2018 Sulawesi earthquake, which triggered a large tsunami, leaves 4,340 dead and 10,679 injured.
2018 – On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, the international project Tree of Peace was established (September, 28). One of the trees was planted personally by Zuzana Čaputová, President of the Slovak Republic.
Births on September 28
551 BC – Confucius, Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history. (d. 479 BC)
616 – Javanshir, King of Caucasian Albania (d. 680)
1494 – Agnolo Firenzuola, Italian poet and playwright (d. 1545)
1555 – Henri de La Tour d’Auvergne, Marshal of France (d. 1623)
1573 – Théodore de Mayerne, Swiss physician (d. 1654)
1605 – Ismaël Bullialdus, French astronomer and mathematician (d. 1694)
1681 – Johann Mattheson, German composer, lexicographer, and diplomat (d. 1764)
1705 – Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland, English politician, Secretary of State for the Southern Department (d. 1774)
1705 – Johann Peter Kellner, German organist and composer (d. 1772)
1735 – Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, English academic and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1811)
1746 – William Jones, English-Welsh philologist and scholar (d. 1794)
1765 – Frederick Christian II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg (d. 1814)
1803 – Prosper Mérimée, French archaeologist, historian, and author (d. 1870)
1809 – Alvan Wentworth Chapman, American physician and botanist (d. 1899)
1819 – Narcís Monturiol, Spanish engineer and publisher (d. 1885)
1821 – Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs, American minister and politician (d. 1874)
1823 – Alexandre Cabanel, French painter and educator (d. 1889)
1824 – Francis Turner Palgrave, English poet and critic (d. 1897)
1836 – Thomas Crapper, English plumber, invented the ballcock (d. 1910)
1838 – Sai Baba of Shirdi, Indian national saint (d. 1918)
1841 – Georges Clemenceau, French journalist, physician, and politician, 85th Prime Minister of France (d. 1929)
1844 – Robert Stout, Scottish-New Zealand lawyer and politician, 13th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1930)
1852 – Henri Moissan, French chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1907)
1852 – Isis Pogson, British astronomer and meteorologist (d. 1945)
1856 – Kate Douglas Wiggin, American author and educator (d. 1923)
1860 – Paul Ulrich Villard, French chemist and physicist (d. 1934)
1861 – Amélie of Orléans, queen consort of Portugal (d. 1951)
1867 – Hiranuma Kiichirō, Japanese lawyer and politician, 35th Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1952)
1867 – James Edwin Campbell, American poet, editor, short story writer and educator (d. 1896)
1868 – Evelyn Beatrice Hall, English writer best known for her biography of Voltaire, and wrote under the pseudonym S. G. Tallentyre (d. 1956)
1877 – Albert Young, American boxer and promoter (d. 1940)
1878 – Joseph Ruddy, American swimmer and water polo player (d. 1962)
1870 – Florent Schmitt, French composer and critic (d. 1958)
1881 – Pedro de Cordoba, American actor (d. 1950)
1882 – Mart Saar, Estonian organist and composer (d. 1963)
1885 – Emil Väre, Finnish wrestler, coach, and referee (d. 1974)
1887 – Avery Brundage, American businessman, 5th President of the International Olympic Committee (d. 1975)
1889 – Jack Fournier, American baseball player and coach (d. 1973)
1890 – Florence Violet McKenzie, Australian electrical engineer (d. 1982)
1892 – Elmer Rice, American playwright (d. 1967)
1893 – Hilda Geiringer, Austrian mathematician (d. 1973)
1893 – Giannis Skarimpas, Greek author, poet, and playwright (d. 1984)
1898 – Carl Clauberg, German Nazi physician (d. 1957)
1900 – Isabel Pell, American socialite, fought as part of the French Resistance during WWII (d. 1951)
1901 – William S. Paley, American broadcaster, founded CBS (d. 1990)
1901 – Ed Sullivan, American television host (d. 1974)
1903 – Haywood S. Hansell, American general (d. 1988)
1905 – Max Schmeling, German boxer (d. 2005)
1907 – Heikki Savolainen, Finnish gymnast and physician (d. 1997)
1907 – Bhagat Singh, Indian activist (d. 1931)
1909 – Al Capp, American author and illustrator (d. 1979)
1910 – Diosdado Macapagal, Filipino lawyer and politician, 9th President of the Philippines (d. 1997)
1910 – Wenceslao Vinzons, Filipino lawyer and politician (d. 1942)
1913 – Warja Honegger-Lavater, Swiss illustrator (d. 2007)
1913 – Alice Marble, American tennis player (d. 1990)
1914 – Maria Franziska von Trapp, Austrian-American refugee and singer (d. 2014)
1915 – Ethel Rosenberg, American spy (d. 1953)
1916 – Peter Finch, English-Australian actor (d. 1977)
1916 – Olga Lepeshinskaya, Ukrainian-Russian ballerina and educator (d. 2008)
1918 – Ángel Labruna, Argentinian footballer and manager (d. 1983)
1918 – Arnold Stang, American actor (d. 2009)
1919 – Doris Singleton, American actress (d. 2012)
1922 – Larry Munson, American sportscaster (d. 2011)
1923 – Tuli Kupferberg, American singer, poet, and writer (d. 2010)
1923 – John Scott, 9th Duke of Buccleuch, Scottish captain and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Selkirkshire (d. 2007)
1923 – William Windom, American actor (d. 2012)
1924 – Rudolf Barshai, Russian-Swiss viola player and conductor (d. 2010)
1924 – Marcello Mastroianni, Italian-French actor and singer (d. 1996)
1925 – Seymour Cray, American computer scientist, founded the CRAY Computer Company (d. 1996)
1925 – Cromwell Everson, South African composer (d. 1991)
1925 – Martin David Kruskal, American physicist and mathematician (d. 2006)
1926 – Jerry Clower, American soldier, comedian, and author (d. 1998)
1928 – Koko Taylor, American singer (d. 2009)
1929 – Lata Mangeshkar, Indian playback singer and composer
1930 – Tommy Collins, American country music singer-songwriter (d. 2000)
1930 – Immanuel Wallerstein, American sociologist, author, and academic (d. 2019)
1932 – Jeremy Isaacs, Scottish screenwriter and producer
1932 – Víctor Jara, Chilean singer-songwriter, poet, and director (d. 1973)
1933 – Joe Benton, English soldier and politician
1933 – Miguel Ortiz Berrocal, Spanish sculptor and educator (d. 2006)
1933 – Johnny “Country” Mathis, American singer-songwriter (d. 2011)
1934 – Brigitte Bardot, French actress
1935 – Bruce Crampton, Australian golfer
1935 – David Hannay, Baron Hannay of Chiswick, English diplomat, British Permanent Representative to the United Nations
1935 – Ronald Lacey, English actor (d. 1991)
1936 – Emmett Chapman, American guitarist, invented the Chapman Stick
1936 – Eddie Lumsden, Australian rugby league player (d. 2019)
1936 – Robert Wolders, Dutch television actor (d. 2018)
1937 – Alice Mahon, English trade union leader and politician
1937 – Glenn Sutton, American country music songwriter and record producer (d. 2007)
1938 – Ben E. King, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2015)
1939 – Stuart Kauffman, American biologist and academic
1941 – David Lewis, American philosopher and academic (d. 2001)
1941 – Edmund Stoiber, German lawyer and politician, Minister President of Bavaria
1942 – Pierre Clémenti, French actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1999)
1942 – Edward “Little Buster” Forehand, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2006)
1943 – Warren Lieberfarb, American businessman
1943 – George W. S. Trow, American novelist, playwright, and critic (d. 2006)
1943 – Nick St. Nicholas, German-Canadian bass player
1944 – Richie Karl, American golfer
1944 – Marcia Muller, American journalist and author
1945 – Marielle Goitschel, French skier
1945 – Manolis Rasoulis, Greek singer-songwriter and journalist (d. 2011)
1945 – Fusako Shigenobu, Japanese activist, founded the Japanese Red Army
1946 – Tom Bower, English journalist and author
1946 – Majid Khan, Indian-Pakistani cricketer
1947 – Bob Carr, Australian journalist and politician, 37th Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs
1947 – Sheikh Hasina, Bangladeshi politician, 10th Prime Minister of Bangladesh
1947 – Jon Snow, English journalist and academic
1947 – Rhonda Hughes, American mathematician and academic
1949 – Jim Henshaw, Canadian actor, producer, and screenwriter
1950 – Paul Burgess, English drummer
1950 – Christina Hoff Sommers, American author and philosopher
1950 – John Sayles, American novelist, director, and screenwriter
1951 – Jim Diamond, Scottish singer-songwriter and musician (d. 2015)
1952 – Christopher Buckley, American satirical novelist
1952 – Efthimis Kioumourtzoglou, Greek basketball player and coach
1952 – Sylvia Kristel, Dutch model and actress (d. 2012)
1952 – Andy Ward, English drummer
1953 – Otmar Hasler, Liechtensteiner educator and politician, 11th Prime Minister of Liechtenstein
1954 – Steve Largent, American football player and politician
1954 – George Lynch, American guitarist and songwriter
1954 – John Scott, English rugby player
1954 – Margot Wallström, Swedish politician and diplomat, 42nd Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs
1955 – Stéphane Dion, Canadian sociologist and politician, 15th Canadian Minister of the Environment
1955 – Mercy Manci, Xhosa sangoma and HIV activist from South Africa
1955 – Kenny Kirkland, American pianist (d. 1998)
1956 – Martha Isabel Fandiño Pinilla, Colombian-Italian mathematician and author
1957 – Bill Cassidy, American politician and physician
1959 – Ron Fellows, Canadian race car driver
1959 – Laura Bruce, American artist
1960 – Gary Ayres, Australian footballer and coach
1960 – Tom Byrum, American golfer
1960 – Frank Hammerschlag, German footballer and manager
1960 – Gus Logie, Trinidadian cricketer
1960 – Kamlesh Patel, Baron Patel of Bradford, English politician
1960 – Jennifer Rush, American singer-songwriter
1960 – Socrates Villegas, Filipino archbishop
1961 – Helen Grant, English lawyer and politician, Minister for Sport and the Olympics
1961 – Gregory Jbara, American actor and singer
1961 – Quentin Kawānanakoa, American lawyer and politician
1961 – Anne White, American tennis player
1962 – Grant Fuhr, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1962 – Laurie Rinker, American golfer
1962 – Dietmar Schacht, German footballer and manager
1962 – Chuck Taylor, American journalist
1963 – Steve Blackman, American wrestler and martial artist
1963 – Érik Comas, French race car driver
1963 – Greg Weisman, American voice actor, producer, and screenwriter
1964 – Claudio Borghi, Argentinian footballer and manager
1964 – Gregor Fisken, Scottish race car driver
1964 – Janeane Garofalo, American comedian, actress, and screenwriter
1964 – Paul Jewell, English footballer and manager
1964 – Mārtiņš Roze, Latvian lawyer and politician (d. 2012)
1966 – Scott Adams, American football player (d. 2013)
1966 – Maria Canals-Barrera, Cuban-American actress
1966 – Puri Jagannadh, Indian director, producer, and screenwriter
1967 – Mira Sorvino, American actress
1967 – Moon Zappa, American actress and author
1968 – Francois Botha, South African boxer and mixed martial artist
1968 – Mika Häkkinen, Finnish race car driver
1968 – Trish Keenan, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2011)
1968 – Sean Levert, American R&B singer-songwriter and actor (d. 2008)
1968 – Rob Moroso, American race car driver (d. 1990)
1968 – Naomi Watts, English-Australian actress and producer
1969 – Kerri Chandler, electronic music producer and DJ
1969 – Marcel Dost, Dutch decathlete
1969 – Ben Greenman, American journalist and author
1969 – Piper Kerman, American author and memoirist
1969 – Éric Lapointe, Canadian singer-songwriter and keyboard player
1969 – Sascha Maassen, German race car driver
1969 – Angus Robertson, Scottish politician
1969 – Nico Vaesen, Belgian footballer
1970 – Kimiko Date-Krumm, Japanese tennis player
1970 – Mike DeJean, American baseball player
1970 – Gualter Salles, Brazilian race car driver
1971 – Joseph Arthur, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1971 – George Eustice, English lawyer and politician
1971 – Braam van Straaten, South African rugby player
1971 – Alan Wright, English footballer and manager
1972 – Dita Von Teese, American model and dancer
1973 – Brian Rafalski, American ice hockey player
1974 – Marco Di Loreto, Italian footballer and manager
1974 – Mariya Kiselyova, Russian swimmer
1974 – Joonas Kolkka, Finnish footballer and coach
1974 – Shane Webcke, Australian rugby league player and coach
1975 – Stuart Clark, Australian cricketer and manager
1975 – Isamu Jordan, American journalist and academic (d. 2013)
