Ted Williams of Boston Red Sox in Spring Training

Ted Williams becomes last MLB player to hit .400

Born on This Day

Ed Sullivan Crossing Arms

Ed Sullivan

1901 - 1974

Stone-faced host of long-running TV variety show that launched the careers of Elvis Presley and The Beatles.

Brigitte Bardot

Brigitte Bardot

1934 -

French actress who became a worldwide sex symbol thanks to taboo-busting films like 1956's "And God Created Woman."

64th Annual GRAMMY Awards - Arrivals

St. Vincent

1982 -

American musician known for unique voice, guitar skills, and blend of art pop and experimental indie rock.

Ed SullivanCorbis via Getty Images

Brigitte BardotGetty Images

St. VincentGetty Images

1850

SEP28

Congress votes to ban flogging on both naval and merchant vessels. Until then, misbehaving sailors were often punished by stripping them to the waist and lashing their bare backs with whips known as cat o’ nine tails.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on September 28th

Pompey the Great assassinated

Upon landing in Egypt, Roman general and politician Pompey is murdered on the orders of King Ptolemy of Egypt. During his long career, Pompey the Great displayed exceptional military talents on the battlefield. He fought in Africa and Spain, quelled the slave revolt of Spartacus, cleared the Mediterranean of pirates, and conquered Armenia, Syria and Palestine. […]

1:34m read read

William the Conqueror invades England

Claiming his right to the English throne, William, duke of Normandy, invades England at Pevensey on Britain’s southeast coast. His subsequent defeat of King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings marked the beginning of a new era in British history. William was the illegitimate son of Robert I, duke of Normandy, by his concubine […]

2:40m read read

Spanish explorer sails into San Diego Bay

On September 28, 1542, the Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo arrives in San Diego Bay while searching for the Strait of Anian, a mythical all-water route across North America. Cabrillo was not the first to search for a water passage across the North American continent, and he would not be the last. Ever since the […]

2:02m read read

Battle of Yorktown begins

On September 28, 1781, General George Washington, commanding a force of 17,000 French and Continental troops, begins the siege known as the Battle of Yorktown against British General Lord Charles Cornwallis and a contingent of 9,000 British troops at Yorktown, Virginia, in the most important battle of the Revolutionary War. Earlier, the French fleet commanded […]

TV host Ed Sullivan born

On September 28, 1901, Ed Sullivan, who will become the host of the long-running TV variety program “The Ed Sullivan Show,” is born in New York City. During the peak of its popularity in the 1950s and 1960s, Sullivan’s program showcased a wide range of entertainers, including Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Rudolf Nureyev, Jerry Lewis and […]

1:54m read read

British soldier allegedly spares the life of an injured Adolf Hitler

On September 28, 1918, in an incident that would go down in the lore of World War I history—although the details of the event are still unclear—Private Henry Tandey, a British soldier serving near the French village of Marcoing, reportedly encounters a wounded German soldier and declines to shoot him, sparing the life of 29-year-old […]

Philadelphia parade exposes thousands to Spanish flu

A WWI Liberty Loan parade in Philadelphia prompts a huge outbreak of Spanish flu in the city, infecting thousands.

Eight MLB players indicted in “Black Sox Scandal”

On September 28, 1920, a Chicago grand jury indicts eight members of the Chicago White Sox on charges of fixing the 1919 World Series. White Sox owner Charles Comiskey immediately suspends Chick Gandil, Buck Weaver, Happy Felsch, Swede Risberg, Fred McMullin, Eddie Cicotte, Lefty Williams and “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, who are notorious for their involvement in […]

Ted Williams hits home run in last major league at-bat

On September 28, 1960, at Boston’s Fenway Park, Red Sox star Ted Williams hits a home run in the last at-bat of his 21-year career. Ted Williams once said it was his goal in life to “walk down the street [and have] folks say ‘there goes the greatest hitter who ever lived.’” He succeeded. Williams […]

1:54m read read

Fidel Castro announces that Cubans are free to leave the island

On September 28, 1965, six years after he led the Cuban Revolution and four years after the failed U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs Invasion, Fidel Castro announces that any Cuban who wished to leave the island was free to do so. With Cuban forces no longer blocking civilians from leaving, a massive wave of emigration ensued, […]

On This Day In History: Fidel Castro announces that Cubans are free to leave the island

A cult leader kills one of his followers

Roch Theriault fatally wounds Solange Boilard in Ontario, Canada. Theriault, the leader of the most bizarre and violent cult in Canadian history, often physically abused his followers. Obsessed with anatomy and medicine, Theriault performed crude intestinal surgery on Boislard by slicing open her abdomen and ripping out a piece of intestine with his bare hands. […]

1:30m read read

Passenger ferry Estonia sinks, killing 852

On September 28, 1994, 852 people die in one of the worst maritime disasters of the century when the Estonia, a large car-and-passenger ferry, sinks in the Baltic Sea. The German-built ship was traveling on an overnight cruise from Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia, to Stockholm, Sweden, when it sank off the coast of […]

1:52m read read

Arctic shipping lane opens due to ice melt; cargo ship completes the journey

On September 28, 2018, the cargo ship Venta Maersk docks in St. Petersburg, Russia, more than a month after departing from Vladivostok on the other side of the country. The successful traversal of the Russian Arctic was a landmark moment for the international shipping industry, as well as a sobering reminder of the extent to […]

1:22m read read

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