Advertisement for the Lumieres Cinematographe, 1896.

First commercial movie screened

Born on This Day

Stan Lee Portrait

Stan Lee

1922 - 2018

Comic book writer and publisher who co-created Marvel superheroes Spider-Man, Iron Man, the X-Men and the Avengers.

"Quartet" Press Conference

Maggie Smith

1934 - 2024

English actress known for roles in "Downton Abbey," "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" and the "Harry Potter" series.

The Cast Of "Gladiator II" Attends A SiriusXM Town Hall With Host Mike Muse

Denzel Washington

1954 -

Actor and director known for his roles in films like "Training Day," "Glory," "Fences" and "Malcolm X."

Stan LeeGetty Images

Maggie SmithWireImage

Denzel WashingtonGetty Images for SiriusXM

1917

DEC28

Writer and satirist H.L. Mencken publishes a history of the bathtub, including a claim that bathing was unlawful in Boston between 1845 and 1862. The story—a spoof designed to test reader gullibility—was widely repeated by newspapers and historians.

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 December 28th

Writer Thomas Paine is arrested in France

Thomas Paine is arrested in France for treason. Though the charges against him were never detailed, he had been tried in absentia on December 26 and convicted. Before moving to France, Paine was an instrumental figure in the American Revolution as the author of Common Sense, writings used by George Washington to inspire the American […]

John C. Calhoun resigns vice presidency

Citing political differences with President Andrew Jackson and a desire to fill a vacant Senate seat in South Carolina, John C. Calhoun becomes the first vice president in U.S. history to resign the office. Born near Abbeville, South Carolina, in 1782, Calhoun was an advocate of states’ rights and a defender of the agrarian South […]

1:26m read read

Woodrow Wilson born in Staunton, Virginia

Future President Woodrow Wilson is born in Staunton, Virginia on December 28, 1856. He attended private schools and graduated from Princeton University in 1879 before studying law at the University of Virginia and earning his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. He was hired by Princeton as a professor of political science in 1899 and went on […]

1:58m read read

Worst European earthquake ever recorded

At dawn, the most destructive earthquake in recorded European history strikes the Straits of Messina in southern Italy, leveling the cities of Messina in Sicily and Reggio di Calabria on the Italian mainland. The earthquake and tsunami it caused killed an estimated 100,000 people. Sicily and Calabria are known as la terra ballerina–“the dancing land”–for […]

1:50m read read

Silent-film star and inventor Florence Lawrence dies

On December 28, 1938, the silent-film star Florence Lawrence dies by suicide in Beverly Hills. She was 52 years old. Though she was best known for her roles in nearly 250 films, Lawrence was also an inventor: She designed the first “auto signaling arm,” a mechanical turn signal, along with the first mechanical brake signal. […]

2:22m read read

Hungary declares war on Germany

The provisional government of Hungary officially declares war on Germany, bringing an end to Hungary’s cooperation—sometimes free, sometimes coerced—with the Axis power. Miklos Horthy, the anticommunist regent and virtual dictator of Hungary, who had once hoped to keep his country a nonbelligerent in the war, had reluctantly aligned Hungary with Hitler in November 1940. While […]

2:22m read read

Colts win NFL title in “Greatest Game Ever Played”

On December 28, 1958, the Baltimore Colts defeat the New York Giants, 23-17, in overtime in the NFL Championship Game—a back-and-forth thriller that later is billed as “The Greatest Game Ever Played.” The nationally televised championship—the league’s first overtime contest—is watched by 45 million viewers and fuels the NFL’s meteroric rise in popularity. “Never has there been a […]

1:34m read read

Battle of Binh Gia begins

The Viet Cong launch a major offensive in the early morning hours of December 28, 1964 in the the village of Binh Gia, 40 miles southeast of Saigon. The bloody battle lasted until January 1, 1965, when Viet Cong forces abandoned the town. Losses included an estimated 200 South Vietnamese and five U.S. advisors, plus […]

0:40m read read

“The Gulag Archipelago” is published

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s “literary investigation” of the police-state system in the Soviet Union, The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956, is published in the original Russian in Paris. The book was the first of the three-volume work. The brutal and uncompromising description of political repression and terror was quickly translated into many languages and was published in the United […]

Endangered Species Act signed into law

On December 28, 1973, President Richard Nixon signs the Endangered Species Act into law. The act, which Nixon called for the previous year, is considered one of the most significant and influential environmental laws in American history. The government started taking action to protect endangered species in the early 1900s, as it became apparent that […]

Dallas Cowboys win playoff game on “Hail Mary” pass

On December 28, 1975, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach throws a 50-yard touchdown pass to Drew Pearson in the waning seconds to beat the Minnesota Vikings in a playoff game, 17-14. Afterward, Staubach calls the miraculous touchdown a “Hail Mary,” thus cementing the term for a desperation pass in the sports lexicon. “It was a […]

1:16m read read

First American “test-tube baby” is born

On December 28, 1981, the first American “test-tube baby,” a child born as a result of in-vitro fertilization, is born in Norfolk, Virginia. Considered a miracle at the time, births like that of Elizabeth Jordan Carr are now common. In-vitro fertilization is a process in which doctors fertilize an egg outside of a woman’s body […]

1:46m read read

Nine killed in a stampede outside a hip-hop celebrity basketball game

Nine young people die in a crowd stampede in New York City on December 28, 1991. The event was a charity basketball gamed headlined by hip-hop stars Heavy D. and Puff Daddy (now known as P.Diddy). Shortly after 6:00 p.m., according to eyewitness accounts, the crowd outside the City University of New York broke at least […]

1:10m read read

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