Historical Events in 1928

Events 1 - 200 of 250

• Jan 1 1st US air-conditioned office building opens, San Antonio
• Jan 1 Algemeene Vereeniging Radio Omroep (AVRO) begins broadcasting in the Netherlands

• Jan 13 Swedish-American inventor E.F.W. Alexanderson, of General Electric, demonstrates the first television receiver at Proctors Theatre in Schenectady, New York
• Jan 17 1st fully automatic photographic film developing machine patented

• Jan 28 Christopher Hornsrud chosen Prime Minister of Norway
• Jan 30 1st radio telephone connection between Netherlands & US
• Jan 30 Eugene O'Neill's play "Strange Interlude" premieres in NYC
• Jan 31 Scotch tape 1st marketed by 3-M Company

• Feb 6 A woman dubbed Anna Anderson [possibly Franziska Schanzkowska] arrives in NYC, using the alias "Anastasia Tschaikovsky" claims to be Grand Duchess Anastasia, daughter of Tsar Nicholas II
• Feb 7 1st solo flight from England to Australia takes off from Croydon, piloted by Australian aviator Bert Hinkler (arrives 15 ½ days later)
• Feb 8 1st transatlantic TV image received at Hartsdale, NY
• Feb 11 II Winter Olympic Games open in St Moritz, Switzerland

• Feb 13 Legendary Norwegian speed skater Ivar Ballangrud wins the first of 2 straight 5,000m Olympic gold medals when he beats Julius Skutnabb of Finland by 9 seconds in St. Moritz
• Feb 14 Clas Thunberg of Finland wins his 2nd gold medal of the Games and 5th career title when he takes out the 1,500m speed skating at the St. Moritz Winter Olympics
• Feb 14 Per-Erik Hedlund leads a Swedish sweep of the medals in the 50k cross-country at the St. Moritz Winter Olympics; Gustaf Jonsson & Volgar Andersson take the minor medals
• Feb 17 American brothers, Jennison and John Heaton fight out the top placings in the cresta (now known as skeleton) at the St. Moritz Winter Olympics; Jennison takes the gold by 1.0s
• Feb 17 Johan Grøttumsbråten leads a Norwegian sweep of the medals in the 18k cross country at the St. Moritz Winter Olympics; he also wins the Nordic combined gold the following day
• Feb 18 Johan Grøttumsbråten of Norway wins the Nordic combined gold at the St. Moritz Winter Olympics; doubles up with the 18k cross country gold the previous day
• Feb 18 Norway goes 1-2 in the ski jumping at the St. Moritz Winter Olympics with Alf Andersen taking gold ahead of Sigmund Ruud

• Feb 18 USA 2 beats USA 1 by 0.5s for the 5-man bobsleigh gold medal at the St. Moritz Winter Olympics; Germany 2 takes bronze
• Feb 19 Canada retains the Olympic ice hockey title when they rout Switzerland, 13-0 in the final round in St. Moritz; Canadian left-wing Dave Trottier top scores with 15 points
• Feb 19 Gillis Grafström of Sweden wins his 3rd consecutive Olympic men’s figure skating gold medal at St. Moritz; one of only 2 athletes to win gold at both Winter & Summer Games (won figure skating Antwerp 1920)
• Feb 19 II Winter Olympic Games close at St Moritz, Switzerland
• Feb 19 World champion French team Andrée Joly and Pierre Brunet win the Olympic pairs figure skating gold medal at the St. Moritz Winter Games; the couple marry in 1929 and take 2nd straight gold in 1932
• Feb 22 1st solo flight from England to Australia lands in Darwin, 15 ½ days after take off, piloted by Australian aviator Bert Hinkler

• Mar 4 "Bunion Run" race from LA to NYC begins; It is won by Andy Payne
• Mar 5 Karl Zuckmayer's "Der Hauptmann von Köpenick" premieres in Berlin
• Mar 10 Christine Collins' son, Walter Collins, disappears in Los Angeles
• Mar 12 In California, the St. Francis Dam fails, killing over 600 people
• Mar 13 Rudolph Friml's musical "Three Musketeers" premieres in NYC

• Mar 19 "Amos & Andy" debuts on radio (NBC Blue Network-WMAQ Chicago)

• Mar 27 KGB-AM in San Diego CA begins radio transmissions
• Mar 29 Yeshiva College (now University) chartered (NYC)
• Apr 1 Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist army crosses the Yangtze River
• Apr 7 44-year old NY Rangers GM Lester Patrick replaces his injured goaltender in a Stanley Cup game and beats Montreal Maroons, 2-1 in OT; Rangers go on to win series, 3-2
• Apr 9 Eugene O'Neill's play "Lazarus Laughed" premieres in Pasadena, with a masked chorus of over 100

• Apr 9 Top-Oss soccer team forms in Oss
• Apr 9 Turkey passes separation of church & state
• Apr 13 1st trans atlantic flight Europe-US (Fitzmaurice-von Hunefeld-Köhl)
• Apr 14 Maddus Airlines starts 1st regular passenger flights between SF & LA
• Apr 14 Stanley Cup Final, Montreal Forum, Montreal, Quebec: In only their 2nd season in the NHL, New York Rangers beat Montreal Maroons, 2-1 for a 3-2 series win
• Apr 15 Alioto's on Fisherman's Wharf (San Francisco) forms
• Apr 19 Japanese troops occupies Sjantung-schiereiland
• Apr 19 New York Yankees are out of 1st place for 1st time since May 1926
• Apr 19 The 125th and final fascicle of the Oxford English Dictionary is published

• Apr 24 Fathometer, which measures underwater depth, patented
• Apr 25 Buddy, a German Shepherd, becomes 1st guide dog for a US citizen Morris Frank

• Apr 28 RCA and GE install three test television sets in homes in Schenectady, New York, allowing trials of inventor E.F.W. Alexanderson's first home television receiver; a poor and unsteady 1.5 square inch picture was received from radio transmitter
• Apr 30 Cherkess Autonomous Region forms in RSFSR (until 1957)
• May 1 6 children die and 10 injured by hailstones in Klausenburg, Romania
• May 1 Drunken fascist Erich Wichman attacks VARA-radio transmitter
• May 1 Lei Day begun (a Hawaiian celebration)
• May 1 Pitcairn Airlines (later Eastern) begins service
• May 1 Rotterdam soccer club Black White '28 is established (2000 Women's KNVB Cup); declared bankrupt 2004
• May 2 KPQ-AM in Wenatchee WA begins radio transmissions
• May 3 Japanese atrocities in Jinan, China.

• May 7 The United Kingdom lowers age of women voters from 30 to 21
• May 11 General Electric opens 1st TV-station in Schenectady, New York
• May 12 Benito Mussolini announces moves to end women's suffrage in a speech to the Senate in Italy
• May 12 Second Opium Law introduced - international law to control drugs
• May 14 John McGraw is knocked down by a taxicab & suffers a broken leg
• May 15 Mickey Mouse makes his 1st ever appearance in silent film "Plane Crazy"
• May 19 "Firedamp" explodes in Mather coal mine, Pennsylvania, killing 195 of 273 miners
• May 19 51 frogs enter 1st annual "Frog Jumping Jubilee" (Angel's Camp, California)
• May 22 US Congress accept Jones-White Merchant Naval Act
• May 23 Bomb attack on Italian embassy in Buenos Aires, 22 die
• May 24 Italian aviator Umberto Nobile flies airship Italia over North Pole again (crashes onto ice pack a day later)

• May 29 Fritz von Opel reaches 200 kph in experimental rocket car
• May 31 1st aerial crossing of Pacific takes off from Oakland
• May 31 Charlie Hallows scores his 1,000th run of Cricket season
• Jun 2 Kraft, building on the original 1918 design, rolls out Velveeta cheese
• Jun 4 President of the Republic of China Zhang Zuolin is assassinated by Japanese agents
• Jun 8 1st US-to-Australia flight lands (Sir Charles Kingford)
• Jun 9 Charles Kingsford-Smith & Charles Ulm are 1st to fly across the Pacific when they end their flight from California to Brisbane

• Jun 18 American aviator Amelia Earhart becomes the 1st woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, landing at Burry Port, Wales
• Jun 23 Commencement of West Indies cricket's first ever Test match; England go on to win by an innings and 58 runs at Lord's
• Jun 24 With declining business, the Great Gorge and International Railway begins using one-person crews on trolley operations in Canada
• Jun 25 NY Giants future Baseball HOF third baseman Freddie Lindstrom ties record of 9 hits in a doubleheader in 12-4 & 8-2 wins over Philadelphia Phillies at the Baker Bowl

• Jun 28 Alfred E Smith (NY-Governor) nominated for US President at Democratic Convention
• Jun 28 Friedrich Schmiedl attempts rocket mail in Austria (unsuccessful)

• Jun 29 The Outerbridge Crossing and Goethals Bridge in Staten Island, New York both opened
• Jun 30 Radio Service Bulletin lists radio stations call signs that are to be changed to conform with international standards
• Jul 2 British parliament reduces the age at women can vote to 21 - the same as men (Representation of the People Act 1928)
• Jul 2 The Jenkins Television Corporation (owned by Charles Jenkins) goes on air with W3XK, the first television broadcasting station in the USA

• Jul 6 1st all-talking motion picture shown in NY (Lights of NY)
• Jul 6 Largest recorded hailstone at the time 1.5 lbs (7 inches in diameter) falls in Potter, Nebraska
• Jul 7 American Edward Hamm sets then long jump world record at 25' 11" at Cambridge, Massachusetts

• Jul 8 Phillies set record of errorless 25 inning doubleheader
• Jul 10 Senator Milt Gaston hurls record tying 14-hit shutout
• Jul 12 1st televised tennis match
• Jul 19 King Fuad of Egypt seizes power and disbands parliament
• Jul 20 The government of Hungary issues a decree ordering Gypsies to end their nomadic ways, settle permanently in one place, subject themselves to the same laws and taxes as other Hungarians
• Jul 26 In only his second and final defense of his world heavyweight boxing title, Gene Tunney scores an 11-round TKO win over Tom Heeney at Yankee Stadium, NYC
• Jul 26 New York Yankees score 11 runs in 12th inning, beating Tigers 12-1 in Detroit
• Jul 27 AVRO, General Vereniging Radio Omroep, forms
• Jul 27 Kent cricket leg-spinner Tich Freeman becomes only bowler ever to take 200 first-class wickets before end of July
• Jul 28 IX Summer Olympic Games open in Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Jul 29 Cleveland Indians score 17 in 1st 2 inns to beat New York Yankees 24-6 at Dunn Field they also set a record with 24 singles in 1 game

• Jul 31 Halina Konopacka of Poland hurls discus world record 39.62m to win first gold medal in women's Olympic athletics at the Amsterdam Games; American Lillian Copeland and Ruth Sveberg of Sweden take minor medals
• Jul 31 In the first women’s Olympic track event, American sprinter Elizabeth Robinson equals her own world record 12.2s to win 100m gold medal in Amsterdam; Canadians Fanny Rosenfeld & Ethel Smith dead-heat (12.3s)
• Aug 1 Americans sweep medals at a rainy Olympic pole vault final in Amsterdam with Sabin Carr gold, from William Droegemuller and Charles McGinnis

• Aug 2 Benito Mussolini signs peace treaty with Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
• Aug 3 Ray Barbuti wins 400m in 47.8 at the Amsterdam Olympics, the only individual track event won by an American at the Games

• Aug 12 IX Summer Olympic Games close in Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Aug 13 Soviet Union Spartacan Games begins
• Aug 14 Ben Hecht & Charles MacArthur's "The Front Page," premieres in NYC
• Aug 16 Belgian cyclist Georges Ronsse wins men's road race at UCI Road World Championships in Budapest, Hungary
• Aug 25 Tri-City Rugby Football Union forms consisting of Moose Jaw, Regina & Winnipeg
• Aug 27 16 die in a NYC subway's 2nd worst accident

• Aug 31 Bertolt Brecht & Kurt Weil's play with music "The Threepenny Opera" premieres at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, Berlin
• Sep 1 Albania becomes a kingdom, with Zogu I as king
• Sep 3 Future Baseball Hall of Fame outfielder Ty Cobb records his 4,189th and final career hit, as a pinch hitter for Philadelphia A's in 6-1 loss v Washington Senators
• Sep 6 The Soviet Union signs the Kellogg–Briand Pact
• Sep 7 Sophie Treadwell's "Machinal" premieres in NYC
• Sep 9 Silvio Cator of Haiti, sets then long jump record at 26' ½"
• Sep 11 1st ever TV drama WGY's "Queens Messenger" broadcast in the New York area starring Izetta Jewell
• Sep 11 Ty Cobb last hitting appearance, pops out against Yankees

• Sep 12 San Felipe Segundo/Okeechobee hurricane makes landfall in Guadeloupe, French Antilles as category 4 storm, killing 1,200; additional damage and fatalities on neighboring islands of Martinique, Montserrat, and Nevis
• Sep 13 KOH-AM in Reno NV begins radio transmissions
• Sep 13 San Felipe Segundo/Okeechobee hurricane makes landfall in Puerto Rico as a category 5 storm, killing over 300, leaving 500,000 homeless, and causing $50M in damages (about $790M in 2020 dollars)
• Sep 15 400 kg Fournier-albums (forged postage stamps) burn in Geneva
• Sep 15 Kent leg-spinner Alfred "Tich" Freeman takes 2-102 and 4-75 for Rest of England vs Lancashire to become the only bowler to take 300 wickets (304) in an English cricket season

• Sep 15 St. Louis Cardinals set NL record of 18 men left-on-base; still beat Phillies, 8-6 at the Baker Bowl, Philadelphia
• Sep 15 Stothard, Kalmar & Ruby's musical "Good Boy" premieres in NYC
• Sep 16 San Felipe Segundo/Okeechobee hurricane crosses through the Bahamas as a category 4 storm, killing 18, as it travels from Puerto Rico to Florida
• Sep 17 Boston Braves pitcher Ray Boggs hits 3 batters in 1 inning during his 4th and final major league appearance, in 15-5 loss to Chicago Cubs
• Sep 17 San Felipe Segundo/Okeechobee hurricane makes landfall in West Palm Beach-Lake Okeechobee, Florida as category 4 storm, killing 2,500- 3,000 and causing $25M in damages (about $345M in 2020 dollars)
• Sep 18 Juan de la Cierva flies 1st helicopter above Channel
• Sep 18 San Felipe Segundo/Okeechobee hurricane makes fifth and final landfall near Edisto Island, South Carolina, as category 1 storm; total impact of event - over 4,100 killed and $100M ($1.6B in 2020) in damage
• Sep 18 St. Louis beat Phillies, 4-2 at the Baker Bowl, Philadelphia; 20th Cards' win of 22 starts between the 2 clubs in 1928
• Sep 21 "My Weekly Reader" magazine made its debut

• Sep 27 The Nationalist Republic of China is recognised by the United States.
• Sep 28 1st recording session in Nashville (Warmack's Gully Jumpers)
• Sep 28 Juan de la Cierva makes 1st helicopter flight over English Channel
• Sep 28 NY Yanks clinch pennant #6

• Sep 28 UK passes the Dangerous Drugs Act outlawing cannabis.

• Sep 28 Valentin Katayev's "Kvadratura Kruga" premieres in Moscow
• Sep 29 Cardinals win NL pennant with a 3-1 win at Boston
• Sep 29 Yanks (17) Tigers (28) set 9 inning hit record (45)-Tigers win 19-10
• Sep 30 Leon Vanderstuyft of Belgium cycles record 76 mi 604 yds in 1 hr

• Oct 1 USSR launches its first 5-year plan
• Oct 2 "Prelature of the Holy Cross and the Work of God", known as Opus Dei, founded by Catholic priest Josemaría Escrivá in Madrid, Spain
• Oct 3 French submarine "Ondine" sinks returning to Toulon, drowning 42
• Oct 4 KPD begins petition against Germany building a battle fleet

• Oct 7 Paavo Nurmi runs world record 10 miles (50:15.0)
• Oct 7 Race Tafari Makonnen crowned King of Abyssinia
• Oct 8 Joseph Szigeti debuts Alfredo Casella's Violin Concerto
• Oct 9 Baseball World Series: NY Yankees beat St. Louis Cardinals, 7-3 at Sportsman's Park to become first to sweep consecutive World Series; Babe Ruth hits smashes 3 HRs for Yanks
• Oct 9 Marcel Pagnol's play "Topaze" premieres in Paris
• Oct 10 Chiang Kai-shek becomes Director of the State Council of China
• Oct 12 1st use of iron lung (Boston's Children Hospital)

• Oct 22 China expels all Russian instructors & civil servants
• Oct 22 ESL Robinson's "Far-Off Hills" premieres in Dublin
• Oct 22 Herbert Hoover speaks of "American system of rugged individualism"
• Oct 22 Phi Sigma Alpha fraternity is founded at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus.

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