May 28 in History

Peter Benenson's article The Forgotten Prisoners is published in several interna

1961 — Peter Benenson's article The Forgotten Prisoners is published in several internationally read newspapers

This will later be thought of as the founding of the human rights organization Amnesty International.

May 28 spans 50 recorded events across recorded history, from 585 BC to 2017. Below is a curated digest of the most significant moments tied to this date.

By · — Wikipedia

Historical Events 50 events 585 BC – 2017

More major events on May 28

The featured story and these ranked highlights form a quick summary. Every recorded event remains available in the chronology below.

  1. 1926 The 28 May 1926 coup d'état: Ditadura Nacional is established in Portugal to suppress the unrest of the First Republic. Source
  2. 1918 The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and the First Republic of Armenia declare their independence. Source
  3. 1948 Daniel François Malan is elected as Prime Minister of South Africa. He later goes on to implement Apartheid. Source
  4. 1754 French and Indian War: In the first engagement of the war, Virginia militia under the 22-year-old Lieutenant colonel George Washington defeat a French reconnaissance party in the Battle of Jumonville Glen in what is now Fayette County in southwestern Pennsylvania. Source

Did you know

In 1961, Peter Benenson's article The Forgotten Prisoners is published in several internationally read newspapers. This will later be thought of as the founding of the human rights organization Amnesty International. This featured entry focuses on the immediate decision and its direct historical impact.

Did you know

Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. This helps explain why the event mattered beyond the initial announcement.

Did you know

The organization says that it has more than ten million members and supporters around the world. This clarifies the institutional and public response around the event.

Did you know

The stated mission of the organization is to campaign for "a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights instruments". This shows how the event shaped policy and public communication in the same period.

Did you know

The organization has played a notable role on human rights issues due to its frequent citation in media and by world leaders. This helps explain why the event mattered beyond the initial announcement.

-585
A solar eclipse occurs, as predicted by the Greek philosopher and scientist Thales, while Alyattes is battling Cyaxares in the Battle of the Eclipse, leading to a truce.
This is one of the cardinal dates from which other dates can be calculated. It is also the earliest event of which the precise date is known.
The eclipse of Thales was a solar eclipse, which was, according to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, accurately predicted by the Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus.
Wikipedia source
621 Battle_of_Hulao
Battle of Hulao: Li Shimin, the son of the Chinese emperor Gaozu, defeats the numerically superior forces of Dou Jiande near the Hulao Pass (Henan).
This victory decides the outcome of the civil war that followed the Sui dynasty's collapse in favour of the Tang dynasty.
The Battle of Hulao, or Battle of Sishui, was a decisive Tang victory over the rival Zheng and Hebei-based Xia polities during the transition from Sui to Tang.
Wikipedia source
934 List_of_English_monarchs
English king Æthelstan begins his invasion of Scotland.
This list of kings and reigning queens of the Kingdom of England begins with Alfred the Great, who initially ruled Wessex, one of the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which later made up modern England.
Wikipedia source
1242 Avignonet_massacre
Avignonet massacre: A group of Cathars, with the probable connivance of Count Raymond VII of Toulouse, murder the inquisitor William Arnaud and eleven of his companions.
Part of the Albigensian Crusade (1242)
The Avignonet massacre occurred on the eve of 28 May 1242 when a small force, mainly consisting of Cathars, massacred a group of inquisitors during the Albigensian Crusade.
Wikipedia source
1347 List_of_Byzantine_emperors
Marriage of Byzantine Emperor John V Palaiologos and Helena Kantakouzene.
The foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD marks the conventional start of the Byzantine Empire, which fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD.
Wikipedia source
1533 Archbishop_of_Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, declares the marriage of King Henry VIII of England to Anne Boleyn valid.
Principal leader of the Church of England
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and primate of the Church of England.
Wikipedia source
1588 Spanish_Armada
The Spanish Armada, with 130 ships and 30,000 men, sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal, heading for the English Channel.
(It will take until May 30 for all ships to leave port.)
The Spanish Armada was a Spanish fleet that sailed from Lisbon in late May 1588, and was the largest engagement of the undeclared Anglo-Spanish War.
Wikipedia source
1644 English_Civil_War
English Civil War: Bolton Massacre by Royalist troops under the command of James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby.
Series of wars in England, 1642–1651
The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Royalists and Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651.
Wikipedia source
1754 French_and_Indian_War
French and Indian War: In the first engagement of the war, Virginia militia under the 22-year-old Lieutenant colonel George Washington defeat a French reconnaissance party in the Battle of Jumonville Glen in what is now Fayette County in southwestern Pennsylvania.
North American theater of the Seven Years' War
The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a conflict in North America between Great Britain and France, along with their respective Indigenous allies, which were called "Indians" at the time.
Wikipedia source
1802 Guadeloupe
In Guadeloupe, 400 rebellious slaves, led by Louis Delgrès, blow themselves up rather than submit to Napoleon's troops.
Overseas department and region of France
Guadeloupe and Gwadloup is an overseas department and region of the French Republic in the Caribbean.
Wikipedia source
1830 President_of_the_United_States
U.S.
President Andrew Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act which denies Native Americans their land rights and forcibly relocates them.
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States.
Wikipedia source
1871 Paris_Commune
The Paris Commune falls after two months.
1871 revolutionary city council in France
The Paris Commune was a French revolutionary government that seized power in Paris on 18 March 1871 and controlled parts of the city until 28 May 1871.
Wikipedia source
1892 San_Francisco
In San Francisco, John Muir organizes the Sierra Club.
City and county in California, US
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the fourth-most populous city in California and the 17th-most populous in the United States, with a population of 826,079 in 2025. Among U.S.
Wikipedia source
1905 Russo-Japanese_War
Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of Tsushima ends with the destruction of the Russian Baltic Fleet by Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō and the Imperial Japanese Navy.
1904–1905 conflict in East Asia
The Russo-Japanese War was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire.
Wikipedia source
1907 Isle_of_Man_TT
The first Isle of Man TT race is held.
Annual motorcycle race event on the Isle of Man
The Isle of Man TT races are an annual motorcycle racing event held on the Isle of Man in May and June of mostly every year since its inaugural race in 1907.
Wikipedia source
1918 Azerbaijan_Democratic_Republic
The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and the First Republic of Armenia declare their independence.
1918–1920 state in the South Caucasus
The Republic of Azerbaijan, better known in historiography as the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, was the first secular democratic republic in the Turkic and Muslim worlds.
Wikipedia source
1926 28_May_1926_coup_d'état
The 28 May 1926 coup d'état: Ditadura Nacional is established in Portugal to suppress the unrest of the First Republic.
Military overthrow of the First Portuguese Republic, establishing the Estado Novo regime
The 28 May 1926 coup d'état, sometimes called 28 May Revolution or, during the period of the corporatist Estado Novo, the National Revolution, was a military coup of a nationalist origin, that put an end to the unstable…
Wikipedia source
1932 Afsluitdijk
In the Netherlands, construction of the Afsluitdijk is completed and the Zuiderzee bay is converted to the freshwater IJsselmeer.
Dam in Netherlands
The Afsluitdijk is a major dam and causeway in the Netherlands.
Wikipedia source
1934 Callander,_Ontario
Near Callander, Ontario, Canada, the Dionne quintuplets are born to Oliva and Elzire Dionne; they will be the first quintuplets to survive infancy.
Canadian township established 1891
The Municipality of Callander is a township in central Ontario, Canada, located at the southeast end of Lake Nipissing in the Almaguin Highlands region of Parry Sound District.
Wikipedia source
1936 Alan_Turing
Alan Turing submits On Computable Numbers for publication.
English computer scientist (1912–1954)
Alan Mathison Turing was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher and theoretical biologist.
Wikipedia source
1937 Volkswagen
Volkswagen, the German automobile manufacturer, is founded.
German automobile brand
Volkswagen, commonly abbreviated to VW, is a German automobile brand based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany.
Wikipedia source
1940 World_War_II
World War II: Belgium surrenders to Nazi Germany to end the Battle of Belgium.
Global conflict (1939–1945)
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers.
Wikipedia source
1940 Battles_of_Narvik
World War II: Norwegian, French, Polish and British forces recapture Narvik in Norway.
This is the first Allied infantry victory of the War.
The Battles of Narvik were fought from 9 April to 8 June 1940, as a naval battle in Ofotfjord and as a land battle in the mountains surrounding the north Norwegian town of Narvik, as part of the Norwegian campaign of…
Wikipedia source
1948 D._F._Malan
Daniel François Malan is elected as Prime Minister of South Africa.
He later goes on to implement Apartheid.
Daniël François Malan was a South African politician who served as the fourth prime minister of South Africa from 1948 to 1954.
Wikipedia source
1958 Cuban_Revolution
Cuban Revolution: Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement, heavily reinforced by Frank Pais Militia, overwhelm an army post in El Uvero.
1955–1958 sociopolitical change in Cuba
The Cuban Revolution was the military and political movement that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, who had ruled Cuba from 1952 to 1959.
Wikipedia source
1962
The Soviet Kosmos 5 satellite is launched.
Soviet research satellite
Kosmos 5, also known as 2MS #2 and occasionally in the West as Sputnik 15 was a scientific research and technology demonstration satellite launched by the Soviet Union in 1962.
Wikipedia source
1964 Palestine_Liberation_Organization
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is founded, with Yasser Arafat elected as its first leader.
Official representative of Palestinians
The Palestine Liberation Organization is a Palestinian nationalist coalition that is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Wikipedia source
1968 Garuda_Indonesian_Airways_Flight_892
Garuda Indonesian Airways Flight 892 crashes near Nala Sopara in India, killing 30.
1968 aviation accident in India
On 28 May 1968, Garuda Indonesian Airways Flight 892, a scheduled international passenger flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam with stopovers in Singapore, Bangkok, Bombay, Karachi, Cairo, and Rome, crashed during the…
Wikipedia source
1974 Northern_Ireland
Northern Ireland's power-sharing Sunningdale Agreement collapses following a general strike by loyalists.
Part of the United Kingdom
Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been variously described as a country, province or region.
Wikipedia source
1975 West_Africa
Fifteen West African countries sign the Treaty of Lagos, creating the Economic Community of West African States.
Westernmost region of the African continent
West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa.
Wikipedia source
1975 Brampton_Centennial_Secondary_School
At Brampton Centennial Secondary School, student Michael Slobodian kills two people and injures 13 others before committing suicide.
High school in Brampton, Ontario, Canada
Brampton Centennial Secondary School (BCSS) is a public high school located in Brampton, Ontario, Canada and is part of the Peel District School Board. In September 2008, BCSS had 1,775 students.
Wikipedia source
1977 Beverly_Hills_Supper_Club_fire
The Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Kentucky, is engulfed by fire, killing 165 people inside.
Nightclub fire in Kentucky in 1977
On the evening of May 28, 1977, a fire occurred at the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Kentucky. With a total of 165 deaths and over 200 injuries, it is history's seventh-deadliest nightclub fire.
Wikipedia source
1979 Konstantinos_Karamanlis
Konstantinos Karamanlis signs the full treaty of the accession of Greece with the European Economic Community.
Greek politician (1907–1998)
Konstantinos G. Karamanlis was a Greek statesman who was the four-time Prime Minister of Greece and two-term president of the Third Hellenic Republic, serving in the former role from 1955 to 1963 and from 1974 to 1980.
Wikipedia source
1987 Mathias_Rust
An 18-year-old West German pilot, Mathias Rust, evades Soviet Union air defences and lands a private plane in Red Square in Moscow, Russia.
German activist, landed a plane near Red Square in Moscow in 1987
Mathias Rust is a German aviator. In 1987, as a teenage amateur pilot, he flew from Helsinki, Finland, to Moscow, without authorization.
Wikipedia source
1991 Addis_Ababa
The capital city of Addis Ababa falls to the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, ending both the Derg regime in Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Civil War.
Capital and largest city of Ethiopia
Addis Ababa is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. With an estimated population of 2,739,551 inhabitants as of the 2007 census, it is the eleventh-largest city in Africa.
Wikipedia source
1995 1995_Neftegorsk_earthquake
The 7.0 Mw Neftegorsk earthquake shakes the former Russian settlement of Neftegorsk with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent).
Total damage was $64.1–300 million, with 1,989 deaths and 750 injured. The settlement was not rebuilt.
The 1995 Neftegorsk earthquake occurred on 28 May at 01:03 local time in northern Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East.
Wikipedia source
1996 Bill_Clinton
U.S.
President Bill Clinton's former business partners in the Whitewater land deal, Jim McDougal and Susan McDougal, and the Governor of Arkansas, Jim Guy Tucker, are convicted of fraud.
William Jefferson Clinton is an American former politician and lawyer who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001.
Wikipedia source
1998 Nuclear_weapons_testing
Nuclear testing: Pakistan responds to a series of nuclear tests by India with five of its own codenamed Chagai-I, prompting the United States, Japan, and other nations to impose economic sanctions.
Pakistan celebrates Youm-e-Takbir annually.
Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the performance of nuclear weapons and the effects of their explosion. Over 2,000 nuclear weapons tests have been carried out since 1945.
Wikipedia source
1999 Milan
In Milan, Italy, after 22 years of restoration work, Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece The Last Supper is put back on display.
Second-largest city in Italy
Milan is the regional capital of Lombardy, in northern Italy, and the seat of the Metropolitan City of Milan. It is the second-most populous city in Italy after Rome, with a population of 1,362,863 in 2026.
Wikipedia source
2002 World_Trade_Center_site
The last steel girder is removed from the original World Trade Center site.
Cleanup duties officially end with closing ceremonies at Ground Zero in Manhattan, New York City.
The World Trade Center site, often referred to as "Ground Zero" or "the Pile" immediately after the September 11 attacks, is a 14.6-acre (5.9 ha) area in Lower Manhattan in New York City.
Wikipedia source
2003 Peter_Hollingworth
Peter Hollingworth resigns as Governor-General of Australia following criticism of his handling of child sexual abuse allegations during his tenure as Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane.
Governor-General of Australia from 2001 to 2003
Peter John Hollingworth was an Australian bishop who served as Governor-General of Australia from 2001 until his resignation in 2003.
Wikipedia source
2004 Iraqi_Governing_Council
The Iraqi Governing Council chooses Ayad Allawi, a longtime anti-Saddam Hussein exile, as prime minister of Iraq's interim government.
2003–2004 provisional government of Iraq
The Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) was the provisional government of Iraq from 13 July 2003 to 1 June 2004. It was established by and served under the United States-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA).
Wikipedia source
2008 Nepal
The first meeting of the Constituent Assembly of Nepal formally declares Nepal a republic, ending the 240-year reign of the Shah dynasty.
Country in South Asia
Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain.
Wikipedia source
2010 West_Bengal
In West Bengal, India, the Jnaneswari Express train derailment and subsequent collision kills 148 passengers.
State in eastern India
West Bengal is a state in the eastern part of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal.
Wikipedia source
2011 Malta
Malta votes on the introduction of divorce; the proposal was approved by 53% of voters, resulting in a law allowing divorce under certain conditions being enacted later in the year.
Mediterranean island country
Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea. It is between Sicily and North Africa.
Wikipedia source
2012 Arkankergen_massacre
The Arkankergen massacre in Kazakhstan's Alakol District kills 15 people.
2012 attack in Kazakhstan on the border with China
The Arkankergen massacre occurred on 28 May 2012 in the Arkankergen military post in the Alakol District of Kazakhstan on the border with China, near the village of Usharal. Fifteen people were killed.
Wikipedia source
2013 Gezi_Park_protests
Start of the Gezi Park protests in Turkey.
Protests in Turkey
A wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Turkey began on 28 May 2013, initially to contest the urban development plan for Istanbul's Gezi Park.
Wikipedia source
2016 Harambe
Harambe, a gorilla, is shot to death after grabbing a three-year-old boy in his enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, resulting in widespread criticism and sparking various internet memes.
Captive gorilla (1999–2016)
Harambe was a western lowland gorilla who lived at the Cincinnati Zoo.
Wikipedia source
2017 Formula_One
Former Formula One driver Takuma Sato wins his first Indianapolis 500, the first Japanese and Asian driver to do so.
Double world champion Fernando Alonso retires from the race with an engine issue in his first entry of the event.
Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel, single-seater formula racing cars run by the Formula One Group and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA).
Wikipedia source

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