Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date
Sunday, December 28, 2025
Today is the 362nd day of 2025. There are 3 days left in this year.
Notable Events
1065
Westminster Abbey was consecrated under Edward the Confessor.
1832
John C. Calhoun became the first vice president of the United States to resign, stepping down over differences with President Andrew Jackson.
1836
Mexico's independence was recognized by Spain.
1846
Iowa became the 29th state to be admitted to the Union.
1869
The Knights of Labor, a labor union of tailors in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, held the first Labor Day ceremonies in American history.
1869
Chewing gum was patented by William F. Semple of Mount Vernon, Ohio.
1897
"Cyrano de Bergerac," the play by Edmond Rostand, premiered in Paris.
1908
The most destructive earthquake in European history struck Messina, Italy, flattening the city and killing more than 80,000 people. The earthquake registered 7.5 on the Richter scale.
1937
The Irish Free State became the Republic of Ireland when a new constitution established the country as a sovereign state under the name of Eire.
1945
Congress officially recognized the ''Pledge of Allegiance.''
1973
Alexander Solzhenitsyn published "Gulag Archipelago," an expose of the Soviet prison system.
1982
Nevell Johnson Jr., a black man, was mortally wounded by a police officer in a Miami video arcade, setting off three days of race-related disturbances that left another man dead.
1989
Alexander Dubcek, the former Czechoslovak Communist leader who was deposed in a Soviet-led Warsaw Pact invasion in 1968, was named chairman of the country's parliament.
1991
Nine people died in a crush to get into a basketball game at City College in New York.
2000
The Census Bureau released its first numbers from the 2000 national count;they showed that America's population had risen to 281,421,906, up 13.2percent from 1990.
2003
The British Government announces plans to tighten airline security by allowing armed guards on some British flights to the USA.
Notable Births
1856
Thomas Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States, was born in Staunton, Va.
1902
Mortimer J. Adler, American philosopher, educator, and writer.
1905
Earl "Fatha" Hines, American musician often called "The Father of Modern Jazz Piano."
1981
Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the first official American test-tube baby, was born in Norfolk, Va.
Notable Deaths
1694
Queen Mary II of England died after five years of joint rule with her husband, King William III.
1734
Rob Roy (Robert MacGregor), outlaw recognized as the Scottish Robin Hood.
1937
Composer Maurice Ravel died in Paris.
1984
David Samuel "Sam" Peckinpah, American film director.
1999
Clayton Moore, television's "Lone Ranger," died in West Hills, Calif., at age 85.
2004
Susan Sontag, American essayist, novelist, intellectual, filmmaker, and activist.