Year 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

Events of 1928

January

• January 1 – Estonia changes its currency from the mark to the kroon.
• January 6-7 – The River Thames floods in London; 14 drown.
• January 7 – The moat at the Tower of London, previously drained in 1843 (and planted with grass), is completely refilled by a tidal wave.
• January 12 – U.S. murderer Ruth Snyder is executed at Ossining.
• January 17 – The OGPU arrests Lev Trotsky in Moscow; he assumes a status of passive resistance.
• January 31 – Trotsky is exiled to Alma Ata.

February

• February 11 – The II Olympic Winter Games open in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
• February 12 – Heavy hail kills 11 in England.
• February 20 – A swung parliament is produced in Japan after the general election.
• February 25 – Charles Jenkins Laboratories of Washington, D.C. becomes the first holder of a television license from the Federal Radio Commission.

March

• March 12 – Malta becomes a British dominion.
• March 12 – In California, the St. Francis Dam north of Los Angeles fails, killing 400.
• March 21 – Charles Lindbergh is presented the Medal of Honor for his first trans-Atlantic flight.
• March 26 – The China Academy of Art is founded in Hangzhou, Republic of China (first named the National Academy of Art).

April

• April 10 – Pineapple Primary: The U.S. Republican Party primary elections in Chicago are preceded by assassinations and bombings.
• April 12 – A bomb attack against Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini in Milan kills 17 bystanders.
• April 12-April 14 – The first ever east-west transatlantic flight takes place from Dublin, Ireland to Greenly, Canada.
• April 14 – Two earthquakes in Chirpan and Plovdiv destroy more than 21000 buildings in Bulgaria and kill almost 130 persons.
• April 22 – An earthquake destroys 200,000 buildings in Corinth.
• The last section (wise – wyze) of the original Oxford English Dictionary is completed and ready for publication (OED (1933, 1978 vol. 1, pp. xxv, xxvl)

May

• May 3 – Jinan Incident, an armed conflict between the Japanese Imperial Army allied with Northern Chinese warlords against the Kuomintang's southern army, occurs in Jinan, China.
• May 10 – The first regular schedule of television programming begins in Schenectady, New York by the General Electric's television station W2XB (the station is popularly known as WGY Television, after its sister radio station WGY).
• May 15
  • The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia commences operations.
  • The animated short Plane Crazy is released by Disney Studios in Los Angeles, featuring the first appearances of Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
• May 23 – A bomb attack against the Italian consulate in Buenos Aires kills 22 and injures 43.
• May 24 – The airship Italia crashes on the North Pole; one of the occupants is Italian general Umberto Nobile.
• May 30 – A rescue expedition leaves for the North Pole.

June

• June 4 – Huanggutun Incident: Zhang Zuolin, President of the Republic of China and warlord, is killed by Japanese agents.
• June 8 – By seizing Beijing and renaming it Běipíng, the NRA puts an end to the Fengtian warlords' Běiyáng government there.
• June 11 – A medical doctors' strike begins in Vienna.
• June 14 – Students take over the medical wing of Rosario University in Argentina.
• June 17 – Aviator Amelia Earhart starts her attempt to become the first woman to successfully pilot an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean (she succeeds the next day).
• June 20 – Puniša Račić shoots 3 opposition representatives in the Yugoslavian Parliament, and injures 3 others.
• June 24 – A Swedish aeroplane rescues part of the Italian North Pole expedition, including Umberto Nobile. The Soviet icebreaker Krasin saves the rest July 12.
• June 28 – The Great Gorge and International Railway switches to one-man crews for its trolleys in Canada.
• June 29 – New York Governor Alfred E. Smith becomes the first Catholic nominated by a major political party for U.S. President, at the Democratic National Convention in Houston, Texas.

July

• July 2
  • Jenkins Laboratories' W3XK station begins broadcasting on 6.42 MHz using 48 lines.
  • The Representation of the People Act 1928 becomes law, extending the right to vote to all women in the United Kingdom.
• July 6 – The world's largest hailstone falls in Potter, Nebraska.
• July 12 – Mexican aviator Emilio Carranza dies in a solo plane crash in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, while returning from a goodwill flight to New York City.
• July 17 – José de León Toral assassinates Álvaro Obregón, president of Mexico.
• July 25 – The United States recalls its troops from China.
• July 27 – Tich Freeman becomes the only bowler ever to take 200 first-class wickets before the end of July.
• July 27 – The Well of Loneliness is published by Radclyffe Hall.
• July 28 – The 1928 Summer Olympics officially open in Amsterdam.

August

• August 2 – Italy and Ethiopia sign the Italo-Ethiopian Treaty.
• August 16 – Murderer Carl Panzram is arrested in Washington, D.C. after killing about 20 people.
• August 22 – Alfred E. Smith accepts the Democratic presidential nomination, with WGY/W2XB simulcasting the event on radio and television.
• August 25 – Ahmet Zogu proclaims himself King Zog I of Albania; he is crowned September 1.
• August 26 – May Donoghue finds the remains of a snail in her gingerbeer, launching Donoghue v. Stevenson.
• August 27 – The Kellogg-Briand Pact is signed in Paris (the first treaty to outlaw aggressive war).
• August 29 – The Club Deportivo Motagua of Honduras is founded.

September

• September 1 – Richard Byrd leaves New York for the Arctic.
• September 1 – Zog I, Skanderbeg III, the President of Albania, is crowned as the King of Albania.
• September 11 – Kenmore's WMAK station starts broadcasting in Buffalo, New York.
• September 15 – Tich Freeman sets an all-time record for the number of wickets taken in an English cricket season.
• September 16 – The 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane kills at least 2,500 people in Florida.
• September 25 – Paul Galvin and his brother Joseph incorporate the Galvin Manufacturing Corporation (now known as Motorola).
• September 28 – Alexander Fleming discovers Penicillin.

October

• October 2 – Saint Josemaria Escriva founds Opus Dei.
• October 7 – Haile Selassie is crowned king (not yet emperor) of Abyssinia.
• October 8 – Chiang Kai-shek is named as Generalissimo (Chairman of the National Military Council) of the Nationalist Government of the Republic of China.
• October 12 – An iron lung respirator is used for the first time at Children's Hospital, Boston.
• October 19 – William Edward Hickman is executed at San Quentin prison for the 1927 murder of Marion Parker.
• October 22 – The Phi Sigma Alpha Fraternity is founded at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus.

November

• November 4 – At Park Central Hotel in Manhattan, Arnold Rothstein, New York City's most notorious gambler, is shot to death over a poker game.
• November 6 – Swedes start a tradition of eating Gustavus Adolphus pastries to commemorate the old warrior king.
• November 6 – U.S. presidential election, 1928: Republican Herbert Hoover wins by a wide margin over Democrat Alfred E. Smith.
• November 10 – Enthronement ceremony of Japanese Emperor Hirohito is held, after some two years since he actually took the Imperial throne on December 26, 1926, the following day of the demise of Emperor Taishō.
• November 17 – The Boston Garden opens in Boston.
• November 18 – Mickey Mouse appears in Steamboat Willie, the first Mickey Mouse cartoon released, as well as the first sound film.
• November 22 – Maurice Ravel's Boléro premieres at the Paris Opéra.

December

• December 3 – In Rio de Janeiro, a seaplane sent to greet Alberto Santos-Dumont crashes near Cap Arcona, killing all on board.
• December 5 – Police disperse a Sicilian gangs' meeting in Cleveland.
• December 21 – The U.S. Congress approves the construction of Boulder Dam, later renamed Hoover Dam.

Undated

• Coca Cola enters Europe through the Amsterdam Olympics.
• Eliot Ness begins to lead the prohibition unit in Chicago.
• The old Canaanite city of Ugarit is rediscovered.
• Turkey switches from the Arabic to the Latin-based modern Turkish alphabet.
• Frederick Griffith conducts Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA.
• The first (and last) Best Title Writing Academy Award is given.
• The Episcopal Church in the United States of America ratifies a new revision of the Book of Common Prayer.
• W2XBS, RCA's first television station, is established in New York City.
• Australian farmer Jack Trott finds Rhizanthella gardneri in his garden.
• The first patent for the transistor principle is registered in Germany to Julius Edgar Lilienfeld.
• Joseph Stalin launches the First Five-Year Plan.
• 1928-1932 – The average nonfarm wage falls by 50% in the USSR.

Births

January

• January 2 – Robert Goralski – American journalist (d. 1988)
• January 2 – Daisaku Ikeda – Japanese religious leader
• January 5 – Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, President of Pakistan and Prime Minister of Pakistan (d. 1979)
• January 5 – Walter Mondale, U.S. Senator, Vice President and Presidential candidate
• January 6 – George H. Ross, American businessman
• January 7 – William Peter Blatty, American writer (The Exorcist)
• January 9 – Domenico Modugno, Italian singer, songwriter, actor and politician (d. 1994)
• January 10 – Philip Levine, American poet
• January 11 – David L. Wolper, American television producer
• January 15 – Joanne Linville, American actress
• January 16 – William Kennedy, American author
• January 17 – Jean Barraqué, French composer (d. 1973)
• January 17 – Vidal Sassoon, English hairdresser
• January 22 – Yoshihiko Amino, Japanese historians (d. 2004)
• January 23 – Chico Carrasquel, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player (d. 2005)
• January 23 – Jeanne Moreau, French actress
• January 24 – Michel Serrault, French actor (d. 2007)
• January 24 – Desmond Morris, English anthropologist and writer
• January 25 – Eduard Shevardnadze, Georgean politician, former president
• January 26 – Roger Vadim, French film director (d. 2000)
• January 27 – Hans Modrow, East German Premier
• January 30 – Hal Prince, American stage producer and director

February

• February 1 – Tom Lantos,American Congressman (d. 2008)
• February 4 – Kim Yong-nam, North Korean politician
• February 5 – Andrew Greeley, American Catholic priest and novelist
• February 8 – Gene Lees, Canadian biographer and lyricist
• February 9 – Frank Frazetta, American illustrator
• February 9 – Roger Mudd, American journalist (CBS News)
• February 22 – Bruce Forsyth, English entertainer
• February 23 – Vasili Lazarev, Russian cosmonaut (d. 1990)
• February 23 – Ralph Earnhardt, American race car driver (d. 1973)
• February 26 – Fats Domino, American musician (Blueberry Hill)
• February 26 – Anatoli Filipchenko, Russian cosmonaut
• February 27 – Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel

March

• March 3 – Gudrun Pausewang, German writer
• March 4 – Samuel Adler, American composer
• March 4 – Alan Sillitoe, English writer
• March 8 – Gerald Bull, Canadian engineer (d. 1990)
• March 10 – Kiyoshi Atsumi, Japanese actor (d. 1996)
• March 10 – James Earl Ray, American assassin (d. 1998)
• March 12 – Edward Albee, American dramatist
• March 12 – Aldemaro Romero, Venezuelan musician (d. 2007)
• March 16 – Christa Ludwig, German mezzo-soprano
• March 16 – Wakanohana Kanji I, Japanese sumo wrestler
• March 19 – Hans Küng, Swiss Catholic theologian
• March 19 – Patrick McGoohan, Irish actor (The Prisoner) (d. 2009)
• March 20 – Fred Rogers, American children's television host (Mister Rogers' Neighborhood) (d. 2003)
• March 24 – Byron Janis, American pianist
• March 25 – Jim Lovell, American astronaut
• March 28 – Zbigniew Brzezinski, Polish-born U.S. National Security Advisor
• March 28 – Alexander Grothendieck, German-born Jewish-French mathematician.
• March 29 – Vincent Gigante, Italian-American mafia (d. 2005)
• March 31 – Gordie Howe, Canadian hockey player
• March 31 – Lefty Frizzell, American country music performer

April

• April 1 – Jane Powell, American dancer, actress, and singer
• April 1 – George Grizzard, American actor (d. 2007)
• April 2 – Serge Gainsbourg, French singer (d. 1991)
• April 4 – Maya Angelou, African-American poet and novelist
• April 6 – James D. Watson, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• April 7 – James Garner, American actor (The Rockford Files)
• April 7 – Alan J. Pakula, American producer and director (d. 1998)
• April 7 – James White, Irish writer (d. 1999)
• April 8 – Eric Porter, English actor (d. 1995)
• April 9 – Tom Lehrer, American songwriter (We Will All Go Together When We Go)
• April 12 – Jean-François Paillard, French conductor
• April 19 – Alexis Korner, British musician (d. 1984)
• April 19 – Sultan Azlan Shah of Perak, King of Malaysia
• April 20 – Robert Byrne, American chess player
• April 23 – Shirley Temple, American actress and politician
• April 25 – Cy Twombly, American artist
• April 28 – Yves Klein, French artist (d. 1962)

May

• May 1 – Desmond Titterington, Irish race car driver (d. 2002)
• May 3 – Dave Dudley, American singer (d. 2003)
• May 4 – Maynard Ferguson, Canadian jazz trumpeter (d. 2006)
• May 4 – Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt
• May 8 – Theodore Sorenson, American lawyer and speechwriter
• May 8 – Gregory Scarpa Sr., American mobster
• May 9 – Colin Chapman, English automotive engineer (d. 1982)
• May 9 – Pancho Gonzalez, American tennis player (d. 1995)
• May 9 – Barbara Ann Scott, Canadian figure skater
• May 10 – Mel Lewis, American jazz drummer and band leader (d. 1990)
• May 10 – Lothar Schmid, German chess player
• May 12 – Burt Bacharach, American composer (Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head)
• May 13 – Jim Shoulders, American rodeo cowboy
• May 16 – Billy Martin, American baseball player and manager (d. 1989)
• May 18 – Pernell Roberts, American actor (Bonanza)
• May 23 – Jeannie Carson, English actress and comedian
• May 23 – Rosemary Clooney, American singer and actress (Come On A' My House) (d. 2002)
• May 24 – Adrian Frutiger, Swiss typeface designer and cutter
• May 26 – Jack Kevorkian, American physician, right-to-die advocate

June

• June 1 – Georgi Dobrovolski, Russian cosmonaut (d. 1971)
• June 1 – Bob Monkhouse, English comedian and game show host (d. 2003)
• June 3 – Donald Judd, American artist (d. 1994)
• June 10 – Maurice Bernard Sendak, American children's author/illustrator
• June 12 – Richard M. Sherman, American songwriter
• June 13 – John Forbes Nash, Jr., American mathematician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics
• June 14 – Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna aka Che Guevara, Argentine-born revolutionary (d. 1967)
• June 19 – Nancy Marchand, American actress (d. 2000)
• June 20 – Eric Dolphy, American Jazz musician (d. 1964)
• June 25 – Alexei Alexeyevich Abrikosov, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• June 26 – Jacob Druckman, American composer (d. 1996)
• June 26 – Yoshiro Nakamatsu, Japanese inventor
• June 28 – Hans Blix, Swedish diplomat and politician
• June 28 – Harold Evans, British newspaper editor

July

• July 5 – Warren Oates, American actor (d. 1982)
• July 6 – Nestor de Villa, Filipino actor (d. 2004)
• July 10 – Moshe Greenberg, American Bible scholar
• July 11 – Bobo Olson, American boxer (d. 2002)
• July 12 – Elias James Corey, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• July 13 – Tommaso Buscetta, Italian mafioso (d. 2000)
• July 13 – Leroy Vinnegar, American musician (d. 1999)
• July 16 – Robert Sheckley, American writer (d. 2005)
• July 25 – Keter Betts, American jazz bassist (d. 2005)
• July 25 – Mario Montenegro, Filipino actor (d. 1988)
• July 26 – Francesco Cossiga, Italian politician, 8th President
• July 26 – Stanley Kubrick, American film director (2001: A Space Odyssey) (d. 1999)
• July 26 – Bernice Rubens, British novelist (d. 2004)
• July 30 – Joe Nuxhall, American baseball player (d. 2007)

August

• August 5 – Bogdan Maglich, American physicist
• August 6 – Andy Warhol, American artist (d. 1987)
• August 7 – James Randi, Canadian magician
• August 9 – Bob Cousy, American basketball player
• August 10 – Eddie Fisher, American singer
• August 12 – Bob Buhl, American baseball player (d. 2001)
• August 15 – Nicolas Roeg, English film director
• August 18 – Marge Schott, American baseball team owner (d. 2004)
• August 22 – Karlheinz Stockhausen, German composer (d. 2007)
• August 25 – Herbert Kroemer, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• August 26 – Zdeněk Veselovský, Czech zoologist (d. 2006)
• August 31 – Jaime Cardinal Sin, Filipino Catholic cardinal (d. 2005)
• August 31 – James Coburn, American actor (Our Man Flint) (d. 2002)

September

• September 3 – Gaston Thorn, Luxembourger politician and Prime Minister (d. 2007)
• September 5 – Albert Mangelsdorff, German Jazz musician (d. 2005)
• September 6 – Robert M. Pirsig, American philosopher and author
• September 6 – Evgeny Svetlanov, Russian conductor and composer (d. 2002)
• September 9 – Sol LeWitt, American artist (d. 2007)
• September 11 – William Kienzle, American author (d. 2001)
• September 12 – M. V. Rajasekharan, Indian member of Rajya Sabha
• September 13 – Robert Indiana, American contemporary artist
• September 15 – Julian Cannonball Adderley, American saxophonist (d. 1975)
• September 19 – Adam West, American actor (Batman)
• September 20 – Donald Hall, American poet and U.S. Poet Laureate
• September 22 – James Lawson, African-American civil rights activist and minister
• September 28 – Koko Taylor, American singer (d. 2009)
• September 30 – Elie Wiesel, Romanian Holocaust survivor, writer, and lecturer, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

October

• October 1 – George Peppard, American actor (The A-Team) (d. 1994)
• October 7 – Sohrab Sepehri, Persian poet and painter (d. 1980)
• October 8 – Bill Maynard, British actor
• October 9 – Einojuhani Rautavaara, Finnish composer
• October 15 – Paul Giambarba, American graphic designer
• October 20 – Li Peng, former Premier of the People's Republic of China
• October 21 – Whitey Ford, American baseball player
• October 23 – Johnny Kitagawa, American-born Japanese businessman in the entertainment industry
• October 30 – Daniel Nathans, American microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1999)

November

• November 3 – Osamu Tezuka, Japanese manga artist (d. 1989)
• November 3 – George Yardley, American basketball player (d. 2004)
• November 9 – Anne Sexton, American poet (d. 1974)
• November 10 – Ennio Morricone, Italian composer
• November 11 – Carlos Fuentes, Mexican writer
• November 17 – Arman, French artist (d. 2005)
• November 17 – Rance Howard, American actor
• November 18 – Inge Bandekow, wife of German industrialist Harald Quandt (d. 1978)
• November 18 – Otar Gordeli, Georgian composer
• November 22 – Timothy Beaumont, Baron Beaumont of Whitley (d. 2008)
• November 22 – Pat Smythe, British showjumper and author (d. 1996)
• November 29 – Paul Simon, U.S. Senator from Illinois (d. 2003)
• November 30 – Takako Doi, Japanese politician
• November 30 – Joe B. Hall, American basketball coach

December

• December 1 – Emily McLaughlin, American actress (d. 1992)
• December 7 – Noam Chomsky, American linguist
• December 15 – Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Austrian artist (d. 2000)
• December 16 – Philip K. Dick, American author (d. 1982)
• December 25 – Dick Miller, American actor
• December 30 – Bo Diddley, African-American musician (d. 2008)
• December 31 – Siné, French cartoonist

Unknown date

• Norman Carlberg, American sculptor

Deaths

January–June

• January 1 – Loie Fuller, American dancer (b. 1862)
• January 6 – Alvin Kraenzlein, American athlete (b. 1876)
• January 11 – Thomas Hardy, English writer (b. 1840)
• January 21 – Nikolai Astrup, Norwegian painter (b.1880)
• January 29 – Douglas Haig, British soldier (b. 1861)
• January 30 – Johannes Andreas Grib Fibiger, Danish scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1867)
• February 1 – Hughie Jennings, American baseball player (b. 1869)
• February 4 – Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1853)
• February 15 – Herbert Henry Asquith, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1852)
• February 16 – Eddie Foy, American vaudevillian (b. 1856)
• March 7 – Robert Abbe, American surgeon (b. 1851)
• April 2 – Theodore William Richards, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1868)
• April 5 – Roy Kilner, English cricketer (b. 1890)
• April 19 – Dorus Rijkers, famous Dutch sailor and savior of over 500 men, women and children (b. 1847)
• May 19 – Max Scheler, German philosopher (b. 1874)
• May 22 – Francisco López Merino, Argentine poet (b. 1904)
• June 4
  • Emmeline Pankhurst, British women's suffrage campaigner (b. 1858)
  • Chang Tso-lin, Chinese warlord (b. 1873)
• June 16 – Mark Keppel, Superintendent of Los Angeles County Schools (b. 1867)
• June 22 – A. B. Frost, American illustrator (b. 1851)

July–December

• July 17 – Álvaro Obregón, President of Mexico (assassinated) (b. 1880)
• August 8 – Stjepan Radić, Croatian politician (b. 1871)
• August 12 – Leoš Janáček, Czech composer (b. 1854)
• August 30 – Wilhelm Wien, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1864)
• October 13 – Dagmar of Denmark, later Maria Fyodorovna, wife of Tsar Alexander III and Empress Consort of Russia (b. 1847)
• October 22 – Andrew Fisher, fifth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1862)
• October 31 – John William Wood Sr., North Carolinian politician, founder of Benson, North Carolina (b. 1855)
• December 1 – José Eustasio Rivera, Colombian writer (b. 1888)
• December 10 – Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Scottish architect (b. 1868)
• December 17 – Eglantyne Jebb, English co-founder of Save the Children, and champion of children's human rights (b. 1876)

Nobel prizes

• Physics – Owen Willans Richardson
• Chemistry – Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus
• Physiology or Medicine – Charles Jules Henri Nicolle
• Literature – Sigrid Undset
• Peace – not awarded

Notes

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