TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: MAY 28
585 BC A solar eclipse interrupts a battle outside Sardis in western Turkey between Medes and Lydians. The battle ends in a draw
585 BC A solar eclipse occurred that had been predicted by Thales Miletus.
1431 Joan of Arc is accused of relapsing into heresy by donning male clothing again, providing justification for her execution
1533 England’s archbishop voids King Henry VIII & Anne Boleyn’s marriage
1539 Hernando de Soto lands in Florida
1742 1st indoor swimming pool opens (Goodman’s Fields, London)
1754 George Washington defeats French & Indians at Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh)
1805 Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned in Milan, Italy.
1830 US President Andrew Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act, authorizing the Army to force Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole tribes out of Georgia and surrounding states, setting the stage for the Cherokee Trail of Tears
1863 The 54th Massachusetts, a regiment of African-American recruits, leaves Boston, headed for Hilton Head, South Carolina
1923 Attorney General says it is legal for women to wear trousers anywhere
1928 Chrysler Corporation merged with Dodge Brothers, Inc.
1929 The first all-color, full-length talking picture, On With the Show!, debuted.
1936 Alan Turing submits “On Computable Numbers” for publication, in which he set out the theoretical basis for modern computers.
1953 The Walt Disney film “Melody” premiered in the Paramount Theatre in Hollywood. The picture was the first 3-D cartoon.
1956 Eisenhower signs farm bill allows government to store agricultural surplus
1959 Monkeys Able & Baker zoom 300 miles (500 km) into space on Jupiter missile, became 1st animals retrieved from a space mission
1961 Amnesty International, a human rights organization, is founded
1964 Palestine National Congress forms the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) in Jerusalem
1972 White House “plumbers” first break in at the Democratic National Headquarters at Watergate Complex in Washington, D.C.
1985 David Jacobsen, director of the American University Hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, was abducted by pro-Iranian kidnappers. He was freed 17 months later.
1987 Mathias Rust, a 19-year-old pilot from West Germany, landed his private plane in Moscow’s Red Square. He was arrested and sentenced to four years in a labor camp, but was released after just one.
1987 Monitor, Civil War warship, is discovered by a deep sea robot
1996 U.S. President Clinton’s former business partners in the Whitewater land deal were convicted of fraud.
1998 Pakistan staged nuclear tests in response to India’s nuclear tests two weeks earlier.
2003 Pres. Bush signed a $350 billion tax cut into law; the third largest tax cut in U.S. history.
REFERENCE: HISTORY.NET, ONTHISDAY.COM, TIMEANDDATE.COM, INFOPLEASE.COM, FACTMONSTER.COM, SCOPESYS.COM, ON-THIS-DAY.COM, THEPEOPLEHISTORY.COM
