Elsewhere in 1928

January 6—7 — The River Thames floods in London; 14 drown
January — British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith’s experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA
January 31 — Leon Trotsky is exiled to Alma-Ata
February 8 — Scottish inventor John Logie Baird broadcasts a transatlantic television signal from London to Hartsdale, New York
February 11—19 — The 1928 Winter Olympics are held in St. Moritz, Switzerland, the first as a separate event. Sonja Henie of Norway wins her first gold medal, in women’s figure skating.
March 12 — In California, the St. Francis Dam north of Los Angeles fails, killing 600
March 21 — Charles Lindbergh is presented with the Medal of Honor for his first transatlantic flight
April 10 — The United States Republican Party primary elections in Chicago are preceded by violence, bombings and assassination attempts.
April 13 — The West Plains, Missouri Dance Hall explosion occurs – the reasons are still unknown.
April 14 — Two earthquakes in Chirpan and Plovdiv, Bulgaria destroy more than 21,000 buildings, and kill almost 130 people.
May 3 — An armed conflict between the Imperial Japanese Army (allied with Northern Chinese warlords against the Kuomintang’s southern army) occurs in Jinan, China.
May 7 — Passage of the Representation of the People Act in the United Kingdom lowers the voting age for women from 30 to 21, giving them equal suffrage with men from July 2
May 10 — The first regular schedule of television programming begins in Schenectady, New York, by General Electric’s television station W2XB
May 15 – The animated short Plane Crazy is released by Disney Studios in Los Angeles, featuring the first appearances of Mickey and Minnie Mouse
May 24 — The airship Italia crashes at the North Pole; one of the occupants is Italian general Umberto Nobile.
June 4 — Huanggutun incident – Zhang Zuolin, a warlord, is killed by Japanese agents in China.
June 20 — Serb politician PuniÅ¡a Račić shoots dead three opposition representatives in the Yugoslavian Parliament, and injures three others.
June 29 — At the 1928 Democratic National Convention in Houston, Governor of New York Al Smith becomes the first Catholic nominated by a major political party for President of the United States.
July 7 — The first machine-sliced and machine-wrapped loaf of bread is sold in Chillicothe, Missouri, using Otto Frederick Rohwedder’s technology.
July 17 — José de León Toral assassinates Álvaro Obregón, president-elect of Mexico.
July 28 — August 12 — The 1928 Summer Olympics are held in Amsterdam, opening with the lighting of the Olympic flame. Women’s athletics and gymnastics debut at these games.
August 25 — Ahmet Zogu proclaims himself King Zog of Albania; he is crowned September 1.
August 27 — The Kellogg—Briand Pact is signed in Paris, the first treaty to outlaw aggressive war.
August 31 — The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, opens at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, Berlin.
September 3 – Philo Farnsworth demonstrates to the press in San Francisco the world’s first working all-electronic television system, employing electronic scanning in both the pickup and display devices.
September 3 – Scotsman Alexander Fleming, at St Mary’s Hospital, London, accidentally rediscovers the antibiotic Penicillin.
September 12 — The Okeechobee hurricane hits Guadeloupe, killing 1,200 people – it will kill another 2,500 in Florida four days later.
October 1 — Joseph Stalin launches the first five-year plan (1928—1932)
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.
November 6 — In the US presidential election, Republican Herbert Hoover wins by a wide margin over Democratic New York Governor Al Smith.
November 18 — Mickey Mouse appears in Steamboat Willie, the third Mickey Mouse cartoon released, but the first sound film and the first such film to be generally distributed.
December 21 — The United States Congress approves the construction of Boulder Dam, later renamed Hoover Dam.

Leave a Reply

Scroll to Top
%d bloggers like this: