September 28th is

National Drink a Beer Day

National Good Neighbor Day *

International Right to Know Day *

Strawberry Cream Pie Day

World Rabies Awareness Day *

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MORE! Prosper Merimee, Kate Douglas Wiggin and Michael Soames, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Czech Republic – Czech Statehood Day

India – Punjab:
Bhagat Singh Ji Birthday

Nepal – Maha Astami
(Part of Dashain Festival)

Paraguay – Boquerón Battle Day
(Paraguayan Victory in Chaco War)

Taiwan – Teacher’s Day

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On This Day in HISTORY

48 BC – After landing in Egypt, Pompey the Great is assassinated on the orders of Egyptian King Ptolemy

Marble bust of Pompey the Great

1066 – William the Conqueror and his forces land at Bulverhythe, on Pevensey Bay, Sussex, England

Duke William’s fleet sailing for England – Bayeux Tapestry 

1542 – Portuguese Navigator Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo arrives at future San Diego CA

1687 – The Venetian siege of Athens ends when the occupying Turks surrender

1698 – Pierre-Louis Maupertuis born, French mathematician, biologist and astronomer
1746 – Giovanni Punto, born Jan Václav Stich, Czech horn virtuoso and composer; pioneer of the hand-stopping technique which allows natural horns to sound more notes

1779 – Samuel Huntington is elected President of the American Continental Congress, succeeding John Jay

1781 – American forces begin the siege against British forces at Yorktown VA

1787 – U.S. Congress votes to send the new Constitution to the states for ratification

1789 – George Washington recommends November 26, 1789, to Congress for a ‘Day of Publick Thanksgiving’

1791 – France becomes the first country to give its Jewish population full citizenship

1803 – Prosper Merimee born, French dramatist, historian, archaeologist and writer; his novella Carmen is the basis for Bizet’s opera

1839 – Frances Willard born, first U.S. woman college president, of her alma mater Evanston College for Ladies – when it merges with Northwestern University in 1871, she becomes Dean of Women, but resigns in 1874 to go on a lecture tour for the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, covering 30,000 miles in ten years, while heading the WCTU publications committee; elected WCTU president in 1879; supporter of the Suffrage cause, believing the WCTU could best reach its goals if women had the vote; during her tenure as president, WCTU membership grows to 150,000, making it the largest women’s organization of the time in the world

1850 – U.S. Navy abolishes flogging as a form of punishment

1856 – Kate Douglas Wiggin born, American children’s author, head of the first free kindergarten in California, in the San Francisco slums; uses the enormous success of her books to raise money for children’s charities by giving frequent public readings; best remembered for Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, and Mother Carey’s Chickens

1871 – Brazilian Parliament passes the Law of the Free Womb, granting freedom to all children born to slaves, the first step to eradicating slavery in Brazil

1889 – The first General Conference on Weights and Measures establishes a standard length for a meter

1892 – Elmer Rice born, American playwright, director and novelist

1901 – William S. Paley born, American television broadcaster; CBS head for 50 years

1909 – Al Capp born, American cartoonist; creator of Li’l Abner

1913 – Vivian Fine born, American piano prodigy and composer of over 140 works during her 68 year career; member of Aaron Copeland’s Young Composers Group; The Women in the Garden; Alcestis

1916 – Olga Lepeshinskaya, Soviet Prima Ballerina with the Bolshoi and the Kirov; member of the Communist Party, married to Soviet General Aleksei Antonov

1917 – Michael Soames born, English premier danseur and assistant director of the Sadler’s Wells Ballet, later renamed the Royal Ballet; Margot  Fonteyn’s official partner 1950-1961

1924 – A team of U.S Army Air Service aviators using two planes complete the first aerial circumnavigation of the world after 175 days

1937 – Alice Mahon born, British Labour Party MP for Halifax (1987-2005); trade unionist and member of the Socialist Campaign Group; activist for peace, women’s rights (especially abortion) and gay rights; resigned from the Labour Party in protest of party policies in 2009

1947 – Sheikh Hasina born, Bangladeshi politician, Prime Minister of Bangladesh (1996-2001 and 2009 to the present), leader of the Bangladesh Awami League

1951 – The first color televisions are offered for sale in the U.S, but are discontinued less than a month later

1958 – France ratifies a new Constitution, and the Fifth Republic is formed

1958 – The Teddy Bears release “To Know Him Is To Love Him” music and lyrics by 18-year-old Phil Spector

1961 – Dr. Kildare and Hazel debut on NBC-TV

1963 – The Beatles “She Loves You” debuts on U.S radio, played by Murray the K

1971 – British Parliament passes Misuse of Drugs Act, bans medicinal use of cannabis

1991 – The Garth Brooks album, Ropin’ the Wind, becomes the first country to debut at #1 on pop chart

1995 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chair Yasser Arafat sign the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and Gaza Strip

1997 – The DVD format makes its debut at the Audio Engineering Society convention

2000 – U.S. FDA approves RU-486 for use as a ‘medical abortion’ drug

2002 – Freedom of information organizations from around the world meet in Sofia, Bulgaria to create the Freedom of Information  Advocates Network (FOI), and declare September 28 will be International Right to Know Day *

2003 – Good Neighbor Day was set on September 28, after being set on the 4^th Sunday in September from early 1970s when it was started by Becky Mattson of Lakeside, Montana.  In 1978, President Jimmy Carter issued Proclamation 4061 officially proclaiming National Good Neighbor Day *

2007 – The U.S. Center for Disease Control and the Alliance for Rabies Control co-sponsor the first World Rabies Awareness Day *

2014 – Occupy Central begins a peaceful demonstration at Hong Kong’s government headquarters, which is quickly spread to other areas by student  protesters in actions dubbed ‘the Umbrella Movement’ – thousands of protesters are tear-gassed by police, but many refuse to leave

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