July 28

Events
Up to 1900
1364 Troops of the Republic of Pisa and Republic of Florence clash in the Battle of Cascina.
1540 Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex is executed at the order of King Henry VIII of England, who marries his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, on the same day.
1566 A storm sinks several ships off the coast of the island of Gotland, Sweden, killing around 6,000 people.
1609 Bermuda is settled by English sailors, after their ship, the Sea Venture, runs aground, on the way to Virginia.
1794 French revolutionary leaders Maximilien Robespierre and Louis Saint-Just are executed on the guillotine.
1800 First successful climb of the Grossglockner in the Austrian Alps by Martin and Sepp Klotz.
1809 Napoleonic Wars: In the Battle of Talavera an army led by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington prevents Joseph Bonaparte from advancing into Portugal.
1821 Peru declares independence from Spain, through Jose de San Martin.
1835 Joseph Fieschi and co-plotters attempt an attack on Louis Philippe of France, who survives with slight injuries, though several people are killed.
1858 Fingerprints are used for the first time to prove identity. William Herschel, Indian Civil service, used Rajyadhar Konai's print on the back of an envelope.
1864 American Civil War: Battle of Ezra Church - Confederate forces fail their third attempt to drive Union forces out of Atlanta.
1865 Welsh settlement of Chubut, Argentina, begins.
1866 At age 18, Vinnie Ream becomes the first and youngest woman to be commissioned by the United States Government for a statue (of Abraham Lincoln).
1868 The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing African Americans citizenship.
1883 The Italian island of Ischia is struck by a powerful earthquake, killing 2,300 people.
1896 The city of Miami, Florida is incorporated.
1901 2000
1914 World War I starts when Austria-Hungary goes to war with Serbia.
1932 US President Herbert Hoover orders the United States Army to forcibly evict the "Bonus Army" of World War I veterans gathered in Washington, DC.
1933 Spain and the Soviet Union establish diplomatic relations.
1935 First flight of a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.
1938 The Hawaii Clipper disappears between Guam and Manila as the first loss of an airliner in the Trans-Pacific China Clipper service.
1942 World War II: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin issues Order Number 227 in response to alarming German advances into the Soviet Union. Under the order, all those who retreat or otherwise leave their positions, without orders to do so, are to be executed.
1943 World War II: British bombers bomb the city of Hamburg, causing a firestorm which kills around 42,000 people.
1945 A US Army plane crashes into the Empire State Building in New York, killing 14 people.
1947 An ammonium nitrate-loaded ship, Ocean Liberty, explodes in the harbor of Brest, Brittany, France, killing 21 people and injuring over 100.
1957 Heavy rain and a mudslide in Isahaya, Kyushu, Japan, kill 992 people.
1965 US President Lyndon B. Johnson announces the increase of US troops in Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000.
1973 Summer Jam at Watkins Glen: 600,000 people attend a rock music festival at the Watkins Glen International Raceway.
1976 A strong earthquake, estimated at magnitude 8.2, strikes Tangshan, China. It kills 242,769 people. The estimated number of people injured is 164,851.
1977 Spain applies for membership of the European Community.
1981 An earthquake in Iran kills 1,500 people.
1984 The 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California, begin.
1987 A rock fall buries the village of Morignone in upper Valtellina, northern Italy, killing 53 people and making 1,500 homeless.
1990 Alberto Fujimori becomes President of Peru.
1991 Miguel Indurain wins his first Tour de France.
1993 Andorra joins the United Nations.
1996 Ivan Milat is found guilty of 7 murders in the Sydney backpacker trial.
1996 Remains of a prehistoric man are discovered in Kennewick, Washington, later known as the Kennewick Man.
From 2001
2001 Australian Ian Thorpe becomes the first swimmer to win 6 gold medals at a single World Championship.
2001 Alejandro Toledo becomes President of Peru.
2005 Tornadoes hit residential areas of Birmingham and Coventry, England, injuring 14 people.
2005 The Provisional Irish Republican Army calls an end to its 30-year long armed campaign in Northern Ireland.
2006 Alan Garcia becomes President of Peru.
2008 The historic Grand Pier in Weston-super-Mare, England, burns down for the second time in 80 years.
2010 A plane crash in the Margalla Hills, near Islamabad, Pakistan, kills 152 people.
2011 Ollanta Humala becomes President of Peru.
2013 Jewels worth 103 million euros are stolen in Cannes, France.
2013 A coach carrying 50 people crashes into a ravine near Avellino, Campania region, Italy, killing 38 people. It was travelling to nearby Naples when it crashed.
2014 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow: Host nation Scotland achieves its highest-ever gold medal total at the Commonwealth Games, winning a 12th one with six days of competition remaining.
2016 Pedro Pablo Kuczynski becomes President of Peru.
2016 Hillary Clinton accepts the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States, becoming the first woman to become the candidate of a major US political party.
2017 Nawaz Sharif resigns as Prime Minister of Pakistan after being ruled unfit for office over his family's involvement in the Panama Papers scandal.
2019 Egan Bernal becomes the first Colombian cyclist to win the Tour de France and, at age 22, the youngest cyclist to win it in 110 years.
Births
Up to 1900
1165 Ibn Arabi, Spanish sufi (d. 1240)
1347 Margaret of Durazzo (d. 1412)
1456 Jacopo Sannazzaro, Italian poet (d. 1530)
1522 Margaret of Parma (d. 1586)
1609 Judith Leyster, Dutch painter (d. 1660)
1635 Robert Hooke, English polymath (d. 1703)
1643 Antonio Tarsia, Slovenian composer (d. 1722)
1645 Marguerite Louise d'Orleans, Grand Duchess of Tuscany (d. 1721)
1746 Thomas Heyward, Jr., American signer of the Declaration of Independence (d. 1809)
1777 William II, Elector of Hesse (d. 1847)
1804 Ludwig Feuerbach, German philosopher (d. 1872)
1815 Stefan Dunjov, Bulgarian military figure (d. 1889)
1844 Gerard Manley Hopkins, English poet (d. 1889)
1859 Mary Anderson, American actress (d. 1940)
1860 Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia (d. 1922)
1860 Elias M. Ammons, 18th Governor of Colorado (d. 1925)
1863 Huseyn Khan Nakhchivanski, Russian general (d. 1919)
1866 Beatrix Potter, British writer (d. 1943)
1866 Albertson Van Zo Post, American fencer (d. 1938)
1867 Charles Dillon Perrine, American astronomer (d. 1951)
1872 Albert Sarraut, French politician (d. 1962)
1873 Louisa Garrett Anderson, British physician and suffragette (d. 1943)
1874 Ernst Cassirer, German philosopher (d. 1945)
1879 Lucy Burns, American Women's rights activist (d. 1966)
1879 Stefan Filipkiewicz, Polish painter (d. 1944)
1887 Marcel Duchamp, French painter (d. 1968)
1891 Ron Oxenham, Australian cricketer (d. 1939)
1896 Barbara La Marr, American actress (d. 1926)
1901 1950
1901 Harry Bridges, Australian-American labor leader (d. 1990)
1901 Rudy Vallee, American singer (d. 1986)
1901 Freddie Fitzsimmons, American baseball player, coach and manager (d. 1979)
1902 Albert Namatjira, Australian artist (d. 1959)
1902 Karl Popper, Austrian-British philosopher (d. 1994)
1903 Roger Mynors, British classical philologist (d. 1989)
1904 Selwyn Lloyd, British politician (d. 1978)
1904 Pavel Cherenkov, Russian physicist (d. 1990)
1907 Earl Tupper, American inventor (d. 1983)
1909 Malcolm Lowry, English writer (d. 1957)
1914 Carmen Dragon, American composer (d. 1984)
1915 Charles Hard Townes, American physicist (d. 2015)
1915 Frankie Yankovic, American polka musician (d. 1998)
1916 David Brown, American producer (d. 2010)
1920 Andrew V. McLaglen, English-American movie and television director (d. 2014)
1922 Jacques Piccard, Belgian-Swiss undersea explorer (d. 2008)
1923 Kent Lee, American Vice Admiral (d. 2017)
1924 Irving Burgie, American songwriter (d. 2019)
1925 Baruch Samuel Blumberg, American physician (d. 2011)
1925 Harry Haddock, Scottish footballer (d. 1998)
1925 Juan Schiaffino, Uruguayan footballer (d. 2002)
1927 Ermes Muccinelli, Italian footballer (d. 1994)
1927 John Ashbery, American poet (d. 2017)
1929 Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, First Lady of the United States (d. 1994)
1930 Jean Roba, Belgian comics writer (d. 2006)
1930 Firoza Begum, Bangladeshi singer (d. 2014)
1931 Karl-Friedrich Haas, German athlete
1933 Charlie Hodge, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2016)
1934 Bud Luckey, American cartoonist, animator, actor and comedian (d. 2018)
1935 Ernie Bowman, American baseball player (d. 2019)
1937 Francis Veber, French director and screenwriter
1937 John Anthony Walker, American naval officer (d. 2014)
1938 Luis Aragones, Spanish football manager (d. 2014)
1938 Alberto Fujimori, former President of Peru
1938 Chuan Leekpai, Thai politician
1938 Ian McCaskill, Scottish weather forecaster (d. 2016)
1938 Arsen Dedic, Croatian singer-songwriter (d. 2015)
1939 Gosta Ekman, Swedish actor (d. 2017)
1941 Peter Cullen, Canadian voice actor
1941 Michael Mukasey, 81st Attorney General of the United States
1941 Riccardo Muti, Italian conductor
1943 Bill Bradley, American basketball player and politician
1943 Richard Wright, English keyboardist (Pink Floyd) (d. 2008)
1943 Judy Martz, American politician, 22nd Governor of Montana (d. 2017)
1943 Mike Bloomfield, American blues guitarist
1945 Jim Davis, American cartoonist
1946 Jonathan Edwards, American singer-songwriter
1946 Linda Kelsey, American actress
1947 Peter Cosgrove, 26th Governor-General of Australia
1947 Barbara Ferrell, American athlete
1947 Sally Struthers, American actress
1948 Georgia Engel, American actress (d. 2019)
1950 Isidore Battikha, Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Homs, Syria
1950 Tom Cotcher, Scottish actor
1951 1975
1951 Santiago Calatrava, Spanish architect
1951 Doug Collins, American basketball player and coach
1951 Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, Spanish politician (d. 2019)
1952 Vajiralongkorn, King of Thailand
1954 Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela (d. 2013)
1954 Gerd Faltings, German mathematician
1954 Steve Morse, American guitarist
1954 Bruce Abbott, American actor
1955 Nikolay Zimyatov, Russian cross-country skier
1956 Luca Barbareschi, Italian movie and theatre actor, producer and director
1957 Scott Pelley, American journalist
1958 Terry Fox, Canadian athlete (d. 1981)
1958 Michael Hitchcock, American screenwriter, actor and producer
1960 Alexandre Czerniatynski, Belgian footballer
1960 Yoichi Takahashi, Japanese cartoonist
1960 Harald Lesch, German astrophysicist
1960 Jonathan Gold, American food critic (d. 2018)
1961 Luiz Fernando Carvalho, Brazilian director
1961 Yannick Dalmas, French racing driver
1961 Aleksandr Kurlovich, Soviet weight lifter
1964 Lori Loughlin, American actress
1965 Priscilla Chan, Hong Kong singer
1965 Delfeayo Marsalis, American trombonist
1965 Daniela Mercury, Brazilian singer
1966 Miguel Angel Nadal, Spanish footballer
1967 Brent Saulsbury, American musician and composer
1969 Alexis Arquette, American actress (d. 2016)
1969 Garth Snow, American ice hockey player
1970 Michael Amott, Swedish guitarist and songwriter
1970 Isabelle Brasseur, Canadian ice skater
1971 Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Iraqi leader of the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
1973 Clara Ng, Indonesian writer
1973 Marc Dupre, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1974 Justin Lee Collins, British comedian
1974 Alexis Tsipras, Greek politician, former Prime Minister of Greece
1974 Elizabeth Berkley, American actress
1975 Leonor Watling, Spanish actress and singer
From 1976
1977 Emanuel Ginobili, Argentine basketball player
1977 Pascale Bruderer, Swiss politician
1977 Aki Berg, Finnish ice hockey player
1978 Hitomi Yaida, Japanese singer, songwriter and guitarist
1979 Birgitta Haukdal, Icelandic singer
1980 Noel Sullivan, Welsh singer and actor (Hear'Say)
1981 Michael Carrick, English footballer
1981 Willie Green, American basketball player and coach
1982 Agusta Eva Erlendsdottir, Icelandic singer and actress
1983 Dhanush, Indian actor and singer
1983 Juan Guaido, Venezuelan politician
1984 Ali Krieger, American soccer player
1984 Zach Parise, American ice hockey player
1985 Mathieu Debuchy, French footballer
1985 Darren Murphy, Irish footballer
1987 Pedro Rodriguez Ledesma, Spanish footballer
1987 Sumire, Japanese fashion model (d. 2009)
1988 Ayla Brown, American basketball player and coach
1990 Soulja Boy, American rapper
1992 Spencer Boldman, American actor
1993 Hannah Lochner, Canadian actress
1993 Cher Lloyd, English singer and rapper
1993 Harry Kane, English footballer
Deaths
Up to 1900
450 Theodosius II, Byzantine Emperor (b. 1401)
1057 Pope Victor II (b. 1018)
1230 Leopold VI of Austria (b. 1176)
1285 Keran, Queen of Armenia
1527 Rodrigo de Bastidas, Spanish conquistador (b. 1460)
1540 Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex, English statesman (b. 1495)
1614 Felix Platter, Swiss doctor and autobiographical writer (b. 1536)
1631 Guillen de Castro y Bellvis, Spanish playwright (b. 1569)
1655 Cyrano de Bergerac, French poet (b. 1619)
1677 Abraham Cowley, English poet (b. 1618)
1685 Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington, English statesman (b. 1618)
1718 Etienne Baluze, French scholar (b. 1630)
1741 Antonio Vivaldi, Italian composer (b. 1678)
1746 John Peter Zenger, American publicist (b. 1697)
1750 Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer (b. 1685)
1762 George Dodington, 1st Baron Melcombe, English politician (b. 1691)
1794 Maximilien Robespierre, French Revolutionary leader (b. 1758)
1794 Louis de Saint-Just, French Revolutionary leader (b. 1867)
1794 Georges Couthon, French politician (b. 1755)
1808 Selim III, Ottoman sultan (b. 1762)
1818 Gaspard Monge, French mathematician (b. 1746)
1835 Edouard Mortier, duc de Trevise, French general and politician (b. 1768)
1836 Nathan Mayer Rothschild, English banker and financier (b. 1777)
1842 Clemens Brentano, German poet (b. 1778)
1844 Joseph Bonaparte, older brother of Napoleon I and King of Naples and Spain (b. 1768)
1849 Charles Albert of Sardinia (b. 1798)
1850 Salomon Mayer von Rothschild, Austrian businessman and banker (b. 1774)
1869 Jan Evangelista Purkyne, Czech anatomist and physiologist (b. 1787)
1875 Jean Baptista von Schweitzer, German dramatist (b. 1833)
1878 George Law Curry, American politician (b. 1820)
1895 Edward Beecher, American theologian (b. 1803)
1899 Antonio Guzman Blanco, President of Venezuela (b. 1829)
1901 2000
1917 Waldemar Tietgens, German rower (b. 1879)
1930 Allvar Gullstrand, Swedish ophthalmologist, won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1862)
1930 John DeWitt, American hammer thrower (b. 1881)
1933 Nishinoumi Kajiro III, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1890)
1934 Marie Dressler, actress (b. 1868)
1935 Meletius IV of Constantinople (b. 1871)
1942 William Matthew Flinders Petrie, English Egyptologist (b. 1853)
1944 Ralph H. Fowler, British astronomer (b. 1889)
1957 Edith Abbott, social worker, educator, and writer (b. 1876)
1965 Edogawa Ranpo, Japanese writer of detective novels (b. 1894)
1965 Sheikh Attallah Suleimat, Jordanian ruler (b. 1875)
1967 Karl W. Richter, American aviator (b. 1942)
1968 Otto Hahn, German chemist, Nobel Prize winner (b. 1879)
1969 Frank Loesser, composer (b. 1910)
1971 Myril Hoag, baseball player (b. 1908)
1972 Helen Traubel, American soprano (b. 1903)
1982 Keith Green, American gospel singer, songwriter, and pianist (b. 1953)
1996 Marguerite "Marge" Ganser, singer (Shangri-Las) (b. 1948)
1997 Seni Pramoj, Thai politician (b. 1905)
1998 Zbigniew Herbert, Polish poet and writer (b. 1924)
1999 Trygve Haavelmo, Norwegian economist (b. 1911)
2000 Abraham Pais, Dutch-American physicist and historian (b. 1918)
From 2001
2002 Arthur John Porter Martin, English chemist (b. 1910)
2003 Lady Valerie Goulding, Irish Senator and campaigner for the disabled (b. 1918)
2004 Tiziano Terzani, Italian journalist (b. 1938)
2004 Francis Crick, English chemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1916)
2004 Sam Edwards, American actor (b. 1915)
2006 Patrick Allen, British actor (b. 1927)
2008 Suzanne Tamim, Lebanese actress and singer (b. 1977)
2011 Abdul Fatah Younis, Libyan military commander (b. 1944)
2013 Mustafa Adrisi, 3rd Vice President of Uganda (b. 1922)
2013 Ersilio Tonini, Italian cardinal (b. 1914)
2013 Rita Reys, Dutch jazz singer (b. 1924)
2013 William Scranton, American diplomat and politician, 38th Governor of Pennsylvania (b. 1917)
2013 Eileen Brennan, American actress (b. 1932)
2014 Margot Adler, American writer and journalist (b. 1946)
2014 James Shigeta, American actor (b. 1930)
2014 Yvette Lebon, French actress (b. 1910)
2014 Paul D. McGowan, American politician (b. 1947)
2014 Theodore Van Kirk, American soldier, pilot and navigator (b. 1921)
2014 Monty M. Wyche, American judge (b. 1926)
2014 Sally Farmiloe, British actress (b. 1954)
2015 Edward Natapei, Prime Minister of Vanuatu (b. 1954)
2015 Jan Kulczyk, Polish businessman (b. 1950)
2015 David Faber, Polish Holocaust survivor and author (b. 1928)
2016 Mahasweta Devi, Indian writer (b. 1926)
2016 Emile Derlin Zinsou, President of Benin (b. 1918)
2017 Enzo Bettiza, Croatian-Italian novelist, journalist and politician (b. 1927)
2017 Charlie Gard, British infant, focus of life support and parental rights case (b. 2016)
2017 Inder Kumar, Indian actor (b. 1973)
2017 John G. Morris, American photo editor (b. 1916)
2017 Warren Keith Urbom, American judge (b. 1925)
2018 Kora Jackowska, Polish rock music singer and voice actress (b. 1951)
2018 Bruce Lietzke, American golfer (b. 1951)
2019 Eduardo Gomez, Spanish actor and comedian (b. 1951)
2019 George Hilton, Uruguayan-Italian actor (b. 1934)
2019 Vladimir Kara-Murza Sr., Russian journalist and television host (b. 1959)
2019 Loek van Mil, Dutch baseball player (b. 1984)
2019 Jaipal Reddy, Indian politician (b. 1942)
2019 Ruth de Souza, Brazilian actress (b. 1921)
2023 Jose Paulino Gomes, Brazilian supercentenarian (b. 1895)
Observances
Peru: Independence Day
Faroe Islands: Eve of the feast day of Saint Olaf.
San Marino: Liberation Day
World Hepatitis Day (after birthday of Baruch Samuel Blumberg)
Days of the year