January 12
January 12
Pianist Vladimir Horowitz makes his American debut at Carnegie Hall
Even with the rise of jazz and pop music during the period, the 1920s and 30s was a time when performances of classical music, both live and on radio, drew…
A Year In History: 1928
This Year in History:
1928
Discover what happened in this year with HISTORY’s summaries of major events, anniversaries, famous births and notable deaths.
January 17
January 17
Stalin banishes Trotsky
Leon Trotsky, a leader of the Bolshevik revolution and early architect of the Soviet state, is deported by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to Alma‑Ata in remote Soviet Central Asia. He…
February 5
February 5
Andrew Greeley is born
On this day, Catholic priest and novelist Andrew Greeley is born in Oak Park, Illinois. Greeley was raised in an Irish Catholic community in Chicago and became a priest in…
February 8
February 8
Woman claiming to be Anastasia Romanov arrives in the U.S.
On February 8, 1928, a woman calling herself Anastasia Tschaikovsky and claiming to be the youngest daughter of the murdered Russian czar Nicholas II arrives in New York City. She…
February 26
February 26
Fats Domino is born in New Orleans
Antoine Domino was the youngest of eight children born into a Creole family that spoke French as its first language. Domino’s father was a fiddle player, but it was his…
March 6
March 6
Latin American Author Gabriel Garcia Marquez is born
Gabriel Garcia Marquez is born in Arataca, Colombia. As a child, his grandmother told him fantastic stories of magical events, relating them as if they were fact. These early stories…
March 20
March 20
Auto pioneer James Packard dies
James Packard, co‑founder of the Packard Motor Company, a pioneering American automaker, dies at the age of 64 on this day in 1928. During Packard’s heyday in the 1930s, its…
April 4
April 4
Maya Angelou is born
Poet and novelist Maya Angelou—born Marguerite Johnson—is born in St. Louis, Missouri. Her parents divorced when she was three, and she and her brother went to live with their grandmother…
April 13
April 13
First nonstop flight from Europe to North America
German pilot Hermann Köhl, Irish aviator James Fitzmaurice and Baron Ehrenfried Günther Freiherr von Hünefeld, the expedition’s financier, complete the first Europe‑to‑North‑America transatlantic flight, taking off from Ireland and landing…
June 10
June 10
“Where the Wild Things Are” author Maurice Sendak is born
On June 10, 1928, author and illustrator Maurice Sendak, who revolutionized children’s literature with such best‑selling books as Where the Wild Things Are and became one of the most celebrated…
June 28
June 28
Louis Armstrong records “West End Blues”
On June 28, 1928, a 26‑year‑old Louis Armstrong walked into a Chicago recording studio with five fellow jazz instrumentalists and walked out having changed the course of music history. The…
July 9
July 9
A spiteful son kills four in a fit of rage
Rose Booher, her son Fred and two hired workers are all shot to death on a secluded farm in Mannville, Alberta, Canada, while the rest of the Booher family is…
August 6
August 6
Andy Warhol is born
Andy Warhol, one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, is born Andrew Warhola in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Warhol was a major pioneer of the pop art movement of…
August 31
August 31
Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s “The Threepenny Opera” premieres in Berlin
Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera) receives its world premiere in Berlin on August 31, 1928. “I think I’ve written a good piece and that several numbers in it, at least…
September 1
September 1
Robert Pirsig is born
Robert Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), is born on this day in Minneapolis. Pirsig, the son of a Minnesota law professor, rose rapidly to…
September 3
September 3
Penicillin discovered by Sir Alexander Fleming
Sir Alexander Fleming was a young bacteriologist when an accidental discovery led to one of the great developments of modern medicine on September 3, 1928. Having left a plate of…
September 25
September 25
First company to mass‑produce car radios is incorporated
On September 25, 1928, Chicago’s new Galvin Manufacturing Corporation is officially incorporated. In 1930, Galvin would introduce the Motorola radio, the first mass‑produced commercial car radio. (The name had two…
September 30
September 30
Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and best‑selling author, is born
On September 30, 1928, Eliezer “Elie” Wiesel, the human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize‑winning author of more than 50 books, including “Night,” an internationally acclaimed memoir based on his…
November 4
November 4
One of New York’s most notorious gamblers is shot to death
Arnold Rothstein, New York’s most notorious gambler, is shot during a poker game at the Park Central Hotel in Manhattan on November 4, 1928. He died in the hospital two…
November 10
November 10
WWI novel “All Quiet on the Western Front” is published
On November 10, 1928, the first installment of All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque’s acclaimed novel of World War I, appears in the German magazine Vossische Zeitung.…
