Summary of the Day ✨ 28 August (28/08)
A violent day unfolded with a deadly shooting in Phoenix claiming three lives while China and India resolved their two-month Doklam border standoff by withdrawing troops. Meanwhile, space agencies achieved milestones as India successfully tested its scramjet engine technology and NASA’s Space Shuttle Discovery launched, while authorities investigated one of the FBI’s most bizarre criminal cases involving a bank robber who died after being caught in an elaborate plot with a homemade explosive device.
Historical Events 📜
- 2022: Phoenix shooting: A man opens fire on pedestrians outside of a hotel in Phoenix, Arizona, resulting in the deaths of three people, including the perpetrator.
- 2017: China–India border standoff: China and India both pull their troops out of Doklam, putting an end to a two-month-long stalemate over China’s construction of a road in disputed territory.
- 2016: The first experimental mission of ISRO’s Scramjet Engine towards the realisation of an Air Breathing Propulsion System is successfully conducted from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota.
- 2009: NASA’s Space Shuttle Discovery launches on STS-128.
- 2003: In “one of the most complicated and bizarre crimes in the annals of the FBI”, Brian Wells dies after becoming involved in a complex plot involving a bank robbery, a scavenger hunt, and a homemade explosive device.
- 1999: The Russian space mission Soyuz TM-29 reaches completion, ending nearly 10 years of continuous occupation on the space station Mir as it approaches the end of its life.
- 1998: Pakistan’s National Assembly passes a constitutional amendment to make the “Qur’an and Sunnah” the “supreme law” but the bill is defeated in the Senate.
- 1998: Second Congo War: Loyalist troops backed by Angolan and Zimbabwean forces repulse the RCD and Rwandan offensive on Kinshasa.
- 1996: Chicago Seven defendant David Dellinger, antiwar activist Bradford Lyttle, Civil Rights Movement historian Randy Kryn, and eight others are arrested by the Federal Protective Service while protesting in a demonstration at the Kluczynski Federal Building in downtown Chicago during that year’s Democratic National Convention.
- 1993: NASA’s Galileo probe performs a flyby of the asteroid 243 Ida. Astronomers later discover a moon, the first known asteroid moon, in pictures from the flyby and name it Dactyl.
- 1993: Singaporean presidential election: Former Deputy Prime Minister Ong Teng Cheong is elected President of Singapore. Although it is the first presidential election to be determined by popular vote, the allowed candidates consist only of Ong and a reluctant whom the government had asked to run to confer upon the election the semblance of an opposition.
- 1993: The autonomous Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia in Bosnia and Herzegovina is transformed into the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia.
- 1993: A Tajikistan Airlines Yakovlev Yak-40 crashes during takeoff from Khorog Airport in Tajikistan, killing 82.
- 1990: Gulf War: Iraq declares Kuwait to be its newest province.
- 1990: An F5 tornado strikes the Illinois cities of Plainfield and Joliet, killing 29 people.
Famous Births 👶
- 2003: Quvenzhané Wallis, American actress
- 2001: Kamilla Rakhimova, Russian tennis player
- 2000: Marissa Bode, American actress
- 1998: Weston McKennie, American soccer player
- 1996: Kim Se-jeong, South Korean actress and singer
- 1994: Manon Arcangioli, French tennis player
- 1994: Ons Jabeur, Tunisian tennis player
- 1993: Jakub Sokolík, Czech footballer
- 1992: Bismack Biyombo, Congolese basketball player
- 1992: Max Collins, American-Filipino actress and model
- 1992: Gabriela Drăgoi, Romanian gymnast
- 1991: Felicio Brown Forbes, German footballer
- 1991: Andreja Pejić, Bosnian model
- 1990: Bojan Krkić, Spanish footballer
- 1989: César Azpilicueta, Spanish footballer
Notable Deaths 🕊️
- 2024: Obi Ndefo, American actor (born 1972)
- 2024: Steve Silberman, American writer and journalist (born 1957)
- 2020: Chadwick Boseman, American actor and playwright (born 1976)
- 2017: Mireille Darc, French actress and model (born 1938)
- 2016: Juan Gabriel, Mexican singer and songwriter (born 1950)
- 2016: Mr. Fuji, American professional wrestler and manager (born 1934)
- 2015: Al Arbour, Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach (born 1932)
- 2015: Mark Krasniqi, Kosovan ethnographer, poet, and translator (born 1920)
- 2015: Nelson Shanks, American painter and educator (born 1937)
- 2014: Glenn Cornick, English bass guitarist (born 1947)
- 2014: Hal Finney, American cryptographer and programmer (born 1956)
- 2014: John Anthony Walker, American soldier and spy (born 1937)
- 2013: John Bellany, Scottish painter and academic (born 1942)
- 2013: Lorella Cedroni, Italian political scientist and philosopher (born 1961)
- 2013: Edmund B. Fitzgerald, American businessman (born 1926)
Holidays & Observances 🎉
- Christian feast day:
Alexander of Constantinople - Christian feast day:
Augustine of Hippo - Christian feast day:
Edmund Arrowsmith - Christian feast day:
Hermes - Christian feast day:
Moses the Black - Christian feast day:
August 28 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) - National Grandparents Day (Mexico)