Historical Events on Tuesday, 28th October

28/10/2025

Hurricane Melissa makes landfall near Black River, Jamaica, killing over 30 people, as well as tying the 1935 Labor Day hurricane as the most intense landfall in the North Atlantic.

Hurricane Melissa was an extremely powerful tropical cyclone which made a catastrophic landfall in Jamaica in late October 2025. By maximum sustained winds, it is tied with Hurricane Allen as the strongest Atlantic hurricane and with Hurricane Dorian and the 1935 Labor Day hurricane as the strongest landfalling Atlantic hurricane. Allen and Melissa are the only Atlantic hurricanes to attain maximum sustained winds of 190 mph (305 km/h). In terms of minimum central pressure, it is tied with the 1935 Labor Day hurricane as the third-most intense Atlantic hurricane on record, and was the second-most intense at landfall. Climate scientists analyzing Melissa concluded that human-driven climate change, which raises ocean temperatures, intensified the hurricane's destructive winds and rainfall.

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28/10/2023

The 2023 Rugby World Cup final is held at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, France. It saw South Africa defeat New Zealand 12 to 11, claiming their fourth Webb Ellis Cup, becoming the first nation to do so.

The 2023 Rugby World Cup final was a rugby union match played on 28 October 2023 at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, France. It marked the culmination of the 2023 Rugby World Cup and was played between New Zealand and the defending champions, South Africa. This was the first time that both finalists had already lost a game during the tournament.

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28/10/2018

Jair Bolsonaro is elected president of Brazil with 57 million votes, with Workers' Party candidate Fernando Haddad as the runner-up. It is the first time in 16 years that a Workers' Party candidate is not elected president.

Jair Messias Bolsonaro is a Brazilian politician and former military officer who served as the 38th president of Brazil from 2019 to 2023. He previously served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1991 to 2019.

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28/10/2014

A rocket carrying NASA's Cygnus CRS Orb-3 resupply mission to the International Space Station explodes seconds after taking off from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Wallops Island, Virginia.

Orbital-3, also known as Orb-3, was an attempted flight of Cygnus, an automated cargo spacecraft developed by United States–based company Orbital Sciences, on October 28, 2014. The mission was intended to launch at 22:22:38 UTC that evening. This flight, which would have been its fourth to the International Space Station and the fifth of an Antares launch vehicle, resulted in the Antares rocket exploding seconds after liftoff.

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28/10/2013

Five people are killed and 38 are injured after a car crashes into barriers at Tiananmen Square in China.

On 28 October 2013, a car ran over pedestrians and crashed in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China, in a terrorist suicide attack. Five people died in the incident; three inside the vehicle and two others nearby. Police identified the driver as Usmen Hasan and the two passengers as his wife, Gulkiz Gini, and his mother, Kuwanhan Reyim. An additional 38 people were injured.

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28/10/2009

The 28 October 2009 Peshawar bombing kills 117 and wounds 213.

The 28 October 2009 Peshawar bombing occurred in Peshawar, Pakistan, when a car bomb was detonated in a Mina Bazar of the city. The bomb killed 137 people and injured more than 200 others, making it the deadliest attack in Peshawar's history. Pakistani government officials believe the Taliban to be responsible, but both Taliban and Al-Qaeda sources have denied involvement in the attack.

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NASA successfully launches the Ares I-X mission, the only rocket launch for its short-lived Constellation program.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the United States' civil space program and for research in aeronautics and space. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., NASA operates ten field centers across the U.S. and is organized into mission directorates for Science, Space Operations, Exploration Systems Development, Space Technology, Aeronautics Research, and Mission Support. Established in 1958, NASA succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) to give the U.S. space program a distinct civilian orientation focused on peaceful applications. Since then, it has led most American spaceflight programs, including Project Mercury, Project Gemini, the Apollo program, Skylab, the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station (ISS) and the ongoing multi-national Artemis program.

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US President Barack Obama signs the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

Barack Hussein Obama II is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president. Obama previously served as a U.S. senator representing Illinois from 2005 to 2008 and as an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004.

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28/10/2007

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner becomes the first directly elected female President of Argentina.

Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner is an Argentine lawyer and politician who served as the 56th President of Argentina from 2007 to 2015, and later as the 37th Vice President of Argentina under President Alberto Fernández from 2019 to 2023. The widow of Néstor Kirchner, she was also First Lady during his presidency from 2003 to 2007. She was the second female president of Argentina and the first to be directly elected to office. Ideologically self-identified as a Peronist and a progressive, her political approach is called Kirchnerism. Since 2024, she has been the president of the Justicialist Party.

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28/10/2006

A funeral service takes place at the Bykivnia graves for Ukrainians who were killed by the Soviet secret police.

The Bykivnia graves are a National Historic Memorial next to the former village of Bykivnia within Kyiv woodland, Bykivnia Forest. During the Stalinist period in the Soviet Union, it was one of the unmarked mass grave sites where the NKVD, the Soviet secret police, disposed of thousands of murdered "enemies of the Soviet state". Bykivnia as a residential place still exists as a locality with the same Bykivnia Forest. The National Memorial is located across Brovarskyi Prospect from Bykivnia, next to the former Rybne Soviet fishery in the thick of the woods.

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28/10/1995

The Baku Metro fire sees 289 people killed and 270 injured.

On 28 October 1995, a fire broke out in the subway system of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, between the Ulduz and Nariman Narimanov stations. According to official figures, the fire killed 289 people: 286 passengers and three rescue workers, while 270 people were injured. The fire was deemed to have been caused by an electrical malfunction, but the possibility of sabotage was not excluded.

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28/10/1990

Georgia holds its only free election under Soviet rule.

Parliamentary elections were held in the Georgian SSR on 28 October 1990, with a second round on 11 November. They were the first free parliamentary elections in Georgia since 1919 and saw Round Table-Free Georgia emerge as the largest party in Parliament with 155 of the 250 seats. Voter turnout was 70%.

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28/10/1989

Aloha Island Air Flight 1712, a Twin Otter 300, crashed into terrain at night in Hawaii killing all 20 occupants onboard.

Aloha IslandAir Flight 1712 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight that took place on October 28, 1989. The flight originated in Hana Airport, Maui, Hawaiʻi and stopped over in Kahului Airport, Maui. It was scheduled to continue to Molokaʻi Airport, Molokaʻi and then to Honolulu International Airport, however it crashed while enroute from Kahului to Molokaʻi. The leg in which the aircraft crashed was expected to take 25 minutes, on visual flight rules under provisions of 14 CFR Part 135. The aircraft struck terrain at 600 feet (180 m), and at a heading of 260° near Hālawa Valley, Hawaii. Both crew members and all 18 passengers died in the accident. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined the cause of the accident was by pilot error.

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28/10/1982

The Spanish general election begins fourteen years of rule by the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party.

A general election was held in Spain on 28 October 1982 to elect the members of the 2nd Cortes Generales under the Spanish Constitution of 1978. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 254 seats in the Senate.

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28/10/1971

Prospero becomes the only British satellite to be launched by a British rocket.

The Prospero satellite, also known as the X-3, was launched by the United Kingdom in 1971. It was designed to undertake a series of experiments to study the effects of the space environment on communications satellites and remained operational until 1973, after which it was contacted annually for over 25 years. Although Prospero was the first British satellite to have been launched successfully by a British rocket, Black Arrow, the first British satellite placed in orbit was Ariel 1, launched in April 1962 on a US rocket.

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28/10/1965

Pope Paul VI promulgates Nostra aetate, by which the Roman Catholic Church officially recognizes the legitimacy of non-Christian faiths.

Pope Paul VI was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding John XXIII, he continued the Second Vatican Council, which he closed in 1965, implementing its numerous reforms. He fostered improved ecumenical relations with Eastern Orthodox and Protestant churches, which resulted in many historic meetings and agreements.

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28/10/1962

The Cuban Missile Crisis ends and Premier Nikita Khrushchev orders the removal of Soviet missiles from Cuba.

The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis in Cuba, or the Caribbean Crisis, was a 13-day confrontation between the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union, when American deployments of nuclear missiles in the United Kingdom, Italy and Turkey were matched by Soviet deployments of nuclear missiles in Cuba. The crisis lasted from 16 to 28 October 1962. The confrontation is widely considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into full-scale nuclear war.

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28/10/1958

John XXIII is elected Pope.

Pope John XXIII was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City from 28 October 1958 until his death on 3 June 1963.

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28/10/1956

Hungarian Revolution: A de facto ceasefire comes into effect between armed revolutionaries and Soviet troops, who begin to withdraw from Budapest. Communist officials and facilities come under attack by revolutionaries.

The Hungarian Revolution of 1956, also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was an attempted countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the policies caused by the government's subordination to the Soviet Union (USSR). The uprising lasted 15 days before being crushed by Soviet tanks and troops on 7 November 1956. Thousands were killed or wounded, and nearly a quarter of a million Hungarians fled the country.

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28/10/1954

Aeroflot Flight 136 crashes near Krasnoyarsk, killing 19.

Aeroflot Flight 136 was an aviation disaster involving an Ilyushin Il-12P passenger aircraft operated by Aeroflot, which occurred on Thursday 28 October 1954 in Krasnoyarsk Krai, on the slope of Mount Sivukha. The crash resulted in the deaths of 19 people.

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28/10/1949

An Air France Lockheed Constellation crashes in the Azores, killing all 48 people on board.

Air France, stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France, and is headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. The airline is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and is one of the founding members of the SkyTeam airline alliance. As of 2013, Air France served 29 destinations in France and operates worldwide scheduled passenger and cargo services to 201 destinations in 78 countries and also carried 46,803,000 passengers in 2019. The airline maintains its global and domestic hub at Charles de Gaulle Airport. Air France's corporate headquarters, previously in Montparnasse, Paris, are located at the Roissypôle complex on the grounds of Charles de Gaulle Airport, north of Paris.

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28/10/1948

Paul Hermann Müller is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the insecticidal properties of DDT.

Paul Hermann Müller, also known as Pauly Mueller, was a Swiss chemist who received the 1948 Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine for his 1939 discovery of insecticidal qualities and use of DDT in the control of vector diseases such as malaria and yellow fever.

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Ecological disaster in Donora, Pennsylvania.

The 1948 Donora smog, also called the Donora death fog, was an air pollution disaster that occurred in Donora, Pennsylvania, beginning on October 27, 1948, and lasting several days. It was caused by hydrogen fluoride and sulfur dioxide emissions from U.S. Steel's Donora Zinc Works and its American Steel & Wire plant during an atmospheric temperature inversion. It killed 20 people and caused respiratory problems for 6,000 of the 14,000 people living in Donora, a mill town on the Monongahela River 24 miles (39 km) southeast of Pittsburgh. The event is commemorated by the Donora Smog Museum.

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28/10/1942

The Alaska Highway first connects Alaska to the North American railway network at Dawson Creek in Canada.

The Alaska Highway is a highway in North America which was constructed during World War II to connect the contiguous United States with Alaska through Canada. It begins at the junction with a few Canadian highways in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, and runs to Delta Junction, Alaska, via Whitehorse, Yukon. When it was completed in 1942, it was about 1,700 miles long, but in 2012, it was only 1,387 mi (2,232 km). This is due to the realignments of the highway over the years, which has rerouted and straightened many sections. The highway opened to the public in 1948. Once legendary for being a rough, challenging drive, the highway is now paved over its entire length. Its component highways are British Columbia Highway 97, Yukon Highway 1, and Alaska Route 2.

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28/10/1940

World War II: Greece rejects Italy's ultimatum. Italy invades Greece through Albania a few hours later.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

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28/10/1928

Indonesia Raya, now the national anthem of Indonesia, is first played during the Second Indonesian Youth Congress.

"Indonesia Raya" is the national anthem of Indonesia. It has been the national anthem since the Proclamation of Indonesian Independence on 17 August 1945. The song was introduced by its composer, Wage Rudolf Supratman, on 28 October 1928 during the Youth Pledge in Jakarta. The song marked the birth of the archipelago nationalist movement in Indonesia that aims to gain independence from Dutch colonial rule. The first newspaper to openly publish the musical notation and lyrics of "Indonesia Raya" — an act of defiance towards the Dutch authorities — was the Chinese Indonesian weekly Sin Po.

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28/10/1922

Italian fascists led by Benito Mussolini march on Rome and take over the Italian government.

Italian fascism, also called classical fascism and fascism, is the original fascist ideology, which Giovanni Gentile and Benito Mussolini developed in Italy. The ideology of Italian fascism is associated with a series of political parties led by Mussolini: the National Fascist Party (PNF), which governed the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, and the Republican Fascist Party (PFR), which governed the Italian Social Republic from 1943 to 1945. Italian fascism is also associated with the post-war Italian Social Movement (MSI) and later Italian neo-fascist political organisations.

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28/10/1919

The U.S. Congress passes the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson's veto, paving the way for Prohibition to begin the following January.

The National Prohibition Act, known informally as the Volstead Act, was an act of the 66th United States Congress designed to execute the 18th Amendment which established the prohibition of alcoholic drinks. The Anti-Saloon League's Wayne Wheeler conceived and drafted the bill, which was named after Andrew Volstead, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, who managed the legislation.

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28/10/1918

World War I: A new Polish government in western Galicia is established, triggering the Polish–Ukrainian War.

World War I, or the First World War, also known as The Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Central Powers. Major areas of conflict included Europe and the Middle East, as well as parts of Africa and the Asia-Pacific. The war saw important developments in weaponry including tanks, aircraft, artillery, machine guns, and chemical weapons. One of the deadliest conflicts in history, it resulted in an estimated 15 to 22 million military and civilian casualties and genocide. The movement of large numbers of people was a major factor in the deadly Spanish flu pandemic.

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World War I: Czech politicians peacefully take over the city of Prague, thus establishing the First Czechoslovak Republic.

The First Czechoslovak Republic, often colloquially referred to as the First Republic, was the first Czechoslovak state that existed from 1918 to 1938, a union of ethnic Czechs and Slovaks. The country was commonly called Czechoslovakia, a compound of Czech and Slovak; which gradually became the most widely used name for its successor states. It was composed of former territories of Austria-Hungary, inheriting different systems of administration from the formerly Austrian and Hungarian territories.

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28/10/1893

Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Pathétique receives its première performance only nine days before the composer's death.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular concert and theatrical music in the classical repertoire, including the 1812 Overture, his First Piano Concerto, the Violin Concerto, the Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy, several symphonies, the opera Eugene Onegin, and the ballets Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker.

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28/10/1891

The Mino–Owari earthquake, the largest inland earthquake in Japan's history, occurs.

The 1891 Mino–Owari earthquake struck the Japanese provinces of Mino and Owari in the Nōbi Plain in the early morning of October 28 with a surface-wave magnitude of 8.0 and moment magnitude of 7.5. The event, also referred to as the Nōbi earthquake , the Great Gifu earthquake , or the Great Nōbi earthquake , is the largest known inland earthquake to have occurred in the Japanese archipelago.

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28/10/1886

US president Grover Cleveland dedicates the Statue of Liberty.

Stephen Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, serving from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. He was the first U.S. president to serve nonconsecutive terms and the first Democrat elected president after the American Civil War.

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28/10/1864

American Civil War: A Union attack on the Confederate capital of Richmond is repulsed.

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States, which they saw as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war lasted a little over four years, ending with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.

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28/10/1835

The United Tribes of New Zealand are established with the signature of the Declaration of Independence.

The United Tribes of New Zealand was a confederation of Māori tribes based in the north of the North Island, existing from 1835 to 1840. It received limited acknowledgement from Great Britain which shortly thereafter proclaimed the foundation of the Colony of New Zealand upon the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.

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28/10/1834

The Pinjarra massacre occurs in the Swan River Colony. An estimated 30 Noongar people are killed by British colonists.

The Pinjarra massacre, sometimes inaccurately still called the Battle of Pinjarra, occurred on 28 October 1834 in Pinjarra, Western Australia when a group of Bindjareb Noongar people were attacked by a detachment of 25 soldiers, police, and settlers led by Governor James Stirling. According to Stirling, "about 60 or 70" of the Bindjareb people were present at the camp and John Roe, who also participated, estimated about 70–80. This roughly agrees with an estimate of 70 by an unidentified eyewitness.

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28/10/1776

American Revolutionary War: British troops attack and capture Chatterton Hill from the Continental Army.

The American Revolutionary War, also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which American Patriot forces organized as the Continental Army and commanded by George Washington defeated the British Army. The conflict was fought in North America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic Ocean. The war's outcome seemed uncertain for most of the war, but Washington and the Continental Army's decisive victory in the Siege of Yorktown in 1781 led King George III and the Kingdom of Great Britain to negotiate an end to the war. In 1783, in the Treaty of Paris, the British monarchy acknowledged the independence of the Thirteen Colonies, leading to the establishment of the United States as an independent and sovereign nation.

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28/10/1746

The 1746 Lima–Callao earthquake causes up to 6,000 deaths in Peru, the deadliest in its history up to that point.

The 1746 Lima–Callao earthquake occurred at 22:30 local time on 28 October with a moment magnitude of 8.6–8.8 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). The epicenter was located about 90 km (56 mi) north-northwest of the capital Lima, which was almost completely destroyed, and the subsequent tsunami devastated the port city of Callao. It was the deadliest earthquake in Peru's history prior to the 1970 earthquake.

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28/10/1726

The novel Gulliver's Travels written by Jonathan Swift is published.

Gulliver's Travels, originally titled Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships, is a 1726 satirical prose novel by the Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift. The novel satirises human nature and the imaginary "travellers' tales" literary subgenre. Gulliver's Travels is one of the most famous classics of both English and world literature, and popularised the fictional island of Lilliput. The poet John Gay remarked of the work, "It is universally read, from the cabinet council to the nursery." Although the novel is popularly classified under children's literature, Swift had originally written it as a political satire. The book has been adapted for theatrical performances, films, television, and radio over the centuries.

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28/10/1707

The 1707 Hōei earthquake causes more than 5,000 deaths in Japan.

The 1707 Hōei earthquake struck south-central Japan at around 13:45 local time on 28 October. It was the largest earthquake in Japanese history until it was surpassed by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake. It caused moderate-to-severe damage throughout southwestern Honshu, Shikoku and southeastern Kyūshū. The earthquake, and the resulting destructive tsunami, caused more than 5,000 casualties. This event ruptured all of the segments of the Nankai megathrust simultaneously, the only earthquake known to have done this, with an estimated magnitude of 8.6 ML or 8.7 Mw. It possibly also triggered the last eruption of Mount Fuji 49 days later.

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28/10/1664

The Duke of York and Albany's Maritime Regiment of Foot, later to be known as the Royal Marines, is established.

His Majesty’s Royal Marines provide the United Kingdom's amphibious special operations capable commando force, one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy, a company strength sub-unit to the Special Forces Support Group (SFSG), landing craft crews, and the Naval Service's military bands. The Royal Marines trace their origins back to the formation of the "Duke of York and Albany's maritime regiment of Foot" on 28 October 1664, and the first Royal Marines Commando unit was formed at Deal in Kent on 14 February 1942 and designated "The Royal Marine Commando".

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28/10/1640

The Treaty of Ripon is signed, ending the hostilities of the Second Bishops' War.

The Treaty of Ripon was a truce between Charles I, King of England, and the Covenanters, a Scottish political movement, which brought a cessation of hostilities to the Second Bishops' War.

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28/10/1636

The Massachusetts Bay Colony votes to establish a theological college, which would later become Harvard University.

The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1628–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around Massachusetts Bay, one of the several colonies later reorganized as the Province of Massachusetts Bay. The lands of the settlement were in southern New England, with initial settlements on two natural harbors and surrounding land about 15.4 miles (24.8 km) apart—the areas around Salem and Boston, north of the previously established Plymouth Colony. The territory nominally administered by the Massachusetts Bay Colony covered much of central New England, including portions of Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Connecticut.

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28/10/1628

French Wars of Religion: The Siege of La Rochelle ends with the surrender of the Huguenots after fourteen months.

The French Wars of Religion were a series of civil wars between French Catholics and Protestants from 1562 to 1598. Between two and four million people died from violence, famine or disease directly caused by the conflict, and it severely damaged the power of the French monarchy. One of its most notorious episodes was the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572. The fighting ended with a compromise in 1598, when Henry of Navarre, who converted to Catholicism in 1593, was proclaimed King Henry IV of France and issued the Edict of Nantes, which granted substantial rights and freedoms to the Huguenots. However, Catholics continued to disapprove of Protestants and of Henry, and his assassination in 1610 triggered a fresh round of Huguenot rebellions in the 1620s.

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28/10/1538

The Universidad Santo Tomás de Aquino is founded in what is now the Dominican Republic.

The University of St. Thomas Aquinas is, from an historical perspective, the first university founded in the Americas. It was established by the papal bull In Apostolatus Culmine, issued by Pope Paul III on October 28, 1538, at a time when royal approval through a "pase regio" was not yet required. It was later officially recognized by the Spanish Crown through a Royal Provision on February 23, 1558. Its main headquarters were located in the Church and Convent of the Dominicans.

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28/10/1531

Abyssinian–Adal war: The Adal Sultanate seizes southern Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian–Adal War, also known as the Abyssinian–Adal War and Futūḥ Al-Ḥabaša, was a war fought between the Christian Ethiopian Empire and the Muslim Adal Sultanate from 1529 to 1543. The Christian Ethiopian troops consisted of the Amhara people, Tigrayan-Tigrinya people and Agaw people, and at the closing of the war, supported by the Portuguese Empire with no less than four hundred musketeers. The Adal forces were composed of Harla/Harari, Somali, Afar as well as Arab and Turkish gunmen. Both sides would see the Maya mercenaries at times join their ranks. The conflict was followed shortly by the 16th century Ottoman–Ethiopian War.

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28/10/1520

Ferdinand Magellan reaches the Pacific Ocean.

Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese explorer best known for planning and leading the 1519–1522 Spanish expedition to the East Indies. During this expedition, he discovered the Strait of Magellan, performed the first European crossing of the Pacific Ocean, and made the first known European contact with the Philippines. Magellan himself was killed in battle in the Philippines in 1521, but his crew, commanded by Spanish navigator Juan Sebastián Elcano, completed the return trip to Spain in 1522, achieving the first circumnavigation of Earth in history.

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28/10/1516

Second Ottoman–Mamluk War: Mamluks fail to stop the Ottoman advance towards Egypt at the Battle of Yaunis Khan.

The Ottoman–Mamluk War of 1516–1517 was the second major conflict between the Egypt-based Mamluk Sultanate and the Ottoman Empire, which led to the Fall of the Mamluk Sultanate and the incorporation of the Levant, Egypt, and the Hejaz as provinces of the Ottoman Empire. The war transformed the Ottoman Empire from a realm at the margins of the Islamic world, mainly located in Anatolia and the Balkans, to a huge empire encompassing much of the traditional lands of Islam, including the cities of Mecca, Cairo, Damascus, and Aleppo. Despite this expansion, the seat of the empire's political power remained in Constantinople.

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28/10/1492

Christopher Columbus lands in Cuba on his first voyage to the New World, surmising that it is Japan.

Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed four Spanish-based voyages across the Atlantic Ocean sponsored by the Catholic Monarchs, opening the way for the widespread European exploration and colonization of the Americas. His expeditions were the first known European contact with the Caribbean and Central and South America.

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28/10/1453

Ladislaus the Posthumous is crowned king of Bohemia in Prague.

Ladislaus V, more commonly known as Ladislaus the Posthumous, was Duke of Austria and King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia. He was the posthumous son of Albert of Habsburg with Elizabeth of Luxembourg. Albert had bequeathed all his realms to his future son on his deathbed, but only the estates of Austria accepted his last will. Fearing an Ottoman invasion, the majority of the Hungarian lords and prelates offered the crown to Vladislaus III of Poland. The Hussite noblemen and towns of Bohemia did not acknowledge the hereditary right of Albert's descendants to the throne, but also did not elect a new king.

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28/10/1449

Christian I is crowned king of Denmark.

Christian I (Christiern I) was a German noble and Scandinavian monarch under the Kalmar Union. He was king of Denmark (1448–1481), Norway (1450–1481) and Sweden (1457–1464). From 1460 to 1481, he was also duke of Schleswig and count of Holstein. He was the first king of the House of Oldenburg.

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28/10/1420

Beijing is officially designated the capital of the Ming dynasty when the Forbidden City is completed.

Beijing, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's most populous national capital city, as well as China's second-largest city by urban area, after Shanghai. It is located in Northern China, and is governed as a municipality under the direct administration of the State Council with 16 urban districts. Beijing is mostly surrounded by Hebei Province and neighbors Tianjin to the southeast; together, the three divisions form the Jing-Jin-Ji cluster.

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28/10/1344

The lower town of Smyrna is captured by Latin Christians in response to Aydınid piracy during the Smyrniote crusades.

The Aydinids or Aydinid dynasty (also known as the Principality of Aydin and Beylik of Aydin, was one of the Turkish Anatolian beyliks and famous for its seaborne raiding.

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28/10/0969

The Byzantine Empire recovers Antioch from Arab rule.

The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, it endured until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. The term 'Byzantine Empire' was coined only after its demise; its citizens used the term 'Roman Empire' and called themselves 'Romans'.

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28/10/0312

Constantine I defeats Maxentius, becoming the sole Roman emperor in the West.

Constantine I, also known as Constantine the Great, or known mononymously as Constantine, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a pivotal role in elevating the status of Christianity in Rome, the Edict of Milan decriminalising Christian practice and ceasing Christian persecution. This was a turning point in the Christianisation of the Roman Empire. He founded the city of Constantinople and made it the capital of the Empire, which it remained for over a millennium.

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28/10/0306

Maxentius is proclaimed Roman emperor.

Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maxentius was a Roman emperor from 306 until his death in 312. Despite ruling in Italy and North Africa, and having the recognition of the Senate in Rome, he was not recognized as a legitimate emperor by his fellow emperors.

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28/10/0097

Roman emperor Nerva is forced by the Praetorian Guard to adopt general Marcus Ulpius Trajanus as his heir and successor.

AD 97 (XCVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Augustus and Rufus. The denomination AD 97 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

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