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“Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.”
~ Karl Popper
Wikiquote (Karl Popper (CH FRS FBA (July 28, 1902 – September 17, 1994) was an Austro-British philosopher and professor at the London School of Economics.)
July 28th, 1364
Battle of Cascina: Troops of the Republic of Pisa and of the Republic of Florence clash.
Wikipedia Painting: Copy of the Battle painted by Michelangelo's pupil Aristotele da Sangallo
July 28th, 1540
Thomas Cromwell is executed at the order of Henry VIII of England on charges of treason. On the same day, Henry marries his fifth wife, Catherine Howard.
Wikipedia Painting: Thomas Cromwell, Portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1532–1533
July 28th, 1794
French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre is executed by guillotine in Paris.
Wikipedia Robespierre -1790, (anonymous), Musée Carnavalet, Paris
July 28th, 1809
French Revolutionary Wars / Napoleonic Wars:
1809 - Peninsular War - Battle of Talavera: Sir Arthur Wellesley's British, Portuguese and Spanish army defeats a French force led by Joseph Bonaparte.
Wikipedia Painting: Battle of Trafalgar: The British HMS Sandwich fires to the French flagship Bucentaure (completely dismasted) in the battle of Trafalgar;
Napoleon in Berlin (Meynier). After defeating Prussian forces at Jena, the French Army entered Berlin on 27 October 1806;
Battle of the Bridge of Arcole Napoleon Bonaparte leading his troops over the bridge of Arcole, by Horace Vernet;
Napoleon as King of Italy (Appiani);
Napoleon Crossing the Alps (David). In 1800 Bonaparte took the French Army across the Alps, eventually defeating the Austrians at Marengo;
Charge of the Russian Imperial Guard cavalry against French cuirassiers at the Battle of Friedland, 14 June 1807;
Battle of Borodino as depicted by Louis Lejeune. The battle was the largest and bloodiest single-day action of the Napoleonic Wars;
Napoleon's withdrawal from Russia, a painting by Adolph Northen;
Wellington at Waterloo by Robert Alexander Hillingford;
Napoleon is often represented in his green colonel uniform of the Chasseur à Cheval, with a large bicorne and a hand-in-waistcoat gesture.
Battle of the Nile (Battle of Aboukir Bay).
July 28th, 1864
American Civil War:
1864 - Battle of Ezra Church; Confederate troops make a third unsuccessful attempt to drive Union forces from Atlanta, Georgia.
Wikipedia Image: ● Lincoln Memorial; an American national monument built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln - located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. across from the Washington Monument.
● The northern army led by George McClellan and the southern army led by Robert E. Lee met at Antietam Creek, Maryland in September, 1862. It was a bloody battle where 13,000 Confederates and 12,000 Union troops died in just one day. McClellan had hesitated to attack before the battle thus letting the southern troops regroup. Also, he had saved reserves and refused to use them at the end of the battle thinking that Lee was holding reserves for a counterattack, even though those reserves didn't exist. The Union victory stopped Lee's northward advance and was a turning point in the war.
● Battle of Antietam / Stone Bridge at Antietam Battlefield - Sharpsburg, Maryland
● Battle of Mobile Bay (1890) by Xanthus Russell Smith.
● Although photography was still in its infancy, war correspondents produced thousands of images, bringing the harsh realities of the frontlines to those on the home front in a new and visceral way. The Atlantic.
July 28th, 1868
14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is certified, establishing African-American citizenship and guaranteeing due process of law.
Wikipedia Image: 14th Amendment, 1868
July 28th, 1914
World War I:
1914 - Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia after Serbia rejects the conditions of an ultimatum sent by Austria on July 23 following the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand.
Wikipedia Photo: Trenches on the Western Front; a British Mark IV Tank crossing a trench; Royal Navy battleship HMS Irresistible sinking after striking a mine at the Battle of the Dardanelles; a Vickers machine gun crew with gas masks, and German Albatros D.III biplanes. National Archives and Records Administration.
July 28th, 1932
U.S. President Herbert Hoover orders the United States Army to forcibly evict the "Bonus Army" of World War I veterans gathered in Washington, D.C..
Wikipedia Photo: Bonus Army camp in Washington D.C.
July 28th, 1935
First flight of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.
Wikipedia Photo: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, in 1937 the Boeing Aircraft Company built America's first all-metal, four-engine heavy bomber
July 28th, 1942
Soviet leader Joseph Stalin issues Order No. 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 immediately executed.
Wikipedia Photo: Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (December 18, 1878 – March 5. 1953) was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 until his death in 5 March 1953 ● Young Ioseb, 1894, aged 16 (left) and 23 (right) 1902 ● Prior to the revolution of 1917, Stalin played an active role in fighting the tsarist government. Here he is shown on a 1911 information card from the files of the Tsarist secret police in Saint Petersburg ● Stalin and Vladimir Lenin in 1919 ● A group of participants in the 8th Congress of the Russian Communist Party, 1919. In the middle are Stalin, Vladimir Lenin, and Mikhail Kalinin. ● Stalin in 1941, about 63 years of age.
July 28th, 1943
World War II: Operation Gomorrah: The British bomb Hamburg causing a firestorm that kills 42,000 German civilians.
Wikipedia Photo: Aerial Images of Central Hamburg after "Operation Gomorrah"
July 28th, 1945
World War II: A U.S. Army B-25 bomber crashes into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building killing 14 and injuring 26.
Wikipedia Photo: B-25 Empire State Building Collision"
July 28th, 1957
Earthquake:
1957 - Heavy rain and a mudslide in Isahaya, western Kyushu, Japan, kills 992.
1976 - Tangshan earthquake; measuring between 7.8 and 8.2 moment magnitude flattens Tangshan in the People's Republic of China, killing 242,769 and injuring 164,851.
Wikipedia Image: Preliminary Determination of Epicenters / Aleppo Syria; Anchorage, Alaska - March 28, 1964 Prince William Sound USA earthquake and tsunami; 8.9 Mega Earthquake Strikes Japan; Tsunami Swirls Japan's Ibaraki Prefecture March 12 2011. credit NOAA / NGDC, NOAA National Geophysical Data Center, USGS, National Geographics.
July 28th, 1965
Vietnam War:
1965 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces his order to increase the number of United States troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000.
Wikipedia Photo: Vietnam_War; Side view of an HH-53 helicopter of the 40th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron as seen from the gunner's position on an A-1 of the 21st Specialist Operations Squadron. (USAF Photo by Ken Hackman), Boston Globe;
Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, credit Free Republic;
Vietnam War: The Big Picture / Boston Globe.
July 28th, 1996
Kennewick Man: The remains of a prehistoric man are discovered near Kennewick, Washington. Such remains will be known as the Kennewick Man.
Wikipedia Photo: Kennewick Man, © Keith Kasnot 2004
July 28th, 2001
Australian Ian Thorpe becomes the first swimmer to win six gold medals at a single World Championships..
Wikipedia Photo: Ian Thorpe, © Donald Miralle, Getty Images
July 28th, 2005
The Provisional Irish Republican Army calls an end to its thirty year long armed campaign in Northern Ireland.
Wikipedia Photo: Irish Republican Army; Belfast, Northern Ireland.
July 28th, 2005
Tornadoes:
2005 - Tornadoes touch down in residential areas in south Birmingham and Coventry, England, causing £4,000,000 worth of damages and injuring 39 people.
Wikipedia Photo: Weather Front System; Tornado near Anadarko, Oklahoma; North Dakota Tornado; F3 Category Tornado Swirls Across A South Dakota Prairie by Carsten Peter; A waterspout parallels a lightning strike over Lake Okeechobee in Florida, by Fred K. Smith, National Geographics, Extream Instability.
July 28th, 2010
Aviation accidents and incidents:
2010 - Airblue Flight 202; crashes into the Margalla Hills north of Islamabad, Pakistan, killing all 152 people aboard. It is the deadliest aviation accident in Pakistan history and the first involving an Airbus A321.
Wikipedia Photo: ● Pan AM 747 ● U.S. Airways flight 1549 also known as the "Miracle on the Hudson" navigates an exit ramp near Burlington, New Jersey, June 5, 2011 ● Passengers stand on the wings of a U.S. Airways plane as a ferry pulls up to it after it landed in the Hudson River in New York, Reuters ● US Airways plane crashes into New York Hudson River, Photo: AP