On this day... May 28th
585 BC A solar eclipse occurs, as predicted by Thales, while Alyattes is battling Cyaxares in the Battle of the Eclipse, leading to a truce.
0640 Severinus begins his reign as Catholic Pope (elected in 638)
1156 Battle at Brindisi: King Willem of Sicily beats Byzantine fleet
1349 60 Jews murdered in Breslau Silesia
1521 Pope Leo X signs treaty with German emperor Charles V
1533 England's archbishop voids King Henry VIII & Anne Boleyn's marriage
1539 Hernando de Soto lands in Florida
1588 - The Spanish Armada, with 130 ships and 30,000 men, begins to set sail from Lisbon heading for the English Channel. (It will take until May 30 for all ships to leave port).
1664 1st Baptist Church is organized (Boston)
1674 German Parliament declares war on France
1731 All Hebrew books in Papal State are confiscated
1741 Spain & Bavaria sign treaty
1742 1st indoor swimming pool opens (Goodman's Fields, London)
1754 George Washington defeats French & Indians at Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh)
1774 1st Continental Congress convenes (Virginia)
1818 1st steam-vessel to sail Great Lakes launched
1830 Congress authorizes Indian removal from all states to western prairie
1845 Fire in Québec Canada, 1,500 houses destroyed
1851 Sojourner Truth attends Women's Rights Convention
1892 Sierra Club forms by John Muir in San Fransisco, for conservation of nature
1894 Belgium Princess Josephine marries Prince Karl von Hohenzollern
1900 Britain annexes Orange Free State (as Orange River Colony)
1900 Solar eclipse occurs
1901 Laws against phosphor matches enacted
1907 1st Auto-Cycle Union Tourist Trophy
1915 John B Gruelle patents Raggedy Ann doll
1919 Armenia declares it's independence
1923 Attorney General says it is legal for women to wear trousers anywhere
1923 US unemployment has nearly ended
1926 Military coup by General Manuel Gomes da Costa in Portugal
1926 US Customs Court created by congress
1927 Hammond scores his 1,000th cricket run of the season after 22 days
1930 - The Chrysler Building in New York City officially opens.
1937 Golden Gate Bridge in San Fransisco opens to vehicular traffic
1937 Neville Chamberlain becomes PM of England
1941 British army begins evacuation of Kreta
1953 Premier of 1st animated 3-D cartoon in Technicolor-"Melody"
1956 Eisenhower signs farm bill allows government to store agricultural surplus
1957 National League approves Brooklyn Dodgers' & New York Giants' move to west coast
1961 Amnesty International is founded (Nobel Peace Prize 1977)
1961 Last trip (Paris to Bucharest) on Orient Express (after 78 years)
1962 Wide World of Sports with Chris Schenkel premieres on CBS radio
1964 Unmanned Apollo 2 Saturn test launched into Earth orbit
1965 Fire & explosion at Dhori mine in Dhanbad India kills 400
1967 Francis Chichester arrives home at Plymouth from Round-the-world trip
1967 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR
1968 American League announces it is splitting into 2 divisions
1971 Paul McCartney releases his 2nd solo album "Ram"
1971 USSR Mars 3 launched, 1st spacecraft to soft land on Mars
1972 White House "plumbers" break into Democratic National HQ at Watergate
1973 Chicago White Sox beat Cleveland Indians, 6-3, in 21 innings (game started 5/26)
1974 26th Emmy Awards: MASH, Alan Alda & Mary Tyler Moore win
1974 Emmy 1st Daytime Award presentation
1977 165 killed in a fire at Beverly Hills Supper Club in Kentucky
1979 European Market accepts Greece as member
1980 Joe Darby does a standing long jump of 12'5"
1982 Leonard Maltin's 1st appearance on Entertainment Tonight
1982 Pope John Paul II is 1st pope to visit Great Britain
1983 "Ricky" by Weird Al Yankovic hits #63
1985 Discovery moves to Vandenberg Air Force Base for mating of STS 51-G
1986 Democratic Labor Party wins parliamentary election in Barbados
1986 White Sox Joe Cowley sets record striking out 1st 7 Rangers he faces
1987 60th National Spelling Bee: Stephanie Petit wins spelling staphylococci
1987 Monitor, Civil War warship, is discovered by a deep sea robot
1987 Paul Pearman jumps 21 barrels on a skateboard in Augusta
1987 Stacking of Discovery's SRBs completed
1988 Genie Francis (General Hospital) weds Jonathan Frakes (Star Trek TNG)
1989 Delta Burke (Designing Women) weds Gerald McRaney (Major Dad)
1990 Longest wheelie (David Robilliard with 5 hours 12 minutes 33 seconds (Channel Islands)
1991 Ethiopian rebels seize Addis Ababa
1995 Earthquake hits Russian town of Khabarovsk, killing 2,000 people
1997 Linda Finch completes Amelia Earhart attempted around-the-world flight
1999 In Milan, Italy, after 22 years of restoration work, Leonardo da Vinci's newly-restored masterpiece "The Last Supper" is put back on display.