What big events did the public read about in newspapers in 1928? By 1928, the United States was unknowingly coming to the end of a prosperous decade, with the world just a year away from the Great Depression. 10 years on from the end of the bloody First World War, nations were trying to keep relations as peaceful as possible, and came together to sign the Kellogg-Briand Pact, the agreement that outlawed starting wars.
In other events of the year, Charles Lindbergh was awarded the Medal of Honor after he became the first pilot to fly non-stop and alone across the Atlantic, and Disney’s Mickey Mouse made his cinematic debut in Steamboat Willie, one of the earliest cartoons with sound. You can explore genuine headlines from the time in from exploring our archive of 1928 newspapers.
1928 Timeline
Turn the page to:
- January
- February
- March
- April
- May
- June
- July
- August
- September
- October
- November
- December
- The Signing of the Kellogg-Briand Pact
- The First Appearance of Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie
January
January 1: In San Antonio, Texas, the first office building with air conditioning is opened.
January 1: In the Netherlands, the Algemeene Vereeniging Radio Omroep (AVRO) starts to broadcast.
January 1: In the British Protectorate of Sierra Leone, the abolition of domestic slavery comes into effect.
January 1: The personal secretary to Joseph Stalin, Boris Bazhanov, defects from the Soviet Union by crossing the border into Iran.
January 6: Encyclical Mortalium animos is published by Pope Pius XI, which is about religious unity and condemns some presumptions of the early ecumenical movement. Pope Pius XI also confirms that the Catholic Church is the unique church founded by Jesus.
January 6: In London, 14 people drown when the River Thames floods. The following day, the Tower of London moat, which was emptied in 1843 and replaced with planted grass, was refilled entirely by the river flooding.
January 7: American author of The Exorcist and scriptwriter, William Peter Blatty, is born in New York City.
January 9: In New York City, Marco Millions, a play by Eugene O’Neill, premieres.
January 10: Rosalie, the musical by composer and pianist George Gershwin, P. G. Wodehouse and Sigmund Romberg, has its premiere in New York.
January 12: Cock Robin, the play by Elmer Rice and Philip Barry, has its premiere in New York City.
January 13: In Schenectady, New York, three homes have television sets installed in them by RCA and GE, in order for E. F. W. Anderson, an American inventor, to provide a demonstration of the first television receiver at home. The result was an unsteady and poor 1.5 square inch picture on the screen.
January 17: To produce photographic film, the first automatic developing machine is created.
January 17: Leon Trotsky is ordered into exile by the Soviet Union. The OGPU arrests Trotsky in Moscow and after assuming a state of passive resistance, he is ordered to exile with his family.
January 17: British-American hair stylist and CEO of his self-titled company, Vidal Sassoon, is born in London.
January 25: Soviet Foreign Minister and President of Georgia, Eduard Shevardnadze, is born in Mamati, Georgia.
January 26: Anak Krakatau, the volcanic island, appears.
January 28: In Norway, Christopher Hornsrud is chosen as the Prime Minister of the country.
January 29: Douglas Haig, a World War One General and British field marshal in Sudan passes away after suffering a heart attack at the age of 66. Haig was nicknamed “Butcher Haig” as a result of the mass casualties committed under his command during the Battle of the Somme.
January 30: Between the United States and the Netherlands, the first radio telephone connection is set up.
January 30: In New York City, the play Strange Interlude, by Eugene O’Neill has its premiere.
January 30: In the Australian Championships Women’s Tennis, Esna Boyd is defeated by Daphne Akhurt who wins her third title.
January 30: In the Australian Championships Men’s Tennis, Australian player Jack Cummings is defeated by French player Jean Borota; Borota wins his first and only Australian title.
January 31: The 3-M Company first markets their Scotch tape.
Leon Trotsky
Image: Picryl
February
February 6: Arriving in New York City, a lady known as Anna Anderson using the name Anastasia Tschaikovsky claims to be the daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, Grand Duchess Anastasia.
February 7: Beginning in Croydon, England, the first solo flight to Australia is flown by Bert Hinkler, an Australian aviator. The flight would arrive in Australia 15 and a half days later.
February 8: In Hartsdale, New York, the first TV image is received transatlantically. John Logie Baird, a Scottish inventor, broadcasts the signal from London.
February 11: In St. Moritz, Switzerland, the II Winter Olympic Games are opened.
February 13: At the St. Moritz Olympic Games, Finnish athlete Clas Thunberg wins an Olympic gold medal after dead-heating with Bernt Evenson from Norway while competing at 500m speed skating.
February 15: British Liberal Prime Minister from 1908 to 1916, H. H. Asquith, passes away at the age of 75.
February 18: The women’s figure skating gold medal is won by Norwegian athlete Sonja Henie, which forms the first of her three consecutive titles at the St. Moritz Olympic Games.
February 18: In the five-man bobsleigh competition, the second US teams beats the first by 0.5 seconds, winning them the gold medal at the St. Moritz Olympic Games.
February 18: The Nordic combined gold is won by Norwegian athlete Johan Grøttumsbråten, after also winning the 18k cross country gold medal the day before.
February 19: The St. Moritz Winter Olympic Games come to an end.
February 20: A hung parliament is produced after the Japanese general election.
February 25: In Washington D.C., Charles Jenkins Laboratories becomes the first to acquire a television license from the Federal Radio Commission.
February 26: American rhythm and blues singer of the early rock and roll era, Antoine “Fats” Domino, is born in New Orleans, Louisiana.
March
March 1: Ol’ Man River, the song by Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra, is recorded for Victor Records and features Bing Crosby.
March 4: From Los Angeles to New York City, the Bunion Race begins, with Andy Payne eventually emerging victorious.
March 5: The play by Karl Zuckmayer, Der Hauptmann von Köpenick, has its premiere in Berlin.
March 10: In Los Angeles, Walter Collins, the son of Christine Collins, goes missing. Walter Collins was just nine years old and it was later discovered that he had been killed in the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders.
March 10: In Alton, Illinois, American assassin of Martin Luther King Jr., James Earl Ray, is born.
March 12: The St. Francis Dam in California falls, resulting in the deaths of more than 600 people.
March 13: The musical by Rudolph Frimi, Three Musketeers, has its premiere in New York City.
March 15: Italian dictator Benito Mussolini abolishes the right to choose by modifying the Italian electoral system.
March 15: In Japan, the government arrests more than 1000 people as they crack down on communists and socialists.
March 15: In China, warlord Shi Yousan destroys ancient structures and artifacts when he sets fire to the Shaolin Monastery in Henan.
March 19: On radio, Amos and Andy debuts on the NBC Blue Network – WMAQ Chicago.
March 20: American children’s TV host, Fred Rogers, is born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Rogers hosted the popular TV series called Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.
March 21: For his successful transatlantic flight from New York to Paris the previous year, aviator Charles Lindbergh is awarded the Medal of Honor.
March 22: The Year of Grace, the musical by Noël Coward, has its premiere in London.
March 24: When the old Canaanite city of Ugarit is discovered accidentally, excavation work begins.
March 31: In Floral, Saskatchewan, Canadian Hockey Hall of Fame player, Gordie Howe, is born.
April
April 1: The army of Chinese military and political leader Chiang Kai-shek crosses the Yang-tse river.
April 3: In Alexandria, Virginia, Earl Lloyd is born. Lloyd will later become the first African American basketball player in the NBA.
April 4: Actress, author, poet and activist Maya Angelou, author of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, is born in St. Louis, Missouri.
April 6: In Chicago, Illinois, American molecular biologist, James Watson, is born. Watson would also become a zoologist and geneticist, and would later co-discover DNA structure.
April 7: In a Stanley Cup hockey game against the Montreal Maroons, the 44-year-old general manager of the New York Rangers, Lester Patrick, goes onto the rink to replace the injured goaltender.
April 9: The okay Lazarus Laughed by playwright Eugene O’Neill has its premiere in Pasadena, California.
April 9: Actress Mae West has her New York City debut in Diamond Lil, a daring new play.
April 9: In Oss, the Top-Oss football team is established.
April 9: In Turkey, the separation of church and state is passed.
April 10: In Chicago, Illinois, violence, bombings and assassination attempts break out before the Republican Party primary elections. Two politicians, Octavius C. Granady and Gisueppe Esposito, lose their lives.
April 11: In Chicago, Illinois, American human rights campaigner and wife of Bobby Kennedy, Ethel Kennedy, is born.
April 12: 17 people are killed when a bomb attack occurs in Milan, intending to kill the Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini.
April 12: From Europe to Canada, the first transatlantic flight takes place, with the plane flown by Ehrenfried Günther Freiherr von Hünefeld, James Fitzmaurice and Hermann Köhl. They fly from Dublin, Ireland to Greenly, Canada, landing on April 14.
April 14: Between San Francisco and Los Angeles, the first regular passenger flights are started by Maddus Airlines.
April 14: In hockey, the Stanley Cup final takes place, with the New York Rangers winning the tournament after just their second season in the NHL. They defeated the Montreal Maroons 2-1, for a 3-2 series win.
April 14: In Chirpan, Bulgaria, an earthquake hits the area, which is followed by another earthquake in Plovdiv four days later. More than 130 people lose their lives and more than 21,000 buildings are destroyed by the two earthquakes.
April 15: In San Francisco, Alioto’s forms on Fisherman’s Wharf.
April 16: The Boston Marathon takes place, with Clarence DeMar winning with a time of 2:37:08:8.
April 19: Shantung-schiereiland is occupied by Japanese troops.
April 19: The final, and 125th, fascicle of the Oxford English Dictionary is published after the last section is added, which included “wise – wyze.”
April 21: In Denmark, Carl Theodor Dreyer’s movie The Passion of Joan of Arc, starring Eugène Silvain and Renée Jeanne Falconetti, is released.
April 22: 20 people lose their lives and 3,000 homes are destroyed in Corinth when an earthquake hits southern Greece.
April 23: American actress, diplomat and child star of the 1930s, Shirley Temple, is born in Santa Monica, California.
April 24: Designed to measure depths underwater, the fathometer is first patented.
April 25: A German Shepherd named Buddy becomes the first guide dog when he is assigned to Morris Frank, a United States citizen.
April 26: Following a fire, Madame Tussauds exhibition of waxworks is reopened in London.
April 28: In southern-central Pennsylvania, 28 inches of snow fall.
Popular 1930s child star Shirley Temple was born this year in April.
Image: Flickr
May
May 1: In Klausenburg, Romania, six children lose their lives and ten more are injured when hailstones hit the area.
May 1: The VARA radio transmitter is attacked by Erich Wichman, a drunken fascist.
May 1: In Hawaii, Lei Day celebrations begin.
May 1: In Rotterdam, the football club Black White ‘28 is established. The club would eventually declare bankruptcy in 2004.
May 1: The Flying Scotsman, the London and North Eastern Railways’ steam express train begins its non-stop journey on the East Coast Main Line, traveling 393 miles from London to Edinburgh.
May 2: In Wenatchee, Washington, the KPQ-AM station begins radio transmissions.
May 3: In Jinan, China, an armed conflict breaks out between the Kuomintang southern army and the Imperial Japanese Army, known as the Jinan incident.
May 4: In Spartanburg, South Carolina, American golfer Betsy Rawls is born.
May 4: In Kafr-El Meselha, Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian president between the years of 1981 and 1911 and ousted man during the Arab spring, is born.
May 5: For First Division champions Everton, English footballer William Ralph “Dixie” Dean finishes the season with 60 goals, a new Football League record
May 7: In the UK, and in one of the most famous 1928 events, the age that women are allowed to vote is lowered from 30 to 21, taking effect from July 2.
May 7: Writer and playwright Thornton Wilder is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Bridge of San Luis Rey.
May 11: In golf, the British Men’s Open takes place, with Walter Hagen winning his third Open title out of four after being ahead of American golfer Gene Sarazen by two strokes.
May 12: In a speech to the Italian Senate, dictator and fascist Benito Mussolini announces plans to end women’s suffrage.
May 12: In order to control drugs, the international law called Second Opium Law is introduced.
May 14: After being knocked down by a taxi cab, baseball player John McGraw suffers a broken leg.
May 15: In the silent film Plane Crazy, Mickey Mouse makes his first ever appearance. The film was released in Los Angeles by Disney studios, but was a non-distributed film.
May 15: In Australia, the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia begins operating.
May 16: In Berkeley, California, baseball star and manager Billy Martin is born. Martin would go on to be a second baseman, playing for the New York Yankees and managing the team in 1977.
May 19: In New York City, American basketball Hall of Fame player Dolph Schayes is born. Schayes would go on to play for the Syracuse Nationals and the Philadelphia 76ers, and later coach the 76ers and Buffalo Braves.
May 22: The Jones-White Merchant Naval Act is accepted by the United States Congress.
May 22: In Holdenville, Oklahoma, American businessman and oil tycoon Boone Pickens is born.
May 23: In Buenos Aires, a bomb hits the Italian embassy, resulting in the deaths of 22 people and injuring 43 others.
May 24: In baseball, a record twelve future Hall of Fame players take to the field for the New York Yankees, defeating the now Oakland Athletics 9-7.
May 24: At the North Pole, the airship Italia crashes, with a rescue expedition setting off on May 30. One of the passengers on-board is Umberto Nobile, Italian general.
May 26: In Pontiac, Michigan, American right-to-die activist and pathologist Jack Kevorkian is born.
May 28: The Chrysler Corporations the Dodge Brothers Inc. merge.
May 29: In an experimental rocket car, Fritz von Opel reaches speeds of 200kph.
May 30: At the Indianapolis 500, Louis Meyer wins his first race. He will go on to win another two times, in 1933 and in 1936.
May 31: In cricket, English player Charlie Hallows scores his 1000th run of the season.
May 31: Based on the Van Riebeeck flag or Prinsenvlag (originally the Dutch flag), South Africa flies a new national flag, replacing the Red Ensign.
June
June 2: Velveeta cheese is rolled out by Kraft, which builds on the design of 1918.
June 2: American civil rights leader, orator, publisher and writer, Timothy Thomas Fortune, passes away at the age of 71.
June 4: In China, Zhang Zuolin, the President of the Republic of China, is assassinated by Japanese agents.
June 4: In the French Championships Men’s Tennis, René Lacoste is defeated by Henri Cochet, with Cochet winning the second of his four home titles.
June 4: In the French Championships Women’s Tennis, English player Eileen Bennett is defeated by Helen Wills, winning Wills the first of her four singles titles.
June 8: In Australia, the first flight from the United States to the country lands safely in Brisbane. The plane is piloted by Charles Kingsford-Smith and Charles Ulm, making them the first pilots to fly across the Pacific.
June 9: Case of Jonathan Drew, the film by Alfred Hitchcock, is released.
June 12: In baseball, first baseman for the New York Yankees, Lou Gehrig, manages to collect 14 bases and two home runs in the Yankees win against the Chicago White Sox, 15-7.
June 13: In Bluefield, West Virginia, American mathematician and Nobel laureate John Nash is born.
June 14: At the Republican National Convention in Kansas City, Herbert Hoover is nominated for the presidency.
June 14: In Rosario, Argentina, revolutionary during the Cuban Revolution, author and physician Ernesto “Che” Guevara is born.
June 14: British suffragette and founder of the Women’s Social and Political Union in 1903, Emmeline Pankhurst, passes away at the age of 69.
June 15: In baseball, Ty Cobb, MLB player for the Philadelphia Athletics (now the Oakland Athletics), manages to steal home for the 54th time, reaching a new record.
June 17: Aviator Amelia Earhart becomes the first female passenger to fly across the Atlantic. She flew alongside pilot Wilmer Stultz, setting off from Newfoundland and landing in Burry Port, Wales the following day.
June 18: Norwegian explorer of the poles Roald Amundsen passes away at the age of 55 after a plane crash on a rescue mission in the Arctic. Amundsen was responsible for the first expedition to the South Pole.
June 24: In the US Open Men’s Golf, amateur player Bobby Jones is defeated by just one stroke by Johnny Farrell, who claims his one major title after their 36-hole playoff.
June 24: In Canada, the Great Gorge and International Railway use one-person crews on trolley operations due to business declining.
June 25: Baseball player Fred Lindstrom ties the record of 9 hits in a doubleheader for the New York Giants.
June 26: In Lake Leman, Switzerland, Le Corbusier, an architect and city planner, organizes the first meeting of the International Congresses of Modern Architects, known as CIAM.
June 28: At the Democratic Convention, New York governor Alfred E. Smith is nominated for President of the United States.
June 28: 78 recordings are made of West End Blues by Louis Armstrong.
June 29: In Staten Island, New York, the Outerbridge Crossing and Goethals Bridge are opened.
June 30: To conform with international standards, radio stations call signs to be changed are listed by the Radio Service Bulletin.
American tennis player Helen Wills, who would win the first of her four singles titles in June 1928
Image: Wikimedia Commons
July
July 2: The first television broadcasting station in the United States goes on air when the Jenkins Television Corporation and W3XK are live.
July 3: The first color television is demonstrated in London by inventor John Logie Baird.
July 6: In New York City, the first all-talking motion picture is shown.
July 6: In Potter, Nebraska, the largest recorded hailstone at the time falls, with a weight of 1.5 pounds and 7 inches in diameter.
July 6: In Wimbledon Men’s Tennis, René Lacoste defeats fellow French player Henri Cochet in an all-French final.
July 6: In Wimbledon Women’s Tennis, Lilí Álvarez is defeated by Helen Moody, winning Moody her second of four consecutive Wimbledon singles titles.
July 7: In Cambridge, Massachusetts, the long-jump world record is set by American athlete Edward Hamm at 25 inches 11 feet.
July 7: In Missouri, sliced bread is sold for the first time at Chillicothe Baking Company, after Otto Frederick Rohwedder invents the machine. The selling of sliced bread is considered the biggest step forward in the baking industry since bread was sold wrapped.
July 12: The first ever tennis match is televised.
July 15: In the 22nd Tour de France, Luxembourg rider Nicolas Franz holds the yellow jersey from beginning to end, making him a defending champion. All three podium positions are taken by his Alcyon team.
July 19: In Egypt, Kind Faud disbands parliament after seizing power.
July 20: In Hungary, Gypsies are ordered to bring their nomadic ways to an end by a decree issued by the government. They are told to settle in one place and subject themselves to the same taxes and laws as other Hungarian citizens.
July 27: In English cricket, Tich Freeman becomes the only bowler to take 200 first-class wickets before the end of July.
July 28: In Amsterdam, Netherlands, the IX Summer Olympic Games open.
July 29: Walt Disney creates the test footage for Steamboat Willie, featuring Mickey Mouse.
July 30: The first amateur color motion picture is demonstrated by George Eastman at his house in New York. Among the attendees is inventor Thomas Edison.
August
August 1: In baseball, New York Yankees slugger Babe Ruth hits his 42nd home run in a game against the St. Louis Browns, with the Yankees winning the game 12-1. This takes Ruth 4 weeks ahead of his pace in 1927.
August 2: A peace treaty is signed between Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, known as the Italo-Ethiopian Treaty.
August 6: In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, American pop artist and film producer Andy Warhol is born.
August 9: In Manhattan, New York City, Bob Cousy, Basketball Hall of Fame player, is born.
August 11: In baseball, Carl Hubbell, future Baseball Hall of Fame player for the New York Giants, registers his first victory in his MLB career. The team win a 4-0 shutout of the Philadelphia Phillies in New York City.
August 14: Front Page, the Broadway comedy play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, premieres in New York City.
August 16: In Washington D.C., and in one of the most shocking 1928 events, Carl Panzram, American serial killer, is arrested for burglary. Allegedly, he stated in his confession: “In my lifetime I have murdered 21 human beings, I have committed thousands of burglaries, robberies, larcenies, arsons and, last but not least, I have committed sodomy on more than 1,000 male human beings. For all these things I am not in the least bit sorry.”
August 22: After being voted for Democratic candidate for President, Al Smith accepts his nomination. The event was broadcast on radio and television by WGY/W2XB.
August 26: In Scotland, the remains of a snail are found in Mary Donoghue’s ginger beer, which leads to the landmark case of negligence Donoghue v. Stevenson.
August 27: The second worst accident on the New York City subway occurs, resulting in the deaths of 16 people.
August 27: With much of the world still recovering from the First World War ten years on, 60 nations come together to sign the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which condemns ‘recourse to war for the solution of international controversies’. The treaty is the first to outlaw aggressive war.
August 29: In Honduras, C. D. Motagua is founded as an association football club.
August 30: The first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, requests that India becomes an independent country.
August 31: At the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin, Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s play The Threepenny Opera opens.
September
September 1: It is declared by the President of the Albanian Republic, Ahmet Zogu, that the country is to become a constitutional monarchy. He makes himself king and is known as King Zog I.
September 3: In baseball, future Hall of Fame player Ty Cobb hits his 4189th and final career hit as a pinch hitter for the Philadelphia Athletics (now Oakland Athletics). The team end up losing 6-1 against the Washington Senators.
September 3: In San Francisco, the first working and all-electronic television system is demonstrated to the press by Philo Farnsworth. The system has electronic scanning in the pickup and display devices.
September 3: While studying influenza, and by accident, biologist and bacteriologist Alexander Fleming from Scotland discovers the penicillin antibiotic.
September 6: The Soviet Union joins in the signing of the Kellogg-Briand Pact.
September 7: Machinal, the play by Sophie Treadwell, has its premiere in New York City.
September 9: The long jump record of the time is set by Silvio Cator from Haiti, who sets the record at 26 feet and half an inch.
September 11: Starring Izetta Jewell, the area of New York sees its very first TV drama broadcast when The Queen’s Messenger hits screens.
September 11: In baseball, and in a significant 1928 event in sport, star player Ty Cobb makes his last hitting appearance in a game against the New York Yankees.
September 12: In Florida, the state is hit by a hurricane that lasts until September 17 and results in the deaths of around 6,000 people.
September 12: In Guadeloupe, 1,200 people lose their lives when the Okeechobee hurricane hits the area.
September 15: In English cricket, player Tich Freeman sets the record for the highest number of wickets taken in a season.
September 17: Night Hostess is performed on stage in New York City, and is the stage debut for actress Katherine Hepburn.
September 13: In Reno, Nevada, radio transmissions are begun by KOH-AM.
September 15: In Geneva, Switzerland, 400kg of forged postage stamps are burned.
September 15: In baseball, the St. Louis Cardinals set a National League record when 18 men are left on base in a 8-6 game against the Philadelphia Phillies.
September 17: In the US National Championship Men’s Tennis, Henri Cochet, French player, defeats American player Frank Hunter to win his only US title.
September 18: In baseball, the St. Louis Cardinals defeat the Philadelphia Phillies for the 20th out of a total 22 games in the 1928 season.
September 18: Above the English Channel and from London to Paris, Juan de la Cierva becomes the first to fly a helicopter, along with a passenger.
September 21: The magazine My Weekly Reader makes its debut.
September 24: In New York City, Elmer the Great, the musical by Cohan and Lardner, has its premiere.
September 25: The Galvin Manufacturing Corporation is established by Paul and Joseph Galvin, later becoming Motorola and Freescale.
September 27: The United States formally recognizes the Nationalist Republic of China with Chiang Kai-Shek as leader.
September 28: In Prussia, a speech by Adolf Hitler is forbidden.
September 28: In the UK, the Dangerous Drugs Act is passed, which outlaws cannabis.
September 29: In baseball, the National League pennant is won by the St. Louis Cardinals, after they win 3-1 in Boston.
September 30: The first precursor of Tintin (Kuifje), the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé, is published by Le Sifflet.
September 30: In Sighet, Romania, Jewish survivor of Auschwitz, author and Nobel Prize winner in 1986, Elie Wiesel, is born.
Alexander Fleming, the biologist who accidentally discovered penicillin in September 1928.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
October
October 1: In Berlin, Germany, Paavo Nurmi, a long-distance runner from Finland, sets the world record for the 15k with a time of 46:49.6.
October 1: The first Five-Year Plan is launched by the Soviet Union.
October 2: Saint Josemaría Escrivá establishes the Prelature of the Holy Cross and the Work of God, known as the Prelature of Opus Dei. The organization is an institution within the Catholic Church, teaching that ordinary life is a path to sanctity and that everyone is called to holiness.
October 2: In Sweden, Arvid Lindman returns as the Prime Minister, alongside his right-wing rival as the Foreign Minister.
October 3: On a journey back to Toulon, a French submarine called the Ondine sinks, resulting in the deaths of 42 people by drowning.
October 4: At the Yankee Stadium in New York City, the 25th Baseball World Series starts. The St. Louis Cardinals are defeated by the Bronx Bombers, sweeping the series for the second year in a row.
October 4: Against Germany building a battle fleet, the KPD (Communist Party of Germany) start a petition.
October 6: In the PGA Championship Men’s Golf, Al Esponisa is defeated by Leo Diegel for the first of his two consecutive titles.
October 6: Josip Broz, revolutionary and later President of Yugoslavia known as Tito, is sentenced to five years in jail.
October 7: The 10-mile world record for running is set by Finnish athlete Paavo Nurmi with a time of 50:15:0.
October 7: In Abyssinia, Race Tafari Makonnen is crowned king.
October 8: Paris, the musical by Cole Porter and E. Ray Goetz begins performances in New York City at the Music Box Theatre. In total, the musical would perform 195 times.
October 8: The play Topaz by French playwright Marcel Pagnol has its premiere in Paris.
October 9: In the 25th Baseball World Series, the New York Yankees are the first team to sweep a consecutive World Series when playing against the St. Louis Cardinals. During the game, Yankees slugger Babe Ruth hits three home runs.
October 10: In China, the role of Director of the State Council of China is assumed by Chiang Kai-shek.
October 10: In the UK, the Tyne Bridge, which connects Gateshead and Newcastle Upon Tyne, is opened.
October 12: At Boston Children’s Hospital, the first use of an iron lung respirator takes place.
October 15: To manage the Washington Senators, a three-year contract is signed by Walter Johnson.
October 20: Wien Alaska Airways Inc. is incorporated with Noel Wien as President. It’s the first airline in Alaska and one of the first in the United States.
October 21: American baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Whitey Ford, who becomes a star player for the New York Yankees, is born in New York City.
October 22: All Russian civil servants and instructors are expelled from China.
October 22: In the United States, Herbert Hoover speaks of the “American system of rugged individualism,” with the idea later setting the tone for the government’s initial beliefs during the early Great Depression, as well as the American isolationist approach at the beginning of the Second World War.
October 22: At the University of Puerto Rico at the Rio Piedras Campus, the fraternity Phi Sigma Alpha is established.
October 25: The ICRM, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, is founded.
October 28: In Bahasa, Indonesia, Indonesian child laws are enforced.
October 28: Lala Lajpat Rai, an Indian freedom fighter, is leading a silent protest when he is injured. The protest was against the visiting British commission in Lahore, and Rai would later die of his injuries on November 17.
October 28: In New York City, big band trombonist and composer Glenn Miller marries Helen Burger.
October 28: In Batavia, Dutch East Indies, young Indonesian nationalists hold the Second Youth Congress. The outcome is the creation of the Youth Pledge, with the Indonesian national anthem introduced at the meeting.
November
November 1: Author’s Day is celebrated for the first time.
November 3: In Turkey, the nation changes from the Arabic to the Roman alphabet.
November 2: In Brisbane, Don Bradman, an Australian cricket batter, manages to score 133 not out for New South Wales during the 2nd innings against Queensland.
November 1: The German aircraft carrier, the Graf Zeppelin, sets the record for airship distance at 6834km.
November 3: In Turkey, the nation changes from the Arabic to the Latin-based, modern Turkish alphabet.
November 2: In Philadelphia, the premiere for composer Dmitri Shostakovich’s 1st Symphony takes place.
November 4: In Nicaragua, José María Moncada is elected as President.
November 4: At a business meeting, American gangster Arnold Rothstein refuses on multiple occasions to pay the gambling debts he owes, and is shot. He would die two days later from his injuries.
November 6: Using city bonds, the citizens of Cleveland vote to build a stadium.
November 6: In the United States, the candidate for the Republican party Herbert Hoover is elected to be the next President of the United States. He defeats the Democratic candidate Al Smith for the position by a wide margin.
November 6: The first electric razor is patented by Colonel Jacob Schick.
November 6: A tradition is started in Sweden in which they eat Gustavas Adolphus pastries in order to commemorate their king.
November 8: The musical Treasure Girl, by George and Ira Gershwin, has its premiere in New York City.
November 9: In the UK, the novel The Well of Loneliness, published in London in July and written by Radclyffe Hall, is tried from this day until 16 November. The novel is convicted for obscenity due to its inclusion of lesbian love themes after a campaign is begun in the Sunday Express newspaper by James Douglas.
November 10: Two years after Hirochito claimed the Imperial throne in Japan, his enthronement ceremony takes place. He achieved the throne on December 26, 1926, after Emperor Taishō passed away.
November 10: At the start of the ilm White Shadows in the South Seas, the MGM lion roars for the first time.
November 11: Under Raymond Poincaré, the fifth government of France is established.
November 11: A number of radio stations in the United States, including WOL-AM in Washington, D.C. and KXO-AM in El Centro, California, begin transmissions.
November 12: 110 people lose their lives when Vestris, the British steamer, capsizes and sinks around 200 miles off the coast of Hampton Roads, Virginia.
November 12: In the UK, Randall Davidson retires, making him the first Archbishop of Canterbury to do so. He served for twenty-five years and held the position for the longest time since the Reformation. Three days after he retires, he is created 1st Baron Davidson of Lambeth.
November 15: In the UK, 17 crew members lose their lives in Rye Harbor when the life-boat Mary Stanford capsizes.
November 17: In Boston, Massachusetts, Boston Garden is opened.
November 17: In American football, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish lose their first game at home in 23 years.
November 17: In Australia, the Labor Party, led by James Scullin, is defeated by the Nationalist/Country Coalition Government of Stanley Bruce in the federal election.
November 18: Steamboat Willie, the first Mickey Mouse cartoon featuring sound, is released by Walt Disney.
November 20: At the newly-opened Boston Gardens, the Boston Bruins hockey team are defeated by the Montreal Canadiens, 1-0.
November 22: Maurice Ravel’s composition Bolero, a one-movement ballet, is performed at the Paris Opéra, marking its first public performance.
November 22: After the Currency and Banknotes Act was passed on July 2, the responsibility for issuing banknotes from HM Treasury is assumed by the Bank of England. Pound notes, and for the first time, ten shilling notes, are issued. These notes are the first to be issued in color and on both sides.
November 26: In New York City, the play by Philip Barry, Holiday, has its premiere.
November 26: At the age of 65, German admiral and High Seas Fleet commander during the First World War, Reinhard Scheer, passes away.
November 30: Russian-American inventor Vladimir Z. Zworykin receives the patent on the Iconoscope TV system.
A still from the short cartoon Steamboat Willie featuring Mickey Mouse.
Image: Flickr
December
December 1: In Utrecht, Netherlands, the railroad museum opens.
December 1: The President of the National League in baseball, John Heydler, is the first to propose a rule change in the game. He calls for a 10th man or a designated hitter to bat in the place of the pitcher. While the National League votes in favor, the demand is turned down by the American League.
December 3: All people on board lose their lives when a seaplane in Rio de Janeiro crashes near Cap Arcona. The plane was sent to greet Alberto Santos-Dumont, a Brazilian inventor, and the pilot was trying to avoid another plane which was flying too close.
December 4: In New York City, the musical Whoopee! By Walter Donaldson and Gus Kahn has its premiere at the New Amsterdam Theatre in New York City.
December 4: In the UK, and as the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Cosmo Long is enthroned.
December 5: In cricket, Australia are defeated by England in Brisbane by a record 675 runs.
December 5: In Austria, Wilhelm Miklas is elected President.
December 6: In order to suppress a month-long strike by United Fruit Company workers, military forces are sent by the Columbian government. An unknown number of deaths occur as a result.
December 7: In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, American linguist, philosopher and political activist, Noam Chomsky, is born.
December 12: The play Wings over Europe, by Robert Nichols and Maurice Brown, has its premiere in New York City.
December 13: The clip-on tie is first designed.
December 13: An American in Paris, the jazz-influenced orchestral piece by George Gershwin, has its premiere at Carnegie Hall, New York City.
December 19: In the United States, the first autogyro flight takes place.
December 20: Leaving Minot, Maine, the first international dogsled mail departs, heading for Montreal, Quebec.
December 20: At 243 W 47th St, New York City, the Ethel Barrymore Theatre opens.
December 20: In Yorkshire, the first Harry Ramsden’s fish and chip shop opens.
December 21: The construction of the Boulder Dam, later known as the Hoover Dam, is approved by the United States Congress.
December 23: A permanent, coast-to-coast radio station is established by NBC.
December 24: From King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, the first Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is to be broadcast by BBC Radio.
December 26: Actor and swimmer Johnny Weissmuller announces that he is retiring from amateur swimming.
December 28: Ma Rainey, the “Mother of the Blues,” is recorded for the last time.
The Signing of the Kellogg-Briand Pact
1928 was a significant year for international relations, and in August, the Kellogg-Briand Pact would be signed, marking one of the most significant events in this 1928 history timeline. The pact is sometimes referred to as the Pact of Paris, in reference to the city in which it was signed. It was one of many attempts to keep relations as peaceful as possible, as to avoid another war like the First World War, which many nations were still recovering from.
The pact was received well by the public all across the world, since the severe losses caused by World War One were still fresh in people’s minds. The pact emphasized the fact that wars of aggression would be outlawed, not self-defense, which meant many nations were keen to sign it. The pact’s sole purpose was to prevent unnecessary conflict and maintain peace, letting nations fully move on from the world war and hopefully create a more harmonious future. Eventually, the pact would be signed by most of the well-established countries of the world, beginning with fifteen nations at Paris, including the United Kingdom, the United States, France and Germany.
Unfortunately, the pact would have little impact in preventing militarism from rising in 1930s, which would eventually lead to the Second World War. The pact did have some successes, but since its main goal was to keep peace, the pact was not able to prevent the start of the war. The pact did blur the lines between war and peace, with countries “invading” other countries during the 1930s, not “starting a war,” for example with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.
The First Appearance of Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie
November 18, 1928, was the date that Mickey Mouse made his first appearance for Disney on the big screen. Steamboat Willie is remembered as the debut of Mickey Mouse, despite the cartoon appearing in two other short films before Steamboat Willie. However, both of these films, Plane Crazy and The Gallopin’ Gaucho, were silent and undistributed.
When the first sound film The Jazz Singer was shown in the cinemas in 1927, Walt Disney was inspired to create a Mickey Mouse cartoon with sound to bring his beloved character to audiences. Steamboat Willie marks the beginning of childhood generations that have fond, early memories of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, as well as other popular Disney characters that would appear in the years to come. It could therefore be said that 1929 was the year that the magic of Disney really began.