On this day in history

December 28

27 births · 21 deaths · 5 events

Prev Capricorn Next

Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

337

Glorious Revolution

337 years ago

Born this day

1856

Woodrow Wilson

Died aged 67

Photo (modified): Harris & Ewing, photographer · Public domain

Oldest record

798th

Jochi

death anniversary

View profile

Famous births27

1856 · 169 yrs

Woodrow Wilson

Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924) was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only Democrat to serve as president during the Progressive Era, when Republicans dominated the presidency and legislative branches.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsDied aged 67

View profile Photo (modified): Harris & Ewing, photographer · Public domain

1864 · 161 yrs

Henri de Régnier

Henri-François-Joseph de Régnier (French pronunciation:; 28 December 1864 – 23 May 1936) was a French symbolist poet, considered one of the most important of France during the early 20th century.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 71

View profile Photo (modified): Agence de presse Meurisse · Public domain

1872 · 153 yrs

Pío Baroja

Pío Baroja y Nessi (28 December 1872 – 30 October 1956) was a Spanish writer, one of the key novelists of the Generation of '98. He was a member of an illustrious family.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 83

View profile Photo (modified): not stated · Public domain

1882 · 143 yrs

Lili Elbe

Lili Ilse Elvenes (28 December 1882 – 13 September 1931), better known as Lili Elbe, was a Danish painter, transgender woman, and one of the earliest recipients of sex reassignment surgery. Elbe was a painter under her male birth name.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtWould be 143

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · CC BY 4.0

1882 · 143 yrs

Arthur Eddington

Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington (28 December 1882 – 22 November 1944) was an English astrophysicist and mathematician. The Eddington limit, the natural limit to the luminosity of stars, or the radiation generated by accretion onto a compact object, is named in his honour.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 143

View profile Photo (modified): George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. · Public domain

1888 · 137 yrs

F. W. Murnau

Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (né Plumpe; 28 December 1888 – 11 March 1931) was a German film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is regarded as one of cinema's most influential filmmakers for his work in the silent era.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 137

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1903 · 122 yrs

John von Neumann

John von Neumann ( von NOY-mən; Hungarian: Neumann János Lajos; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian and American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist and engineer.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 122

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Attribution

1922 · 103 yrs

Stan Lee

Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber; December 28, 1922 – November 12, 2018) was an American comic book writer, editor, publisher, and producer. He rose through the ranks of a family-run business called Timely Comics, which later became Marvel Comics.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 103

View profile Photo (modified): US Embassy Tokyo · Public domain

1924 · 101 yrs

Girma Wolde-Giorgis

Girma Wolde-Giorgis (Amharic: ግርማ ወልደ ጊዮርጊስ; 28 December 1924 – 15 December 2018) was an Ethiopian politician who was the president of Ethiopia from 2001 to 2013. He was the second person to hold the office of president since the founding of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in 1995.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 101

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author Unknown author / Government of Ethopia · Public domain

1925 · 100 yrs

Milton Obote

Apollo Milton Obote (28 December 1925 – 10 October 2005) was a Ugandan politician who served as the Prime Minister of Uganda from 1962 to 1966 and the president of Uganda from 1966 to 1971 and later from 1980 to 1985. A Lango, Obote studied at the Busoga College and Makerere University.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 100

View profile Photo (modified): Warren K. Leffler · Public domain

1931 · 94 yrs

Guy Debord

Guy-Ernest Debord ( də-BOR; French:; 28 December 1931 – 30 November 1994) was a French Marxist theorist, philosopher, filmmaker, critic of work, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situationist International.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 94

View profile Photo (modified): thierry ehrmann · CC BY 2.0

1932 · 93 yrs

Dhirubhai Ambani

Dhirajlal Hirachand "Dhirubhai" Ambani (28 December 1932 – 6 July 2002) was an Indian businessman who founded Reliance Industries in 1958. Ambani took Reliance public in 1977.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

BusinessWould be 93

View profile Photo (modified): India Post, Government of India · GODL-India

Showing 12 of 27

Famous deaths21

1227 · 798 yrs

Jochi

Jochi (Mongolian: ᠵᠦᠴᠢ; c. 1182 – c. 1225), also spelled Jüchi, was a prince of the early Mongol Empire. His life was marked by controversy over the circumstances of his birth and culminated in his estrangement from his family.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryDied aged 45

View profile Photo (modified): Me · CC BY-SA 3.0

1622 · 403 yrs

Francis de Sales

Francis de Sales (French: François de Sales; Italian: Francesco di Sales; Arpitan: Francês de Sâles; 21 August 1567 – 28 December 1622) was a Catholic prelate from Savoy who served as Bishop of Geneva from 1602 to 1622.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ReligionDied aged 55

View profile Photo (modified): Benjamin Gavaudo · Public domain

1694 · 331 yrs

Mary II of England

Mary II (30 April 1662 – 28 December 1694) was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland with her husband, King William III and II, from 1689 until her death in 1694. She was also Princess of Orange following her marriage on 4 November 1677.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 32

View profile Photo (modified): Godfrey Kneller · Public domain

1703 · 322 yrs

Mustafa II

Mustafa II (Ottoman Turkish: مصطفى ثانى Muṣṭafā-yi sānī; 6 February 1664 – 29 December 1703) was the ruling sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1695 to 1703.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Notable PeopleDied aged 39

View profile Photo (modified): Bilinmiyor · Public domain

1706 · 319 yrs

Pierre Bayle

Pierre Bayle (French:; 18 November 1647 – 28 December 1706) was a French philosopher, author, and lexicographer. He is best known for his Historical and Critical Dictionary, whose publication began in 1697.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PhilosophyDied aged 59

View profile Photo (modified): Attributed to Louis Ferdinand Elle the Younger · Public domain

1925 · 100 yrs

Sergei Yesenin

Sergei Aleksandrovich Yesenin (3 October 2026 1895 – 28 December 1925) was a Russian lyric poet. He is one of the most popular and well-known Russian poets of the 20th century.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 131

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1937 · 88 yrs

Maurice Ravel

Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicDied aged 62

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author Unknown author The image holder, the Bibliothèque nationale de France has not identified a photographer. · Public domain

1945 · 80 yrs

Theodore Dreiser

Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 74

View profile Photo (modified): Carl Van Vechten · Public domain

1947 · 78 yrs

Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

Victor Emmanuel III (Italian: Vittorio Emanuele Ferdinando Maria Gennaro di Savoia; 11 November 1869 – 28 December 1947) was King of Italy from 29 July 1900 until his abdication on 9 May 1946.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 78

View profile Photo (modified): Mario Nunes Vais · Public domain

1959 · 66 yrs

Ante Pavelić

Ante Pavelić (Croatian:; 14 July 1889 – 28 December 1959) was a Croatian politician who founded and headed the Ustaše in 1929 and was dictator of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), a fascist puppet state built out of parts of occupied Yugoslavia by the authorities of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, from 1941 to…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryWould be 137

View profile Photo (modified): Willy Pragher · CC BY 3.0 de

1963 · 62 yrs

Paul Hindemith

Paul Hindemith ( POWL HIN-də-mit; German:; 16 November 1895 – 28 December 1963) was a German and American composer, music theorist, teacher, violist, and conductor. He founded the Amar Quartet in 1921, touring extensively in Europe.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicWould be 130

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · CC BY-SA 3.0

1986 · 39 yrs

Andrei Tarkovsky

Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky (Russian: Андрей Арсеньевич Тарковский, pronounced; 4 April 1932 – 29 December 1986) was a Soviet film director and screenwriter of Russian origin. He is widely considered one of the greatest directors in cinema history.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 94

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

Showing 12 of 21

Events5

1688 · 337 yrs

Glorious Revolution

The Glorious Revolution was the deposition of King James II in November 1688. He was replaced by his daughter Mary II and her Dutch husband, James's nephew William III of Orange.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1908 · 117 yrs

1908 Messina earthquake

A devastating earthquake occurred on 28 December 1908 in Sicily and Calabria, southern Italy, with a moment magnitude of 7.1 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). The epicentre was in the Strait of Messina which separates Sicily from the Italian mainland.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Disaster

2014 · 11 yrs

AirAsia Flight 8501

Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 was a scheduled international passenger flight operated by Indonesia AirAsia from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore. On 28 December 2014, the Airbus A320 flying the route crashed into the Java Sea, killing all 162 of the people on board.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Disaster

2017 · 8 yrs

2017–2018 Iranian protests

Public protests took place in several cities in Iran beginning on 28 December 2017 and continued into early 2018, sometimes called the Dey protests.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

2025 · 0 yrs

2025–2026 Iranian protests

The 2025–2026 Iranian protests were a series of nationwide demonstrations against the government of Iran that began on 28 December 2025 amid a deepening economic crisis.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

Nearby dates

Born on December 28? Find your birthday matches →

Share December 28

Living room with framed Who Shares My Birthday poster

Close-up

FrameShown to scale · framed 34 × 46 cmThis is the frame we'll deliver, with a white mount

Printable keepsake

Your birthday matches poster

A personalised A3 framed print of everyone famous born on December 28, what happened on your birthday in history and your zodiac sign. We print and frame it for you and deliver it to your door (UK only).

Name on poster

Your photo

Kept private and only used to make your poster.