HISTORY & TIMELINE
28 December

A journey through
28 December in history

28 December is a day of beginnings: the first paying cinema audience in Paris, the first paper on X-rays, the first sighting of Neptune by a man who never knew what he had seen. This timeline follows the date from a Norman-era abbey to Central Asia at the end of the twentieth century.

JUMP THROUGH TIME
II
THE MIDDLE AGES

Medieval History

Kingdoms, conflict, faith, power and the changing medieval world.

1065
The Bayeux Tapestry shows Edward the Confessor's body being carried to his new church of St Peter at Westminster, January 1066.The Bayeux Tapestry shows Edward the Confessor’s body being carried to his new church of St Peter at Westminster, January 1066.Image: Image on web site of Ulrich Harsh. · Public domain
culture · Europe

Westminster Abbey is consecrated

Edward the Confessor had rebuilt the Benedictine abbey of St Peter at Westminster on a grand scale, in the new Romanesque style from Normandy, next to his palace by the Thames. It was consecrated on Holy Innocents’ Day, 28 December 1065, but the king was too ill to attend. He died a few days later and was buried before the high altar. William the Conqueror was crowned there a year later, and every crowned English and British monarch since has been crowned in the abbey, which was rebuilt again in Gothic style from 1245.

Source: Westminster Abbey: Edward the Confessor and Edith ↗
III
A CHANGING WORLD

Early Modern Era

Exploration, political change, scientific development and expanding global connections.

1612
Galileo Galilei, in a portrait at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.Galileo Galilei, in a portrait at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.Image: Justus Sustermans · Public domain
science · Europe

Galileo sees Neptune without knowing it

On 28 December 1612, while following the moons of Jupiter with his telescope, Galileo drew a faint ‘star’ close to the planet in his notebook. In January 1613 he noted that it seemed to have moved, but he never followed it up. It was Neptune, which would not be recognised as a planet for another 234 years, when Johann Galle found it in 1846 from the predictions of Urbain Le Verrier.

Source: NASA Science: Neptune exploration ↗
IV
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

The 1800s

Industry, empire, invention, reform and a century of enormous transformation.

1832
John C. Calhoun, painted by George Peter Alexander Healy, about 1845.John C. Calhoun, painted by George Peter Alexander Healy, about 1845.Image: George Peter Alexander Healy · Public domain
politics · Americas

John C. Calhoun resigns as vice-president

On 28 December 1832 John C. Calhoun of South Carolina resigned as vice-president of the United States, the first to do so, to take a seat in the Senate. He had fallen out with President Andrew Jackson, and his state was defying federal tariffs in the Nullification Crisis; from the Senate he became the leading defender of states’ rights and of slavery.

Source: United States Senate: John C. Calhoun, 7th Vice President ↗
1836
Visitors at the Old Gum Tree, Glenelg, where the proclamation was read, about 1955.Visitors at the Old Gum Tree, Glenelg, where the proclamation was read, about 1955.Image: State Government Photographer · CC0
politics · Oceania

South Australia’s government is proclaimed

On 28 December 1836 Governor John Hindmarsh landed at Holdfast Bay, and that afternoon settlers gathered under a large gum tree at what is now Glenelg to hear his secretary read the first proclamation. The flag was raised and the new government of the province of South Australia began its work; Adelaide was laid out the next year. The proclamation called on the colonists to prove themselves worthy founders of a great free colony, and promised that the Aboriginal people would have the same protection of the law as British subjects. It is still marked each year on Proclamation Day at the Old Gum Tree.

Source: History Trust of South Australia, SA History Hub: the Proclamation ↗
1846
A 29-star American flag of about 1846, with a large central star for Iowa.A 29-star American flag of about 1846, with a large central star for Iowa.Image: Tablelegs6 · CC0
politics · Americas

Iowa becomes the 29th state

President James K. Polk signed the act admitting Iowa to the Union on 28 December 1846, making it the 29th state. Its voters had approved a state constitution that August, after rejecting an earlier one over the state’s borders.

Source: Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs: final act of Congress to admit the State of Iowa, 28 December 1846 ↗
1885
Delegates to the first Indian National Congress in Bombay, 1885.Delegates to the first Indian National Congress in Bombay, 1885.Image: Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain
politics · Asia

The Indian National Congress meets for the first time

On 28 December 1885, 72 lawyers, journalists and reformers from across British India met at Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College in Bombay for the first session of the Indian National Congress. Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee was elected president; the retired British official Allan Octavian Hume had helped bring the meeting about. At first the Congress asked only for a greater say for Indians in their own government. Under Mahatma Gandhi it became a mass movement, led India to independence in 1947, and governed the country for most of the decades that followed.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Indian National Congress ↗
1895
Röntgen's X-ray of his wife Anna Bertha's hand, with her ring, made on 22 December 1895.Röntgen’s X-ray of his wife Anna Bertha’s hand, with her ring, made on 22 December 1895.Image: Wilhelm Röntgen · Public domain
science · Europe

Röntgen reports a new kind of ray

On 8 November 1895, in his laboratory at the University of Würzburg, Wilhelm Röntgen noticed that a screen glowed when a covered cathode-ray tube was switched on nearby. After weeks of experiments he wrote up his findings over Christmas, and on 28 December his paper ‘On a new kind of rays’ was accepted by the Würzburg Physical-Medical Society. He called them X-rays, because he did not know what they were. Copies of the paper and his photograph of his wife’s hand spread around the world within weeks, doctors were using X-rays within months, and in 1901 Röntgen received the first Nobel Prize in Physics.

Source: American Physical Society: November 8, 1895, Röntgen’s discovery of X-rays ↗
1895
The plaque at 14 boulevard des Capucines, Paris, recording the first public showings of the Cinématographe on 28 December 1895.The plaque at 14 boulevard des Capucines, Paris, recording the first public showings of the Cinématographe on 28 December 1895.Image: Tangopaso · Public domain
culture · Europe

The Lumière brothers open the first cinema show

On 28 December 1895, in the Salon Indien, a basement room of the Grand Café on the boulevard des Capucines in Paris, Louis and Auguste Lumière showed films to a paying public for the first time. A small audience paid one franc each to see ten short films projected with the brothers’ Cinématographe. The programme included workers leaving the Lumière factory in Lyon and a comic scene of a gardener soaked by his own hose. Within weeks crowds were queuing in the street, and the Lumières’ operators were soon showing films around the world.

Source: Institut Lumière: the first screening ↗
V
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The 1900s

War and peace, technological leaps, social change, politics, sport and popular culture.

1908
The ruins of the church of San Gregorio in Messina after the 1908 earthquake.The ruins of the church of San Gregorio in Messina after the 1908 earthquake.Image: Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain
world · Europe

An earthquake destroys Messina and Reggio

Just before dawn on 28 December 1908 an earthquake lasting more than 20 seconds struck beneath the Strait of Messina, between Sicily and the toe of Italy. The cities of Messina and Reggio Calabria were almost entirely destroyed, and minutes later a tsunami, in places more than ten metres high, swept the shores on both sides. Estimates of the dead range from about 80,000 to more than 100,000. It was one of the deadliest earthquakes in European history. Ships from many countries came to help, and Messina was rebuilt on a new plan with lower, stronger buildings.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Messina earthquake and tsunami of 1908 ↗
1999
Saparmurat Niyazov in February 1998.Saparmurat Niyazov in February 1998.Image: Danny Gys · CC BY 4.0
politics · Asia

Turkmenistan makes Niyazov president for life

On 28 December 1999 Turkmenistan’s People’s Council voted to make Saparmurat Niyazov, who had ruled since Soviet times and called himself Turkmenbashi, ‘head of the Turkmen’, president for life, and a constitutional law confirmed it the same day. He ruled with a lavish personality cult until his death in December 2006.

Source: OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights: Turkmenistan ↗
WHY THESE MOMENTS?

Significance before volume

This page is not the longest possible list of events. It is a chronological journey through 28 December, where each entry is chosen for historical significance, human interest and reliability.

Facts are checked against authoritative museums, archives, universities and reference works. Where sources disagree, the page says so.

EXPLORED THE DEEPER STORY?

Return to the highlights of 28 December

Discover the lighter side of the date with famous birthdays, culture, firsts and lives remembered.

Explore This Day →