November 28

1582 On November 28, 1582, the 18-year-old William Shakespeare married the 26-year-old daughter of a yeoman farmer Anne Hathaway (1556-1623). There appears to have been some haste in arranging the ceremony: Anne was three months pregnant. Shakespeare was not a faithful husband and it is thought he had an affair with the mysterious "Dark Lady" who featured in many of his sonnets.

1628 John Bunyan was born on November 28, 1628 at Harrowden, near Bedford. His father was a tinker and Bunyan followed his father into the tinkering business. Bunyan wrote over 60 published works, including books, tracts and even children's poetry. He is best remembered as the author of the Christian allegory The Pilgrim's Progress, which has been translated in over 200 languages. By 1692, four years after the author's death, an estimated 100,000 copies had been printed in England. 

1660 Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, Christopher Wren and other leading scientists founded a learned society now known as the Royal Society at London's Gresham College on November 28, 1660. It grew out of the meetings of the "Invisible College" who gathered in the late 1640s at the home of the chemist Robert Boyle's sister, Katherine. Of deep intelligence herself, Katherine Boyle welcomed the group into her house so that she might share the new findings.

1757 The poet, painter and printmaker William Blake was born at 28 Broad Street (now Broadwick St) in the Soho district of London on November 28,  1757. A visionary from early childhood, once he told his parents he had seen a tree full of angels and the prophet Ezekiel, which angered his father who thought his son a liar. Though Blake's vast output of visionary art and poetry is revered now, in his own time they were regarded as convincing evidence of insanity. 

1802 Future railway pioneer, George Stephenson fell in love with Anne Henderson when he lodged with her family. She was not interested in him, so he transferred his attentions to her sister Frances (Fanny), who was nine years his senior. George and Fanny married at Newburn Church on November 28, 1802. After giving birth to two children (one of whom died after just three weeks, Fanny died in 1806, probably of consumption (tuberculosis).

1811 Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73, popularly known as the Emperor Concerto, was written between 1809 and 1811 in Vienna. The first performance took place on November 28, 1811 at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig under conductor Johann Philipp Christian Schulz.

Beethoven in 1815, portrayed by Joseph Willibrord Mähler

1814 The Times of London was printed for the first time by automatic, steam powered presses on November 28, 1814. The presses were built by the German inventors Friedrich Koenig and Andreas Friedrich Bauer, signaling the beginning of the availability of newspapers to a mass audience.

1815 Edwin Pearce Christy, the founder of the Christy Minstrels show, was born on November 28, 1815. Christy is credited with creating many of the features of the classic minstrel show - the white-faced Mr. Interlocutor, the end men, Tambo and Bones, and the semi-circle of black face musicians.

1820 The German philosopher and co-author of the Communist Manifesto, Friedrich Engels, was born on November 28, 1820. As a young man, Engels was sent by his father to Manchester, England in a vain attempt to calm his ‘liberal ideas.’ Engels first met his fellow socialist Karl Marx at the Café de la Régence in Paris in 1844.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

1821 Panama was a Spanish colony from the sixteenth century until gaining independence from the Spanish empire on November 28, 1821. They joined the Republic of Gran Colombia in the same year, along with Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela.

1853 Helen Magill White, the first American woman to earn a PhD, was born on November 28, 1853. Raised by a Quaker father who believed she should have the same education as her brothers, Helen attended Boston University, where in 1877, she earned a doctorate in Greek. Her thesis "The Greek Drama" was discovered at Cornell in 2018.

1893 The New Zealand General Election of November 28, 1893 was the world's first national election where women were allowed to vote. New Zealand was a pioneer in women's suffrage, granting women the right to vote after years of advocacy and activism by suffragists, including Kate Sheppard, who played a significant role in the movement. 

An 1893 cartoon urging women to vote for the Conservative Party to whom they "owe the franchise".

1895 The first official automobile race in America took place near Chicago on Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 1895. The race was held during one of Chicago’s great snowstorms. Two of the contestants became comatose from exposure to the cold, and the contestants’ cars got stuck in snow drifts, slid into other vehicles, and stalled repeatedly. It required 8 hours and 23 minutes for the winner, J. Frank Duryea, to travel the 54-mile (87-kilometer) course.

1907 Scrap-metal dealer Louis B. Mayer renovated the Gem Theater, a rundown, 600 seat burlesque house in Haverhill, Massachusetts, which he reopened on November 28, 1907 as the Orpheum, his first movie theater. Within a few years, with Nathan H. Gordon, he created the Gordon-Mayer partnership that controlled the largest theater chain in New England.

1912 Albania declared its independence from the Ottoman Empire on November 28, 1912, marking the end of several centuries of Ottoman rule. This declaration of independence occurred following the First Balkan War, during a period of significant political changes in the Balkans. The country's independence was initially recognized by the major European powers in 1913 at the Treaty of London. Albanians celebrate their Independence Day annually on November 28th.

1912 The Albanian flag is red with a silhouetted black double-headed eagle in the center. The red stands for bravery, strength and valor, while the double-headed eagle represents the sovereign state of Albania located in the Balkans. The flag was adopted as the symbol of the new nation when the Albanian Declaration of Independence was proclaimed in Vlora on November 28, 1912.

1919 American-born socialite Viscountess Nancy Astor was elected as a Member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom on November 28, 1919. She succeeded her husband, the 2nd Viscount Astor, in the Conservative seat of Plymouth, becoming the first woman to sit in the House of Commons.

1925 The Grand Ole Opry began broadcasting in Nashville, Tennessee, as the WSM Barn Dance. On the evening of November 28, 1925, on Nashville’s WSM-AM radio station, announcer George D. “Judge” Hay introduced famed fiddle player Uncle Jimmy Thompson as the first performer for the new country and western show.

1938 Mao Zedong first met the neurotic, imperious failed actress Jiang Qing at the the Chinese Communist headquarters in Yan'an in 1937. Some communist leaders were scandalized by the relationship. At 45, Mao was nearly twice Jiang's age, and Jiang had previously lived a highly bourgeois lifestyle. Eventually, Mao was permitted to marry Jiang and they wed on November 28, 1938 in a small private ceremony.

Mao with Jiang Qing, called "Madame Mao", 1946

1945 Keen amateur tennis player Dwight Filley Davis died on November 28, 1945. The Davis Cup, an annual tennis competition for international male teams, was named after him. He bought a trophy made of 217oz of sterling silver and invited male players from Britain to play against the U.S. Davis was later the American Assistant Secretary of War from 1923 to 1925 and Secretary of War from 1925 to 1929.

1950 English murderer James Corbitt was hanged at Strangeways Prison in Manchester by Albert Pierrepoint on November 28, 1950. He had throttled his mistress, Eliza Woods in a fit of jealousy in a hotel room. Corbitt was a regular in Pierrepoint's pub, Help The Poor Struggler, and had sung "Danny Boy" as a duet with the hangman on the night he murdered his girlfriend.

1966 One of most famous parties of the 20th century, Truman Capote’s Black & White Ball was held at the Plaza Hotel in New York City on November 28, 1966. The masquerade ball was held in honor of The Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham and cost Capote a total of $16,000. The Black and White Ball was credited with starting an immediate upsurge in masquerade and costume parties.

1968 English children's writer Enid Blyton died at the Greenways Nursing Home, London, on November 28, 1968, aged 71. She was cremated at the Golders Green Crematorium where her ashes remain. Blyton's books have enjoyed huge success in many parts of the world, and have sold over 600 million copies. Her work has been translated into nearly 90 languages.

1972 The murderer Claude Buffet and his accomplice Roger Bontems were the last two people to be guillotined in Paris. They were executed at La Santé Prison on November 28, 1972. Bontems had been found innocent of murder, but as Buffet's accomplice was condemned to death anyway.

1990 On November 28, 1990, a tearful Margaret Thatcher left Downing Street for the last time as Prime Minister. She was the longest-serving prime minister of the 20th century, having been in the job for 138 months. Thatcher was the first UK Prime Minister to win a third successive term since Robert Jenkinson in 1820.

1990 John Major became the new UK prime minister on November 28, 1990. He was the only UK prime minister in the 20th century who had not been an Opposition MP first. As Prime Minister between 1990 and 1997, he was responsible for starting the Northern Ireland peace process, ending the poll tax, privatizing British Rail and introducing the National Lottery. 

1991 South Ossetia, a region in Georgia, declared independence from Georgia on November 28, 1991. This has gained only limited acceptance and as of 2023 is recognized as a state by just five members of the United Nations: Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Nauru, and Syria.

2012 The International Day of Forests, March 21st, was established by resolution of the United Nations General Assembly on November 28, 2012. Each year, various events celebrate and raise awareness of the importance of all types of forests, and trees outside forests, for the benefit of current and future generations.

2018 Nepalese dance artiste, Bandana Nepal set a world record by dancing continuously for 126 hours in Kathmandu, Nepal. She started her effort on November 23, 2018 and reached the milestone over five days later on November 28.