TODAY in HISTORY

Today is Friday, September 28, the 271st day of 2018. There are 94 days left in the year.

235 Pope Pontian resigns. He is exiled to the mines of Sardinia, along with Hippolytus of Rome. 365 Roman usurper Procopius bribes two legions passing by Constantinople, and proclaims himself emperor.

935 Duke Wenceslaus I of Bohemia is murdered by a group of nobles led by his brother Boleslaus I, who succeeds him.

1066 William the Conqueror lands in England, beginning the Norman conquest.

1106 King Henry I of England defeats his brother, Robert Curthose.

1238 King James I of Aragon conquers Valencia from the Moors. Shortly thereafter, he proclaims himself king of Valencia.

1322 Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo of Portugal arrives at what is now San Diego, California 1542 Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo of Portugal arrives at what is now San Diego, California.

1779 American Revolution: Samuel Huntington is elected President of the Continental Congress, succeeding John Jay.

1781 American Revolution: American forces backed by a French fleet begin the siege of Yorktown.

1844 Oscar I of Sweden– Norway is crowned king of Sweden.

1867 Toronto becomes the capital of Ontario, having also been the capital of Ontario’s predecessors since 1796.

1868 The Battle of Alcolea causes Queen Isabella II of Spain to flee to France.

1892 The first night game for American football takes place in a contest between Wyoming Seminary and Mansfield State Normal.

1912 Corporal Frank S. Scott of the United States Army becomes the first enlisted man to die in an airplane crash.

1924 The first aerial circumnavigation is completed by a team from the US Army.

1928 Alexander Fleming notices a bacteriakilling mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as penicillin.

1970 Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser dies of a heart attack in Cairo.

1971 The British Parliament passes the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, banning the medicinal use of cannabis.

1995 Bob Denard and a group of mercenaries take the islands of the Comoros in a coup.

2008 Falcon 1 becomes the first privately- developed liquid- fuel ground- launched vehicle to put a payload into orbit.

2014 The 2014 Hong Kong protests begin in response to restrictive political reforms imposed by the NPC in Beijing.