ON THIS DATE

Historical events from April 28 are brought to you by Encyclopaedia Britannica. Explore more at britannica.com.

2004: American television network CBS broadcast photographs depicting harsh treatment of Iraqi inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison in U.S.-occupied Iraq, initiating a national debate on torture and the Geneva Conventions.

2003: Apple launched the iTunes Store, which gave users the ability to purchase and download music from the Internet directly to their iTunes library; in 2010 the store sold its 10 billionth song.

2001: American businessman Dennis Tito became the first space tourist when he was launched into orbit aboard a Russian supply mission to the International Space Station; he paid approximately $20 million for the six-day trip.

1996: Australian gunman Martin Bryant began a killing spree that left 35 people dead and some 18 others wounded in the Port Arthur area of Tasmania, Australia; it was the country’s worst mass shooting and led to stricter gun controls.

1967: At the height of the Vietnam War American boxer Muhammad Ali refused induction into the U.S. Army, citing religious reasons; his subsequent conviction was eventually overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

1952: The Allied occupation of Japan came to an end after seven years of rapid social and economic change following the country’s surrender in World War II.

1947: Norwegian ethnologist and adventurer Thor Heyerdahl and a small crew set sail from Peru aboard the primitive raft Kon-Tiki and arrived in Polynesia three and a half months later.

1945: Italian dictator

Benito Mussolini, “Il Duce,” who, after a series of military misadventures, became unpopular even among his fellow Fascists, was captured while trying to flee Italy and was executed on this day in 1945.

American author Harper Lee — who won national acclaim for her novel To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) — was born.