On this day, April 28
1788 Maryland became the seventh state to ratify the Constitution.
1945 Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, were executed by Italian partisans as they attempted to flee the country. 1947 A six-man expedition set out from Peru aboard a balsa wood raft named the Kon-Tiki on a 101-day journey across the Pacific Ocean to the Polynesian Islands.
1952 War with Japan officially ended as a treaty signed in San Francisco the year before took effect.
1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered Marines to the Dominican Republic to protect American citizens and interests in the face of a civil war.
1967 Heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali was stripped of his title after he refused to be inducted into the armed forces.
1980 President Jimmy Carter accepted the resignation of Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance, who had opposed the failed rescue mission aimed at freeing American hostages in Iran. 1986 The Soviet Union informed the world of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl that began two days earlier.
1994 Former CIA official Aldrich Ames, who had passed U.S. secrets to the Soviet Union and then Russia, pleaded guilty to espionage and tax evasion, and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
2011 Convicted sex offender Phillip Garrido and his wife, Nancy, pleaded guilty to kidnapping and raping a California girl, Jaycee Dugard, who was abducted in 1991 at the age of 11 and rescued 18 years later. (Phillip Garrido was sentenced to 431 years to life in prison; Nancy Garrido was sentenced to 36 years to life in prison.) 2015 Urging Americans to “do some soul-searching,” President Barack Obama expressed deep frustration over recurring Black deaths at the hands of police, rioters who responded with senseless violence and a society that would only “feign concern” without addressing the root causes.
2018 Alfie Evans, the 23month-old terminally-ill British toddler who was at the center of a legal battle over his treatment, died at a British hospital.
2021 Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins, who orbited the moon alone while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made their first steps on the lunar surface, died of cancer in Florida at age 90.
2022 Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer was suspended for two full seasons without pay by Major League Baseball for violating the league’s domestic violence and sexual assault policy, which he denied doing.
2023 Russia fired more than 20 cruise missiles and two drones at Ukraine, killing at least 23 people, almost all of them when two missiles slammed into an apartment building in a terrifying night attack.
Today’s birthdays: Former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, 94. Actor-singer Ann-Margret, 83. Actor Paul Guilfoyle, 75. Former “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno, 74. Rock musician Chuck Leavell, 72. Actor Mary McDonnell, 72. Rock singer-musician Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth), 71. Actor Nancy Lee Grahn, 68. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, 64. Rapper Too Short, 58. Actor Bridget Moynahan, 53. Actor Chris Young, 53. Rapper Big Gipp, 52. Actor Jorge Garcia, 51. Actor Elisabeth Rohm, 51. Actor Penelope Cruz, 50. Actor Nate Richert, 46. TV personalities Drew and Jonathan Scott are 46. Actor Jessica Alba, 43. Actor Harry Shum Jr., 42. Actor Jenna Ushkowitz, 38. Actor Aleisha Allen, 33.