This day in history
Today is Friday, April 28, the 118th day of 2023. There are 247 days left in the year.
Birthdays: Former secretary of state James A. Baker III is 93. Actor-singer Ann-Margret is 82. Actor Paul Guilfoyle is 74. Former “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno is 73. Rock keyboardist Chuck Leavell is 71. Actor Mary McDonnell is 71. Sonic Youth singer-musician Kim Gordon is 70. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan is 63. Actor Bridget Moynahan is 52. Actor Jorge Garcia is 50.
▶ In 1945, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, were executed by Italian partisans as they attempted to flee the country.
▶ In 1947, a six-man expedition set out from Peru aboard a balsa wood raft named the KonTiki on a 101-day journey across the Pacific Ocean to the Polynesian Islands.
▶ In 1952, war with Japan officially ended as a treaty signed in San Francisco the year before took effect. General Dwight D. Eisenhower resigned as Supreme Allied commander in Europe; he was succeeded by General Matthew B. Ridgway.
▶ In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered Marines to the Dominican Republic to protect American citizens and interests in the face of a civil war.
▶ In 1967, heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali was stripped of his title after he refused to be inducted into the armed forces.
▶ In 1980, President 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. (Vance was succeeded by Edmund Muskie of Maine.)
▶ In 1986, the Soviet Union informed the world of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl.
▶ In 1990, the musical “A Chorus Line” closed after 6,137 performances on Broadway.
▶ In 1994, former CIA official Aldrich Ames, who had passed US secrets to the Soviet Union and then Russia, pleaded guilty to espionage and tax evasion and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
▶ In 2001, a Russian rocket lifted off from Central Asia bearing the first space tourist, California businessman Dennis Tito, and two cosmonauts on a journey to the International Space Station.
▶ In 2015, urging Americans to “do some soul-searching,” President 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.
▶ Last year, Russia pounded targets from one end of Ukraine to the other, including Kyiv, bombarding the city while the head of the United Nations was visiting in the boldest attack on the capital since Moscow’s forces retreated weeks earlier. The Jacksonville Jaguars took Georgia Pass rusher Travon Walker with the first pick in the NFL draft.