Sept 28
1781
Washington’s ruse and the Siege of Yorktown
On this day in 1781, American and French troops led by Gen. George Washington and the comte de Rochambeau outmaneuvered and then laid siege to British forces in Yorktown, Virginia. The Siege of Yorktown ultimately secured the American victory in what was the last major battle of the American Revolution.
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California “discovered”
Explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, known as the “discoverer” of California, landed this day in 1542 near what is now San Diego and became the first European to set foot on the west coast of what would become the United States.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Born this day in 1934, French actress Brigitte Bardot became an international sex symbol in the 1950s and ’60s, breaking film taboos against nudity in such movies as Roger Vadim’s And God Created Woman (1956).
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Photograph by Pete Souza/The White House
2016
Polish-born Israeli statesman Shimon Peres—who served as prime minister (1984–86 and 1995–96) and president (2007–14) of Israel and shared the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1994 for helping to negotiate the Oslo Accords (the historic Israeli-PLO peace agreement of 1993)—died in Ramat Gan, Israel. [Take our quiz about the Middle East.]
Chris Thompson/SpaceX (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
2008
SpaceX successfully launched Falcon 1, becoming the first privately owned company to send a liquid-fueled rocket into orbit. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about space exploration.]
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2003
Tennis player Althea Gibson—the first African American to win singles titles at the French Open (1956), Wimbledon (1957–58), and the U.S. Open (1957–58)—died at age 76. [How much do you know about Wimbledon?]
© Bill O'Leary—The Washington Post/Getty Images
1995
Meeting at the White House, Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, and Yasser Arafat signed the Oslo II Accords (formally the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip), which detailed the expansion of Palestinian self-rule to population centers other than Gaza and Jericho.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1958
Madagascar voted for autonomy within the French Community. [Sort fact from fiction in our islands of the world quiz.]
Public Domain
1920
In what became known as the Black Sox Scandal, eight members of the Chicago White Sox baseball team were indicted by a grand jury on charges that they had thrown the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds in return for a bribe. [Read our list of seven unsportsmanlike sportsmen.]
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1911
Using the pretext of infringement of Italian interests in the Turkish provinces of Tripolitana and Cyrenaica (Libya), the Italian government issued an ultimatum to Turkey and declared war the next day. [Take our history of war quiz.]
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1066
William, duke of Normandy, landed in southeastern England, thus beginning the Norman Conquest, which resulted in his becoming king. [Take our kings of England quiz.]
CNG coins (www.cngcoins.com)
351
Roman Emperor Constantius II defeated the usurper Magnentius in the Battle of Mursa, the bloodiest battle of the 4th century. [Test your knowledge of military history.]
