August 1928

The following events occurred in August 1928:

August 1, 1928 (Wednesday)

• Croatian deputies withdrew from the Yugoslavian National Assembly and set up a separatist parliament in Zagreb.^[1][2] They said that they would not recognize any decisions made in Yugoslavian parliament as binding in Croatia.^[3]

August 2, 1928 (Thursday)

• Italy and Ethiopia signed a friendship treaty.^[2]
• The South Indian Railway Strike ended.

August 3, 1928 (Friday)

• The Easter Act was among many bills granted Royal Assent in Britain.^[4] The act fixed the date of Easter as the Sunday following the second Saturday of April. No government has ever followed up by issuing the implementation order, but the legislation has never been repealed.^[5]
• Born: Henning Moritzen, film actor, in Tårbæk, Denmark (d. 2012)
• Died: Jovan Avakumović, 87, President of the Ministry of Serbia 1892–1893

August 4, 1928 (Saturday)

• 11,000 Britons conducted a pilgrimage to the battlefields of northern France on the fourteenth anniversary of the British declaration of war on Germany.^[6]
• The anniversary was marked in Berlin with a huge anti-war demonstration organized by communists outside the City Palace. 600 red flags were dipped as the crowd sang "The Internationale" and took an oath to boycott war.^[6]
• A volcanic eruption occurred at Paluweh in the Dutch East Indies, causing a tsunami that killed at least 160 people and affecting the global climate.^[7]

August 5, 1928 (Sunday)

• About 1,000 communists were arrested in Paris for trying to mount an anti-war demonstration in Ivry-sur-Seine in defiance of the government.^[8]
• Born: Bogdan Maglich, nuclear physicist, in Sombor, Yugoslavia

August 6, 1928 (Monday)

• The Italian submarine F-14 sank in a collision with the destroyer Giuseppe Missori west of the Brijuni Islands.^[9]
• Born: Andy Warhol, pop artist, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (d. 1987)

August 7, 1928 (Tuesday)

• The F-14 was raised thirty-four hours after sinking but all 31 of its crew were dead. Chlorine gas killed them when salt water flooded the submarine's storage batteries.^[10]
• Italy tightened its emigration laws, making it harder for Italians to reunite with relatives living abroad. Wives and sons could still join emigrated husbands and fathers, but only if they were dependent on them. Sisters had to be unmarried in order to join their bothers.^[11]
• Born: James Randi, stage magician and scientific skeptic, in Toronto, Canada

August 8, 1928 (Wednesday)

• The Fort Pierce hurricane made landfall in the United States.^[12]
• The engagement of retired boxing champion Gene Tunney and socialite Mary Lauder was announced.^[13]
• Born: Simón Díaz, composer, in Barbacoas, Aragua, Venezuela (d. 2014); Jane Stoll, baseball player, in West Point, Pennsylvania (d. 2000)
• Died: George E. Brennan, 63, Democratic party boss in Illinois; Stjepan Radić, 57, Croatian politician (died of wounds sustained in the June 20 parliament shooting)

August 9, 1928 (Thursday)

• The island of Paluweh was reported to have been virtually destroyed by the eruption of the Rokatinda volcano, killing up to 1,000 people and wiping out six villages.^[14]
• Born: Bob Cousy, basketball player, in Manhattan, New York; Harold Johnson, boxer, in Manayunk, Pennsylvania (d. 2015)

August 10, 1928 (Friday)

• Pierre du Pont endorsed Al Smith for President due to his pledge to reform Prohibition.^[15]
• Born: Jimmy Dean, country music singer, actor and businessman, in Varina, Virginia (d. 2010); Eddie Fisher, entertainer, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 2010)
• Died: Rex Cherryman, 31, American actor (sepsis|septic poisoning)

August 11, 1928 (Saturday)

• Herbert Hoover formally accepted the Republican nomination for President in a speech at Stanford University Stadium.^[16]
• Weimar Germany celebrated its ninth birthday; the government decreed that it would hereafter be a national holiday.^[17]

August 12, 1928 (Sunday)

• The closing ceremony for the Summer Olympics was held. The United States won the medal count with 22 gold medals and 56 total.
• Four were killed in Heerlen, Netherlands when a plane crashed among spectators during an air show.^[18]
• The Argentine National Congress named Hipólito Yrigoyen the president-elect.^[19]
• Born: Bob Buhl, baseball player, in Saginaw, Michigan (d. 2001)
• Died: Leoš Janáček, 74, Czech composer

August 13, 1928 (Monday)

• 250 planes waged a mock nighttime air battle in the skies over London. An official report said that eight out of ten bomber raids were intercepted.^[20]
• The Treaty of Nettuno was ratified in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by a single vote.^[21][22]
• The adventure comic strip Tim Tyler's Luck first appeared.

August 14, 1928 (Tuesday)

• The second night of aerial war maneuvers were conducted over London. It was reported that vital sections of the city would have been bombed to ruins if the air raid had been real.^[23][24]
• The stage comedy The Front Page opened on Broadway.^[25]

August 15, 1928 (Wednesday)

• Bill Dickey made his major league baseball debut with the New York Yankees, going 0-for-2 against the Chicago White Sox in an 8–4 loss.^[26]
• The Mexican football club Unión de Curtidores was founded.
• Born: Nicolas Roeg, film director and cinematographer, in London, England

August 16, 1928 (Thursday)

• The German ocean liner SS Bremen was launched.
• Born: Eydie Gormé, singer, in the Bronx, New York (d. 2013)
• Died: Carlo del Prete, 30, Italian aviator (died of injuries from August 11 plane crash)

August 17, 1928 (Friday)

• Aerial maneuvers over London ended in the morning, with experts in agreement that British air defenses were inadequate. Fast bombers were found to be the most successful type of plane.^[27]
• The actress Helen Hayes and the playwright Charles MacArthur were married in New York.^[28]
• Born: Willem Duys, radio and television presenter, commentator, tennis player and music producer (d. 2011)
• Died: Frank Urson, 40 or 41, American film director (drowned)

August 18, 1928 (Saturday)

• A tropical storm swept Haiti, killing about 200 and doing an estimated $1 million property damage.^[29]
• Born: Theodore Millon, American psychologist (d. 2014); Marge Schott, baseball team owner, in Cincinnati, Ohio (d. 2004)

August 19, 1928 (Sunday)

• Parliamentary elections were held in Greece. The Liberal Party led by Eleftherios Venizelos won a majority of seats.
• Born: Queen Ratna of Nepal, in Kathmandu
• Died: Richard Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane, 72, British politician, layer and philosopher

August 20, 1928 (Monday)

• American Col. Art Goebel completed the first west to east, non-stop flight across the United States in 18 hours 58 minutes.^[30]
• Tornadoes swept through Iowa and southern Minnesota, killing 8.^[31]
• Born: Ed Sandford, ice hockey player, in New Toronto, Canada
• Died: George Brinton McClellan Harvey, 64, American diplomat and journalist

August 21, 1928 (Tuesday)

• An editorial in the Italian newspaper Tevere ridiculed the Kellogg–Briand Pact, saying the signatories were not sincere about wanting to abolish war.^[32]
• United Artists executive Joseph M. Schenck said that talkies were just a fad and that "people will not want talking pictures long."^[1][33]

August 22, 1928 (Wednesday)

• William F. Whiting replaced Herbert Hoover as U.S. Secretary of Commerce.
• Born: Karlheinz Stockhausen, composer, in Burg-Mödrath, Germany (d. 2007)
• Died: Byron F. Ritchie, 75, U.S. Representative from Ohio

August 23, 1928 (Thursday)

• New York Governor Al Smith formally accepted the Democratic nomination for President in a speech in Albany. The planned ceremony in the park outside the Capitol was driven indoors due to rain, so 25,000 stood in the downpour to hear Smith's speech from inside the Assembly Chamber over loudspeakers. WGY of Schenectady televised the event and became the first television station to transmit a remote broadcast.^[34][35]
• Born: Marian Seldes, actress, in Manhattan, New York (d. 2014)

August 24, 1928 (Friday)

• 18 were killed and an approximately 100 injured in the Times Square derailment when a train derailed immediately after leaving the Times Square station in New York City.
• U.S. Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg arrived in Paris to sign the international anti-war pact.^[36]

August 25, 1928 (Saturday)

• Architect Frank Lloyd Wright married his third wife Olga Lazovich in San Diego.^[37]
• Born: Herbert Kroemer, professor of electrical and computer engineering, in Weimar, Germany

August 26, 1928 (Sunday)

• Actress Barbara Stanwyck and vaudeville comedian Frank Fay were married in St. Louis.^[38]
• Born: Zdeněk Veselovský, zoologist, in Czecheslovakia; Yvette Vickers, actress, model and singer, in Kansas City, Missouri (d. 2010?)

August 27, 1928 (Monday)

• 15 nations signed the Kellogg–Briand Pact in Paris, renouncing war as an instrument of foreign policy.^[39]
• Died: Émile Fayolle, 70, French military commander

August 28, 1928 (Tuesday)

• The Kingdom of Yugoslavia signed the Kellogg–Briand Pact.^[40]

August 29, 1928 (Wednesday)

• The Albanian National Assemby appointed a committee to frame a "special emergency" bill that would change the republic to a monarchy.^[41]
• Born: Dick O'Neill, actor, in New York City (d. 1998)

August 30, 1928 (Thursday)

• General Order 40 reallocated the commercial broadcast radio spectrum in the United States.
• Died: Wilhelm Wien, 64, German physicist

August 31, 1928 (Friday)

• The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill premiered at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin.
• Wreckage from Roald Amundsen's seaplane was found near Tromsø.^[42] The French consul examined a pontoon and positively identified it as belonging to the plane Amundsen and his crew departed in on June 18.^[43][44]
• Amelia Earhart crashed her biplane at Rogers Field near Pittsburgh when the landing gear broke after hitting a rut during touchdown. Earhart and passenger George P. Putnam were uninjured.^[45]
• Born: James Coburn, actor, in Laurel, Nebraska (d. 2002); Jaime Sin, Roman Catholic archbishop, in New Washington, Aklan, Philippines (d. 2005)

References