28 Jun 1883
- Pierre Laval was born.
» In-depth article
28 Jun 1891
- Carl Spaatz was born.
» In-depth article
28 Jun 1914
- The Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo.
28 Jun 1919
France
France
- The Treaty of Versailles and the Covenant of the League of Nations were signed in Paris, France.
» In-depth article
28 Jun 1931
China
China
- The keel of light cruiser Pinghai was laid down in Shanghai, China with Chinese Secretary of the Navy Chen Shaokuan in attendence.
» In-depth article
28 Jun 1934
- Cruiser Köln completed gunnery drills with pocket battleship Deutschland.
» In-depth article - Ernst Röhm was relieved of his position as the leader of the Nazi Party SA organization.
- Generalleutnant Ewald von Kleist, the German Army Commander in the Silesia region, was alarmed to discover from a local SA commander that both SS and SA units were arming for an attack on each other.
» In-depth article
28 Jun 1939
- The British Womens Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) was formed.
- The German ambassador in Moscow, Russia met with a very friendly Vyacheslav Molotov.
» In-depth article - Historical document written: No. 29, 31, & 33 : Messages from Gerald Shepherd to Halifax on Danzig
» In-depth article
28 Jun 1940
- Soviet Union occupied Bessarabia and the Northern Bukovina, ceded by Romania.
» In-depth article - General Charles de Gaulle was recognized by the United Kingdom as the leader of Free French forces.
» In-depth article - Pope Pius XII offered to be a mediator for the warring powers.
» In-depth article - British Blenheim bomber attacked Tobruk in North Africa. Following the raid, Italian Governor-General of Libya Marshal Italo Balbo returned from a reconnaissance flight. Italian anti-aircraft crews, still jumpy from the raid, mis-identified his aircraft for a British bomber and opened fire, killing Balbo. Given Balbo's opposition to Mussolini's alliance with Germany, some believe this friendly fire incident was actually an assassination.
- The British Channel Islands were partially evacuated after being demilitarized to minimize casualties to be caused by the imminent German attacks. On the same day, German Luftwaffe aircraft bombed Guernsey and Jersey, killing 33 and injuring 40.
- German submarine U-30 sank British ship Llanarth 250 miles west of Brest, France at 0200 hours.
- British trawler Castleton became missing in the Orkney Islands in northern Scotland, probably sunk by U-102 which did not return from this patrol.
- Stafford Cripps was appointed the British Ambassador to the Soviet Union.
- Douglas Bader was named the commanding officer of No. 242 Squadron RAF, flying Hurricane fighters, based at RAF Coltishall at Norwich, England, United Kingdom.
» In-depth article
28 Jun 1941
- German troops captured Minsk, Byelorussia, encircling 27 Soviet Army divisions in the process.
» In-depth article - Albania declared war on the Soviet Union.
- Scirè's mission to attack Grand Harbour, Malta was canceled.
» In-depth article
- Joachim von Ribbentrop sent a message to the Japanese embassy in Berlin, Germany, asking the Japanese to jointly invade the Soviet Union by tearing up the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact and attack Vladivostok, Russia.
» In-depth article
- The Soviet NKVD, NKGB, and the Chief Prosecutor Office signed a top secret joint order to coordinate the investigation of traitors.
28 Jun 1942
- Unternehmen Blau, the German summer offensive, began; 3 armies and 11 armored divisions began driving towards the Caucasus Mountains.
» In-depth article - Axis forces captured Fuka and Mersa Matruh, Egypt.
» In-depth article - The STAVKA relieved Ivan Bagramyan as the chief of staff of the Southwestern Front after the defeat in the Second Battle of Kharkov in Ukraine.
» In-depth article - German submarine U-332 sank US ship Raphael Semmes 1,000 miles east of Florida, United States at 1030 hours; 19 were killed, 18 survived. U-203 sank US ship Sam Houston 100 miles northeast of the Virgin Islands at 1538 hours; 8 were killed, 38 survived. U-701 sank US tanker William Rockefeller 50 miles off the coast of North Carolina, United States at 1816 hours; all 50 aboard survived. U-505 sank US ship Sea Thrush 300 miles northeast of the Virgin Islands at 1855 hours; all 66 aboard survived.
» In-depth article - German submarine U-154 sank US ship Tillie Lykes 100 miles south of the Dominican Republic at 0350 hours; all 33 aboard were killed.
» In-depth article - Japanese submarine I-10 sank British merchant ship Queen Victoria in the Mozambique Channel.
» In-depth article - German submarine U-97 attacked a 3-ship Allied convoy 14 miles southwest of Haifa, Palestine, sinking British ship Zealand (14 were killed, 19 survived) and Greek ship Memas (8 were killed, 17 survived).
- USS Stingray attacked a Japanese convoy in the Philippine Sea and sank gunboat Saikyo Maru.
» In-depth article - B-17 bombers of US 5th Air Force, based in Australia, attack Rabaul, New Britain and Lae, New Guinea.
» In-depth article - German bombers damaged Soviet destroyer leader Tashkent in the Black Sea; Tashkent was able to sail to Novorossisk, Russia to receive repairs.
- USS S-28 arrived at Dutch Habor, US Territory of Alaska, ending her first war patrol.
» In-depth article
- PBY aircraft of US Navy squadron VP-14 attacked Tulagi, Soloman Islands.
- Hans-Joachim Marseille received Swords for his Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross medal from Adolf Hitler at Wolfsschanze near Rastenburg, East Prussia, Germany. He also received Oak Leaves for his Knight's Cross, an award he had won earlier in this month.
» In-depth article
- Before dawn, Italian torpedo boats staged a fake landing at Cape Fiolent south of Sevastopol, Ukraine as a diversion from the preparations for a major offensive north of the city.
» In-depth article
- The British Royal Navy Home Fleet (carrier HMS Victorious, battleship HMS Duke of York, with cruisers and destroyers), reinforced by US battleship USS Washington, departed from Scapa Flow, Scotland, United Kingdom to provide distant cover for Allied convoy PQ-17 sailing from Iceland to Arkhangelsk, Russia.
» In-depth article - German bombers attacked Weston-super-Mare in southwestern England, United Kingdom, killing 102 and wounding 400; German intelligence had incorrectly determined that Winston Churchill was at Weston-super-Mare this night.
» In-depth article
- Robert Johnson completed advanced flying training at Kelly Field, Texas, United States.
» In-depth article
28 Jun 1943
- Köln, Germany was bombed by British aircraft, heavily damaging the cathedral. About 4,000 were killed and 1,500 were wounded.
» In-depth article - USS Tunny fired three torpedoes at a Japanese gunboat and dove to escape depth charge attacks from a nearby anti-submarine trawler. She observed two explosions.
» In-depth article - USS Scorpion was ordered to sail for the Yellow Sea.
» In-depth article
- Destroyer Yukikaze arrived at Truk, Caroline Islands.
» In-depth article - Naka arrived at Truk, Caroline Islands.
» In-depth article
» Tabular Record of Movement
- A Royal Air Force reconnaissance aircraft conclusively identified German long-range rocket launch sites on Peenemünde, Germany.
- Irako departed Yokosuka, Japan at 1730 hours with convoy No. 3628 with transport Hakusan Maru, escorted by destroyer Ikazuchi.
» In-depth article
» Tabular Record of Movement
28 Jun 1944
See all photos dated 28 Jun 1944
- German 9.Armee became surrounded after Soviet forces captured Mogilev, Byelorussia and crossed the Berezina River.
» In-depth article - German defenses halted Operation Epsom near Caen, France.
» In-depth article - French resistance fighters killed Minister of Information and local Milice leader Phillipe Henriot. Milice leader in Lyon, Paul Touvier, was ordered to conduct reprisal killings.
» In-depth article - Communist-sponsored Hungarian-language Radio Kossuth announced that 200,000 Hungarian Jews had been killed in the past few months.
- The British War Cabinet approved a memorandum by the Lord Chancellor which included a note that Britain would gather evidence of German atrocities against Jews only in occupied countries but not within Germany itself, for atrocities committed domestically did not constitute war crimes.
- USS Gar reported sinking a Japanese ship in daylight with her deck gun.
» In-depth article - Ioshima received orders to move to the front.
» In-depth article
See all photos dated 28 Jun 1944
28 Jun 1945
- 29 American B-29 bombers laid naval mines in three harbors, including Kobe, Japan.
- General MacArthur announced the end of Japanese resistance throughout the Philippine Islands.
» In-depth article - The US War Department ordered 150 million incendiary bombs, amounting to some 850,000 tons, to be employed over the next twelve months against Japanese industrial targets.
» In-depth article - Freighter USS Antares spotted a periscope and wake 100 yards from her starboard quarter off Saipan, Mariana Islands at 1329 hours. A hard maneuver to the starboard side avoided the torpedo, but the crew soon spotted a kaiten human-piloted torpedo approaching from the port side. At 1331, the freighter began firing at the kaiten, hitting it with the 2-inch gun and destroying it. At 1344 hours, another periscope was spotted; her guns opened fire on it, but the Japanese submarine I-36 would be able to dive and flee the area.
» In-depth article - Dong Zhao was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general.
» In-depth article
- Joseph Stalin ordered the planning for war with Japan, adding that "[a]ll preparations were to be carried out in the greatest secrecy" as the Soviet Union and Japan were still engaged in neutrality with each other per the 1941 pact.
» In-depth article
28 Jun 1946
- USS Puffer was decommissioned from service, but would be periodically used to train personnel of the US Navy Reserve.
» In-depth article
- Hans Fritzsche denied all accusations against him while in court in Nürnberg, Germany. When Roman Rudenko reminded him that he had previously signed a confession, Fritzsche told the court that he had been forced to sign it.
» In-depth article
- Charles Sweeney, the pilot of Bockscar that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, retired from the United States Army.
» In-depth article
28 Jun 1948
United States
United States
- Joseph Rochefort was granted a diploma by the high school he dropped out of in 1918.
» In-depth article
28 Jun 1960
- Burza was decommissioned from service.
» In-depth article
28 Jun 1963
Photo(s) dated 28 Jun 1963
Photo(s) dated 28 Jun 1963
28 Jun 1969
- USS Charr was decommissioned from service and placed into reserve.
» In-depth article - USS Tunny was decommissioned from service.
» In-depth article
28 Jun 2010
United States
United States
- Daniel Inouye was named the President pro tempore of the United States Senate.
» In-depth article
Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis
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