GMT

Today in History: July 28
1540
Henry VIII of England marries Catherine Howard; Thomas Cromwell is beheaded on Tower Hill in England.

1615
French explorer Samuel de Champlain discovers Lake Huron on his seventh voyage to the New World.

1794
Robespierre is beheaded in France.

1808
Sultan Mustafa of the Ottoman Empire is deposed and his cousin Mahmud II gains the throne.

1835
King Louis-Philippe of France survives an assassination attempt.

1863
Confederate John Mosby begins a series of attacks against General George Meade's Army of the Potomac.

1868
The 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees citizenship to all those born or naturalized in the United States, is adopted.

1898
Spain, through the offices of the French embassy in Washington, D.C., requests peace terms in its war with the United States.

1914
Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, beginning World War I.

1920
Pancho Villa surrenders to the Mexican government.

1932
The Bonus Army of impoverished World War I veterans is violently pushed out of Washington, D.C.

1941
A Japanese army lands on the coast of Cochin, China (modern day Vietnam).

1945
A B-25 bomber crashes into the Empire State Building in New York City, killing 13 people.

1965
President Lyndon Johnson sends an additional 50,000 troops to South Vietnam.

1988
Israeli diplomats arrive in Moscow for the first time in 21 years.

1990
A fire at an electrical substation causes a blackout in Chicago. Some 40,000 people were without power for up to three days.

1996
Discovery of remains of a prehistoric man near Kennewick, Washington, casts doubts on accepted beliefs of when, how and where the Americas were populated.

2005
Britain experiences its most costly tornado to date, causing 40 million Sterling Pounds of damage to Birmingham in just four minutes. There were no fatalities.

2005
The Irish Republican Army (IRA) announces an end to its 30-year armed campaign in Northern Ireland.

Today in History: Born on July 28
1844
Gerard Manley Hopkins, English poet and Jesuit priest.

1866
Beatrix Potter, children's author (The Tale of Peter Rabbit).

1887
Marcel Duchamp, French artist.

1901
Harry Bridges, American labor leader.

1902
Kenneth Fearing, poet and novelist (The Big Clock).

1907
Earl Silas Tupper, founder of Tupperware.

1927
Baruch Blumberg, physician, medical researcher.

1927
John Ashbery, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet (Self-Portrait in a Convict's Mirror).

1929
Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, wife of President John F. Kennedy.

1943
Bill Bradley, basketball player, U.S. senator.

JOTD
Karen: Doctor, I've not been feeling well lately

Doctor: Well, I've looked at your lab reports and I'm afraid I have some bad news...

Karen: Don't give me this labs nonsense, you bureaucratic paper pusher! I don't believe Western medicine anyways! I've been following homeopathic medicine, faith-based approaches, and healing crystals all my life, and they never let me down. Now, will you do things my way or do I need to talk to the hospital management?

Doctor: Sure, sure, lady. We'll do things your way. Does an astrology-based approach work for you?

Karen: That's better! Of course it would!

Doctor: What's your birth sign?

Karen: Cancer.

Doctor: Well what a fricking coincidence.