1928 in the United States

Incumbents

Government">Federal government of the United States">Government

• President: Calvin Coolidge
• Vice President: Charles G. Dawes
• Chief Justice: William Howard Taft
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Nicholas Longworth
• Senate Majority Leader: Charles Curtis
• Congress: 70th

  Governors

Lieutenant Governors

Events

January

• January 16
• * U.S. murderer Ruth Snyder is executed at Ossining.
• * 6th Pan-American Conference opens in Havana. Calvin Coolidge becomes the last sitting U.S. President until 2016 to visit Cuba.

  February

• February 8 - British inventor John Logie Baird broadcasts a transatlantic television signal from London to Hartsdale, New York.
• February 25 - Charles Jenkins Laboratories of Washington, D.C. becomes the first holder of a television license from the Federal Radio Commission.

  March

• March 12 - In California, the St. Francis Dam north of Los Angeles fails, killing 400.
• March 21 - Charles Lindbergh is presented the Medal of Honor for his first trans-Atlantic flight.

  April

• April 10 - "Pineapple Primary": The Republican Party primary elections in Chicago are preceded by assassinations and bombings.
• April 28 - Tamiami Trail linking Tampa and Miami officially opens to traffic.

  May

• May 10 - The first regular schedule of television programming begins in Schenectady, New York by the General Electric's television station W2XB.
• May 15 – The animated short Plane Crazy is released by Disney Studios in Los Angeles, featuring the first appearances of Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
• May 19 – Mather Mine disaster
• May 26 – Airplane Coaster roller coaster opens at Playland, Rye, New York.
• May 29 – Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad Co., a leading case in United States tort law on the question of liability to an unforeseeable plaintiff, is decided in the New York Court of Appeals.

  June

• June 17 - Aviator Amelia Earhart starts her attempt to become the first woman to successfully cross the Atlantic Ocean. Wilmer Stultz was the pilot.
• June 29 - New York Governor Alfred E. Smith becomes the first Catholic nominated by a major political party for U.S. President, at the Democratic National Convention in Houston, Texas.
• June 29 - Outerbridge Crossing and Goethals Bridge in Staten Island, New York is opened

  July

• July 4 – Jean Lussier goes over Niagara Falls in a rubber ball.
• July 6 - The world's largest hailstone falls in Potter, Nebraska.
• July 7 - The first machine-sliced and machine-wrapped loaf of bread are sold in Chillicothe, Missouri, using Otto Frederick Rohwedder's technology.
• July 12 - Mexican aviator Emilio Carranza dies in a solo plane crash in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, while returning from a goodwill flight to New York City.
• July 25 - The United States recalls its troops from China.

  August

• August 16 - Murderer Carl Panzram is arrested in Washington, D.C. after killing about 20 people.
• August 22 - Alfred E. Smith accepts the Democratic presidential nomination, with WGY/W2XB simulcasting the event on radio and television.

  September

• September 1 - Richard Byrd leaves New York for the Arctic.
• September 11 - Kenmore's WMAK station starts broadcasting in Buffalo, New York.
• September 16 - The 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane kills at least 2,500 people in Florida.

  October

• October 9 - The New York Yankees defeat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4 games to 0, to win their 3rd World Series Title.
• October 12 - An iron lung respirator is used for the first time at Children's Hospital, Boston.

  November

• November 4 - At Park Central Hotel in Manhattan, Arnold Rothstein, New York City's most notorious gambler, is shot to death over a poker game.
• November 6 - U.S. presidential election, 1928: Republican Herbert Hoover wins by a wide margin over Democratic Governor of New York Alfred E. Smith.
• November 17 - The Boston Garden opens in Boston.
• November 18 - Mickey Mouse appears in Steamboat Willie, the third Mickey Mouse cartoon released, but the first sound film.

  December

• December 5 - Police disperse a Sicilian gangs' meeting in Cleveland.
• December 21 - The U.S. Congress approves the construction of Boulder Dam, later renamed Hoover Dam.

  Undated

• The Ford River Rouge Complex at Dearborn, Michigan, an automobile plant begun in 1917, is completed as the largest integrated factory in the world.
• W2XBS, RCA's first television station, is established in New York City.
• Eliot Ness begins to lead the prohibition unit in Chicago.
• The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America ratifies a new revision of the Book of Common Prayer.

  Ongoing

• Lochner era
• U.S. occupation of Haiti
• Prohibition
• Roaring Twenties

  Sport

• April 14 - New York Rangers win their First Stanley Cup by defeating the Montreal Maroons 3 games to 2. All games were played at the Montreal Forum. The Rangers become the Second American team to win the Stanley Cup and the first since the Seattle Metropolitans in 1918

  Births

January

• January 1 – William Henry Draper III, American venture capitalist
• January 2
• * Howard Caine, American actor
• * Robert Goralski, American journalist
• * Dan Rostenkowski, American politician
• January 5 – Walter Mondale, American politician, 42nd Vice President of the United States
• January 6 – George H. Ross, American businessman
• January 7 – William Peter Blatty, American novelist and screenwriter
• January 8 – Slade Gorton, American politician
• January 9 – Judith Krantz, American novelist
• January 10 – Philip Levine, American poet
• January 11
• * Mitchell Ryan, American actor
• * David L. Wolper, American television producer
• January 12 – Lloyd Ruby, American race car driver
• January 14 – Lauch Faircloth, American politician
• January 15
• * James G. March, American sociologist
• * Joanne Linville, American actress
• January 16
• * William Kennedy, American author
• * Sidney Kimmel, American businessman, philanthropist and film producer
• January 20 – Rudy Boesch, American soldier
• January 21 – Gene Sharp, American political theorist of nonviolent action
• January 22 – Birch Bayh, American politician
• January 30 – Harold Prince, American stage producer, director

  February

• February 1
• * Tom Lantos, American politician
• * Stuart Whitman, American film, television actor
• February 5
• * Andrew Greeley, American Catholic priest, fiction novelist
• * William J. Larkin Jr., American politician
• February 8 – Jack Larson, American actor, producer and playwright
• February 9
• * Frank Frazetta, American illustrator
• * Roger Mudd, American journalist
• February 14 – Norman Bridwell, American cartoonist
• February 17 – Tom Jones, American lyricist
• February 18 – John Ostrom, American paleontologist
• February 20
• * Roy Face, American baseball player
• * Jean Kennedy Smith, American diplomat
• February 22
• * Paul Dooley, American actor
• * Clarence 13X, American religious leader, founder of the Nation of Gods and Earths
• February 23 – Ralph Earnhardt, American race car driver
• February 26 – Fats Domino, African-American pianist and singer-songwriter

  March

• March 3 – Bernice Sandler, American women's rights activist
• March 5 – J. Hillis Miller, American literary critic
• March 6
• * Delbert Daisey, American waterfowl wood carver, decoy maker
• * Dan Towler, American football player
• March 7 – William Blankenship, American operatic tenor
• March 9 – Keely Smith, American singer
• March 10 – James Earl Ray, American assassin
• March 12
• * Edward Albee, American playwright
• * Ellen Raskin, American author and illustrator
• March 14
• * Frank Borman, American astronaut
• * Earl Smith, American baseball center fielder
• March 15 – Bob Wilber, American clarinetist and saxophonist
• March 17 – Barbara Kloka Hackett, American judge
• March 18 – Julia Mullock, American-Korean royal
• March 19
• * John Hall Buchanan Jr., American politician
• * Arthur Cook, American sport shooter
• * Patrick McGoohan, American-born British-based actor of Irish descent
• March 20
• * E. D. Hirsch, American author, critic and academic
• * Ed Macauley, American basketball player
• March 23 – Mark Rydell, American actor, director and producer
• March 24
• * Byron Janis, American pianist
• * Mel Rosen, American track and field coach
• March 25
• * Aubrey Dunn Sr., American politician
• * Jim Lovell, American astronaut
• March 29 – Vincent Gigante, American Mafia gangster

  April

• April 1 – George Grizzard, American actor
• April 2 – Joseph Bernardin, American cardinal
• April 3
• * Don Gibson, American country music singer-songwriter
• * Kevin Hagen, American actor
• * Earl Lloyd, African-American basketball player
• April 4
• * Maya Angelou, African American poet and novelist
• * Estelle Harris, American actress
• * Bill Ryan, American journalist
• April 5 – Tony Williams, American singer
• April 6
• * Joi Lansing, American actress
• * James D. Watson, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• April 7
• * James Garner, American actor, producer
• * Alan J. Pakula, American producer, director
• April 8 – Fred Ebb, American composer
• April 9
• * Floyd Spence, American politician
• * Tom Lehrer, American singer-songwriter, satirist, pianist and mathematician
• April 11 – Ethel Kennedy, American human-rights campaigner, wife of Robert F. Kennedy
• April 16 – Night Train Lane, American football player
• April 17
• * Cynthia Ozick, American writer
• * Victor Lownes, American businessman
• April 18 – Arnold Oss, American ice hockey player
• April 19 – Richard Garwin, American physicist
• April 20 – Robert Byrne, American chess player
• April 23 – Shirley Temple, American actress, singer, dancer, businesswoman, and diplomat
• April 24 – Johnny Griffin, African-American jazz saxophonist
• April 25 – Cy Twombly, American artist
• April 27 – Fred Weintraub, American film, television producer
• April 28 – Eugene Merle Shoemaker, American geologist

  May

• May 1 – Sonny James, American country singer
• May 3
• * Jeanne Bal, American actress and model
• * Dave Dudley, American country singer
• May 4
• * Betsy Rawls, American professional golfer
• * Joseph Tydings, American politician
• May 5 – Marshall Grant, American musician
• May 7 – John Ingle, American actor
• May 8
• * Robert Conley, American journalist
• * Ted Sorensen, American lawyer, writer, and presidential adviser
• May 9
• * Ralph Goings, American painter
• * Pancho Gonzales, American tennis player
• May 11 – Vern Rapp, American baseball player, coach and manager
• May 12
• * Burt Bacharach, American composer, songwriter, record producer, pianist, and singer
• * Manuel Lujan Jr., American politician
• May 14 – Dub Jones, American R&B singer
• May 16 – Billy Martin, American baseball player, manager
• May 18
• * Pernell Roberts, American actor
• * Sara Shane, American actress
• May 19 – Dolph Schayes, American basketball player
• May 21 – Alice Drummond, American actress
• May 22 – T. Boone Pickens, American businessman
• May 23 – Rosemary Clooney, American singer and actress
• May 24 – Leonard B. Sand, American judge
• May 25 – Mary Wells Lawrence, American advertising executive
• May 26 – Jack Kevorkian, American right-to-die advocate
• May 29 – George A. Sinner, American politician
• May 31
• * Consuelo Crespi, American fashion icon
• * Gloria Schiff, American fashion icon

  June

• June 3 – Louise Daniel Hutchinson, American historian and academic
• June 6
• * George Deukmejian, American politician
• * Ed Fury, American actor, bodybuilder and model
• June 12
• * Vic Damone, American singer
• * Richard M. Sherman, American songwriter
• June 13 – John Forbes Nash, Jr., American mathematician, recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences
• June 19 – Elizabeth Connelly, American politician
• June 20 – Martin Landau, American actor
• June 21 – Charles D. Baker, American businessman, former U.S. government official
• June 22
• * Alfred M. Gray, Jr., American general
• * Ralph Waite, American actor, political activist
• June 23
• * Leon Fleischer, American concert pianist
• * Ray Hyman, American Professor Emeritus of Psychology
• * Pete Ladygo, American football player
• June 24
• * Lester Grinspoon, American Associate Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School
• * Lawrence A. Skantze, United States Air Force general
• June 25
• * Robert Dean Hunter, American politician
• * Edwin Mills, American economist
• * John A. Wickham Jr., United States Army military officer
• June 26
• * Danford B. Greene, American actor
• * Bill Sheffield, American politician
• June 27 – Edward B. Cottingham, American politician
• June 28 – Patrick Hemingway, second son of American author Ernest Hemingway
• June 30 – Nathaniel Tarn, American poet, essayist, anthropologist and translator

  July

• July 4 – Chuck Tanner, American baseball player and manager
• July 5
• * Lorraine Fisher, American professional baseball player
• * Ernie Kell, American politician
• * Bruce Nickells, American harness racing driver, trainer
• July 6
• * Richard R. Larson, American politician
• * Wally Osterkorn, American professional basketball player
• July 8 – Pat Adams, American painter, printmaker
• July 9 – Vince Edwards, American actor
• July 10
• * John Glenn, American Major League Baseball outfielder
• * Herb Johnson, American football player
• July 12
• * Elias James Corey, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• * Hayden White, American historian
• July 13
• * Bob Crane, American actor
• * Daryl Spencer, American professional baseball player
• * Leroy Vinnegar, American musician
• July 14 – Nancy Olson, American actress
• July 18 – Billy Harrell, American baseball player and scout
• July 22
• * Orson Bean, American film, television, and stage actor
• * Robert Bergland, American politician
• * Keter Betts, American jazz bassist
• * Nick Galifianakis, American politician
• * Stu Locklin, American Major League Baseball outfielder
• July 26
• * Joe Jackson, African-American talent manager

  August

• August 1
• * James R. Dixon, American professor
• * Jack Shea, American film, television director
• August 3 – Janet Abu-Lughod, American sociologist
• August 4 – Gerard Damiano, American adult film director
• August 5 – Bogdan Maglich, American physicist
• August 6 – Andy Warhol, American figure in the visual art movement pop art
• August 7 – Herbert H. Bateman, American politician
• August 8 – Jane Stoll, American professional baseball player
• August 9
• * Dolores Wilson, American coloratura soprano
• * Bob Cousy, American basketball player
• * Martin Greenfield, American tailor and Holocaust survivor
• * Camilla Wicks, American violinist
• August 10
• * Don Bustany, American radio, television broadcaster
• * Jimmy Dean, American country musician, entrepreneur
• * Eddie Fisher, American singer and actor
• August 12
• * Bob Buhl, American baseball player
• * Micki Marlo, American model and singer
• August 16
• * George Ahlgren, American rower who competed at the 1948 Summer Olympics
• * Eydie Gormé, American singer
• * Ann Blyth, American actress, singer
• * Wyatt Tee Walker, American pastor, civil rights leader, theologian, and historian
• August 18 – Marge Schott, American baseball team owner
• August 20 – Frank Rosolino, American jazz trombonist
• August 21 – Art Farmer, American jazz trumpeter, flugelhorn player
• August 22 – Ray Marshall, American politician
• August 23 – Marian Seldes, American actress
• August 25
• * Kayo Dottley, American football player
• * Karl Korte, American composer
• August 28 – Ed Salem, American football quarterback, defensive back
• August 30
• * Shirley Huffman, American politician
• * Johnny Mann, American composer, arranger, and singer
• August 31 – James Coburn, American actor

  September

• September 1 – George Maharis, American actor
• September 2 – Horace Silver, American jazz pianist, composer and arranger
• September 4 – Dick York, American actor
• September 6 – Robert M. Pirsig, American philosopher
• September 7 – Donald Henderson, American epidemiologist, leader of global smallpox eradication program
• September 9 – Sol LeWitt, American artist
• September 10 – Walter Ralston Martin, American Baptist Christian minister and author
• September 11
• * Earl Holliman, American actor
• * William X. Kienzle, American author
• September 12 – Robert Irwin, American painter
• September 13 – Robert Indiana, American contemporary artist
• September 14
• * Dick Clark, American politician
• * Park Honan, American academic, author
• September 15
• * Cannonball Adderley, American saxophonist
• * Henry Silva, American actor
• September 16 – Patricia Wald, American judge
• September 19 – Adam West, American actor
• September 20
• * Jack Edwards, American politician
• * Donald Hall, American poet, United States Poet Laureate
• * Ruth Richard, American female professional baseball player
• September 22
• * James Lawson, African-American civil rights activist, minister and professor
• * Eugene Roche, American actor
• * Richard Stone, American politician
• September 23
• * Bernie Custis, American and Canadian football player
• * Hollie Pihl, American judge
• September 25 – Victor Gold, American journalist, press secretary
• September 26 – Robert D. Ray, American lawyer, politician
• September 27 – Garry Watson, American child actor
• September 28 – Koko Taylor, African-American singer

  October

• October 1 – George Peppard, American film, television actor
• October 2 – George "Spanky" McFarland, American child actor
• October 3 – Edward L. Moyers, American railroad executive
• October 4 – Alvin Toffler, American futurologist
• October 7 – Herb Rich, American football player
• October 8 – M. Russell Ballard, American businessman and religious leader
• October 16 – Eileen Ryan, American actress
• October 17
• * Lerone Bennett Jr., African-American scholar, author
• * Jimmy Breslin, American journalist
• October 18 – Keith Jackson, American sports commentator, journalist, author, and radio personality
• October 21
• * Vern Mikkelsen, American professional basketball player
• * Whitey Ford, American baseball player
• October 25
• * Jeanne Cooper, American actress
• * Anthony Franciosa, American actor
• * Marion Ross, American actress
• October 27 – Waldo Holmes, American musician and songwriter
• October 30 – Daniel Nathans, American microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• October 31 – Roy Romer, American politician

  November

• November 3 – George Yardley, American basketball player
• November 6 – Norman Carlberg, American sculptor and printmaker
• November 12 – Bobby Baker, American political adviser to Lyndon B. Johnson
• November 13 – Steve Bilko, American baseball player
• November 15 – Seldon Powell, American jazz and soul woodwind player
• November 16 – Clu Gulager, American actor, director
• November 17 – Rance Howard, American actor
• November 20 – Pete Rademacher, American boxer
• November 23 – Elmarie Wendel, American actress and singer
• November 29 – Paul Simon, American politician
• November 30 – Joe B. Hall, American basketball coach

  December

• December 1 – Sarge Ferris, American professional poker player
• December 2 – Edwin Kessler, American atmospheric scientist
• December 7 – Noam Chomsky, American linguist
• December 9 – Dick Van Patten, American actor
• December 10
• * Dan Blocker, American actor
• * Barbara Nichols, American actress
• December 12
• * Helen Frankenthaler, American painter
• * Lonesome Sundown, American blues musician
• * Jimmy Nelson, American ventriloquist
• * Jerry Wallace, American singer
• December 16
• * Terry Carter, American actor and filmmaker
• * Philip K. Dick, American science fiction author
• * Bruce Ames, American biochemist
• December 17 – George Lindsey, American actor
• December 19 – Nathan Oliveira, American painter, printmaker, and sculptor
• December 20 – Jack Christiansen, American football player and coach
• December 21
• * Ed Nelson, American actor
• * Colleen Townsend, American actress and author
• December 23
• * Billy Cook, American spree killer
• * Buddy Harman, American drummer and session musician
• * Roger Jepsen, American politician
• December 24 – Nancy Tuckerman, American secretary
• December 25
• * Irish McCalla, American actress, model
• * Dick Miller, American actor
• December 26 – Martin Cooper, American inventor, "father of the mobile phone"
• December 28 – Bill Gradison, American politician
• December 29 – June Preston, American actress
• December 30 – Bo Diddley, African-American musician
• December 31 – Hugh McElhenny, American football player

  Deaths

• January 1 - Loie Fuller, dancer
• January 3
• * Dorothy Donnelly, actress and songwriter
• * Emily Stevens, actress
• January 6 - Alvin Kraenzlein, American athlete
• January 12 - Ruth Snyder, murderer
• January 13 - Frederick Arthur Bridgman, artist
• January 21 - John A. Kimberly, entrepreneur, co-founder of Kimberly-Clark
• March 7 - Robert Abbe, surgeon
• March 19 - Nora Bayes, singer and actress
• April 2 - Theodore William Richards, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• April 8 - Wendell P. Bowman, army major general
• April 22
• * Warner B. Bayley, admiral
• * Frank Currier, actor
• April 25 - Floyd Bennett, aviator
• May 8 - Clara Williams, actress
• May 18 - Bill Haywood, labor leader
• May 19 - Bessie Van Vorst, campaigning journalist
• June 6 - John D. Works, U.S. Senator from California from 1911 to 1917
• June 22
• * A. B. Frost, illustrator
• * George Siegmann, actor
• June 24 - Holbrook Blinn, actor
• July 1 - Frankie Yale, gangster
• August 29 - George N. Bliss, soldier, Medal of Honor recipient
• October 8 - Larry Semon, actor
• October 24 - Arthur Bowen Davies, artist
• October 30 - Robert Lansing, Secretary of State
• December 11 - Lewis Howard Latimer, inventor
• December 14 - Theodore Roberts, actor
• December 16 - Elinor Wylie, poet and novelist
• December 25 - Fred Thomson, silent film actor