Over 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. The march, which included thousands of military veterans, accelerated the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the integration of the armed forces that had begun with Truman's 1948 executive order.
Confederate General Robert E. Lee launched a flanking attack against Union General John Pope's Army of Virginia near Manassas Junction, beginning the three-day Second Battle of Bull Run. Lee's victory was among his most brilliant tactical achievements and led directly to his first invasion of the North.
The Royal Navy's first major surface action of World War I ended in a decisive British victory when Admiral David Beatty's battlecruisers surprised German light cruisers and destroyers in the Heligoland Bight near the German coast. Three German cruisers were sunk, establishing British naval dominance in the North Sea early in the war.
The United States War Department processed the 10 million registrations filed under the Selective Service Act of May 1917 as the first 32 training cantonments neared completion. The administrative machinery developed to raise the American Expeditionary Forces from four divisions to forty-two in eighteen months became the model for every subsequent U.S. mobilization.
The first wave of 150 American Marines and naval personnel landed at the Yokosuka Naval Base, beginning the formal military occupation of Japan. General MacArthur would arrive two days later to begin the remarkable transformation of Japan from a militarist empire into a democratic ally.
USS Nautilus (SSN-571), the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, returned to Groton, Connecticut from an extended under-ice exploration cruise that mapped large areas of the Arctic Ocean beneath the polar ice cap. The cruise demonstrated that a nuclear submarine could operate indefinitely beneath the ice, a capability that reshaped American strategic deterrence by opening the Arctic as a patrol area for ballistic missile submarines.
Over 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. The march, which included thousands of military veterans, accelerated the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the integration of the armed forces that had begun with Truman's 1948 executive order.
U.S. Air Force F-4D and F-4E Phantoms of the 432nd Tactical Reconnaissance Wing shot down two North Vietnamese MiG-21s over the Red River valley during Operation Linebacker. The kills validated the AIM-7E-2 Sparrow beyond-visual-range missile and the Combat Tree IFF interrogator that had transformed Phantom radar engagements since early summer.
Three Aermacchi MB-339 jets of the Italian Air Force aerobatic team Frecce Tricolori collided during a pierced-heart maneuver at Ramstein Air Base, West Germany. One aircraft crashed into the spectator crowd, killing 70 people and injuring hundreds. The disaster fundamentally changed air show safety regulations across NATO and led to minimum distance requirements still in force today.
Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast as a Category 3 hurricane, causing catastrophic flooding in New Orleans and killing over 1,800 people. The military response, including 72,000 federal troops and National Guard members, was initially criticized for its slowness but eventually became one of the largest domestic military operations in American history.
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Germany's greatest literary figure who witnessed the Battle of Valmy (1792) firsthand and declared: "From this place, and from this day forth, begins a new epoch in the history of the world." His observation about the French Revolutionary armies' victory proved prophetic, citizen armies changed warfare forever.
First native-born American saint of the Roman Catholic Church who founded the Sisters of Charity and established the parochial school system. Her order's nursing mission would later serve in the Civil War, tending to soldiers from both sides in military hospitals.
Fourteen-year-old African American boy brutally murdered in Mississippi for allegedly offending a white woman. His mother's insistence on an open-casket funeral, showing his mutilated body, galvanized the civil rights movement that King would lead to the March on Washington eight years later.
10 military events occurred on August 28, spanning multiple centuries. Key events include: March on Washington, "I Have a Dream" (1963), Battle of Heligoland Bight (1914), Second Battle of Bull Run Begins (1862), Hurricane Katrina Makes Landfall (2005).
The most significant military event on August 28 is March on Washington, "I Have a Dream" (1963). Over 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. The march, which included thousands of military veterans, accelerated the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the integration of the armed forces that had begun with Truman's 1948 executive order.
Notable military figures born on August 28 include Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774–1821).
Events on August 28 span the Cold War, World War I, World War II, the Civil War, the Modern Era, the Vietnam War, covering 10 events across 3 centuries of military history.
Events on August 28 involve 5 branches of the U.S. and allied armed forces, reflecting the global scope of military operations throughout history.
Explore military history from the day you were born.
June 6
The Allied invasion of Normandy, the largest amphibious assault in history.
December 7
Japan attacks the U.S. Pacific Fleet, bringing America into World War II.
September 11
The deadliest terrorist attack in history transforms U.S. national security.
August 6
The first atomic bomb is dropped on a city, ushering in the nuclear age.
May 8
Nazi Germany surrenders unconditionally, ending World War II in Europe.
November 11
Armistice Day marks the end of World War I and honors all who served.
June 4
The turning point of the Pacific War as the U.S. Navy destroys four Japanese carriers.
July 4
The Declaration of Independence is adopted, sparking the American Revolution.
The FIM-92 Stinger helped win the Cold War by turning Afghan mujahideen into a credible anti-aircraft threat. By 2023, the United States almost ran out of them, because Raytheon stopped making them for 13 years, and the first 10 months of Ukraine support burned through the remaining stockpile.
These weapons were built to fight a war that everyone prayed would never happen. The Minuteman III has been on alert since 1970. The Typhoon-class carried enough nuclear warheads to destroy a continent. The Davy Crockett could be fired by three soldiers. Most of them have been waiting for 40 years. Here are 10 Cold War weapons built exclusively for World War III.
The MiG-31 was designed to catch the SR-71 Blackbird. It is still the fastest fighter in any air force. The Foxhound's Zaslon phased-array radar, the first ever installed in a fighter, can track 10 targets and engage 4 simultaneously at ranges exceeding 200 miles. Here is why Russia still flies a 1980s interceptor, and why the MiG-31BM carrying a Kinzhal hypersonic missile has changed what the aircraft means to modern warfare.
Nineteen armies on four continents chose the Leopard 2. No other Western tank comes close to this export record, and the reasons go far beyond German engineering.
