Union troops officially take possession of New Orleans, completing the occupation that had begun four days earlier. The capture of this vital southern city was a huge blow to the Confederacy. Southern military strategists planned for a Union attack down the Mississippi, not from the Gulf of Mexico. In early 1862, the Confederates concentrated their […]

Deposed Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, are shot and executed by Italian partisans.

On April 28, 1967, boxing champion Muhammad Ali refuses to be inducted into the U.S. Army and is immediately stripped of his heavyweight title. Ali, a Muslim, cited religious reasons for his decision to forgo military service. Born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr., in Louisville, Kentucky, on January 14, 1942, the future three-time world champ changed […]

Following the defeat of his proposals for constitutional reform in a national referendum, Charles de Gaulle resigns as president of France. A veteran of World War I, de Gaulle unsuccessfully petitioned his country to modernize its armed forces between the wars. After Henri Petain and other French leaders signed an armistice with Nazi Germany in […]

On April 28, 1988, a seemingly routine, 35-minute flight from Hilo to Honolulu turns into terror when an 18-foot-long section of the upper fuselage suddenly tears off Aloha Airlines Flight 243. The explosive decompression and roof loss sweep flight attendant Clarabelle “C.B.” Lansing off the Boeing 737, send freezing winds of hurricane force through the […]

On April 28, 2004, the CBS program 60 Minutes II reports on abuse of prisoners by American military forces at Abu Ghraib, a prison in Iraq. The report, which featured graphic photographs showing U.S. military personnel torturing and abusing prisoners, shocked the American public and greatly tarnished the Bush Administration and its war in Iraq. […]