28 November History
- 1520 - Spanish explorer Ferdinand Magellan, having discovered a strait at the tip of South America, enters the Pacific.
- 1729 - Natchez Indians massacre most of the 300 French settlers and soldiers at Fort Rosalie, Louisiana.
- 1861 - The Confederate Congress admits Missouri to the Confederacy, although Missouri has not yet seceded from the Union.
- 1868 - Mt. Etna in Sicily violently erupts.
- 1872 - The Modoc War of 1872-73 begins in northern California when fighting breaks out between Modoc Chief Captain Jack and a cavalry detail led by Captain James Jackson.
- 1899 - The British are victorious over the Boers at Modder River.
- 1919 - Lady Astor is elected the first woman in Parliament.
- 1925 - The forerunner of the Grand Ole Opry, called the WSM Barn Dance, opens in Nashville, Tennessee.
- 1935 - The German Reich declares all men ages 18 to 45 as army reservists.
- 1937 - Spanish leader Francisco Franco blockades the Spanish coast.
- 1939 - The Soviet Union scraps its nonaggression pact with Finland.
- 1941 - The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise departs from Pearl Harbor to deliver F4F Wildcat fighters to Wake Island. This mission saves the carrier from destruction when the Japanese attack.
- 1943 - Sir Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Franklin D. Roosevelt meet at Tehran, Iran, to hammer out war aims.
- 1944 - The first shipment of supplies reach Antwerp by convoy, a new route for the Allies.
- 1948 - Dr. Edwin Land's first Polaroid cameras go on sale in Boston.
- 1950 - In Korea, 200,000 Communist troops launch attack on UN forces.
- 1961 - Ernie Davis becomes the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy.
- 1963 - Cape Canaveral is renamed Cape Kennedy.
- 1971 - The Anglican Church ordains the first two women as priests.
- 1984 - Republican Robert Dole is elected Senate majority leader.
28 November Birthdays
- 1628 - John Bunyan, English preacher and writer who wrote Pilgrim's Progress.
- 1757 - William Blake, English poet.
- 1907 - Alberto Moravia, Italian novelist (The Conformist, Conjugal Love).
- 1908 - Claude Levi-Strauss, French anthropologist.
- 1916 - Vyes Theriault, French-Canadian author.
- 1929 - Berry Gordy, Jr., recording executive.
- 1944 - Rita Mae Brown, novelist.