This Day in History: April 28

On this day, April 28 …

1967: Muhammad Ali is stripped of his heavyweight boxing title after he refuses to be drafted into the U.S. armed forces for the Vietnam War.

Also on this day:

1758: James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States, is born in Westmoreland County, Va.
1918: Gavrilo Princip, 23, the assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and the archduke’s wife, Sophie, dies in prison of tuberculosis.
1945: Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, are executed by Italian partisans as they attempt to flee the country.
1958: The United States conducts the first of 35 nuclear test explosions in the Pacific Proving Ground as part of Operation Hardtack I.
1958: Vice President Richard Nixon and his wife, Pat, begin a goodwill tour of Latin America that is marred by hostile mobs in Lima, Peru, and Caracas, Venezuela.
1967: U.S. Army Gen. William C. Westmoreland tells Congress that “backed at home by resolve, confidence, patience, determination and continued support, we will prevail in Vietnam over communist aggression.”
1980: President Jimmy Carter accepts the resignation of Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance, who opposed the failed rescue mission aimed at freeing American hostages in Iran. (Vance is succeeded by Edmund Muskie.)
1988: A flight attendant is killed and more than 60 people injured when part of the roof of an Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 tears off during a flight from Hilo to Honolulu.
1990: The musical “A Chorus Line” closes after 6,137 performances on Broadway.
1993: The first “Take Our Daughters to Work Day,” promoted by the New York-based Ms. Foundation, is held in an attempt to boost the self-esteem of girls by having them visit a parent’s place of work. (The event would be later expanded to include sons.)

1994: Former CIA official Aldrich Ames, who betrayed U.S. secrets to the Soviet Union and then Russia, pleads guilty to espionage and tax evasion, and is sentenced to life in prison without parole.
1996: A man armed with a semiautomatic rifle goes on a rampage on the Australian island of Tasmania, killing 35 people; the gunman is captured after a 12-hour standoff at a guest cottage.
2009: Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius wins Senate confirmation, 65-31, as Health and Human Services secretary.
2009: Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania defects from the Republican Party and joins the Democratic Party.
2014: The United States and its European allies hit more than two dozen Russian government officials, executives and companies with new sanctions as punishment for their country’s actions in Ukraine.
2018: Alfie Evans, a 23-month-old terminally-ill British toddler at the center of a legal battle over his treatment, dies at a British hospital.