This Day In History : April 28

2001 United States

Dennis Tito Becomes the First Space Tourist in History

On April 28, 2001, American entrepreneur Dennis Tito made history by becoming the first space tourist. He paid $20 million for a seat on the Russian spacecraft Soyuz TM-32. Tito spent nearly eight days aboard the International Space Station, opening new possibilities for private space travel.

Also on This Day in History April 28

Discover what happened on April 28 with HISTORY's summaries of major events, anniversaries,
famous births and notable deaths.

Births on This Day, April 28
  • 1774 Francis Baily

    English astronomer who described the striking optical effect of “Baily's Beads” during an annular eclipse of the Sun (15 May 1836).

  • 1916 Ferruccio Lamborghini

    Italian industrialist who founded a luxury car company that produced some of the fastest, most expensive, and sought-after sports cars in the world.

  • 1906 Kurt Gödel

    Austrian-born U.S. mathematician, logician, and author of Gödel's proof.

  • 1831 Peter Guthrie Tait

    Scottish physicist and mathematician who helped develop quaternions, which he strongly promoted, and wrote a standard treatise on the subject.

  • 1906 Bart J. Bok

    Dutch-American astronomer whose name remains associated with the "Bok globules" for being the first to investigate these dark clouds of dense gas and dust visible against a background of bright nebulae.

Deaths on This Day, April 28
  • 1910 Édouard van Beneden

    Belgian embryologist and cytologist best known for his discoveries concerning fertilization in sex cells and chromosome numbers in body cells.

  • 1999 Arthur Leonard Schawlow

    American physicist who shared (with independent researchers Nicolaas Bloembergen and Kai Siegbahn) the 1981 Nobel Prize for Physics for his work in developing the laser and in laser spectroscopy.

  • 1903 Josiah Willard Gibbs

    American mathematical physicist and chemist known for contributions to vector analysis and as one of the founders of physical chemistry.

  • 1858 Johannes Peter Müller

    German physiologist and anatomist who was one of the greatest of 19th century.

  • 1842 Charles Bell

    Scottish anatomist and surgeon whose New Idea of Anatomy of the Brain (1811) has been called the “Magna Carta of neurology.”

1852

Municipal fire alarm system

In 1852, the first municipal electric fire alarm system using call boxes with automatic signaling indicating a fire's location was placed into operation in Boston.
1991

Space Shuttle STS-39 (Discovery 12) Launched

On April 28, 1991, NASA's Space Shuttle Discovery was launched on mission STS-39. The mission focused on the Department of Defense payloads and other scientific experiments. This marked the twelfth flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery, contributing to the advancement of space research and technology.
2005

The Patent Law Treaty Goes into Effect

On April 28, 2005, the Patent Law Treaty (PLT) officially went into effect, harmonizing and streamlining patent application procedures among its member countries. The treaty aimed to simplify the formal requirements and reduce the administrative burden for patent applicants. This agreement marked a step toward global patent system harmonization.
1977

The Budapest Treaty is Signed

On April 28, 1977, the Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure was signed. This treaty aimed to simplify the patent process by allowing the deposit of microorganisms to be recognized across member countries. It facilitated international patent applications involving biological materials.
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