Browsing: December 28

A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on December 28th.  For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On December 28, 1503, the exiled Gran Maestro of Florence, Piero di Lorenzo de Medici, known as Piero the Unfortunate, drowned in the Garigliano River while trying to escape the advancing French and Spanish armies that had just defeated the Italians in a battle over the control of Naples. On December 28, 1795, construction began on Yonge Street in York, Upper Canada…

A Brief History On December 28, 1972, the last day for inductees to be sworn in to the US armed forces due to the draft, most induction centers were closed due to President Nixon declaring the day a National Day of Mourning due to the death of former President Truman.  Finding their induction centers closed, 300 draftees were not able to be inducted, and since the next workday was in 1973, they were never inducted since the US had suspended the draft effective in 1973. Digging Deeper Military conscription, commonly known as “The Draft” has been controversial in the US…

A Brief History On December 28, 1918, Countess Constance Markievicz was elected to the British Parliament, the first woman to achieve that feat.  Incredibly, she was in jail for anti-conscription activity when elected! Digging Deeper Constance Gore-Booth was born in London to minor nobility, a Baronet of partially Irish heritage, and his lady, and was somewhat privileged in her youth.  She later married Count Casimir Markievicz, a Polish playwright. Constance was active in social causes such as Women’s Suffrage and various Irish nationalist organizations.  Not only was she elected to Parliament in an historic election, but she was also later…

A Brief History On December 28, 1999, Western actor/action hero Clayton Moore died.  If you are not familiar with this star of the small and large screen, he played The Lone Ranger from 1949 to 1957 on television and starred in 2 related big screen movies about the same character.  Even if you never saw the Clayton Moore versions of the Lone Ranger,  you are probably familiar with “The William Tell Overture” by Rossini, the theme music played for Moore’s Lone Ranger character.  In the Covid-19 plagued year of 2020, we have lost another host of notable people, both to…

A Brief History On December 28, 1918, Constance Markievicz, while an inmate in Holloway prison, London, England, made history as the first woman elected to British House of Commons as a Member of Parliament (MP).  You may notice her last name is not a typically British name, but her birth name of Constance Georgine Gore-Booth represents her English and Irish ancestry.  Her married name, Markievicz, you may recognize as a Slavic appellation, specifically Polish.  It is her husband, Casimir Markievicz, a playwright, director and artist that provides the background for the theme of this article, that of the changing and…