Today is Tuesday, April 28, the 118th day of 2026. There are 247 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On April 28, 1945, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, were executed by Italian partisans after attempting to flee the country.
Also on this date:
In 1789, mutineers led by Fletcher Christian took control of the ship HMS Bounty three weeks after departing Tahiti, setting the ship’s captain, Lieutenant William Bligh, and 18 other crew members adrift on a launch in the Pacific Ocean; Bligh and the other men on the launch eventually reached the island of Timor in Southeast Asia after a 3,600-mile journey.
In 1947, a six-man expedition led by Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl set out from Peru aboard a balsa wood raft named the Kon-Tiki on a 101-day, 4,300-mile journey across the Pacific Ocean to the Polynesian Islands.
In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson sent U.S. troops to the Dominican Republic to prevent a “communist dictatorship” there amid unrest as various armed groups vied for power. A conservative government was established in 1966.
In 1967, heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali was stripped of his WBA title after he refused to be inducted into the U.S. Army.
In 1994, former CIA official Aldrich Ames, who had passed U.S. secrets to the Soviet Union and then Russia, pleaded guilty to espionage and tax evasion, and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
In 2001, a Russian rocket lifted off from Central Asia carrying the first space tourist, California businessman Dennis Tito, and two cosmonauts on a journey to the International Space Station.
In 2004, the world first viewed images of prisoner abuse and torture by U.S. troops at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, via a report broadcast on the CBS television news program “60 Minutes II.”
In 2011, convicted sex offender Phillip Garrido and his wife, Nancy Garrido, pleaded guilty to kidnapping and raping a California girl, Jaycee Dugard, who was abducted in 1991 at the age of 11 and rescued 18 years later. (Phillip Garrido was sentenced to 431 years to life in prison; Nancy Garrido was sentenced to 36 years to life.)
Today’s Birthdays: Former Secretary of State James A. Baker III is 96. Actor-singer Ann-Margret is 85. Chef Alice Waters is 82. TV host-comedian Jay Leno is 76. Actor Mary McDonnell is 74. Musician Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth) is 73. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan is 66. Baseball Hall of Famer Barry Larkin is 62. Golfer John Daly is 60. Rapper Too Short is 60. Actor Bridget Moynahan is 55. Actor Jorge Garcia is 53. Actor Penelope Cruz is 52. TV personalities Drew and Jonathan Scott are 48. Actor Jessica Alba is 45. Actor Harry Shum Jr. is 44. Singer-songwriter Melanie Martinez is 31. Rock musician Victoria de Angeles is 26. Soccer player Ellie Carpenter is 26. Actor Austyn Johnson is 20.
