April 28th

Phillip Garrido and his wife, Nancy, pleaded guilty to kidnapping and raping Jaycee Dugard, who was abducted in California in 1991 at age 11 and rescued 18 years later. (The Garridos were sentenced to up to life in prison.).

Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania switched from the Republican to the Democratic Party.

The Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal first comes to light when graphic photos of U.S. soldiers physically abusing and humiliating Iraqi prisoners were shown on CBS's 60 Minutes II.

Apple Computer Inc. launched the iTunes store.

A Russian rocket lifted off from Central Asia bearing the first space tourist, California businessman Dennis Tito.

President Bill Clinton gave 4 1/2 hours of videotaped testimony as a defense witness in the criminal trial of his former Whitewater business partners.

Former CIA official Aldrich Ames, who had betrayed 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.

The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture unveiled its first “food pyramid.”.

The musical 'A Chorus Line' closed after 6,137 performances on Broadway.

Secretary of State Cyrus Vance resigned over his opposition to the failed rescue mission aimed at freeing American hostages in Iran.

Andreas Baader and members of terrorist group the Red Army Faction (Baader-Meinhof Gang) jailed for life after a trial lasting nearly 2 years in Stuttgart, Germany.

Charles de Gaulle resigns as President of France. De Gaulle founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and became its first President a year later.

Heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali refused to be inducted into the Army.

A six-man expedition sailed from Peru aboard a balsa wood raft named the Kon-Tiki on a 101-day journey across the Pacific Ocean to Polynesia.

Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, were executed.

Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was born near the desert town of Tikrit.

First night air flight by Claude Grahame-White in England.

The crew of the British ship Bounty mutineed, setting Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors adrift in a launch in the South Pacific.

Maryland became the seventh state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

British Captain James Cook, aboard the Endeavour, lands at Botany Bay in Australia.

Establishment of the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, The Catholic University of the Philippines, the oldest existing university in Asia and the largest Catholic university in the world.