Famous people born on April 28th
April 28 is a remarkably wide-ranging birthday on the calendar, spanning presidents and jurists, satirists and storytellers, and performers from classic Hollywood to contemporary film and television. The date links people who shaped public life with artists who reshaped popular imagination across novels, comedy, music, and visual art. From Enlightenment-era politics to 20th-century literature and modern celebrity culture, its roster reflects global influence and creative breadth.
Notable highlights
- Terry Pratchett (1948) - The Discworld creator fused razor-sharp social satire with fantasy, helping make humorous speculative fiction a mainstream literary force.
- Harper Lee (1926) - Her landmark novel To Kill a Mockingbird became a touchstone for American conversations about justice, empathy, and race.
- James Monroe (1758) - The fifth U.S. president is closely associated with the Monroe Doctrine, a defining statement of early American foreign policy.
- Jay Leno (1950) - A stand-up comic turned late-night institution, he became one of television's most enduring hosts on The Tonight Show.
- Jessica Alba (1981) - She rose to fame through early-2000s film and TV hits and later became a prominent entrepreneur in consumer products.
- Elena Kagan (1960) - Before joining the U.S. Supreme Court, she served as U.S. Solicitor General and as dean of Harvard Law School.
- Oskar Schindler (1908) - A German industrialist remembered for saving more than a thousand Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories.
- Yves Klein (1928) - A key figure in postwar European art, he is famed for his radical monochromes and the signature hue International Klein Blue.
- Kim Gordon (1953) - As a co-founder of Sonic Youth, she helped define alternative rock's experimental edge and its crossover into art culture.
- Roberto Bolano (1953) - The Chilean novelist's daring, polyphonic works helped reshape contemporary world literature, especially through The Savage Detectives and 2666.
On this day
- 1789 - Mutineers on HMS Bounty seize the ship from Captain William Bligh in one of maritime history's most famous revolts.
- 1945 - Italian dictator Benito Mussolini is executed near Lake Como as World War II nears its end in Europe.
- 1965 - U.S. forces begin large-scale troop deployments to the Dominican Republic during a civil conflict, launching a major Cold War-era intervention.
- 2001 - Dennis Tito becomes the first paying space tourist, traveling to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz mission.