Today in History: October 28, Statue of Liberty dedicated in New York

Today is Wednesday, Oct. 28, the 301st day of 2026. There are 64 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Oct. 28, 1886, the Statue of Liberty, a gift from the people of France, was dedicated in New York Harbor by President Grover Cleveland.

Also on this date:

In 1636, the General Court of Massachusetts passed a legislative act establishing Harvard College.

In 1858, Rowland Hussey Macy opened his first New York store at Sixth Avenue and 14th Street in Manhattan.

In 1919, Congress passed the Volstead Act, which provided the means for enforcement of a Prohibition-era ban on alcohol, over President Woodrow Wilson’s veto.

In 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt rededicated the Statue of Liberty on its 50th anniversary.

In 1962, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev informed the United States that he had ordered the dismantling of missile bases in Cuba; in return, the U.S. secretly agreed to remove nuclear missiles from U.S. installations in Turkey as the two superpowers brought an end to the Cuban missile crisis.

In 1991, what became known as “The Perfect Storm” began forming hundreds of miles east of Nova Scotia; lost at sea during the storm were the six crew members of the Andrea Gail, a fishing boat from Gloucester, Massachusetts.

In 2001, the families of people killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack in New York gathered at ground zero in lower Manhattan for a memorial service filled with prayer and song.

In 2012, the San Francisco Giants won their second World Series title in three years, beating the Detroit Tigers to complete a four-game sweep.

In 2018, the Boston Red Sox beat the Los Angeles Dodgers to win the World Series in five games.

In 2021, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said his company was rebranding itself as Meta, an effort to encompass its virtual-reality vision for the future, while keeping the Facebook name for the social network itself.

In 2022, Paul Pelosi, the 82-year-old husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was severely beaten by a hammer-wielding assailant who broke into their San Francisco home. Less than three weeks later, Nancy Pelosi announced she would remain in the House but step down as speaker in the next Congress.

In 2024, the Pentagon disclosed that North Korea had sent about 10,000 troops to Russia to train and likely fight against Ukraine, a move seen as piling more pressure on Ukraine's overstretched army and stoking geopolitical tensions in the Indo-Pacific region.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Jane Alexander is 87. Actor Dennis Franz is 82. Actor-singer Telma Hopkins is 78. Actor Annie Potts is 74. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is 71. Talk show host-comedian Sheryl Underwood is 63. Football Hall of Famer Steve Atwater is 60. Actor-comedian Andy Richter is 60. Actor Julia Roberts is 59. Football Hall of Famer Terrell Davis is 54. Country singer Brad Paisley is 54. Actor Joaquin Phoenix is 52. Actor Gwendoline Christie is 48. Actor Matt Smith is 44. Singer-songwriter Frank Ocean is 39. Tennis player Taylor Fritz is 28. Actor Nolan Gould is 28.