September 3, 1928: Alexander Fleming (pictured in 1943) serendipidtously discovers the first antibiotic, penicillinSeptember 12 to 18, 1928: Okeechobee Hurricane kills over 1,601 in Caribbean and over 2,500 in Florida [1]
King Zog carried out his first official acts, freeing 2,000 prisoners and granting one month's worth of bonus salary to all civil servants. Italy became the first country to recognize the new regime.[4]
Born:Mel Stuart, film director and producer, in New York City (d. 2012)
The National Lutheran Editors' Association passed a resolution declaring that "the peculiar allegiance that a faithful Catholic owes toward a foreign sovereign may clash with the best interests of the country", referring to the Roman Catholicism of presidential candidate Al Smith.[10]
Mobster Antonio Lombardo was shot dead in broad daylight on a busy Chicago street corner. The assassins ran into the crowd and escaped. One of Lombardo's bodyguards was also shot.[12]
Donald Henderson, physician and epidemiologist who directed the international effort to eradicate smallpox; in Lakewood, Ohio (d. 2016)
Al McGuire, American college basketball coach, Basketball Hall of Fame honoree; in New York City (d. 2001)
Died:Antonio Lombardo, 36, Italian-born American mobster nicknamed "Tony the Scourge", was shot to death in Chicago in retaliation for the murder of gangster Frankie Yale
One of Antonio Lombardo's bodyguards, Joe Ferraro, died of bullet wounds sustained in the Lombardo assassination of two days previous. He refused to tell anyone anything he might have known about who was behind the shooting and why.[16]
WGYofSchenectady, New York, transmitted the first live play ever broadcast on television. The only viewers were journalists watching the program on a 3-inch x 3-inch screen three miles away. The small screen size and low resolution meant that only the faces of the actors were shown.[20][21]
A recording which lasted three minutes and fifty-three seconds by the Columbia Graphophone Company was made at half past two in Leicester Square. The disc was a 12" 78rpm disc made the same year in association with the Daily Mail Newspaper. A man named Commander Daniel can be heard narrating, as well as various urban traffic noises, including but not limited to horse-drawn vehicles and motor vehicles.
France and Germany agreed to the creation of a European commission that would fix a final reparations figure as well as the method and rate of payment.[29]
Al Smith made an important campaign speech in Oklahoma City denouncing intolerance and addressing the issue of his religion directly. Smith said that he owed it to the country to discuss "frankly and openly" the "attempt of Senator Owen and the forces behind him to inject bigotry, hatred, intolerance and un-American sectarian division" into the campaign. Smith called it "sad" that "in view of countless billions of dollars we have poured into the cause of public education, to see some American citizens proclaiming themselves hundred percent American and then in the very document in which they make that proclamation suggesting that I be defeated for the presidency because of my religious belief." Smith also called the Ku Klux Klan "totally ignorant of the history and traditions of this country and its institutions."[38]
Chinese pirates hijacked a British steamship in the Gulf of Tonkin and ransacked the cargo cases as well as the luggage of 1,400 passengers, making off with $40,000 U.S. in loot.[46]
An editorial in The Daily Telegraph criticized British diplomacy, saying secrecy in its recent naval pact dealings with France had aroused international suspicion.[47]
