How many days and weeks until April 28th?

Fletcher Christian and about half the crew of HMS Bounty took the ship from William Bligh in the early hours of April 28th 1789, off Tofua in the Pacific. Bligh and eighteen men who stayed loyal were put into a twenty-three-foot open launch with a quadrant, a compass, no charts and a few days’ food. He navigated it 3,618 nautical miles to Timor in forty-seven days and lost one man, killed by islanders at the first landfall. Whatever else may be said of Bligh, it remains one of the most remarkable feats of small-boat seamanship on record.

Thor Heyerdahl sailed from Callao in Peru on April 28th 1947 on a raft of balsa logs lashed with hemp, to demonstrate that Polynesia could have been settled from South America. Kon-Tiki was on the water until August. Heyerdahl could not swim and was afraid of water.

Thirty-five people were killed at Port Arthur in Tasmania on April 28th 1996. Within twelve days the Australian states had agreed a uniform ban on semi-automatic rifles and a national buyback, which took some 650,000 weapons out of circulation.

To Kill a Mockingbird was published when its author was thirty-four, and nothing else followed for fifty-five years. Its author, Harper Lee, was born at Monroeville, Alabama, on April 28th 1926; the actress and entertainer Ann-Margret followed in 1941, and the Spanish actress Penelope Cruz in 1974.

Born on April 28th: star sign, birthstone and birth flower

Harper Lee and Ann-Margret — both named above — share this star sign with everyone else born in the same window.

None of this is settled fact in the way the history above is — zodiac dates, birthstones and birth flowers are conventions rather than laws, and different sources hedge them slightly differently. The birthstone is the most standardised of the three (set by the trade in 1912 and revised since); the birth flower is the least, resting on Victorian tradition rather than any governing body.

Gift ideas for a April 28th birthday

A small, themed starting point rather than a shopping list — diamond for the stone, Taurus for the sign, and the sky itself on the day.

Personalised birth flower & birthstone disc

Engraved with a name, the April birthstone and the daisy — both in one pendant, in a gift box.

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Taurus constellation necklace

Stainless steel, sign selectable at checkout — choose Taurus for a April 28th birthday.

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Personalised star map print

The actual night sky over a chosen place on April 28th, whichever year — a print rather than jewellery.

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