Today in History - March 28

Return to home
193        Mar 28, Publius Helvius Pertinax, Roman Emperor (192-93), was assassinated.
    (HFA, '96, p.26)(MC, 3/28/02)

1472        Mar 28, Fra Bartolommeo (d.1517), Florentine Renaissance painter, was born.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fra_Bartolommeo)

1483        Mar 28, Raphael, painter (School of Athens), was born in Urbino, Italy. [see Apr 6]
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1503        Mar 28, The 2nd Lithuanian war with Russia (1500-1503) ended with a treaty. Lithuania lost a fourth of its territory.
    (LHC, 3/28/03)

1515        Mar 28, Theresa of Avila (d.1582), Teresa de Jesus (St. Theresa), Spanish Carmelite nun, mystic writer, saint, was born. She initiated reforms in the Order. She co-founded with John of the Cross (1542-1591) the Order of Discalced (barefoot) Carmelites. "Untilled ground, however rich, will bring forth thistles and thorns; so also the mind of man." "To wish to act like angels while we are still in this world is nothing but folly."
    (CU, 6/87)(WUD, 1994, p.769)(AP, 12/8/97)(AP, 7/5/98)(MC, 3/28/02)

1556        Mar 28, Philip II, Charles V's son, was crowned king of Spain. [see Sep 12]
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1652        Mar 28, Samuel Sewall, British colonial merchant and one of the Salem witch trial judges, was born.
    (HN, 3/28/01)

1660        Mar 28, Georg Ludwig, German monarch of Hanover, King George I of Great Britain, was born.
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1673        Mar 28, Adam Pijnacker (51), Dutch landscape painter, etcher, was buried.
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1687        Mar 28, Constantine Huygens (90), diplomat, poet, composer (Bluebottles), died.
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1737        Mar 28, Francesco Zanetti, composer, was born.
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1766        Mar 28, Joseph Weigl, Austrian composer, conductor (Emmeline), was born.
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1774        Mar 28, Britain passed the Coercive Act against Massachusetts. [see May 20]
    (HN, 3/28/98)

1794        Mar 28, Marie-Joseph de Condorcet (b.1743), mathematician (Theory of Comets) and philosopher, died as a fugitive from French Revolution Terrorists.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquis_de_Condorcet)

1797        Mar 28, Nathaniel Briggs of New Hampshire patented a washing machine.
    (AP, 3/28/97)

1799        Mar 28, NY state abolished slavery.
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1804        Mar 28, Ohio passed law restricting movement of Blacks. [see Jan 5]
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1818        Mar 28, Wade Hampton (d.1902), Confederate general, was born.
    (HN, 3/28/98)(MC, 3/28/02)
1818        Mar 28, Giuseppe Antonio Capuzzi (62), composer, died.
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1821        Mar 28, Greek Independence Day celebrates the liberation of Southern Greece from Turkish domination.
    (SFC, 3/28/98, p.A15)

1834        Mar 28, The US Senate voted to censure Pres. Jackson for the removal of federal deposits from the Bank of the United States. The Senate declared that Pres. Andrew Jackson: "in the last executive proceedings in relation to the public revenue, has assumed upon himself authority and power not conferred by the constitution and laws, but in derogation of both."
    (AP, 3/28/97)

1837        Mar 28, Felix Mendelssohn married Cecile Jeanrenaud.
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1844        Mar 28, Jose Zorilla's "Don Juan Tenorio," premiered in Madrid.
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1845        Mar 28, Mexico dropped diplomatic relations with US.
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1854        Mar 28, During the Crimean War, Britain and France declared war on Russia.
    (AP, 3/28/97)

1859        Mar 28, 1st performance of John Brahms' 1st Serenade for orchestra.
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1862        Mar 28, Aristide Briand, premier of France (1909-22), was born.
    (HN, 3/28/98)
1862        Mar 28, US Civil War skirmish at Bealeton Station, Virginia.
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1864        Mar 28, A group of Copperheads attacked Federal soldiers in Charleston Ill. Five were killed and twenty wounded.
    (HN, 3/28/99)

1868        Mar 28, Maxim Gorki, Russian writer, was born. [see Mar 16]
    (HN, 3/28/98)

1871        Mar 28, Willem Mengelberg, conductor (NY Philharmonic 1922-30), was born in Utrecht, Neth.
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1879        Mar 28, British mounted troops under Colonel Henry Evelyn Wood went up Hlobane Mountain to battle the Zulus—only to be surrounded by a 22,000-man impi (army). Lieutenant Colonel Redvers Buller, received the Victoria Cross for his gallantry during the difficult withdrawal of his troopers from the mountain. Hlobane was the worst rout of British cavalry—and the last Zulu victory—of the Anglo-Zulu War in South Africa.
    (HN, 3/12/98)(HN, 3/28/99)

1881        Mar 28, "Greatest Show On Earth" was formed by P.T. Barnum and James A. Bailey. [see 1879 and Mar 16,18, 1881]
    (MC, 3/28/02)
1881        Mar 28, Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (42), composer, died. [see Mar 16]
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1885        Mar 28, The Salvation Army was officially organized in the U.S.
    (HN, 3/28/98)

1886        Mar 28, Jarosla Novotny, composer, was born.
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1890        Mar 28, Paul Whiteman, orchestra leader (Paul Whiteman's TV Teen Club), was born in Denver, Co.
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1895        Mar 28, Spencer W. Kimball, 12th Prophet of the Mormon Church, was born.
    (HN, 3/28/98)
1895        Mar 28, Major James McCudden, the first RAF pilot to receive the Victoria Cross, was born.
    (HN, 3/28/99)

1896        Mar 28, The opera "Andrea Chenier," by Umberto Giordano, premiered in Milan, Italy.
    (AP, 3/28/97)

1898        Mar 28, The Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Wong Kim Ark that a child born in the United States to  Chinese immigrants was a US citizen.
    (AP, 3/28/08)

1903        Mar 28, Rudolf Serkin, pianist (Marlboro School of Music), was born in Eger, Bohemia.
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1905        Mar 28, Marlin Perkins, TV host (Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom), was born in Carthage, Mo.
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1907        Mar 28, Pavel Ivanovich Blaramberg (65), composer, died.
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1908        Mar 28, Automobile owners lobbied Congress, supporting a bill that called for vehicle licensing and federal registration.
    (HN, 3/28/98)

1909        Mar 28, Nelson Algren (d.1981, novelist (The Man with the Golden Arm, A Walk on the Wild Side), was born.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Algren)

1910        Mar 28, Pres. Theodore Roosevelt gave his “Law and Order in Egypt” speech at Cairo Univ. Sheikh Ali Yusuf, Muslim cleric and popular columnist, had written an open letter in praise of Roosevelt’s visit, but the president’s imperious tone soon disappointed Egyptian hopes.
    (www.mobipocket.com/EN/eBooks/eBookDetails.asp?BookID=86377)(Econ, 6/6/09, p.1910)
1910        Mar 28, The first seaplane took off from water at Martinques, France.
    (HN, 3/28/98)

1911        Mar 28, M.K. Ciurlionis (b.1875), Lithuanian artist and composer, died.
    (LC, 1998, p.12)

1914        Mar 28, Edmund Sixtus Muskie, (Sen-D-Me), US Sec of State (1980), was born.
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1917        Mar 28, The Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) was founded, these were Great Britain’s first official service women.
    (HN, 3/28/99)
1917        Mar 28, Puccini's "La Rondine," premiered in Monte Carlo.
    (MC, 3/28/02)
1917        Mar 28, Jews were expelled from Tel Aviv and Jaffa by Turkish authorities.
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1920        Mar 28, Dirk Bogarde, actor (Death in Venice, Servant), was born in London, England.
    (MC, 3/28/02)
1920        Mar 28, Thomas Masaryk was elected president of Czechoslovakia.
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1922        Mar 28, The 1st microfilm device was introduced.
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1927        Mar 28, Karl Prohaska (57), composer, died.
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1928        Mar 28, Zbigniew Brzezinski, US national security advisor (Carter), was born in Warsaw.
    (MC, 3/28/02)
1928        Mar 30, Petaluma farmers shipped 58 carloads of eggs by train to SF. 50,000 cases contained some 18 million eggs.
    (Ind, 4/26/03, p.5A)
1928        Mar 28, J.L. Rutledge, Pacific Air Transport pilot, ran out of fuel and parachuted from his plane near Orinda, Ca. The plane crashed nearby and he retrieved the mail and delivered it to the Orinda post office.
    (SFC, 3/28/03, p.E8)
1928        Mar 28, Giuseppe Ferrata (63), composer, died.
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1929        Mar 28, Frederick Exley, American novelist (A Fan's Notes), was born.
    (HN, 3/28/01)

1930        Mar 28, Jerome Isaac Friedman, American physicist, was born. He helped confirm the existence of quarks.
    (HN, 3/28/01)
1930        Mar 28, The names of the Turkish cities of Constantinople and Angora were changed to Istanbul and Ankara.
    (AP, 3/28/97) (HN, 3/28/98)

1933        Mar 28, Nazis ordered a ban on all Jews in businesses, professions and schools.
    (HN, 3/28/98)
1933        Mar 28, German Reichstag conferred dictatorial powers on Hitler.
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1935        Mar 28, Goddard used gyroscopes to control a rocket.
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1936        Mar 28, Mario Vargas Llosa, Peruvian novelist (Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, Death in the Andes), was born.
    (HN, 3/28/01)

1938        Mar 28, The US Supreme Court in Lovell v City of Griffin declared that it is unconstitutional to require someone to get a government permit to engage in free speech.
    (SFC, 4/18/09, p.B2)(http://supreme.justia.com/us/303/444/case.html)
1938        Mar 28, Colonel Edward Mandell House (b.1858), friend and advisor to Pres. Woodrow Wilson, died in Texas. In 2006 Godfrey Hodgson authored “Woodrow Wilson’s Right Hand: The Life of Colonel Edward M. House.”
    (www.library.yale.edu/un/house/chrono.htm)

1939        Mar 28, Philip Barry's "Philadelphia Story," premiered in NYC.
    (MC, 3/28/02)
1939        Mar 28, Clark Gable (d.1960) and Carol Lombard (d.1942) stayed at the Arizona Oatman Hotel for their honeymoon. [see Mar 29]
    (SSFC, 6/17/01, p.T8)
1939        Mar 28, The Spanish Civil War ended as Madrid fell to Francisco Franco. He emerged victorious and became head of Fascist Spain ending the Spanish Civil War. France executed more than 100,000 people who had opposed him. In 1982 Dan Richardson wrote "Comintern Army," a historical work on the Spanish Civil War. "The Historical Dictionary of the Spanish Civil War" was published in 1982. In 1991 Burnett Bolloten wrote "The Spanish Civil War." In 2006 Antony Beevor authored “The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1936.” This was an update of his 1982 account.
    (SFC, 11/12/96, p.A12)(AP, 3/28/97)(HN, 3/28/98)(WSJ, 11/19/96, p.A22)(Econ, 6/24/06, p.97)

1941        Mar 28, Novelist and critic Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), born as Virginia Stephen, died in Lewes, England. She feared a mental breakdown and threw herself into the River Ouse near her home in Sussex. Her body was never found. She was an English novelist, essayist and critic and wrote standing up. In 1997 “Art and Affection, A Life of Virginia Woolf” was published. In 1997 a biography by Hermione Lee was published.
    (WUD, 1994, p.1643)(SFC, 6/23/96, zone 1 p.2)(SFEM, 1/12/97, BR p.7)(AP, 3/28/97)(SFEC, 6/22/97, BR p.8)(HN, 3/28/01)
1941        Mar 28, The Italian fleet was routed by the British at the Battle of Matapan.
    (HN, 3/28/99)

1942        Mar 28, Samuel Ramey, bass (La Scala, Met Opera), was born in Colby, Kansas.
    (MC, 3/28/02)
1942        Mar 28, British naval forces continued the raid on the Nazi-occupied French port of St. Nazaire. British Bomber Command launched an attack on the German city of Lubeck with 234 RAF bombers.
    (AP, 3/28/97)(HN, 3/28/98)(MC, 3/28/02)
1942        Mar 28, A British ship, the HMS Capbeltown, a Lend-Lease American destroyer, which was specifically rammed into a German occupied dry-dock in France, exploded, knocking the area out of action for the German battleship Tirpitz.
    (HN, 3/28/00)

1943        Mar 28, Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff (70), Russian-born composer, died in Beverly Hills, Calif.
    (AP, 3/28/97)

1945        Mar 28, Germany launched the last of the V-2 rockets (buzz bomb) against England.
    (HN, 3/28/99)

1949        Mar 28, Sec. of Defense James Forrestal resigned due to a mental breakdown. He was worn out by his futile efforts to bring about the unification of the armed services. He was succeeded by Louis A. Johnson. Johnson proceeded to slash defense expenses. He retired all but 5 aircraft carriers and dismantled the first supercarrier.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Forrestal)

1953        Mar 28, In the 7th Tony Awards: Crucible and Wonderful Town won.
    (MC, 3/28/02)
1953        Mar 28, Jim Thorpe (b.1887), native American decathlon athlete (Olympics-gold-1912), died in Lomita, California.
    (AP, 3/28/02)(www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Jim_Thorpe)

1954        Mar 28, In the 8th Tony Awards: Teahouse of the August Moon and Kismet won
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1955        Mar 28, John Marshall Harlan was sworn in to the U.S. Supreme Court.
    (HN, 3/28/98)

1958        Mar 28, W.C. Handy, the "Father of the Blues," died in New York at age 84.
    (AP, 3/28/08)

1959        Mar 28, China announced the dissolution of the Tibetan government.
    (AP, 1/16/09)

1960        Mar 28, In Glasgow, Scotland, a factory exploded burying 20 fire fighters.
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1962        Mar 28, The U.S. Air Force announced research into the use of lasers to intercept missiles and satellites.
    (HN, 3/28/98)

1963        Mar 28, Alec A. Templeton (52), composer, pianist (Alec Templeton Time), died.
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1964        Mar 28, First pirate radio station began to broadcast off the coast of England. Radio Caroline debuted with a combination of rock music and lively disk jockey who's patter played to a huge audience in Great Britain. British authorities, tried unsuccessfully, to shut down the radio station ship. Radio Caroline had become competition to the staid and usually dull British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). [see Dec 23]
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1966        Mar 28, Navy corpsman Robert R. Ingram was shot while with his platoon of marines on a ridge in Quang Ngai province, South Vietnam. He continued providing medical attention to his comrades with multiple wounds to himself. He was awarded a belated Medal of Honor in 1998 due to lost paperwork.
    (SFC, 7/11/98, p.A3)

1967        Mar 28, UN Sec. General U Thant made public proposals for peace in Vietnam.
    (MC, 3/28/02)

1968        Mar 28, The U.S. lost its first aircraft in Vietnam. An F-111 vanished in a combat mission over North Vietnam. Republic Aircraft's F-105 Thunderchief, better known as the 'Thud,' was the Air Force's war-horse in Vietnam.
    (HN, 3/28/98)
1968        Mar 28, In Memphis a riot erupted during a protest march in support of striking sanitation workers led by Martin Luther King. One African-American marcher was killed and King urged calm as National Guard troops are called to Memphis to restore order. King subsequently departed Memphis, but vowed to return on April 4 to attend another march.
    (SFC, 12/1/97, p.A3)(http://tinyurl.com/atrl3z)

1969        Mar 28, Dwight D. Eisenhower (b.1890), the 34th president of the US, died at Walter Reed General Hospital in Washington at age 78. In 2002 Carlo D’Este authored "Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life." In 2007 Kasey S. Pipes authored “Ike’s Final Battle: The Road to Little Rock and the Challenge of Equality.” In 2007 Michael Korda authored “Ike: An American Hero.”
    (AP, 3/28/97)(HN, 3/28/98)(WSJ, 7/12/02, p.W12)(WSJ, 3/7/07, p.D7)(SFC, 8/22/07, p.E1)

1970        Mar 28, Over 1,000 people were killed when a major earthquake damaged 254 villages in Gediz, Turkey. Estimates of the magnitude varied from 6.9 to 7.3.
    (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/world/events/1970_03_28.php)

1971        Mar 28, CBS aired the final broadcast of its Ed Sullivan Show. Reruns and pre-emptions aired in that time slot throughout the following April and May, and in June, CBS announced that The Ed Sullivan Show had been cancelled.
    (http://tviv.org/The_Ed_Sullivan_Show)
1971        Mar 28, In the 25th Tony Awards held in NYC “Sleuth” won for best play & “Company” won for best musical.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/25th_Tony_Awards)

1973        Mar 28, The Irish Navy caught Joe Cahill (1920-2004) as he tried to smuggle 5 tons of Russian-made explosives, guns and ammunition from Libya.
    (SFC, 7/26/04, p.B4)(http://tinyurl.com/5lfwh2)

1974        Mar 28, In Romania the position of President of the Republic was created especially for Nicolae Ceausescu, who is then named President for life by Grand National Assembly.
    (www.ceausescu.org/ceausescu_texts/ceausescu_chronology.htm)

1977        Mar 28, In the 49th Academy Awards "Rocky," Peter Finch and Faye Dunaway won.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/49th_Academy_Awards)

1978        Mar 28, Laura Beyerly (16) was last seen in the Los Altos, Ca., school parking lot. Her remains were found a year later in the Santa Cruz County hills on property belonging to the uncle of Scott B. Schultz. In 2006 police in Colorado arrested Scott B. Schultz, a boy friend with whom she had broken up. In 2007 Schultz faced just one year in jail in a plea deal.
    (SFC, 8/24/06, p.B1)(SFC, 9/2/06, p.B3)(SFC, 6/16/07, p.B1)

1979        Mar 28, America's worst commercial nuclear accident occurred inside the Unit Two reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Middletown, Pa., almost to meltdown. Thousands living near the plant left the area before the 12-day crisis ended, during which time some radioactive water and gases were released. A combination of mechanical and human factors allowed the Unit 2 reactor to lose cooling water. It cost more than $1 billion and more than a decade to remove the damaged nuclear fuel. A 1997 study indicated increased cancer rates for people living downwind.
    (TMC, 1994, p.1979)(SFC, 6/8/96, p.A2)(SFC, 2/24/96, p.A3)(AP, 3/28/97) (HN, 3/28/98)(MC, 3/28/02)
1979        Mar 28, Michelle Triola Marvin lost her palimony suit against actor Lee Marvin. She had sought half of $3.6 million that Marvin earned during their 1964-1970 relationship. A judge awarded her $104,000 so that she could learn new job skills. In 1981 a California State Court of Appeal rescinded the award.
    (SFC, 1/1/09, p.B5)(http://law.jrank.org/pages/3295/Marvin-V-Marvin-Palimony-Suit-1979.html)

1980        Mar 28, Jesse Owens (b.1913), (Oly-gold-36), died.
    {Olympics, USA, Black History}
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Owens)

1982        Mar 28, Voters in El Salvador went to the polls for a constituent assembly election that resulted in victory for the Christian Democrats, led by President Jose Napoleon Duarte.
    (AP, 3/28/97)

1984        Mar 28, Zoe, the 1st frozen-embryo child, was born in Melbourne, Australia. Scientists reported the birth 2 weeks later.
    (www.breedingbetterdogs.com/aging.html)

1985        Mar 28, Neil Simon's "Biloxi Blues," premiered in NYC.
    (http://tinyurl.com/ygdptw)
1985        Mar 28, Marc Chagall (b.1887), Belarus-born French painter, died. In 2008 Jackie Wullschlager authored “Chagall: A Biography.”
    (www.artelino.com/articles/marc_chagall.asp)(Econ, 9/20/08, p.101)

1986        Mar 28, The U.S. Senate passed a $100 million aid package for the Nicaraguan contras.
    (HN, 3/28/98)
1986        Mar 28, Extremist Sikhs killed 13 Hindus in Ludhiana, India.
    (http://tinyurl.com/h5at2)

1987        Mar 28, Maria Augusta von Trapp (b.1905), one of the Trapp Family Singers, died in Morrisville, Vt. Her 1949 book “The Story of the Trapp Family Singers” was fictionalized in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music (1965).
    (AP, 3/28/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_von_Trapp)

1988        Mar 28, Richard Gephardt ended his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, following his third-place finish in the Michigan caucuses.
    (AP, 3/28/98)

1989        Mar 28, President Bush sent three high-ranking officials to Alaska to "take a hard look" at the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound. '
    (AP, 3/28/99)

1990        Mar 28, Jesse Owens (1913-1980) was awarded (posthumously) the Congressional Gold Medal from President George Bush.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Owens)
1990        Mar 28, British customs officials announced they had foiled an attempt to supply Iraq with 40 American-made devices for triggering nuclear weapons, following an 18-month investigation by U.S. and British authorities.
    (AP, 3/28/00)

1991        Mar 28, Former President Reagan declared his support for the so-called “Brady Bill” requiring a seven-day waiting period for handgun purchases.
    (AP, 3/28/01)
1991        Mar 28, Fire seriously damaged the US Embassy in Moscow.
    (AP, 3/27/01)
1991        Mar 28, Tens of thousands of supporters of Boris N. Yeltsin marched in Moscow in defiance of President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s ban on rallies.
    (AP, 3/28/01)

1992        Mar 28, Democrats Bill Clinton and Jerry Brown clashed over Brown's flat-tax proposal, with Clinton charging the plan would hurt the poor, and Brown accusing Clinton of inventing "another big lie."
    (AP, 3/28/97)

1993        Mar 28, Francisco Garcia Diaz discovered a type II supernova in M81 (NGC 3031).
    (www.aavso.org/aavso/membership/nova.shtml)
1993        Mar 28, Chinese Premier Li Peng won a second term.
    (AP, 3/28/98)
1993        Mar 28, About 10,000 people marched in Dublin, Ireland, to protest an IRA bombing that killed two young boys.
    (AP, 3/28/98)
1993        Mar 28, Russian President Boris Yeltsin and his chief political rival, parliament speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov, claimed victory after surviving attempts by the Russian Congress to oust them.
    (AP, 3/28/98)

1994        Mar 28, In Johannesburg, South Africa, ANC guards killed more than 50 people in violence that erupted during a march by Zulu nationalists.
    (AP, 3/28/99)(WSJ, 3/29/96, p.A-1)
1994        Mar 28, Absurdist playwright Eugene Ionesco died in Paris at age 81.
    (AP, 3/28/99)

1995        Mar 28, Loomis guard Rick Price was shot in the head and killed during an armored car robbery in Sonoma, Ca. Bank robber William Crouch was also killed by a second guard and alleged accomplice Joan Carrafa of Glen Ellen was later arrested. She was convicted in 1996 for first degree murder.
    (SFC, 5/25/96, p.A16)
1995        Mar 28, In Japan, Mitsubishi Bank and the Bank of Tokyo agreed to a merger to create what was then the world's largest bank.
    (AP, 3/28/00)

1996        Mar 28, Congress passed the line-item veto, giving the president power to cut government spending by scrapping specific programs.
    (AP, 3/28/97)
1996        Mar 28, The space shuttle Atlantis astronauts said goodbye to the crew of Russia's space station Mir and then flew away, leaving Shannon Lucid behind for a five-month stay in orbit.
    (AP, 3/28/97)
1996        Mar 28, Col. Gadhaffi of Libya sent troops to put down unrest in northeastern Libya after a 400 prisoners, many including dissidents and Islamic militants, escaped from prison last week.
    (WSJ, 3/28/96,p.A-1)

1997        Mar 28, Robert Pinsky (56) of Boston Univ. was named poet laureate of the United States by the Library of Congress.
    (SFC, 3/28/97, p.A7)
1997        Mar 28, A medical examiner revealed that some members of the Heaven's Gate cult who'd committed suicide in a California mansion had also been castrated in apparent pursuit of the group's ideal of androgynous immortality.
    (AP, 3/28/98)
1997        Mar 28, The UN Security Council agreed to send a multinational force to Albania to protect the delivery of humanitarian aid.
    (SFC, 3/29/97, p.A10)

1998        Mar 28, President Clinton, during his visit to South Africa, went to Soweto, a landmark in the bloody uprising against apartheid, to honor South Africans "who answered the call of conscience" and defeated their country's system of white supremacy.
    (AP, 3/28/99)
1998        Mar 28, It was reported that the US government conducted a series of “sub-critical” underground explosions involving radioactive plutonium in a sealed chamber 960 feet below ground at the Los Alamos National Lab.
    (SFC, 3/28/98, p.A5)
1998        Mar 28, In France tens of thousands marched in demonstrations against the right-wing National Front, which made gains in recent regional elections.
    (SFEC, 3/29/98, p.A12)
1998        Mar 28, In India the Hindu Nationalist BJP won a confidence vote in parliament by a narrow margin, 274-261.
    (SFEC, 3/29/98, p.A12)
1998        Mar 28, In Madagascar the locust swarm was reported to have covered an estimated 24 million acres in the south of the country.
    (SFC, 3/28/98, p.A5)
1998        Mar 28, In Russia former Prime Minister Victor Chernomyrdin announced his candidacy for the presidential election in 2000.
    (SFEC, 3/29/98, p.A12)

1999        Mar 28, Venus Williams beat kid sister Serena 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 to win the Lipton Championships in the first all-sister women's final in 115 years.
    (AP, 3/28/00)
1999        Mar 28, The Sea Launch Co. successfully fired a Ukrainian and Russian built rocket from their Odyssey, marine based, self-propelled platform.
    (SFC, 3/29/99, p.A2)
1999        Mar 28, It was reported that Amnesty Int'l. placed the US on its list of human rights violators on the 1st day of the 1st week of the UN annual meeting on global democratic rights in Geneva.
    (SFEC, 3/28/99, p.A25)
1999        Mar 28, In SF the 15-story Verducci Hall of California State Univ. on Lake Merced Drive was blown up. It was to be replaced by a new apartment complex. The building, which opened in 1969, was named after Joe Verducci, a former CSU athletic director, and had been vacant since 1991.
    (SFC, 3/17/99, p.A12)(SFC, 3/29/99, p.A1,5)
1999        Mar 28, In Cuba the Baltimore Orioles beat a Cuban baseball all-star team 3:2 in 11 innings. A rematch in Baltimore was scheduled for May 3.
    (SFC, 3/29/99, p.A1)   
1999        Mar 28, Ethiopia claimed to have killed tens of thousands of Eritrean soldiers since Feb 23. Eritrea made equally high and unconfirmed claims of enemy casualties.
    (WSJ, 3/29/99, p.A1)
1999        Mar 28, In Israel hundreds of government and public service workers resumed their nationwide strike against a decision to cap wage increases.
    (SFC, 3/29/99, p.A8)
1999        Mar 28, In Japan the exploits of Nasubi, a 23-year-old comedian, came to an end as his producers revealed him naked to a studio audience. For over a year he had been shown on weekly TV, without his knowledge, trying to survive on prizes from magazine competitions. He never won any clothes.
    (SFC, 4/1/99, p.E5)
1999        Mar 28, An American Stealth F117 Nighthawk is shot down over northern Yugoslavia during the NATO air strikes against Serbs attacking Kosovo.
    (HN, 3/28/00)   
1999        Mar 28, NATO broadened its attacks on Yugoslavia to target Serb military forces in Kosovo in the fifth straight night of airstrikes. UN officials reported that some 500,000 ethnic Albanians had fled Kosovo. NATO officials raised the possibility of using ground troops in Yugoslavia as low-level strikes against tanks began. It was feared that anger over the war would spill over to Bosnia.
    (SFC, 3/29/99, p.A1,10)(AP, 3/28/00)
1999        Mar 28, The notorious Scorpions unit stormed the northern Kosovo town of Podujevo. In 2004 a Belgrade court convicted Sasa Cvjetan, a member of the unit, of killing 14 ethnic Albanian civilians, mostly women and children. The verdict was overturned but in 2005 a re-trial confirmed his guilt and 20-year sentence. In 2008 four members of the Scorpions paramilitary group were tried by a Belgrade court for allegedly gunning down 19 civilians in Podujevo. On June 18, 2009, they were convicted sentenced to between 15 and 20 years in prison. 
    (AP, 6/17/05)(AP, 12/11/08)(AP, 6/18/09)(www.hlc-rdc.org/Saopstenja/1712.en.html)
1999        Mar 28, In Paraguay Pres. Raul Cubas resigned and ended a week of political turmoil. Senator Luis Gonzalez Macchi was sworn in as president. Gen'l. Lino Oviedo was granted asylum in Argentina.
    (SFC, 3/29/99, p.A9)(SFC, 3/30/99, p.F2)

2000        Mar 28, In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court sharply curtailed police power to rely on anonymous tips to stop and search people.
    (AP, 3/28/01)
2000        Mar 28, The inflatable boat of a UC Davis research group capsized off the coast of Baja California and at least 3 people died.
    (SFC, 3/29/00, p.A1)
2000        Mar 28, In Tennga, Georgia, a freight train collided with a school bus and 2 children were killed with 5 critically injured.
    (SFC, 3/29/00, p.A3)
2000        Mar 28, A tornado hit fort Worth, Texas, and 4 people were killed with over 100 injured. It cut a 2-mile swath and inflicted $450 million in damages.
    (SFC, 3/29/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/6/02, p.A1)
2000        Mar 28, Prof. Adam B. Ulam of Harvard Univ., died at age 77. His 18 books included “Stalin: The Man and His Era” (1973).
    (SFC, 4/1/00, p.A26)
2000        Mar 28, Nine of 11 OPEC nations voted to raise oil production by a total of 1.45 million barrels a day.
    (SFC, 3/29/00, p.A1)
2000        Mar 28, In Niedersill, Austria, a massive avalanche killed 11 people.
    (SFC, 3/29/00, p.A15)
2000        Mar 28, Mohamad Hasan (69), an Indonesian timber tycoon associated with former Pres. Suharto, was arrested for fraud. He had directed the state sanctioned plywood monopoly and controlled a forest mapping company. Hasan received a 6-year sentence and was jailed at Batu prison where he soon organized the inmate obsidian polishing operations.
    (WSJ, 3/29/00, p.A19)(WSJ, 8/13/03, p.A1)
2000        Mar 28, Jordan with US intelligence help indicted 28 followers of Osama bin Laden for plotting attacks against American tourists in Dec.
    (SFC, 3/29/00, p.A14)
2000        Mar 28, In Rugazi, Uganda, 28 bodies were found under the floor of the home of Dominic Kataribabo, leader of the Movement for the Restoration of Ten Commandments. This brought the total dead to at least 591.
    (SFC, 3/29/00, p.A15)

2001        Mar 28, The EU expressed concern over Pres. Bush’s abandonment of the Kyoto Treaty for cutting carbon dioxide emissions.
    (WSJ, 3/29/01, p.A1)
2001        Mar 28, The US Senate voted to double the “hard money” contribution limits to candidates and political parties.
    (SFC, 3/29/01, p.A1)
2001        Mar 28, A federal appeals court in San Francisco threw out a record $107 million verdict against anti-abortion activists, ruling that a Web site and wanted posters branding abortion doctors “baby butchers” and criminals were protected by the First Amendment.
    (AP, 3/28/02)
2001        Mar 28, The authors of a book on the Oklahoma City bombing revealed that during prison interviews, Timothy McVeigh had shown no remorse for what happened, and called the 19 children who died “collateral damage.”
    (AP, 3/28/02)
2001        Mar 28, Bosnian Croat soldiers deserted by the hundreds following orders by the self-proclaimed Croat National Assembly led by the nationalist Croat Democratic Union. Many returned after the defense ministry warned that they would forfeit wages and benefits.
    (SFC, 3/29/01, p.A12)
2001        Mar 28, Two Israeli teenagers were killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber. Israeli gunships followed up with missile strikes at Arafat’s personal security forces (Force 17) and at least 3 Palestinians were killed.
    (SFC, 3/29/01, p.A10)
2001        Mar 28, In Jordan an Arab summit convened. Delegates had already approved a draft resolution for the UN to allow Baghdad to fund the Palestinian uprising.
    (WSJ, 3/27/01, p.A17)
2001        Mar 28, Macedonia began final assaults on rebels near the Kosovo border as political talks were set to begin.
    (SFC, 3/29/01, p.A10)
2001        Mar 28, In Mexico Zapatistas told the Mexican legislature that the military phase of their struggle was over and that political efforts would take precedence.
    (SFC, 3/29/01, p.A1)
2001        Mar 28, Russia’s Pres. Putin replaced his defense and interior ministers. Sergei Ivanov was appointed the new defense minister and Boris Gryzlov the new interior minister.
    (SFC, 3/29/01, p.A10)

2002        Mar 28, A US diplomat, reportedly the CIA station chief, was pulled from Belgrade following accusations that he was receiving military secrets.
    (WSJ, 3/29/02, p.A1)
2002        Mar 28, Walter Hewlett, a dissident director of Hewlett-Packard Co., claimed HP used corporate assets to entice and coerce certain financial institutions to vote for the merger with Compaq Corp.
    (SFC, 3/29/02, p.A1)
2002        Mar 28, US Air Force Staff Sergeant Timothy Woodland was convicted in a Japanese court and sentenced to nearly three years in prison for raping a woman on the southern island of Okinawa.
    (AP, 3/28/03)
2002        Mar 28, Matthew J. Bourgeois (35), a Navy Seal from Tallahassee, was killed by a land mine in Kandahar.
    (SFC, 3/29/02, p.A9)
2002        Mar 28, A US Navy helicopter crashed on Split Mountain in the Sequoia National Forest and 2 crew members were killed.
    (SFC, 3/29/02, p.A5)
2002        Mar 28, In Beirut the Arab League committed to accepting Israel as a neighbor under conditions that included the creation of an independent Palestinian state and Israel's full withdrawal from war-won lands, an offer that Israel did not accept.
    (SFC, 3/29/02, p.A15)(AP, 3/28/03)(www.mideastweb.org/saudipeace.htm)
2002        Mar 28, A Hamas attack left 4 Israelis dead in a West Bank settlement. Arafat said he was ready to call for a cease-fire.
    (WSJ, 3/29/02, p.A1)
2002        Mar 28, In Pakistan police in Faisalabad and Lahore seized over 40 suspects in the Islamabad bombing. At least 2 suspects were killed in Faisalabad. Abu Zubaydah, a top al Qaeda commander, was among those arrested.
    (SFC, 3/29/02, p.A10)(SSFC, 3/31/02, p.A17)(SFC, 4/2/02, p.A7)
2002        Mar 28, Pope John Paul II accepted the resignation of Julius Paetz, archbishop of Poznan, Poland, due to a sex scandal and accusations of molesting young seminarians.
    (SFC, 3/29/02, p.A7)

2003        Mar 28, In the 10th day of Operation Iraqi Freedom the biggest bombs dropped on Baghdad so far, two 4,700-pound "bunker busters," struck a communications tower. In the south, Iraqi fighters defending the besieged city of Basra fired on hundreds of civilians trying to flee. The British supply ship Sir Galahad docked at the port of Umm Qasr. The Bush administration said fighting might not be over for months. At least 58 people were killed in a crowded market in northwest Baghdad by what local officials called a coalition bombing. A US pilot was heard saying "I'm going to be sick," then "we're in jail, dude," after firing on the British convoy in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. Lance Corporal of Horse Matty Hull was killed by American pilots.
    (AP, 3/28/03)(SFC, 3/29/03, p.W1)(AP, 2/6/07)(Econ, 2/10/07, p.58)
2003        Mar 28, Chechen rebels killed six Russian soldiers and two riot police.
    (AP, 3/29/03)
2003        Mar 28, In Hong Kong at least 58 more people became sick with symptoms of SARS. 11 Hong Kong deaths were on the disease.
    (SFC, 3/29/03, p.A1)
2003        Mar 28, In Jammu-Kashmir suspected Islamic militants attacked and mutilated 5 Kashmiri Muslim villagers, accusing them of being police informants.
    (AP, 3/28/03)
2003        Mar 28, Japan's first spy satellites were blasted into orbit, causing an angry North Korea to warn the move could spark an arms race in the region.
    (AP, 3/28/03)
2003        Mar 28, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to extend the UN assistance mission in Afghanistan for a year.
    (AP, 3/28/03)

2004        Mar 28, Art James (74), TV game show host died in Palm Springs, Calif.
    (AP, 3/28/05)
2004        Mar 28, Sir Peter Ustinov (b. Apr 16, 1921), a brilliant wit and mimic who won two Oscars for an acting career that ranged from the evil Nero in "Quo Vadis" to the quirky Agatha Christie detective Hercule Poirot, died at age 82 in Switzerland.
    (AP, 3/29/04)
2004        Mar 28, A powerful storm, dubbed Catarina, lashed Brazil's southern coast, damaging thousands of homes, killing two people.
    (AP, 3/29/04)
2004        Mar 28, In Kinshasa, Congo, government forces battled attackers at military installations and television headquarters. Diplomats called it a coup attempt against Pres. Joseph Kabila.
    (AP, 3/28/04)
2004        Mar 28, France's left-wing opposition bulldozed its way across the country in second-round midterm regional elections, putting pressure on President Jacques Chirac to revamp his Cabinet and perhaps even ditch his prime minister due to widely unpopular economic reforms and rising unemployment.
    (AP, 3/28/04)(AP, 3/29/04)
2004        Mar 28, Georgians voted in the country's third election in less than six months. Supporters of President Mikhail Saakashvili swept to victory in Georgia's parliamentary election, according to early results.
    (AP, 3/28/04)(AP, 3/29/04)
2004        Mar 28, Guadeloupe's leader conceded defeat in regional elections that pushed her conservative party out of power for the first time in 12 years, a loss seen as public backlash toward moves to win greater autonomy from Paris.
    (AP, 3/29/04)
2004        Mar 28, In Iraq US soldiers in the northern city of Mosul shot and killed four rebels suspected of involvement in attacks in the region. Gunmen in Mosul killed 2 British and Canadian electrical engineers. Coalition forces closed Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's newspaper, claiming it incited anti-US violence.
    (AP, 3/29/04)(WSJ, 4/1/04, p.A10)(WSJ, 4/19/04, p.A14)
2004        Mar 28, Israel's state attorney officially recommended that PM Ariel Sharon be indicted for bribe-taking.
    (AP, 3/28/04)
2004        Mar 28, The Thailand government said violence in the Muslim-dominated south was at a "crucial stage" and pledged tougher measures, after a bombing in the region injured 29 people, including 10 Malaysian tourists.
    (AP, 3/28/04)
2004        Mar 28, Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted party appeared headed for a resounding victory in Turkey's local elections.
    (AP, 3/28/04)
2004        Mar 28, Clashes between supporters of Zimbabwe's ruling party and the opposition killed one person and wounded at least 11 during the second day of polling in a parliamentary by-election.
    (AP, 3/29/04)
2004        Mar 28-29, In Uzbekistan 2 suicide bombings, attacks on police and an explosion at an terrorist bomb-making factory in Kakhramon killed 19 people and injured 26. The explosion led to 4 days of violence that left at least 47 people dead in including 33 militants.
    (AP, 3/29/04)(SSFC, 4/4/04, p.A22)

2005        Mar 28, The Colorado Supreme Court threw out the death penalty in a rape-and-murder case because five of the jurors had consulted the Bible and quoted Scripture during deliberations.
    (AP, 3/28/06)
2005        Mar 28, Hank Greenberg, former longtime CEO of American Int’l. Group (AIG), announced his retirement. He was ousted as CEO 2 weeks earlier.
    (WSJ, 3/29/05, p.C1)
2005        Mar 28, It was reported that a consortium of 7 private equity firms purchased SunGard Data systems for $11.3 billion in the biggest buyout since 1989.
    (Econ, 4/2/05, p.66)
2005        Mar 28, Hu Xiaoliam was appointed the 1st female head of China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE). The regulator will oversee new trading and price quotes in 8 currency pairs through the interbank China foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS).
    (Econ, 4/2/05, p.68)
2005        Mar 28, In Haiti gunmen with assault rifles ambushed a group of police in Port-au-Prince, spraying their car with bullets in a bold daylight attack that killed 2 officers and a driver.
    (AP, 3/28/05)
2005        Mar 28, An 8.7 earthquake occurred in northern Sumatra, Indonesia, in what technically was considered an aftershock to the Dec 26 quake. At least 330 people were killed in collapsed buildings on Nias Island. No major tsunami followed. The UN raised its toll to 624. The government estimated 400-500 were killed.
    (SFC, 3/29/05, p.A1)(AP, 3/31/05)(Econ, 4/2/05, p.37)
2005        Mar 28, In Iraq 3 Romanian journalists and their translator were abducted near their Baghdad hotel. The journalists were freed by US forces on May 22.
    (AP, 3/29/05)(SSFC, 10/15/06, p.A20)
2005        Mar 28, Ireland enacted a law outlawing English on road signs and official maps on much of the nation’s western coast, where many people speak Gaelic.
    (SFC, 3/29/05, p.A2)
2005        Mar 28, Israeli troops raided the West Bank town of Jenin, carrying out house-to-house searches and arresting eight Palestinians.
    (AP, 3/28/05)
2005        Mar 28, It was reported that Japanese consumer prices had fallen in February at their fastest pace in nearly 2 years. Japan’s deflation was now almost 6 years old. The Ministry of Finance said government debt hit a new record high of $7.062 trillion as of the end of Dec.
    (WSJ, 3/28/05, p.A14)
2005        Mar 28, Interim leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev recognized Kyrgyzstan's new parliament as legitimate even though it was chosen in disputed elections, a move designed to end a struggle between the rival legislatures.
    (AP, 3/28/05)
2005        Mar 28, Tafa Balogun, Nigeria’s Inspector General of Police, was arrested. He was later charged with numerous counts including embezzling $93 million from police funds.
    (Econ, 8/20/05, p.37)(www.efccnigeria.org/)
2005        Mar 28, In Peshawar, Pakistan, thousands of opposition activists chanted "Death to dictatorship!" in the latest demonstration against Pres. Gen. Pervez Musharraf's grip on power.
    (AP, 3/28/05)
2005        Mar 28, Pres. Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian government to draft legal reforms that would close the book on shady privatization deals of the 1990s and streamline tax collection.
    (AP, 3/28/05)
2005        Mar 28, Sudanese authorities said they had detained 14 people on suspicion of crimes, including rape and murder, committed in the war-ravaged western region of Darfur.
    (AFP, 3/28/05)

2006        Mar 28, President Bush announced that White House chief of staff Andy Card has resigned and will be replaced by budget director Joshua Bolten.
    (AP, 3/28/06)
2006        Mar 28, The US Federal Reserve under new chairman Ben Bernanke raised its key federal funds rate by a quarter percentage point to 4.75%.
    (SFC, 3/29/06, p.C1)
2006        Mar 28, Caspar W. Weinberger (b.1917), former US defense secretary under Pres. Reagan, died.
    (SFC, 3/29/06, p.B9)(Econ, 4/1/06, p.71)
2006        Mar 28, In southern Afghanistan a roadside bomb blew up a vehicle carrying Afghan army soldiers, killing six of them.
    (AP, 3/28/06)
2006        Mar 28, Rights advocates said some 20 detained opposition supporters have gone on hunger strike to protest conditions at a Belarusian jail holding 400 opposition supporters, as authorities continued to crackdown on dissent following the disputed March 19 election.
    (AP, 3/28/06)
2006        Mar 28, In China new regulations viewed on the Health Ministry's Web site forbade the buying and selling of organs and require that donors give written permission for their organs to be transplanted.
    (AP, 3/28/06)
2006        Mar 28, Some 1-3 million protesters poured onto France's streets and absent workers hobbled transport services in the first nationwide strike against a new labor law for youths, increasing pressure on the embattled PM to withdraw the contested measure.
    (AP, 3/28/06)(Econ, 4/1/06, p.22)
2006        Mar 28, It was reported that France produced 78% of its electricity from nuclear power.
    (WSJ, 3/28/06, p.A1)
2006        Mar 28, The German state of Bavaria announced a ban on the use of cell phones in schools to prevent students from viewing images of pornography and extreme violence.
    (AP, 3/28/06)
2006        Mar 28, Three groups of gunmen kidnapped 24 Iraqis from a currency exchange and two electronics stores in Baghdad, while a car bomb exploded south of the capital as police exchanged fire with two suicide bombers at a police station, wounding a dozen people. Two US soldiers were killed and three wounded in two attacks outside Baghdad.
    (AP, 3/28/06)(AP, 3/29/06)
2006        Mar 28, Israelis voted in an election billed as a referendum on the future of the West Bank, with the leading candidate, acting PM Ehud Olmert, promising to pull back from most of the territory and draw Israel's final borders by 2010. The Kadima Party won the parliamentary elections. Two Israelis were killed in an explosion in southern Israel near the Gaza Strip border.
    (AP, 3/28/06)(AP, 3/28/07)
2006        Mar 28, President Anote Tong of the Republic of Kiribati announced the formation of the world's third-largest marine reserve at the 8th UN conference on the Convention on Biological Diversity under way this week in Brazil.
    (Reuters, 3/28/06)
2006        Mar 28, Officials said former Liberian President Charles Taylor disappeared from his Nigerian haven, days after his hosts agreed to transfer him to a war crimes tribunal for the murder, rape and maiming of more than a half-million Africans. Taylor was arrested trying to cross the border into Cameroon. He then was flown back to Liberia.
    (AP, 3/28/06)(AP, 3/29/06)
2006        Mar 28, A Mexican judge ordered an Argentine journalist to remove references to one of the first lady's sons in a book that claims he benefited financially from his family's political connections. The book "Cronicas Malditas," or roughly "Accursed Chronicles" (2005), alleged that two of Sahagun's three sons, principally Manuel Bribiesca, had used their connections to get preferential treatment on federal government work contracts during the administration of President Vicente Fox, which began in December 2000.
    (AP, 3/28/06)
2006        Mar 28, The Palestinian parliament overwhelming approved the new Hamas Cabinet, setting the stage for the new administration to take office later this week.
    (AP, 3/28/06)
2006        Mar 28, In South Korea prosecutors formally arrested the top executive of an affiliate of Hyundai Motor Co. in an investigation into suspicions that South Korea's largest carmaker created slush funds through its 39 subsidiaries for bribery.
    (AP, 3/28/06)(WSJ, 4/8/06, p.1)
2006        Mar 28, Spain’s ENCE said it will suspend construction of a controversial pulp mill in Uruguay to allow Argentina and Uruguay to resolved their differences over the environmental impact of the project. In October ENCE announced that it was abandoning the project.
    (FT, 3/29/06, p.8)(Econ, 10/7/06, p.46)
2006        Mar 28, In Sudan Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa called on Arab leaders to move toward a goal of "entering the nuclear club" and making use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes. The absence of at least 10 heads of state, including President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, raised concerns of a lackluster summit.
    (AP, 3/28/06)
2006        Mar 28, In Sudan Arab leaders promised to fund African soldiers in Darfur from October this year, despite international pressure to allow the United Nations to take over the mission.
    (Reuters, 3/28/06)
2006        Mar 28, Thousands of Kurdish protesters rampaged after funerals for 4 Kurdish PKK guerrillas killed by Turkish troops. They hurled firebombs at armored police vehicles and smashed windows at a police station. 2 Kurds were killed and 40 people injured.
    (AP, 3/29/06)(Econ, 4/15/06, p.54)
2006        Mar 28, Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko met separately with both his estranged Orange Revolution ally and an old pro-Moscow adversary as he sought to form a coalition after most voters rejected his party in weekend parliamentary elections.
    (AP, 3/28/06)

2007        Mar 28, Circuit City, a US electronics retailer, fired 3,400 of its highest paid hourly workers and planned to hire replacements wiling to work for less. The laid-off workers were to get a severance package and a chance to reapply for their former jobs at lower pay.
    (SFC, 3/29/07, p.C3)
2007        Mar 28, The California Dept. of Agriculture ordered an intrastate quarantine on plants to fight the infestation of light brown apple moths. On May 2 the US Dept. of Agriculture ordered similar restrictions.
    (SFC, 5/4/07, p.C3)
2007        Mar 28, Discount retailer TJX Cos. revealed that information from at least 45.7 million credit and debit cards was stolen over an 18-month period. The breach was initially disclosed in January.
    (AP, 3/29/07)
2007        Mar 28, Jazz musician Tony Scott (85), a clarinetist, composer and arranger who worked with such greats as Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker, died in Rome.
    (AP, 4/1/07)
2007        Mar 28, In Afghanistan a suicide bomber trying to blend in with street beggars exploded himself near a top intelligence official in a crowded part of Kabul, killing four people.
    (AP, 3/28/07)
2007        Mar 28, In Australia a passenger ferry plowed into a pleasure boat under Sydney's iconic Harbor Bridge, killing at least 3 people, including two professional figure skating judges.
    (AP, 3/29/07)
2007        Mar 28, Retired Gurkha soldiers staged a mass protest in London over Britain's refusal to give them full pensions and other rights.
    (AP, 3/28/07)
2007        Mar 28, Briton Richard Rogers (73), the famed architect of a series of iconic buildings all over the world, was announced winner of the 2007 Pritzker Architecture Prize.
    (AFP, 3/29/07)
2007        Mar 28, In northern China an underground gas explosion killed 26 miners in a coal mine in Linfen city, Shanxi province. 6 workers were trapped underground after a subway construction site for the 2008 Beijing Olympics collapsed. Hopes for their survival were slim.
    (AP, 3/29/07)
2007        Mar 28, Ecuador's highest electoral court fired a judge who tried to return half the country's legislators to their posts as a political crisis over the rewriting of the country's constitution deepened.
    (AP, 3/29/07)
2007        Mar 28, In France an official at a Paris maternity hospital said Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre is the French nun whose testimony of a mystery cure from Parkinson's disease will likely be accepted as the miracle the Vatican needs to beatify Pope John Paul II.
    (AP, 3/28/07)
2007        Mar 28, Guinean leaders agreed on the formation of a new government in a bid to end months of unrest and political crisis.
    (AFP, 3/28/07)
2007        Mar 28, Iran aired a video of 15 captured British sailors and marines; the lone female captive, shown in a white tunic and a black head scarf, said the British boats had "trespassed." The crew members were released April 4, 2007.
    (AP, 3/28/08)
2007        Mar 28, In Iraq Shiite militants and police enraged by massive truck bombings in the northwestern town of Tal Afar went on a revenge spree against Sunni residents there, killing as many as 60 people. Suicide bombers detonated explosives on trucks carrying highly toxic chlorine in Fallujah, wounding about 15 US and Iraqi security forces.
    (AP, 3/28/07)
2007        Mar 28, Hundreds of Israeli police in riot gear dragged squatters from the ruins of the former Homesh settlement, ending a three-day showdown between the government and settlers trying to re-establish the settlement. Homesh was one of four settlements in the northern West Bank dismantled in 2005.
    (AP, 3/28/07)
2007        Mar 28, A Japanese man was sentenced to death for murdering three people he lured through a suicide Web site by offering to die with them.
    (AP, 3/28/07)
2007        Mar 28, In Tank, Pakistan, hundreds of militants fired rockets, killed one security official and kidnapped a school principal where police had slain two men accused of recruiting students for suicide attacks.
    (AP, 3/28/07)
2007        Mar 28, Unidentified gunmen shot at a Hamas militant leader and his family during a car chase through Gaza City, injuring five people, including bystanders and a child. A small group of Arab lesbians quietly defied Islamist protesters and a social taboo to gather at a rare public conference in Haifa, Israeli. It was organized by Aswat, an organization for Arab lesbians with members in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
    (AP, 3/28/07)
2007        Mar 28, The health department of Philippines said HIV/AIDS is ravaging the large overseas work force, posing a long-term threat to one of Manila's key sources of foreign exchange. Jun Ducat (56), a Manila day-care center owner armed with grenades and guns, held more than 30 youngsters and teachers hostage on a bus, then freed them after a 10-hour standoff that he used to denounce corruption and demand better lives for impoverished children.
    (AFP, 3/28/07)(http://english.people.com.cn/200703/29/eng20070329_362055.html)
2007        Mar 28, Russia's scientific elite, in a rare show of disobedience to the Kremlin, voted against a government-proposed charter that would have transferred control of the historically independent Academy of Sciences to the state.
    (AP, 3/28/07)
2007        Mar 28, Sudan and the UN signed an agreement to guarantee humanitarian access to refugees in Darfur. UN chief Ban Ki-moon tried to persuade President Omar al-Bashir to accept UN peacekeepers in Darfur, hours after al-Bashir flatly rejected the deployment.
    (AP, 3/28/07)
2007        Mar 28, In Tanzania 14 Southern African leaders meet for a two-day extraordinary summit on economic and political regional woes spurred by crises in Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
    (AFP, 3/28/07)
2007        Mar 28, Police stormed the offices of Zimbabwe's main opposition party and arrested leader Morgan Tsvangirai, hours before he planned to talk to reporters about a wave of political violence that had left him briefly hospitalized. Tsvangirai was released after several hours.
    (AP, 3/28/07)(AP, 3/29/07)

2008        Mar 28, The US Transportation Security Administration said it will change they way its officers search passengers with body piercings after a Texas woman complained she was forced to remove a nipple ring with pliers in order to board an airplane.
    (AP, 3/29/08)
2008        Mar 28, The grey wolf of the northern Rocky Mountains was taken off the federal protection list after reaching a population of some 1,500 in the greater Yellowstone region. Wolves were reintroduced in 1995 after disappearing from the area in 1926. On July 18 a judge restored protection for the wolves in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, derailing plans for public wolf hunts this fall. On Sep 29 a federal court overturned the Bush administration’s decision to remove gray wolves from the endangered species list in the Great lakes region.
    (Econ, 3/29/08, p.44)(SFC, 7/19/08, p.A4)(WSJ, 9/30/08, p.A1)
2008        Mar 28, Helen Yglesias (92), American novelist and editor, died. Her first book: “How she Died” (1972), tells of Mary Moody Schwartz, the daughter of a Communist convicted of spying for the Soviets in the 1930s.
    (SFC, 4/8/08, p.B5)
2008        Mar 28, British Airways Plc cancelled a fifth of flights from its new $8.6 billion terminal at London's Heathrow airport as chaos from its shambolic opening spilled into a second day.
    (AP, 3/28/08)
2008        Mar 28, Jean-Jacques Demafouth, an exiled former defense minister in the Central African Republic, said that he had been elected head of the main rebel group and would lead it into peace talks. The UN said rebel fighters attacked CAR villages between Feb 9 and Mar 10 raping women and taking 150 hostages, including 55 children.
    (AFP, 3/28/08)
2008        Mar 28, In Chile 5 youths, aged 14-20, attacked 9 German soldiers and took them hostage in the port city of Iquique. One soldier escaped and police quickly surrounded the house and arrested four suspects after a shootout.
    (AP, 3/29/08)
2008        Mar 28, China allowed the first foreign diplomats to visit Tibet following deadly riots, as Germany joined some other European nations in announcing its leader would skip the Olympics opening. Police closed off Lhasa's Muslim quarter, two weeks after Tibetan rioters burned down the city's mosque during the largest anti-Chinese protests in nearly two decades.
    (AP, 3/28/08)
2008        Mar 28, Mohamed Bacar, the rebel leader of the Comoros island of Anjouan, arrived in Reunion to an uncertain future, two days after his ouster by Comoran and African Union forces.
    (AP, 3/28/08)
2008        Mar 28, President Raul Castro's government said it is allowing cell phones for ordinary Cubans, a luxury previously reserved for those who worked for foreign firms or held key posts with the communist-run state.
    (AP, 3/28/08)
2008        Mar 28, A commerce ministry official said Egypt is to suspend rice exports for six months to try to meet the demands of its own people hit by soaring food prices. Hundreds of residents of the ancient city of Luxor clashed with riot police during a protest against government attempts to move them to make room for an open-air museum free of modern buildings.
    (AP, 3/28/08)(AP, 3/29/08)
2008        Mar 28, Indonesian police said they were investigating the deaths over the last 2 weeks of 21 people who drank a concoction labeled an herbal remedy.
    (AP, 3/28/08)
2008        Mar 28, PM Nouri al-Maliki's office says the Iraqi government has given residents of Basra until April 8 to turn over "heavy and medium-size weapons" in return for a reward. US warplanes carried out at least two airstrikes overnight in Basra for the first time since clashes between Shiite militias and Iraqi security forces erupted this week. A US warplane strafed snipers in the southern city of Basra, killing at least 16 suspected militants after Iraqi troops came under heavy fire. Shiite militants also clashed with government forces for a fourth day in Iraq's oil-rich south and sporadic fighting broke out in Baghdad. A US helicopter also fired a Hellfire missile during fighting in the Baghdad's militia stronghold of Sadr City, killing four gunmen. Iraqi police and hospital officials in Sadr City said 5 civilians were killed and 4 others wounded in the attack. A US air assault in the Kazamiyah neighborhood, west of Sadr City, killed 10 militants. At least 12 militia fighters were killed and 7 others wounded in fighting in Mahmoudiya. Fierce fighting in the Mahdi Army stronghold of Nasiriyah killed at least 4 people. 2 Iraqi security forces were killed and 3 wounded in Kut.
    (AP, 3/28/08)(AP, 3/29/08)(AP, 3/30/08)
2008        Mar 28, Jordan, Iraq and Yemen announced at the last minute that their top leaders will not attend this weekend's Arab summit in Damascus.
    (AP, 3/28/08)
2008        Mar 28, North Korea test-fired a barrage of short-range missiles in apparent response to the new South Korean government's tougher stance on Pyongyang.
    (AP, 3/28/08)
2008        Mar 28, Palestinian medics say a Palestinian man was killed by Israeli army fire as he approached Gaza's border fence with Israel. The Israeli military said the man was armed and hurled a grenade at forces close to the fence.
    (AP, 3/29/08)
2008        Mar 28, South Africa launched a four million dollar program to track down tuberculosis patients who have defaulted treatment, leading to resistant strains of the illness.
    (AP, 3/28/08)
2008        Mar 28, In northeastern Tanzania 75 miners were missing and believed to have died in mines following heavy rains.
    (AP, 3/29/08)
2008        Mar 28, Turkish warplanes hit Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq.
    (AP, 3/29/08)
2008        Mar 28, Combat helicopters and F-16 fighter jets opened fire at a clandestine airstrip in Venezuela's remote southern plains as part of a government counter-drug effort. Army Gen. Jesus Gonzalez told state television that so far this year, the military has demolished 67 airstrips used by drug traffickers to smuggle cocaine from neighboring Colombia to the United States and Europe. Another 90 are to be destroyed next week.
    (AP, 3/28/08)

Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Go to March 29