Today in History - May 28
Return to home
585BC May 28, A
solar eclipse, predicted by Thales of Miletus, interrupted a battle [a
Persian-Lydian battle] outside of Sardis in western Turkey between the
Medes and Lydians. The battle ended in a draw. [see May 25]
(HN, 5/28/98)(HN, 5/28/99)
1089 May 28, Lanfrance, Archbishop
of Canterbury, died.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1156 May 28, Battle at Brindisi:
King William of Sicily beat a Byzantine fleet.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1349 May 28, 60 Jews were murdered
in Breslau, Silesia.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1357 May 28, Afonso IV (66), King
of Portugal (1325-57), died.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1371 May 28, John, the Fearless,
Duke of Burgundy, warrior, was born in Burgundy, France.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1521 May 28, Willem van Croij
(~62), duke of Soria, died.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1533 May 28, England's Archbishop
declared the marriage of King Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn valid.
(AP, 5/28/97)
1539 May 28, Hernando de Soto
sailed from Cuba to Florida with 13 pigs to help sustain his 700 men on
his gold-hunting expedition. [see May 30]
(ON, 4/01, p.4)(MC, 5/28/02)
1608 May 28, Claudio Monteverdi's
"Arianna," premiered in Mantua.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1650 May 28, Gilles Hayne (59),
composer, died.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1660 May 28, George I, king of
England (1714-1727), was born.
(HN, 5/28/98)(MC, 5/28/02)
1664 May 28, 1st Baptist Church
was organized (Boston).
(MC, 5/28/02)
1685 May 28, Pieter de la Court
(~67), economist, historian, died.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1731 May 28, All Hebrew books in
Papal State were confiscated.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1738 May 28, Dr. Joseph Ignace
Guillotine, French inventor of the guillotine, was born.
(HN, 5/28/98)
1742 May 28, 1st indoor swimming
pool opened at Goodman's Fields, London.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1754 May 28, Col. George
Washington led a 40-man detachment that defeated French and Indian
forces in a skirmish near Great Meadows, Pa.
(ON, 9/05, p.3)
1759 May 28, William Pitt the
Younger, PM of England from 1783-1801 and 1804-1806, was born. He has
been considered England's greatest PM.
(HN, 5/28/99)(MC, 5/28/02)
1765 May 28, Jean Baptiste
Cartier, composer, was born.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1779 May 28, Thomas Moore, Irish
poet, was born.
(HN, 5/28/01)
1787 May 28, Johann Georg Leopold
Mozart (67), Austrian composer, died.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1791 May 28, Joseph Schmitt (57),
composer, died.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1805 May 28, Napoleon was crowned
in Milan, Italy. [see May 26]
(HN, 5/28/98)
1805 May 28, Ridolfo Luigi
Boccherini (62), Italian composer, cellist (Minuet), died.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1807 May 28, Jean Louis Agassiz
(d.1873), Swiss naturalist and educator, was born. He wrote a
succession of papers [1840] outlining continental glaciation not only
of Europe but of North America.
(DD-EVTT, p.129)(AHD,1971, p.24)(HN, 5/28/01)
1818 May 28, P.G.T. Beauregard,
Confederate general, was born. He first fired on Fort Sumpter and
fought at First Manassas, and Shiloh.
(HN, 5/28/99)
1830 May 28, The US Congress
authorized Indian removal from all states to the western prairie.
(HN, 5/28/98)
1833 May 28, Johann Christian
Friedrich Haeffner (74), composer, died.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1843 May 28, Noah Webster (84),
lexicographer (Webster's Dictionary), died.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1845 May 28, A fire in Quebec
Canada destroyed 1,500 houses.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1849 May 28, Anne Bronte,
novelist, died.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1851 May 28, Freed slave and
abolitionist Sojourner Truth attended a national women's convention in
Akron, Ohio, where the female delegates were heckled by men in the
audience who claimed that men were superior to women. Frances Gage,
president of the convention, recorded Sojourner Truth's words that day.
"Dat man ober dar say dat women needs to be helped into carriages and
lifted ober ditches, and to hab de best place everywhar. Nobody eber
helps me into carriages, or ober mud-puddles, or gibs me any best
place! And ain't I a woman! Look at me! Look at my arm! I have
ploughed, and planted and gathered into barns, and no man could head
me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a
man--when I could get it--and bear de lash as well! And ain't I a
woman? I have borne thirteen chilern, and seen 'em mos' all sold into
slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus
heard me! And ain't I a woman?" Sojourner Truth's words, according to
Gage, "turned the sneers and jeers of an excited crowd into notes of
respect and admiration."
(SFC, 3/30/97, Z1 p.6)(HN, 7/13/99)(MC, 5/28/02)
1858 May 28, Dion Boucicault's
"Foul Play," premiered in London.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1859 May 28, The French army
launched a flanking attack on the Austrian army in Northern France.
(HN, 5/28/00)
1863 May 28, The 54th
Massachusetts, the first black regiment from the North, left Boston
headed for Hilton Head, South Carolina, to fight in the Civil War.
(AP, 5/28/97)(HN, 5/28/99)
1871 May 28, The last French
communards of the Paris commune were shot against the Mur des Federes
in Pere Lachaise cemetery by troops from Versailles.
(V.D.-H.K.p.260)(HN, 5/28/98)
1884 May 28, Edvard Benes,
premier, president of Czechoslovakia (1921-22, 35-48), was born.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1888 May 28, James Francis Thorpe,
American athlete, was born in Shawnee, OK. Jim Thorpe won an Olympic
gold medal in 1912, and played for professional football and baseball
teams.
(HN, 5/28/99)(MC, 5/28/02)
1892 May 28, The Sierra Club was
organized in San Francisco by John Muir.
(AP, 5/28/97)(MC, 5/28/02)
1898 May 28, Edward Bellamy, US
author (Looking Backward), died.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1900 May 28, Britain annexed the
Orange Free State in South Africa.
(HN, 5/28/98)
1901 May 28, Laws against phosphor
matches were enacted.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1905 May 28, A Japanese fleet
under Adm. Heihachiro Togo defeated a Russian fleet under Adm. Zinovi
Petrovich Rozhestvensky in the Battle of Tsushima. The Russian fleet
lost 22 ships out of 38 to the Japanese in the Battle of Tsushima
Straits. In 2002 Constantine Pleshakov authored "The Tsar’s Last
Armada: The Epic Voyage to the Battle of Tsushima."
(WSJ, 9/6/00, p.A27)(ON, 5/04, p.9)
1907 May 28, Patrick Browne,
British Lord justice of appeal, was born.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1908 May 28, Ian Fleming (d.1964),
author of James Bond novels, was born in Mayfair, London. He also wrote
the children’s book "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" (1964).
(HN,
5/28/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitty_Chitty_Bang_Bang)(AP,
5/28/08)
1910 May 28, T-Bone Walker, blues
guitarist and singer, was born.
(HN, 5/28/01)
1912 May 28, Patrick White,
Australian writer (The Tree of Man, The Eye of the Storm), was born.
(HN, 5/28/01)
1915 May 28, John B. Gruelle
patented the Raggedy Ann doll.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1916 May 28, Walker Percy, writer
(The Moviegoer, Love in the Ruins), was born in Birmingham, Ala.
(HN, 5/28/01)(MC, 5/28/02)
1917 May 28, "Papa" John Creach,
violinist, was born.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1917 May 28, Barry Commoner,
biologist (Science & Survival), was born in Brooklyn, NY.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1918 May 28, Herb Shriner, radio
humorist, was born.
(HN, 5/28/01)
1918 May 28, Tatars declared
Azerbaijan, in Russian Caucasus, independent.
(HN, 5/28/98)
1918 May 28, The Battle of
Cantigny began during World War I as American troops captured the
French town from the Germans; the Americans were able to resist German
counterattacks in the days that followed.
(AP, 5/28/08)
1919 May 28, May Swenson, poet,
was born.
(HN, 5/28/01)
1919 May 28, Armenia declared it's
Independence. [see Dec 2, 1918]
(MC, 5/28/02)
1923 May 28, US Attorney General
said it is legal for women to wear trousers anywhere.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1923 May 28, US unemployment was
nearly ended.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1926 May 28, The US Customs Court
was created by congress.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1929 May 28, The first all-color
talking picture, "On with the Show," opened in New York.
(AP, 5/28/99)
1932 May 28, Stephen Birmingham,
novelist and biographer (Real Lace: America's Irish Rich), was born in
Hartford.
(HN, 5/28/01)(MC, 5/28/02)
1934 May 28, The Dionne
quintuplets—Annette, Cecile, Emilie, Marie and Yvonne—were born to
Elzire Dionne at the family farm in Ontario, Canada. The were children
removed from their parents by the Ontario government and put on public
display, before paying customers, at a theme-like-park called
Quintland. In 1998 3 surviving sisters accepted a $2.8 million
settlement from the Ontario government.
(TMC, 1994, p.1934)(AP, 5/28/97)
1934 May 28, In San Francisco
nearly 1,000 longshoremen clashed with police at Pier 18 on the 20th
day of their strike. Alphonse Metzgar was shot in the back with light
buckshot.
(SSFC, 5/24/09, DB p.39)
1936 May 28, Fred Chappell, poet
and novelist, was born.
(HN, 5/28/01)
1937 May 28, Pres. Roosevelt
pushed a button in Washington signaling that vehicular traffic could
cross the just-opened Golden Gate Bridge in California.
(AP, 5/28/97)
1937 May 28, Neville Chamberlain
became prime minister of Britain.
(AP, 5/28/97)
1937 May 28, Alfred Adler (67),
Austria psychiatrist (Individual Psychology), died.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1938 May 28, Hindemith's opera
"Mathis der Maler," premiered in Zurich.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1938 May 28, The foundation for
Tel Aviv harbor was laid.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1940 May 28, Maeve Binchy, Irish
writer (Circle of Friends, The Copper Beach), was born.
(HN, 5/28/01)
1940 May 28, Irving Berlin's
musical "Louisiana Purchase," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1940 May 28, During World War II,
the Belgian army surrendered to invading German forces.
(AP, 5/28/97)(HN, 5/28/98)
1940 May 28, Walter Connolly (53),
actor (It Happened One Night, Good Earth), died.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1942 May 28, Jean F. van Royen,
German secretary PTT (camp Amersfoort), died.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1944 May 28, Katri Vala (42),
Finnish poet, died.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1945 May 28, In California the
engine of Helldiver aircraft from an aircraft carrier failed and the
pilot ditched the plane in a San Diego reservoir. The pilot and gunner
swam to shore. In 2009 fisherman spotted the plane and set in process
plans to retrieve the plane.
(SFC, 5/28/10, p.C3)
1945 May 28, Lord Haw Haw (aka
William Joyce), a virulent anti-Semite who broadcast pro-Nazi
propaganda from Germany during the war, was shot in the leg in an
encounter with two British officers near Flensburg on the Danish border
with Germany. He was sentenced to death for treason on 19 September
1945 and hanged on 3 January 1946.
(http://www.shef.ac.uk/library/special/joyce.html)
1946 May 28, Madeleine Le Roux,
Broadway actress (Cry Uncle), was born in Wyoming.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1946 May 28, The US Army Air Force
initiated the Nuclear Energy for the Propulsion of Aircraft program
(NEPA). Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corp. was selected to study the
possibility of developing a long range strategic bomber powered by a
nuclear reactor.
(AH, 2/03,
p.52)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_Nuclear_Propulsion)
1947 May 28, Faith Brown,
impressionist, was born.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1947 May 28, Sondra Locke, actress
(Heart Is a Lonely Hunter), was born in Shelbyville, Tenn.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1949 May 28, Sue Holderness,
actress (Marlene-Only Fools & Horses, Sandbaggers), was born.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1953 May 28, Arto Lindsay, rocker,
actor (Cookie, Desperately Seeking Susan), was born.
(www.nndb.com/people/787/000041664/)
1953 May 28, "Melody," the first
animated 3-D cartoon in Technicolor, premiered.
(HN, 5/28/98)
1954 May 28, George E. Mahlberg,
Astrophysicist, Mt Palomar, Mt Wilson CA (1974-78), was born.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1954 May 28, Achille Longo (54),
composer, died.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1956 May 28, Germaine Montenesdro,
2nd victim of NYC's Zodiac killer, was born.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1956 May 28, Pres. Eisenhower
signed the Agriculture Act which embodied the "soil bank" plan to
reduce surpluses.
(EWH, 1968, p.1210)
1956 May 28, France in a treaty
with India renounced sovereignty over 4 territories held for 140 years.
(EWH, 1968, p.1262)
1957 May 28, The National League
approved the move of the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants baseball
teams to Los Angeles and San Francisco.
(AP, 5/28/97)
1958 May 28, Mikulas
Schneider-Trvavsky (77), composer, died.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1959 May 28, Johnson & Bart's
musical "Lock up your daughters," premiered in London.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1959 May 28, Monkeys Able &
Baker zoomed 300 mi (500 km) into space on Jupiter missile and became
the 1st animals retrieved from a space mission.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1961 May 28, Amnesty
International, a human rights organization, was founded. It won a Nobel
Prize in 1977.
(HN, 5/28/98)(MC, 5/28/02)
1963 May 28, Down Jones went
public. 110,000 shares of Dow Jones common stock were sold to the
public.
(WSJ, 8/1/07,
p.B6)(www.scripophily.net/dowjocoinde.html)
1963 May 28, Vissarion Yakovlevich
Shebalin (60), composer, died.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1964 May 28, Palestine National
Congress formed the PLO in Jerusalem.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1964 May 28, John Finley
Williamson (76), conductor (Westminster Choir), died.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1967 May 28, Francis Chichester
(1901-1972), English aviator and sailor, arrived home at Plymouth from
a round-the-world, one man sailboat trip.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Chichester)
1968 May 28, Minnesota Senator
Eugene McCarthy beat Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in the Democratic primary
in Oregon.
(http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/06/15_newsroom_mccarthytimeline/)
1969 May 28, Rhys Williams
(b.1897), Welsh-born Film and TV actor, died in Los Angeles. His films
included “Corn is Green” (1945), “Okinawa” (1952) and “Nightmare”
(1956).
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0931525/)
1971 May 28, Pres. Nixon ordered
John Haldeman to do more wiretapping and political espionage against
the Democrats. The orders were recorded on tape.
(SFEM, 4/11/99, p.41)
1971 May 28, The Russian Mars 3
Orbiter and Lander was launched successfully.
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.B1)
1971 May 28, Audie Murphy
(b.1926), WW II hero and actor, was killed in plane crash near Roanoke,
Va.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Murphy)
1972 May 28, Operatives working
for the Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP) burglarized the
Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Washington, DC,
Watergate office complex.
(http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/museum)
1972 May 28, Edward VIII, the Duke
of Windsor (b.1894), died of throat cancer in Paris. He had abdicated
the English throne (1936) to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson (1937).
(AP,
5/28/97)(www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/edward_viii_king.shtml)
1973 May 28, Hans
Schmidt-Isserstedt (b.1900), German composer and conductor, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Schmidt-Isserstedt)
1974 May 28, "Magic Show" opened
at Cort Theater in NYC for 1859 performances.
(www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=3468)
1974 May 28, In the 26th Emmy
Awards: MASH, Alan Alda & Mary Tyler Moore won.
(http://tviv.org/Primetime_Emmy_Awards)
1976 May 28, Pres. Ford signed the
Medical Device Amendments which established a product approval process
overseen by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with the authority
to regulate medical devices. Sales of silicone breast implants, already
on the market, were allowed to continue without proof of safety.
(WSJ, 4/9/96, p.B-1)(SFC, 4/13/98, p.A8)(WSJ,
4/13/05, p.A3)
1977 May 28, 165 people were
killed when fire raced through the Beverly Hills Supper Club in
Southgate, Ky.
(AP, 5/28/97)
1982 May 28, Pope John Paul II
became the 1st Pontiff to visit Britain.
(www.popejohnpaulii.org.uk/)
1983 May 28, In Peru 15 peasants
were murdered by soldiers near the village of Totos. A witness pointed
out their graves in 2004.
(AP, 5/29/04)
1984 May 28, President Reagan led
a state funeral at Arlington National Cemetery at the Tomb of the
Unknowns for an unidentified American soldier killed in the Vietnam
War. The remains were unearthed in 1998 for DNA testing and possible
identification. They were later identified as those of Air Force First
Lieutenant Michael J. Blassie, and were sent to St. Louis for hometown
burial.
(AP, 5/28/97)(WSJ, 5/15/98, p.A1)(AP, 5/28/01)
1985 May 28, David Jacobsen,
director of the American University Hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, was
abducted by pro-Iranian kidnappers. He was freed 17 months later.
(AP, 5/28/97)
1987 May 28, Mathias Rust, a
19-year-old West German pilot, stunned the world as he landed a private
plane in Moscow's Red Square after evading Soviet air defenses.
(AP, 5/28/97)
1987 May 28, Charles Ludlum
(b.1943), actor and playwright, died. His work included "The Mystery of
Irma Vep: A Penny Dreadful" (1984).
(WSJ, 10/13/98, p.A20)(www.imdb.com/name/nm0524893/)
1988 May 28, Melvin J. Oliver
(b.1910), US jazz composer (Sy Oliver), orchestra leader, died in NYC.
(http://nfo.net/usa/o2.html)(http://tinyurl.com/q4uva)
1988 May 28, On the eve of the
Moscow summit, Soviet television aired a 34-minute interview with
President Reagan in which he pledged to make human rights "agenda item
number one."
(AP, 5/28/98)
1989 May 28, Emerson Fittipaldi of
Brazil won the Indianapolis 500 auto race.
(AP, 5/28/99)
1990 May 28, Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein opened a two-day Arab League summit in Baghdad with a
keynote address in which he said if Israel were to deploy nuclear or
chemical weapons against Arabs, Iraq would respond with "weapons of
mass destruction."
(AP, 5/28/00)
1991 May 28, US Defense Secretary
Dick Cheney and other NATO defense chiefs agreed to create a rapid
reaction corps as part of a broad plan to reshape the Western alliance
in the post-Cold War era.
(AP, 5/28/01)
1991 May 28, Ethiopian rebels
seized control of the capital of Addis Ababa, a week after the
country’s longtime Marxist ruler, Mengistu Haile Mariam, resigned his
post and fled.
(AP, 5/28/01)
1992 May 28, The US House of
Representatives voted to lift a ban on using aborted fetuses for tissue
transplantation research, but the tally fell short of a veto-proof
majority.
(AP, 5/28/97)
1992 May 28, The United States
offered $9 million in aid to victims of the fighting in former
Yugoslavia.
(AP, 5/28/97)
1993 May 28, A jury in Orlando,
Fla., acquitted Miami police officer William Lozano of manslaughter in
the 1989 shooting death of a black motorcyclist and the resulting
crash-caused death of the cyclist's passenger. Lozano had been
convicted in an earlier trial, but that verdict was overturned.
(AP, 5/28/98)
1994 May 28, US District Judge
Susan Weber Wright ruled that the Paula Jones case could not be tried
until Pres. Clinton left office.
(WSJ, 4/20/98, p.A20)
1994 May 28, Palestine Liberation
Organization officials announced that Yasser Arafat had named himself
interior minister of the autonomous zones as part of an interim
government; 14 other prominent Palestinians, mostly Arafat allies, were
appointed to other positions.
(AP, 5/28/99)
1995 May 28, Harvard undergraduate
Sinedu Tadesse of Ethiopia stabbed her college roommate, Trang Ho of
Vietnam, 45 times and then hanged herself. In 1997 Melanie Thernstrom
wrote: "Halfway Heaven, Diary of a Harvard Murder" an account of the
incident with extensive background information.
(WSJ, 8/26/97, p.A14)(SFEC,11/16/97, BR p.10)
1995 May 28, Bosnia’s foreign
minister and three colleagues were killed when rebel Serbs shot down
their helicopter.
(AP, 5/28/00)
1995 May 28, An earthquake with a
magnitude of seven-point-five devastated the Russian town of
Neftegorsk, killing at least 2,000 people.
(AP, 5/28/00)
1996 May 28, A US jury convicted
the former business partners of Pres. Clinton in the Whitewater Case.
James and Susan McDougal, and Jim Guy Tucker, governor of Arkansas.
Tucker was charged with creating a sham bankruptcy to avoid paying
taxes on profits from a sold cable TV company in which he was a
partner. Tucker resigned after the verdict. He briefly reversed his
decision, but finally stepped down in July. In 1998 Tucker pleaded
guilty to a felony charge of fraud and agreed to cooperate with
prosecutors of independent council Kenneth Starr.
(SFC, 5/29/96, A1)(WSJ, 1/2/97, p.R2)(SFC, 2/21/98,
p.A3)
1996 May 28, Jazz pianist and
composer Jimmy Rowles died.
(SFC, 5/30/96, p.A16)
1996 May 28, Eugenia Price,
American writer, died at age 79. She wrote historical novels for women
and her books were translated into 18 languages. Her "Beauty for Ashes"
made the NYT Best Seller List in 1995.
(SFC, 5/30/96, p.A16)
1996 May 28, Sali Berisha, Pres.
of Albania, banned an opposition rally. Many who defied the ban were
seriously beaten. Berisha was supported by Washington for discouraging
the Albanian majority in Kosovo from demanding autonomy from
Yugoslavia. He has also allowed American military planes to access
Albanian air bases.
1996 May 28, The Hindu nationalist
government collapsed. An alliance of 13 parties was named to replace
it. H.D. Deve Gowda, leader of the left-of-center United Front, was
chosen as the next prime minister by ceremonial president, Shankar
Dayal Sharma. He had 2 weeks to form a new government.
(SFC, 5/29/96, p.A7)
1996 May 28, In Indonesia Pres.
Suharto banned women from participating in beauty contests abroad.
(SFC, 5/29/96, p.A8)
1996 May 28, Ukraine’s president
fired his prime minister in a dispute over economic reforms.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. A-18)
1996 May 28, Sudan asked Muslim
militants to leave in an attempt to end UN diplomatic sanctions. The UN
imposed sanctions to force the turn over of three suspects in the 1995
assassination attempt on Egypt’s Pres. Mubarek.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. A-18)
1997 May 28, President Clinton
paid tribute to the 50th anniversary of the Marshall Plan with a speech
in the Netherlands in which he urged today's leaders to revive
economies in the former Soviet bloc.
(AP, 5/28/98)
1997 May 28, In Denver, Timothy
McVeigh's attorneys rested their case in the Oklahoma City bombing
trial.
(AP, 5/28/98)
1997 May 28, Kurt Adler (b.1905),
therapist, writer, died.
(http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/hstein/kurt-90.htm)
1997 May 28, John Sengstacke (84),
publisher of the Chicago Defender, died.
(http://tinyurl.com/cgwbf)
1997 May 28, The Taliban was
forced out of Mazar-e-Sharif by Uzbek forces. Many Taliban fighters
were killed as they were forced out of Mazar-e-Sharif. Rashid Dostum
later was reported to have witnessed the graves of some 700 Taliban
fighters and another 1,300 dead at other sites. Later reports put the
Taliban dead at 2-3,000. Uzbek Gen. Malik Pahlawan killed some 1,250
Taliban by leaving them in closed container trucks in the desert sun.
(SFC, 5/29/97, p.A10)(SFC,11/18/97, p.B2)(SFC,
11/6/98, p.A16)(NW, 8/26/02, p.26)
1997 May 28, From Burundi it was
reported that the Tutsi-led army killed more than 40 Hutu rebels that
included Hutu students kicked out of Bujumburu Univ. in 1995.
(SFC, 5/29/97, p.A10)
1997 May 28, In Piraeus, Greece,
Constantine Peratikos (42), ship owner, was killed by armed men. His
family owned the Aran Shipping and Trading Co. and Pegasus Ocean
Services. The left-wing November 17 group were linked to the killing.
(SFC, 5/29/97, p.A12)(SFC, 7/5/02, p.A9)
1997 May 28, Francisca Cervantes
(b.1879), the oldest lady in Mexico, died in Chiapas at age 118.
(SFC, 5/30/97, p.A26)
1998 May 28, California astronomer
Susan Terebey announced she had photographed what may be a planet some
450 light years from Earth in the constellation Taurus. It appears to
have been ejected from the binary TMR-1 and was named TMR-1C.
(SFC, 5/29/98, p.A1,4)(AP, 5/28/99)
1998 May 28, In Danville, Ill.,
Rick White (39) died in a garage explosion as FBI agents were arriving
to ask questions in connection with the May 24 Church bombing.
(SFC, 5/29/98, p.A3)(SFC, 5/30/98, p.A8)
1998 May 28, Comic actor Phil
Hartman (49) of "Saturday Night Live" and "NewsRadio" fame was shot to
death at his home in Encino, Calif., by his wife, Brynn (40), who then
killed herself.
(SFC, 5/29/98, p.A1)(AP, 5/28/08)
1998 May 28, In Ecuador Simon
Bolivar Chanalata, a hotel clerk, engaged in a fight with 2 US sailors
who were visiting while on a naval exercise. Chanalata died 6 days
later and his family filed a $1.5 million suit against the US Navy. The
2 Navy men faced charges of involuntary manslaughter.
(SFC, 4/16/99, p.D5)
1998 May 28, In Eritrea veterans
were mobilized to be sent to Ethiopian border where the 160-square-mile
Yigra triangle was under dispute. Eritrea claimed ownership under the
still binding Italian colonial borders.
(SFC, 5/29/98, p.D4)
1998 May 28, The German parliament
approved a mass pardon for hundreds of thousands of people who were
punished unjustly by Nazi courts.
(SFC, 5/29/98, p.D4)
1998 May 28, In Indonesia Pres.
Habibie promised to hold elections in 1999 as student protests
continued, though on a smaller scale.
(SFC, 5/29/98, p.A16)
1998 May 28, NATO Ministers agreed
to help Albania and Macedonia strengthen their border patrols.
(SFC, 5/29/98, p.A16)
1998 May 28, Pakistan matched
India and exploded five of its own underground nuclear tests in the
Chagai Hills. Pres. Clinton grimly denounced the tests and imposed
penalties that could cause Pakistan billions. It was later reported
that the number and size of the weapons were exaggerated.
(SFC, 5/29/98, p.A1,13) (SFC, 9/16/98, p.A1)(AP,
5/28/99)
1999 May 28, MCI WorldCom, a US
long-distance phone company, agreed to buy SkyTel Communications, a
paging company, for $1.3 billion.
(SFC, 5/29/99, p.D1)
1999 May 28, In Grenada the
13-year ban on whaling was extended during the annual meeting of the
40-member Int'l. Whaling Commission. Pro-whaling nations threatened to
ignore the restrictions.
(SFC, 5/29/99, p.A13)
1999 May 28, In Cuba Pres. Castro
replaced Roberto Robaina (43) as foreign minister with Felipe Perez
Roque (34). Robaina has served in the office for 6 years.
(SFC, 5/29/99, p.A13)
1999 May 28, In Northern Ireland
the IRA began revealing the locations of 9 "disappeared" victims in
Belfast.
(SFC, 5/29/99, p.A14)
1999 May 28, An Israeli-American
search team found the Dakar, a British-made submarine that was lost in
Jan, 1968., 9,500 feet below the surface of the Mediterranean Sea
between Crete and Cyprus.
(SFC, 5/31/99, p.A8)
1999 May 28, In the Kashmir border
conflict Muslim guerrillas shot down a Indian helicopter and 4
Indian soldiers were killed. Pakistan offered to hold peace talks with
India.
(SFC, 5/29/99, p.A10)(SFC, 5/31/99, p.A10)
1999 May 28, Rwanda declared a
unilateral cease-fire in Congo where it was backing rebels to oust
Pres. Kabila.
(SFC, 5/29/99, p.A11)
1999 May 28, In Yugoslavia Viktor
Chernomyrdin declared the Yugoslav president key to a Kosovo peace plan
despite complications caused by his indictment for war crimes. It was
reported that Pres. Milosevic had agreed to the general principles of a
peace settlement following a nine hour long discussion with the Russian
envoy.
(SFEC, 5/30/99, p.A8)(AP, 5/28/00)
2000 May 28, Juan Montoya won the
84th Indianapolis 500, becoming the first rookie champion since Graham
Hill in 1966.
(AP, 5/28/01)
2000 May 28, In Eritrea Ethiopian
warplanes bombed a nearly completed power plant in Massawa as thousands
of refugees fled north.
(SFC, 5/29/00, p.A12)
2000 May 28, In Fiji some 200
rebel supporters stormed through Suva and one police officer was
killed. The Fiji Television building was rampaged and knocked off the
air. George Speight called for the resignation of Pres. Mara and for
the constitution to be scrapped.
(SFC, 5/29/00, p.A11)
2000 May 28, In Israel Pres.
Weizman announced that he would resign July 10 due to past financial
misdealings.
(SFC, 5/29/00, p.A10)
2000 May 28, In southern Lebanon 2
children were killed and 7 people were injured when their car drove
over a land mine. In Rmeiche a Hezbollah fighter killed a Christian
man. At Kafr Kila Israeli soldiers fired on Lebanese and Palestinian
civilians throwing stones across the border.
(SFC, 5/29/00, p.A10)
2000 May 28, In Peru Pres.
Fujimori claimed victory with 50.8% of the vote in elections tainted by
alleged fraud and irregularities. The runoff vote was boycotted by his
opponent.
(SFC, 5/29/00, p.A1)(AP, 5/28/01)
2000 May 28, In the Philippines
Muslim guerrillas staged 3 attacks and killed at least 15 people
including 12 civilians. Separately 26 people were arrested on suspicion
of involvement in the recent Manila bombings.
(SFC, 5/29/00, p.A14)
2000 May 28, In Poland the Freedom
Union Party voted to resign from the coalition government of Prime
Minister Jerzy Buzek.
(SFC, 5/29/00, p.A10)
2000 May 28, In Russia Pres. Putin
signed the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. It would not be
effective until the US and other nations also approve.
(SFC, 5/29/00, p.A14)
2000 May 28, In Sierra Leone the
last 85 UN peacekeepers were released by rebels into Liberia and
returned to Freetown.
(SFC, 5/29/00, p.A1)
2000 May 28, In Kosovo,
Yugoslavia, an attacker shot and killed a 4-year-old Serb boy and 2 men
in Cermica.
(SFC, 5/30/00, p.A14)
2001 May 28, President Bush
honored America's veterans with the Memorial Day signing of legislation
to construct a World War II monument on the National Mall.
(SFC, 5/29/01, p.A3)(AP, 5/28/02)
2001 May 28, The US and China
tentatively agreed that the US spy plane on Hainan Island would be
dismantled and possibly flown home aboard a giant Antonov-124 transport.
(WSJ, 5/29/01, p.A1)
2001 May 28, U.S. Rep. Joseph
Moakley, D-Mass., died at age 74.
(AP, 5/28/02)
2001 May 28, In the Central
African Republic at least 12 people were killed in a failed coup
attempt against Pres. Ange-Felix Patasse. 80 people in 2002 went on
trial for the attempted coup.
(SFC, 5/29/01, p.A12)(SFC, 2/15/02, p.A10)
2001 May 28, In Colombia FARC
guerrillas killed at least 24 residents of villages near Tierralta over
the last 2 days.
(SFC, 6/1/01, p.D3)
2001 May 28, In Cyprus the AKEL, a
communist party, won parliamentary elections in the Greek Cypriot
portion of the island.
(SFC, 5/29/01, p.A12)
2001 May 28, In Indonesia the
attorney general cleared Pres. Wahid of involvement in 2 corruption
cases that led to his censure.
(SFC, 5/29/01, p.A10)
2001 May 28, Israel and the
Palestinians agreed to resume talks on security cooperation.
(SFC, 5/29/01, p.A12)
2002 May 28, Pres. Bush met with
Pope John Paul II in Vatican City and expressed his worries on the sex
scandals in the US involving Catholic clergy.
(SFC, 5/29/02, p.A8)
2002 May 28, California state
officials levied $88.7 million in fines to 2 LA pharmacists for filing
over 3,500 illegal prescriptions over the Internet.
(SFC, 5/29/02, p.A1)
2002 May 28, NBC announced that
Brian Williams would succeed Tom Brokaw as anchor of its "Nightly News"
after the 2004 presidential election.
(AP, 5/28/03)
2002 May 28, Mildred Wirt Benson
(96), newspaperwoman and creator of the "Nancy Drew" children's mystery
stories (1930), died in Toledo, Ohio. She wrote under the direction of
Edward Stratemeyer and used the pen name Carolyn Keene.
(WSJ, 5/31/02, p.A13)(AP,
5/28/03)(http://tinyurl.com/e39rt)
2002 May 28, The EU announced
plans to overhaul its 100,000-vessel fishing industry with some
national fleets to be cut by up to 60% due to overfishing.
(SFC, 5/29/02, p.A12)
2002 May 28, A Palestinian gunmen
attacked an Israeli settlement near Nablus and killed 3 students at an
Orthodox high school. The gunman was killed.
(SFC, 5/29/02, p.A8)(WSJ, 5/29/02, p.A1)
2002 May 28, Libya offered $10
million in compensation for each victim in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am
Flight 103 in exchange for removal from the US list of states that
sponsor terrorism.
(SFC, 5/29/02, p.A1)
2002 May 28, Pakistan test-fired a
short-range missile, the 3rd test in 4 days.
(SFC, 5/28/02, p.A6)
2002 May 28, Russia signed an
agreement with NATO leaders in Rome for participation in NATO
discussions on a fixed variety of subjects, but no veto power.
(SFC, 5/29/02, p.A8)(WSJ, 5/29/02, p.A1)
2003 May 28, Pres. Bush signed a
tax cut into law. It was the 3rd cut in 3 years and included a cut in
the rates on capital gains and dividends, breaks for small businesses
and funds for state governments. It was valued at $350 billion over 10
years. The Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003
delivered substantial tax relief to 136 million American taxpayers.
(SFC, 5/29/03,
p.A4)(www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/05/20030528-9.html)
2003 May 28, Actress Martha Scott
(90) died in Southern California.
(AP, 5/28/04)
2003 May 28, Amnesty International
released a report saying the U.S.-led war on terror had made the world
a more dangerous and repressive place, a finding dismissed by
Washington as "without merit."
(AP, 5/28/04)
2003 May 28, Prometea, the world's
1st cloned horse, was born in Cremona, Italy.
(SFC, 8/7/03, p.A2)
2003 May 28, Bangladesh authorized
police to shoot at will as part of its anti-crime campaign, after
reporting more than 350 deaths to gang violence in the past two months.
(AP, 5/30/03)
2003 May 28, In Canada SARS killed
two more people in Toronto and concern about the deadly virus shut down
a Toronto-area high school.
(AP, 5/29/03)
2003 May 28, Chinese President Hu
Jintao called for a "multipolar world" and a strategic partnership with
Russia to counter U.S. dominance, and oil executives signed a
preliminary deal for pipeline to carry Siberian oil to China.
(AP, 5/29/03)
2003 May 28, Pakistani police
arrested about three dozen opposition lawmakers from a provincial
assembly during two protests against constitutional changes made by
Pakistan's president to increase his power.
(AP, 5/28/03)
2003 May 28, In the southern
Philippines Muslim rebels declared a cease-fire and gave the government
10 days to meet their demands or face renewed fighting.
(AP, 5/28/03)
2003 May 28, Russia confirmed its
first case of SARS on the border with China in a major embarrassment
for visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao.
(Reuters, 5/28/03)
2003 May 28, Russia's upper house
of parliament ratified a landmark nuclear deal with the United States
that slashes both nation's nuclear arsenals by two-thirds.
(AP, 5/28/03)
2004 May 28, US officials and 5
Central American countries (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala,
Honduras and Nicaragua) signed a free trade pact (CAFTA), to be later
approved by Congress. The Dominican Republic would be included later.
(SFC, 5/29/04, p.A4)
2004 May 28, International Clown
Hall of Fame in downtown Milwaukee posthumously inducted the late Vance
"Pinto" Colvig as the first Bozo. Capitol Records executive Alan
Livingston created Bozo for recordings in 1946. For years, promoter and
entertainer Larry Harmon claimed to have both created the character and
said he was the original.
(AP, 5/28/04)
2004 May 28, In Colombia Carlos
Mauricio Garcia, also known as "Rodrigo" or "Double Zero," was shot in
the head five times by assassins as he left a Santa Marta supermarket.
The former right-wing paramilitary leader objected to the militia's
involvement in drug trafficking.
(AP, 5/30/04)
2004 May 28, French engineers
brought the two central ends of the Millau road viaduct in southwest
France together, completing the span of the highest bridge in the
world. The bridge spans the valley of the Tarn river to carry a
motorway from Clermont-Ferrand to Beziers and establishing a major
north-south axis parallel to the Rhone valley. The $378 million bridge
is expected to open Jan 2005.
(AFP, 5/29/04)(Econ, 1/1/05, p.71)
2004 May 28, An earthquake damaged
homes in northern Iran. The toll from a 6.2 earthquake reached 36 dead
with 250 people injured.
(AP, 5/28/04)(AP, 5/30/04)
2004 May 28, The Iraqi Governing
Council nominated one of its own members, Iyad Allawi, a Shiite Muslim
physician who spent years in exile, to become prime minister of the new
government to take power June 30.
(AP, 5/28/04)
2004 May 28, The Tokyo High Court
sentenced Yoshihiro Inoue (34), a former doomsday cult member, to death
for a 1995 nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subways, overturning a lower
court ruling condemning him to life in prison.
(AP, 5/28/04)
2004 May 28, Malaysia issued a
detention order for Buhary Syed Abu Tahir, a Sri Lankan businessman, on
charges that in 2002 he brought 7 Libyan technicians to Malaysia to be
trained to operate machines to produce centrifuge parts for Libya’s
nuclear weapons program. Tahir was a key associate of Abdul Qadeer
Khan, former head of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program.
(WSJ, 6/4/04, p.A10)
2004 May 28, In Montenegro gunmen
shot dead Dusko Jovanovic, the editor of a conservative daily. PM
Djukanovic had sued Jovanovic and the Dan daily for stories linking the
premier to a major human trafficking case. A court hearing was to begin
next month. Damir Mandic was tried and acquitted in 2006 but that
ruling was overturned after an appeal, and a retrial was held. In 2009
the Montenegro Higher Court ruled that karate expert Damir Mandic was
guilty of the "well-planned and premeditated" murder of editor Dusko
Jovanovic.
(AP, 5/28/04)(AP, 4/28/09)
2004 May 28, In Saudi Arabia
suspected Islamic militants sprayed gunfire inside two oil industry
compounds on the Persian Gulf, killing at least 10 people including one
American.
(AP, 5/29/04)(SSFC, 5/30/04, p.A1)
2004 May 28, The Sudanese
government and rebels from Darfur agreed that the first international
observers of a fragile ceasefire would deploy there next week.
Villagers in west Sudan said Sudanese aircraft bombed their village and
killed at least 11 people.
(AP, 5/28/04)(Reuters, 5/29/04)
2005 May 28, It was reported that
American rancher John Cain Carter served as the driving force behind
Alianca da Terra, a Brazilian NGO promoting certification and standards
of good practice for ranchers and farmers.
(Econ, 5/28/05, p.68)
2005 May 28, Bulgarian President
Georgi Parvanov flew Tripoli to meet with Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi,
days before a Libyan court rules on the appeal of five Bulgarian nurses
sentenced to death over an AIDS-tainted blood scandal.
(Reuters, 5/27/05)
2005 May 28, In Ethiopia
provisional results showed that the ruling coalition and its allies won
a majority in parliamentary elections, but the opposition made
significant gains.
(AP, 5/28/05)
2005 May 28, In Indonesia 2 bombs
exploded at a busy market on Sulawesi Island, killing at least 22
people and wounding 40 others in an area marred by years of
inter-religious fighting.
(AP, 5/28/05)
2005 May 28, Iran's hard-line
Guardian Council approved a law that puts pressure on the government to
develop nuclear technology that could be used to build atomic weapons.
(AP, 5/28/05)
2005 May 28, In Iraq 2 suicide
attackers detonated car bombs in northern Iraq, killing at least five
Iraqis, and the government confirmed the death of a Japanese hostage
abducted earlier this month. Attacks killed at least 45 Iraqis over the
past 2 days including 10 people returning from a religious pilgrimage
in Syria. A US Marine was killed when a roadside bomb struck his
vehicle in northwestern Iraq.
(AP, 5/28/05)(AP, 5/30/05)
2005 May 28, More than 40,000
Iraqi police and soldiers, backed by American troops and air support,
began “Operation Lightning” against insurgents in Baghdad.
(AP, 7/11/05)
2005 May 28, In Sudan tens of
thousands of chanting refugees lined the muddy streets of Darfur's
largest camp to greet the U.N.'s Kofi Annan, who later listened as
women raped during the conflict told their stories.
(AP, 5/28/05)
2006 May 28, In SF Barry Bonds hit
his 715th home run passing the Babe Ruth record of 714 and approaching
Hank Aaron’s 755 record.
(SFC, 5/28/06, p.A1)
2006 May 28, Sam Hornish Jr. won
the second-closest Indianapolis 500 ever.
(AP, 5/28/07)
2006 May 28, In SF tens of
thousands jammed the Mission District for the 28th annual Carnaval. 81
official units participated in the “Land of Childhood Dreams” parade.
(SFC, 5/28/06, p.B1)
2006 May 28, Afghanistan and Iran
pledged to crack down on drugs passing over their shared border as
Afghan President Hamid Karzai visited Tehran. Officials also signed
seven agreements dealing with the reconstruction of Afghanistan.
(AP, 5/29/06)
2006 May 28, Bangladesh increased
development spending by 21% to a record 3.8 billion dollars for the new
fiscal year to create more jobs and cut poverty ahead of general
elections.
(AFP, 5/28/06)
2006 May 28, The BBC reported that
at least 1,000 troops have "deserted" the armed forces since the US-led
war was launched in Iraq three years ago.
(AFP, 5/28/06)
2006 May 28, President Alvaro
Uribe won Colombia's presidential elections with 62% of the vote. The
turnout was 45% of those eligible. Uribe became the first incumbent to
win re-election in Colombia in more than a century, beating his nearest
rival by more than 40 percentage points with pledges to continue
fighting crime and reducing poverty.
(AP, 5/28/06)(AP, 5/29/06)(Econ, 6/3/06, p.34)
2006 May 28, In East Timor rival
gangs torched homes and battled each other with machetes in Dili,
scattering and regrouping as Australian troops in armored vehicles
rumbled toward the sound of gunfire.
(AP, 5/28/06)
2006 May 28, In France, the film
“The Wind That Shakes the Barley,” directed by Ken Loach, won the Palme
d’Or prize (Golden Palm) at the 59th Cannes Film Festival. The film
told the story of the Irish rebellion in the 1920s.
(SFC, 5/28/06, p.A2)
2006 May 28, Sheik Osama
al-Jadaan, a prominent Sunni Arab tribal leader, was assassinated in
Baghdad. He had provided fighters to help battle al-Qaida in western
Iraq.
(AP, 5/28/06)
2006 May 28, Lebanese guerrillas
fired a barrage of rockets into northern Israel, wounding an Israeli
soldier at a military base. Israel destroyed most of the military
positions of Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas along its northern border.
Rocket and artillery exchanges killed two guerrillas in Lebanon and
wounded two Israeli soldiers, two Lebanese civilians and six militants.
(AP, 5/28/06)(AP, 5/29/06)
2006 May 28, In northwestern
Pakistan suspected militants shot dead tribal elder, Malik Takhti Khan,
in a North Waziristan town while he was shopping at a weekly open-air
market.
(AP, 5/30/06)
2006 May 28, Pope Benedict XVI
urged some 900,000 Poles at a giant mass to fight growing secularism by
spreading their Christian faith across Europe and the world. He visited
Auschwitz.
(AFP, 5/28/06)(WSJ, 5/30/06, p.A1)
2006 May 28, Sri Lankan police
detained the drivers of 18 vehicles trying to smuggle explosives across
a de facto frontier post into the government-controlled part of the
Jaffna peninsula.
(AFP, 5/28/06)
2006 May 28, Turkey’s culture and
tourism minister said two pieces from the treasure of King Croesus that
were returned to Turkey from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
after a long legal battle have been stolen and replaced with fakes.
(AP, 5/29/06)
2007 May 28, Astronomers on teams
from UC Berkeley and Australia reported the discovery of 28 new planets
in the Milky Way.
(SFC, 5/29/07, p.A1)
2007 May 28, In Alaska officials
from 75 nations began talks critical to whale conservation amid
pressure, notably from Japan, to lift a 20-year ban on commercial whale
hunting.
(AFP, 5/28/07)
2007 May 28, In Petersburg, Ky.,
the new Creation Museum opened with displays touting the beginning of
time at 4004BC. Founder Ken Ham raised $27 million to build it.
Organizers expected 250,000 yearly visitors paying $9.95 to $19.95 for
tickets (www.creationmuseum.org/).
(SFC, 5/31/07, p.A2)(Econ, 6/2/07, p.32)
2007 May 28, In northern
Afghanistan a demonstration against a governor left at least seven dead
and 31 injured after gunfire broke out between police and protesters. A
suicide bomber targeted foreigners in a four-wheel drive vehicle,
killing two Afghan civilians and wounding two others in Kunduz. It was
reported that truck drivers in Afghanistan had more problems with
police demanding bribes that with the Taliban.
(AP, 5/28/07)(SFC, 5/28/07, p.A10)
2007 May 28, Police found a
cocaine laboratory in the southern Bolivian jungle capable of producing
245 pounds of the drug daily, one of the largest drug labs ever
discovered there. Satellite photos taken by the US Drug Enforcement
Agency revealed the location of the lab.
(AP, 5/30/07)
2007 May 28, In Brazil Pres. Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva unveiled a program to provide cheap birth control
pills at 10,000 drug stores across the country.
(AP, 5/28/07)
2007 May 28, Britain’s public
health minister said beer, wine and hard liquor packaging in Britain
will carry warning labels next year detailing how many units of alcohol
each drink contains as well as recommended safe drinking levels.
(AP, 5/28/07)
2007 May 28, A blast ripped
through a crowd in Ethiopia's volatile Somali region, killing 6 people
and setting off a stampede that saw up to six more die. The attack
happened as hundreds of people were gathered at the stadium in Jijiga
town's Revolutionary Square for a ceremony marking the overthrow of
Ethiopia's former dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam. In 2008 an Ethiopian
court sentenced to death 8 alleged members of the Ogaden National
Liberation Force (ONLF) for the attack.
(Reuters, 5/28/07)(AFP, 5/22/08)
2007 May 28, Officials said heavy
storms, landslides, flash floods and lightning have killed at least 23
people in Europe and Turkey.
(Reuters, 5/28/07)
2007 May 28, Joerg Immendorff
(b.1945), German artist, died. He was best known for his “Café
Deutschland” series begun in 1978.
(SFC, 5/29/07, p.B3)
2007 May 28, In northwest Iran 7
Revolutionary Guard members and five militants were killed in clashes
with armed insurgents.
(AP, 5/30/07)
2007 May 28, The US and Iran broke
a 27-year diplomatic freeze with a four-hour meeting about Iraqi
security. The American envoy said there was broad policy agreement, but
that Iran must stop arming and financing militants who are attacking US
and Iraqi forces. The Iranian ambassador later said the two sides would
meet again in less than a month. Abdul-Rahman al-Essawi, an Iraqi
journalist, was shot to death along with his wife, son, parents and
three other relatives. A suicide car bomber struck a busy commercial
district in central Baghdad, killing at least 21 people and damaging a
Sunni shrine. In central Baghdad a battle raged after insurgents
hijacked two buses and kidnapped at least 15 passengers. At least 3
policemen were killed. A roadside bomb killed 2 people and injured 9
when it detonated under a parked car in the central Baghdad district of
Bab al-Muadham. Another 2 people were killed and 6 were wounded after
two mortar rounds slammed into a street in Karrada, a Shiite-dominated
neighborhood in downtown Baghdad. 36 people were killed across Baghdad
in a wave of attacks. Another 33 bullet-riddled bodies were dead,
tortured and abandoned in different parts of the capital. 10 American
soldiers were killed in roadside bombings and a helicopter crash in
Diyala province.
(AP, 5/28/07)(AP, 5/29/07)(AP, 5/30/07)
2007 May 28, Japan's agriculture
minister died after hanging himself just hours before he was to face
questioning in a political scandal.
(AP, 5/28/07)
2007 May 28, Kazakh authorities
issued an international arrest warrant for the powerful son-in-law of
President Nursultan Nazarbayev who faces abduction charges and has
publicly criticized the longtime leader.
(AP, 5/29/07)
2007 May 28, In Mexico City Riyo
Mori, a 20-year-old dancer from Japan who hopes to someday open an
international dance school, was crowned Miss Universe 2007.
(AP, 5/28/07)
2007 May 28, In Pakistan a court
sentenced a same-sex couple to three years in jail on perjury charges,
prompting the defendants to ask the president for help. The case of
Shumail Raj, who was born female but had two operations to remove her
breasts and uterus 16 years ago, and Shahzina Tariq has made waves by
raising issues of homosexuality and transsexuality that are taboo in
this conservative Muslim society. Pakistani police killed four
pro-Taliban militants in a gun battle in the northwestern town of
Bannu. Hours later unidentified gunmen shot dead a military commander
on the outskirts of the northwestern town of Tank. A suicide attacker
rammed his bomb-laden vehicle into a military convoy in Pakistan,
killing two soldiers and wounding eight.
(AP, 5/28/07)(AFP, 5/28/07)
2007 May 28, Spain arrested 2
Algerians and 14 Moroccans, on suspicion of recruiting volunteers to
fight in Iraq and other countries.
(AP, 5/28/07)(SFC, 5/29/07, p.A3)(WSJ, 5/29/07, p.A1)
2007 May 28, In Sri Lanka a Tiger
roadside bomb in Colombo killed 7 soldiers and civilians.
(Econ, 6/9/07, p.24)
2007 May 28, In southern Thailand
a bomb in a market in Kolomudo killed four Buddhists, including two
children.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 May 28, RCTV, Venezuela's
oldest private television station, was pushed off the air as President
Hugo Chavez's government replaced the popular opposition-aligned
network with a new state-funded channel. Police fired tear gas and
plastic bullets into a crowd of thousands protesting the decision by
President Hugo Chavez.
(AP, 5/28/07)(AP, 5/29/07)(Econ, 6/2/07, p.14)
2008 May 28, In Newton,
Massachusetts, a collision between two commuter trains killed driver
Terrese Edmonds (24). Passengers reported seeing Ms. Edmonds using a
cell phone moments before the collision.
(WSJ, 5/30/08, p.A2)
2008 May 28, In Reno, Nevada, 30
monkeys were found essentially cooked alive after a repair technician
left a heater on at a lab owned by Charles River Laboratories. Two
other monkeys had to be euthanized. The company was fined $14,000.
(SFC, 3/18/10, p.A7)(http://tinyurl.com/yab2maj)
2008 May 28, In Afghanistan a
passenger truck ran off the road in a remote mountainous region of
Badakhshan province, killing 15 people and wounding 56. Three suicide
bomb attacks around the country killed one person.
(AP, 5/28/08)
2008 May 28, African leaders, in
Japan for a major development conference, lashed out at rich nations
for erecting trade barriers that prevent the continent's economic
development even as they make lofty pledges to boost aid. Japan pledged
to double aid to Africa by 2012 and to help the continent boost rice
production two-fold to ease food shortages.
(AFP, 5/28/08)
2008 May 28, Bahrain's King Hamad
bin Isa al-Khalifa appointed Lawmaker Houda Nonoo, believed to be the
Arab world's first Jewish ambassador, as the country's envoy to
Washington.
(AP, 5/29/08)
2008 May 28, In Canada police
found the dead bodies of five adults and children in a suburban Calgary
home. Media outlets reported they were Joshua Lall (34) an intern at an
architectural firm, his wife Alison Lall (35), and daughters Kristen
(5), Rochelle (3) and a tenant reported to be Amber Bowerman, who
worked for a college newspaper. Police later said Joshua Lall committed
the murders sparing only his one-year-old child.
(AP, 5/30/08)(Reuters, 5/31/08)
2008 May 28, China’s Xinhua News
Agency reported that torrential rains had killed 18 people in southern
Guizhou province since May 25, and that the rains were expected to
continue for 3 more days. 12 more people were reported missing. Some
6,700 houses were damaged since the rains began.
(SFC, 5/29/08, p.A7)
2008 May 28, In southern Ethiopia
a bomb exploded in a hotel, killing 3 people and wounding five others.
The government suspected a terrorist group planted a bomb in the hotel
in Negelle Borena.
(AFP, 5/28/08)
2008 May 28, Iran's lawmakers
overwhelmingly picked conservative Ali Larijani as parliament speaker,
sending another strong message of discontent with Pres. Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad's leadership by boosting one of his likely challengers in
elections next year.
(AP, 5/28/08)
2008 May 28, Iraq's largest Sunni
Arab political bloc said it has suspended talks on ending its boycott
of the Shiite-led government due to a dispute over which positions it
would assume. The Sunni National Accordance Front held 44 of 275
parliamentary seats. Sporadic gunbattles broke out in a Shiite
stronghold in southeastern Baghdad as detentions and raids against
al-Sadr's followers continue to strain a truce. 3 civilians were killed
and five others wounded in the fighting. A roadside bomb struck a car
in the Qara Taba district, northeast of Baghdad, killing a farmer and
his son. US troops captured eight suspected insurgents, including a man
believed to be a longtime al-Qaida in Iraq leader who was involved in a
June 30, 2007, attack on American forces in a remote area in Anbar
province known as Donkey Island.
(AP, 5/28/08)
2008 May 28, In Ireland diplomats
for over 100 nations agreed on a treaty to ban current types of cluster
bombs. The talks did not involve the biggest makers and users, which
included the US, Russia, China, Israel, India and Pakistan. Nations
were expected to sign the document in December in Oslo, Norway.
(SFC, 5/29/08, p.A3)
2008 May 28, An Israeli airstrike
in southern Gaza Strip killed two Hamas gunmen during a military
operation. The airstrike also wounded four militants who were firing
mortars at Israeli forces.
(AP, 5/28/08)
2008 May 28, In Lebanon PM Fuad
Saniora won a new term with the backing of a pro-American coalition,
angering the Hezbollah-led opposition.
(SFC, 5/29/08, p.A10)
2008 May 28, In Nepal lawmakers
voted just before midnight to abolish the 240-year-old Hindu monarchy
and establish a secular republic.
(AFP, 5/29/08)
2008 May 28, The first winners of
the new Kavli Prizes for outstanding research in nanoscience,
neuroscience, and astrophysics were to be announced in Oslo, Norway.
(SFC, 4/12/08, p.C1)
2008 May 28, Former PM Nawaz
Sharif said Pakistan's ruling coalition has agreed to expel US-backed
President Pervez Musharraf from power.
(AFP, 5/28/08)
2008 May 28, Slovakia revalued its
currency. Finance minister Jan Pociatek was soon accused of leaking
news of the revaluation to J&T, Slovakia’s leading investment fund.
(Econ, 6/28/08, p.58)
2008 May 28, Sri Lanka’s military
said 20 insurgents and one soldier were killed in fighting in Jaffna
and Welioya.
(AP, 5/29/08)
2008 May 28, In Sudan a Ugandan
policeman serving with the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force in
the western Darfur region was found dead riddled with bullets.
(AFP, 5/29/08)
2008 May 28, Thailand police said
3 soldiers and four suspected separatist rebels have been killed in a
series of incidents across the far south, including a shootout at a
wedding party.
(AFP, 5/28/08)
2008 May 28, Turkey's state-run
media said soldiers killed two Kurdish rebels during a clash near the
border with Iran.
(AP, 5/28/08)
2008 May 28, Venezuela announced
that the new Intelligence and Counterintelligence Law, passed by Pres.
Chavez, would replace the Disip secret police and Military Intelligence
Directorate with 4 new agencies. Under the law citizens who refuse to
act as informants for intelligence agencies could face as much as 4
years in prison.
(WSJ, 6/4/08,
p.A17)(www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3505)
2009 May 28, US Agriculture Sec.
Tom Vilsack issued a directive reinstating for one year a Clinton-era
ban on new road construction and development in national forests.
(SFC, 5/29/09, p.A7)
2009 May 28, Nebraska Gov. Dave
Heineman signed a bill to change the state’s method of execution from
electrocution to lethal injection. In February the state Supreme Court
ruled the electric chair was unconstitutional.
(SFC, 5/29/09, p.A4)
2009 May 28, Kavya Shivashankar
(13) of Olathe, Kansas, won the Scripps National Spelling Bee in
Washington, DC.
(SFC, 5/29/09, p.A1)
2009 May 28, The San Francisco Zoo
agreed to pay $900,000 to brothers Amritpal and Kulbir Dhaliwal, who
survived a fatal attack by an escaped tiger on Dec 25, 2007.
(SFC, 5/29/09, p.B1)
2009 May 28, Time Warner, which
acquired America Online (AOL) in 2001, said it will spin out the
company and its 7,000 employees as a separate company under CEO Tim
Armstrong (38).
(SFC, 5/29/09, p.C2)
2009 May 28, It was reported that
scientists have identified a lethal new virus in Africa that causes
bleeding like the dreaded Ebola virus. The so-called "Lujo" virus
infected five people in Zambia and South Africa last fall. Four of them
died, but a fifth survived, perhaps helped by a medicine recommended by
the scientists.
(AP, 5/28/09)
2009 May 28, In eastern
Afghanistan US coalition troops attacked a suspected foreign fighter
camp, killing 34 insurgents, including Arabs and Pakistanis, in an
intense firefight in Paktika province. In southern Afghanistan US-led
coalition forces killed 35 militants and wounded 13 others during a
clash. Insurgents in Zabul province killed eight truck drivers ferrying
supplies for foreign troops. A NATO soldier died after a roadside bomb
attack in the south.
(AP, 5/28/09)(AP, 5/29/09)
2009 May 28, Australian Foreign
Minister Stephen Smith condemned a wave of attacks on Indian students
in Melbourne after the latest assault left a 25-year-old fighting for
his life. Indian student Sravan Kumar Theerthala was stabbed with a
screwdriver on May 24 when a group of teenagers gatecrashed a party he
was attending in the suburbs of Melbourne.
(AFP, 5/28/09)
2009 May 28, In Bulgaria a bus
careered down a mountainside and plowed through pedestrians heading to
a religious festival, killing at least 16 people and injuring at least
20.
(AP, 5/28/09)
2009 May 28, In Belize and
Honduras a magnitude 7.1 earthquake collapsed more than two dozen
homes, killing at least 6 people and injuring 40 others as terrified
people ran into the streets in towns across much of Central America.
(AP, 5/28/09)
2009 May 28, In Brazil raging
torrents from a ruptured dam and swamped Cocal, a northeastern farming
city of about 25,000 in Piaui state, forcing residents to scramble onto
rooftops and climb high trees to escape the deadly floodwaters. 4
people were killed.
(AP, 5/28/09)
2009 May 28, The British Royal
Society for the Protection of Birds said in a new report that the
cuckoo bird and 51 other species were in danger of extinction due
largely to a decrease in their food and water supply in sub-Saharan
Africa, from where many migrate.
(SFC, 5/29/09, p.A2)
2009 May 28, The Indian navy
thwarted a pirate attack on a merchant ship in the Gulf of Aden off the
coast of Somalia.
(AP, 5/29/09)
2009 May 28, A ship packed with
Afghan migrants sank off Indonesia's western coast, killing at least 9
people and leaving 11 others missing.
(AP, 5/28/09)(AP, 5/29/09)
2009 May 28, In southeast Iran a
bombing in a Shiite mosque at Zahedan killed 25 people. The next day
Iran blamed the US and Israel saying the countries were trying to stoke
sectarian tension with the Sunni Muslim minority.
(AP, 5/29/09)
2009 May 28, In Iraq a roadside
bomb struck a civilian car on a highway linking the towns of Khanaqin
with Qara Tappah. The blast killed two boys ages 8 and 10 and their
father.
(AP, 5/29/09)
2009 May 28, Israel defied a
surprisingly blunt US demand that it freeze all building in West Bank
Jewish settlements, saying it will press ahead with construction. Since
1967, Israel has built 121 West Bank settlements, now home to around
300,000 Israelis. An additional 180,000 live in Jewish neighborhoods in
east Jerusalem, which, like the West Bank, was captured by Israel in
the 1967 Middle East war.
(AP, 5/28/09)(AP, 6/23/09)
2009 May 28, It was reported that
Japanese researchers have added genes to monkeys that cause the animals
to glow under a fluorescent light, and that the new genetic attributes
can pass to their offspring.
(SFC, 5/28/09, p.A9)
2009 May 28, In Pakistan two new
blasts ripped through the Qissa Khawani market in Peshawar, killing at
least 13 people.
(AP, 5/28/09)(SFC, 5/29/09, p.A2)
2009 May 28, Russian PM Vladimir
Putin met Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk amid talk of
massive loans to Minsk, just days after the Belarussian strongman made
a furious attack on his Moscow ally.
(AFP, 5/28/09)
2009 May 28, The Saudi Arabia,
Monetary Agency froze the bank accounts of Maan al-Sanea, head of the
Saad Group and ranked recently as the 3rd richest Arab businessman.
(Econ, 6/20/09, p.70)
2009 May 28, In Senegal UN,
African Union, EU and Arab League representatives met with Mauritian
political parties in Dakar to discuss upcoming polls and a political
stalemate since a coup.
(AFP, 5/28/09)
2009 May 28, South Korean and US
troops raised their alert to the highest level since 2006 after North
Korea renounced its truce with the allied forces and threatened to
strike any ships trying to intercept its vessels.
(AP, 5/28/09)
2009 May 28, In Sudan Darfur's
most active rebel group said it intends to free 60 Sudanese troops as a
"sign of goodwill" ahead of Qatari-brokered peace talks with Sudan's
government.
(AFP, 5/28/09)
2009 May 28, Swedish media
reported that a 16-year-old Iraqi immigrant living in Sweden has
cracked a maths puzzle that has stumped experts for more than 300
years. Mohamed Altoumaimi has found a formula to explain and simplify
the so-called Bernoulli numbers, a sequence of calculations named after
the 17th century Swiss mathematician Jacob Bernoulli.
(AFP, 5/28/09)
2009 May 28, Turkish warplanes
attacked Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, hours after a land mine blast
on the Turkish side of the border killed six soldiers.
(AP, 5/28/09)
8113 May 28, A time capsule called
the "Crypt of Civilization,"
planted in 1940 by Oglethorpe Univ. in Atlanta, Georgia, was scheduled
to be opened. Souvenir medals were sold in 1940 for $1 granting holders
free admittance to the opening. Dr. Thornwell Jacobs, the "father of
the modern time capsule,” and president of Oglethorpe, calculated this
date from the first fixed date in history, 4241 B.C. when most
historians believe the Egyptian calendar was established. Exactly 6177
years had passed between 4241 B.C. and 1936 A.D., when Dr. Jacobs 1st
proposed the project. He projected the same period of time forward from
1936, arriving at the year 8113 A.D. for the Crypt's opening.
(www.oglethorpe.edu/about_us/crypt_of_civilization/international_time_capsule_society.asp)(SFEC,
1/2/00,
p.D4)(WSJ, 1/5/05, p.B1)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Go to May 29