Saturday, 28th March 2026 in Kyiv

Welcome to your daily snapshot of Kyjiw! Explore 44 historical events, birthdays, deaths, and milestones that shaped this day in Kyjiw. From remarkable moments in local and world history to the people who left their mark — find out what makes today special. Today's weather in Kyjiw brings drizzly with temperatures between 5°C and 15°C. Tonight's moon is in its last quarter phase, and the zodiac sign of the day is Aries. If you're curious about the history of a day — this page brings together everything worth knowing about this Saturday, 28th March in Kyjiw, UA.

Kyiv
Nick Grapsy – CC BY-SA 4.0Wikimedia Commons

Kyjiw, the capital of Ukraine, is situated on the Dnieper River in the north-central part of the country. On Saturday, 28 March 2026, the weather in Kyjiw is drizzly. The date falls under the zodiac sign of Aries, and the moon is in its last quarter phase.

On this day

On 28 March 1979, British Prime Minister James Callaghan faced political defeat when he lost a vote of no confidence in the House of Commons by a single vote. The loss came after his government struggled to manage widespread industrial action during the Winter of Discontent, a period marked by extensive strikes across the United Kingdom that had severely tested public patience and ministerial authority.

Two decades earlier, on 28 March 1999, the Kosovo War saw Serbian police and special forces kill approximately 93 Kosovo Albanians in the village of Izbica, an atrocity that formed part of the broader campaign of ethnic violence during the conflict in the Balkans.

DayAtlas provides comprehensive information for any date and location, displaying weather conditions, historical events, and notable births and deaths that occurred on that day.

Find out what's happening today in Kyjiw.

What the Weather Had in Store for Kyjiw on 28th March 2026

Drizzle

Sunrise 05:43
Sunset 18:23
Sunshine duration 07:58 hours
Daylight duration 12:40 hours

Maximum temperature 15.4°C
Minimum temperature 5.1°C

Wind speed 14.8km/h from NE
Precipitation 0.1mm

Patience and haste arrive at the same door; one alone spares the soul.

Fortune of the Day

28th March in the Stars – Star Sign Aries

Today, the zodiac sign Aries celebrates its birthday.

Personality Profile

Personality Those born on March 28 blend Aries boldness with Jupiter's expansive wisdom, creating natural leaders who combine vision with practical insight. Their direct, courageous nature draws people to them instinctively. These individuals radiate confidence and enthusiasm.

Strengths & Weaknesses Their strengths include courage, determination, and intellectual breadth that inspires others. Impatience and excessive optimism can push them toward hasty choices. Numerology 4 grounds them, yet impulsiveness remains their recurring challenge.

Love In relationships, they offer passion, generosity, and a genuine appetite for adventure. They seek partners who match their enthusiasm and provide intellectual depth. Long-term commitment requires more emotional restraint and consistency.

Caree & Finance They thrive in positions offering responsibility and creative freedom. Entrepreneurship, management, and pioneering projects naturally appeal to them. Financial stability comes through discipline; unchecked optimism in money matters carries real risk.

Health Their fiery nature demands regular physical activity and proper outlets for energy. Nervous tension and overexertion can disrupt sleep patterns. Meditation and deliberate rest periods support their long-term wellness.


That night, the moon was in its last quarter phase.


Chinese year of the Horse (Fire).

Fun Facts About 28th March

Name Days in Your Language: Gwen, Gwenda, Gwendolyn, Gwyn, Gwynn, Gwynne


Someone born on this day would be just 85 days old today — roughly 2,054 hours, 123,295 minutes, or 7,397,731 seconds spent on Earth so far.


It's the 87. day of the year. In 2026, 28th March falls on a Saturday.


There are 278 days still to come.


We’re currently in Week 13 — the year marches on.

Famous Birthdays on 28th March

On this day, 177 notable people were born on 28th March — spanning from 1472 to 2004. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.

28/03/2004

Anna Shcherbakova, Russian figure skater

Anna Stanislavovna Shcherbakova is a Russian figure skater. She is the 2022 Olympic champion in women's singles, the 2021 World champion, the 2022 European champion, and a three-time Russian national champion (2019–2021).


28/03/2001

Wang Xiyu, Chinese tennis player

Wang Xiyu is a Chinese professional tennis player. She reached a career-high WTA singles ranking of No. 49 on 9 January 2023, and a best doubles ranking of No. 87 on 14 October 2024.


28/03/1998

Lance Morris, Australian cricketer

Lance Richard Thomas Morris is an Australian cricketer who represents the Australia national cricket team in ODI cricket. A right-arm fast bowler, Morris plays for Western Australia and the Perth Scorchers. He is regarded as one of the fastest bowlers in Australia.


28/03/1996

Matt Renshaw, English-Australian cricketer

Matthew Thomas Renshaw is an Australian international cricketer. He played eleven Tests for Australia between 2016 and 2018 as an opening batsman, and was recalled to the Test team in 2023 as a middle-order batsman. He made his ODI debut in October 2025. In domestic first-class cricket he plays for Queensland, and in the Big Bash League he has played for the Brisbane Heat and Adelaide Strikers.


Max Strus, American basketball player

Max Strus is an American professional basketball player for the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Lewis Flyers and the DePaul Blue Demons. Prior to the Cavaliers, Strus played two games for the Chicago Bulls in his rookie season before signing with the Miami Heat, with whom he reached the NBA Finals in 2023.


28/03/1995

Jonathan Drouin, Canadian ice hockey player

Jonathan Drouin is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a forward for the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League (NHL). Drouin was selected in the first round, third overall, by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2013 NHL entry draft. He has also played for the Montreal Canadiens, Colorado Avalanche, and New York Islanders.


Will Smith, American baseball player

William Dills Smith is an American professional baseball catcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played college baseball for the Louisville Cardinals. He was selected by the Dodgers in the first round of the 2016 Major League Baseball draft, and made his MLB debut in 2019. Smith is a three-time All-Star and won the World Series with the Dodgers in 2020, 2024, and 2025, securing the latter championship with an 11th-inning home run in Game 7. Internationally, Smith represents the United States.


28/03/1994

Jackson Wang, Hong Kong rapper

Jackson Wang is a Hong Kong rapper, singer, and songwriter. After a career as a competitive fencer, he joined the South Korean boy band Got7, which debuted under JYP Entertainment in 2014. He founded the Chinese record label Team Wang in 2017, serving as the creative director and lead designer for its subsidiary fashion brand Team Wang Design. Wang released his first solo album Mirrors in 2019, which peaked at number 32 on the US Billboard 200, followed by his second album Magic Man in 2022, which peaked at number 15. His third album Magic Man 2 (2025) reached number 13.


28/03/1992

Sergi Gómez, Spanish footballer

Sergi Gómez Solà is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a central defender for Primeira Liga club Alverca.


28/03/1991

Derek Carr, American football player

Derek Dallas Carr is an American former professional football quarterback who played 11 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Fresno State Bulldogs, receiving first-team All-Mountain West Conference honors twice before being selected by the Oakland Raiders in the second round of the 2014 NFL draft.


Jordan McRae, American basketball player

Jordan Tyler McRae is an American professional basketball player for Hapoel Holon of the Israeli Basketball Premier League. He played college basketball for the Tennessee Volunteers, and was drafted 58th overall in the 2014 NBA draft, by the San Antonio Spurs. He is a 1.96 meters tall shooting guard-small forward. McRae won a championship with the Cavaliers in 2016.


Lisa-Maria Moser, Austrian tennis player

Lisa-Maria Moser is an Austrian former tennis player.


Marie-Philip Poulin, Canadian ice hockey player

Marie-Philip Poulin is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre and captain for the Montreal Victoire of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL). She is also the captain of the Canada women's national ice hockey team. She was named the IIHF Female Player of the Year in 2025.


Ondřej Palát, Czech ice hockey player

Ondřej Palát is a Czech professional ice hockey player who is a winger for the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was drafted in the seventh round, 208th overall, by the Tampa Bay Lightning at the 2011 NHL entry draft. Palát won the Stanley Cup back-to-back with the Lightning in 2020 and 2021.


Christian Walker, American baseball player

Christian Dickson Walker is an American professional baseball first baseman for the Houston Astros of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Baltimore Orioles and Arizona Diamondbacks. Considered one of the best defensive first basemen in the majors, Walker is a three-time Gold Glove Award winner.


Hoya, South Korean singer and dancer

Lee Ho-won, known professionally as Hoya, is a South Korean singer, rapper, songwriter, actor, and dancer, currently a member of the dance crew Mbitious. He is known to have been a rapper and vocalist in boy band Infinite from 2010 until his departure from Woollim Entertainment in 2017. In 2018, Hoya made his solo debut on March 28 with his first EP Shower.


28/03/1990

Delroy Edwards, American musician

Brandon Avery Perlman, known professionally as Delroy Edwards, is an American electronic music producer and DJ based in Los Angeles. According to AllMusic's Paul Simpson, he produces "gritty, lo-fi house tracks in addition to trippy, abstract mixtapes". He is the owner of the record label L.A. Club Resource and runs the underground hip-hop reissue label Gene's Liquor.


Laura Harrier, American actress and model

Laura Ruth Harrier is an American actress and model. She began modeling at the age of 17 after she was discovered by a location scout. She moved to New York City in 2007 where she continued modeling and was represented by agencies such as IMG Models and Wilhelmina Models. She modeled for various mainstream magazines, appeared in campaigns for Urban Outfitters, Macy's and Steve Madden, and was the face of Garnier. After appearing in several commercials and student films, Harrier decided to pursue acting and studied at the William Esper Studio. She was first recognized for her role as Destiny Evans in the 2013 one-season reboot of the American soap opera One Life to Live.


28/03/1989

Logan Couture, Canadian ice hockey player

Logan Couture is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He played as a centre and spent his entire National Hockey League (NHL) career with the San Jose Sharks, who selected him ninth overall in the 2007 NHL entry draft. Couture was forced to retire in 2025 after not playing since January 2024 due to injury. Despite retirement, he will formally remain on the Sharks roster on long-term injured reserve until 2027.


Lukas Jutkiewicz, English footballer

Lukas Isaac Paul Jutkiewicz is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker. He played for Swindon Town, Everton, Plymouth Argyle, Huddersfield Town, Motherwell, Coventry City, Middlesbrough, Bolton Wanderers, Burnley and Birmingham City.


Mira Leung, Canadian figure skater

Mira Leung is a Canadian former competitive figure skater. She is the 2004 Nebelhorn Trophy bronze medallist and a three-time Canadian national silver medallist (2006–2008). Leung placed 12th at the 2006 Winter Olympics and 5th at the 2008 Four Continents. She now works for Google as a software engineering manager.


28/03/1988

Geno Atkins, American football player

Gene Reynard Atkins Jr. is an American former professional football player who was a defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Georgia Bulldogs, and was selected by the Cincinnati Bengals in the fourth round of the 2010 NFL draft. Atkins was selected as a first-team All-Pro two times and is also an eight-time Pro Bowler.


Ryan Kalish, American baseball player

Ryan Michael Kalish is an American former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Boston Red Sox in 2010 and 2012 and for the Chicago Cubs in 2014 and 2016.


28/03/1987

Yohan Benalouane, French-Tunisian footballer

Yohan Ben Alouane is a Tunisian former professional footballer who played as a defender.


Simeon Jackson, Canadian soccer player

Simeon Alexander Jackson is a Canadian semi-professional soccer player who plays as a forward for A.F.C. Sudbury.


Jonathan Van Ness, American hairdresser and television personality

Jonathan McDonald Van Ness, also commonly referred to by his initials J.V.N., is an American hairstylist, podcast host and television personality. He is best known as the grooming expert on the Netflix series Queer Eye, for his work on the web series parody Gay of Thrones, and for hosting the Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness podcast. He is also known for comedy tours, the 2023 tour entitled Fun & Slutty with Jonathan Van Ness.


28/03/1986

Mustafa Ali, American wrestler

Adeel Alam is an American professional wrestler, better known by the ring name Mustafa Ali. He is signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), where he is the leader of the Order 4 stable and the current TNA International Champion in his first reign. He is also a former one-time TNA X Division Champion. He also makes appearances on the independent circuit.


Bowe Bergdahl, American sergeant

Beaudry Robert "Bowe" Bergdahl is a former United States Army soldier who was held captive from 2009 to 2014 by the Taliban-aligned Haqqani network in Afghanistan and Pakistan.


Lady Gaga, American singer-songwriter and actress

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Known for her image reinventions and versatility across the entertainment industry, she is an influential figure in popular music. With estimated sales of 124 million records, she is one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Publications such as Billboard and Rolling Stone have ranked her among the greatest artists in history.


J-Kwon, American rapper

Jerrell C. Jones, better known by his stage name J-Kwon, is an American rapper from St. Louis, Missouri. He signed with Jermaine Dupri's So So Def Recordings, an imprint of Arista Records to release his 2004 single "Tipsy", which peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. It served as lead single for his debut studio album Hood Hop (2004), which peaked at number seven on the Billboard 200 and spawned the single "You & Me". The following year, he guest appeared alongside Mike Jones on labelmate Bow Wow's 2005 single, "Fresh Azimiz", which peaked at number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100.


Barbora Strýcová, Czech tennis player

Barbora Strýcová, formerly known as Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová, is a Czech former professional tennis player who was ranked world No. 1 in doubles.


28/03/1985

Stefano Ferrario, Italian footballer

Stefano Ferrario is an Italian former footballer who played for Serie D club Cattolica.


Steve Mandanda, French footballer

Steve Mandanda Mpidi is a former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.


Stanislas Wawrinka, Swiss tennis player

Stanislas "Stan" Wawrinka is a Swiss professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 3 in singles by the ATP. Wawrinka has won 16 ATP Tour-level singles titles, including three majors at the 2014 Australian Open, 2015 French Open, and the 2016 US Open, where he defeated the world No. 1 player in the final on all three occasions. He has also won an Olympic gold medal in men's doubles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics partnering Roger Federer, and was pivotal in the Swiss team's victory at the 2014 Davis Cup.


Josh Bray, American politician

Joshua Crawford Bray is an American politician who has served as a Republican member of the Kentucky House of Representatives since January 2021. He represents Kentucky's 71st House district, which consists of Rockcastle County as well as parts of Laurel, Madison, and Pulaski. He previously served as city administrator of Mount Vernon, Kentucky. Outside of politics, he is a beef farmer.


28/03/1984

Christopher Samba, Congolese footballer

Veijeany Christopher Samba is a former professional footballer who played as a defender. Born in France, he played for the Congo national team.


28/03/1983

Ladji Doucouré, French sprinter and hurdler

Ladji Doucouré is a French track and field athlete.


28/03/1981

Edwar Ramírez, American baseball player

Edwar Emilio Ramírez is a Dominican former professional baseball pitcher. Ramírez appeared in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a relief pitcher for the New York Yankees (2007–2009) and Oakland Athletics (2010). After finding himself out of baseball in 2004, Ramírez revitalized his career by developing an effective changeup.


Julia Stiles, American actress

Julia O'Hara Stiles is an American actress and director. Stiles began acting at the age of 11 as part of New York's La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club. Her film debut was a small role at age 15 in I Love You, I Love You Not (1996), followed by a lead role in Wicked (1998) for which she received the Karlovy Vary Film Festival Award for Best Actress. Stiles co-starred in the made-for-TV mini-series The '60s (1999) as a teenage daughter in a middle-class American family from Chicago. She rose to prominence with leading roles in teen films such as 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), Down to You (2000), and Save the Last Dance (2001). Her accolades include a Teen Choice Award and two MTV Movie Awards, as well as nominations for a Golden Globe Award, and Primetime Emmy Award.


28/03/1980

Stiliani Pilatou, Greek long jumper

Stiliani "Stella" Pilatou is a Greek long jumper.


Luke Walton, American basketball player

Luke Theodore Walton is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is the lead assistant coach for the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played 10 seasons in the NBA as a forward, winning two NBA championships with the Los Angeles Lakers. He also won a title as an assistant coach with the Golden State Warriors before serving as the head coach of the Lakers from 2016 through 2019. Additionally, Walton served as the head coach of the Sacramento Kings from 2019 to 2021.


28/03/1979

Shakib Khan, Bangladeshi film actor, producer, singer and media personality

Masud Rana Sheikh, better known by the stage name Shakib Khan, is a Bangladeshi actor and filmmaker who works in Bengali films. He is widely regarded as one of the most popular figures of all time in Bengali cinema with his career spanning about two decades and 250 films. Referred to in the media as "King Khan", Khan has been the propeller of the contemporary film industry, Dhallywood and is one of the highest paid actors in Bangladesh and West Bengal. He made his film debut in 1999 in action romantic Ananta Bhalobasha.


28/03/1978

Nathan Cayless, Australian-New Zealand rugby league player and coach

Nathan Frederick Cayless is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s, and has coached in the 2010s. He played at representative level for New Zealand (captain), and at club level in the National Rugby League (NRL) for the Parramatta Eels, for whom he was a long-time captain, as a prop. He captained the New Zealand national team to a Rugby League World Cup victory over Australia in the 2008 Rugby League World Cup, and coached at club level in the Intrust Super Premiership for the Wentworthville Magpies from 2016 to 2018.


28/03/1975

Kate Gosselin, American television personality

Katie Irene "Kate" Gosselin is a former television personality. She appeared on the American reality TV show Jon & Kate Plus 8, in which she and Jon Gosselin were profiled as they raised their atypical family of sextuplets and twins.


Iván Helguera, Spanish footballer

Iván Helguera Bujía is a Spanish former professional footballer.


28/03/1973

Björn Kuipers, Dutch footballer and referee

Björn Kuipers is a former Dutch football referee. He was a FIFA listed referee from 2006 to 2021 and an UEFA Elite group referee from 2009 to 2021. He was assisted during international matches by Sander van Roekel and Erwin Zeinstra.


Umaga, American Samoan wrestler (died 2009)

Edward Smith Fatu was an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his tenure in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), under the ring name Umaga. Fatu was also known for his tenure in All Japan Pro Wrestling in the mid-2000s, under the ring name Jamal.


28/03/1972

Keith Tkachuk, American ice hockey player

Keith Matthew Tkachuk is an American former professional ice hockey player who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) in an 18-year career with the Winnipeg Jets, Phoenix Coyotes, St. Louis Blues and Atlanta Thrashers, retiring in 2010. He is one of four American-born players to score 500 goals, and is the sixth American player to score 1,000 points. Tkachuk is considered to be among the elite power forwards of his era, and one of the best American-born players to play in the NHL. He is one of 48 NHL players to have scored 500 goals.


28/03/1970

Vince Vaughn, American actor

Vincent Anthony Vaughn is an American actor. He is known for starring as a leading man in numerous comedy films during the late 1990s and 2000s. He has been nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Saturn Award.


Jennifer Weiner, American journalist and author

Jennifer Weiner is an American writer, television producer, and journalist. She is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her debut novel, published in 2001, was Good in Bed. Her novel In Her Shoes (2002) was made into a movie starring Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette, and Shirley MacLaine.


28/03/1969

Brett Ratner, American director and producer

Brett Ratner is an American film director and producer. He directed the Rush Hour film series, The Family Man, Red Dragon, X-Men: The Last Stand, Tower Heist, Hercules, and Melania. He is a producer or executive producer of several films, including the Horrible Bosses series, The Revenant, and War Dogs, and the television series Prison Break.


28/03/1968

Iris Chang, Chinese-American journalist and author (died 2004)

Iris Shun-Ru Chang was an American journalist, historian, and political activist. She is best known for her best-selling 1997 account of the Nanjing Massacre, The Rape of Nanking, and in 2003, The Chinese in America: A Narrative History. Chang is the subject of the 2007 biography Finding Iris Chang, and the 2007 documentary film Iris Chang: The Rape of Nanking starring Olivia Cheng as Iris Chang. The independent 2007 documentary film Nanking was based on her work and dedicated to her memory.


Nasser Hussain, Indian-English cricketer and sportscaster

Nasser Hussain is an English cricket commentator and former player who captained the England cricket team between 1999 and 2003, with his overall international career extending from 1990 to 2004. A pugnacious right-handed batsman, Hussain scored over 30,000 runs from more than 650 matches across all first-class and List-A cricket, including 62 centuries. His highest Test score of 207, scored in the first Test of the 1997 Ashes at Edgbaston, was described by Wisden as "touched by genius". He played 96 Test matches and 88 One Day International games in total. In Tests he scored 5,764 runs, and he took 67 catches, fielding predominantly in the second slip and gully.


28/03/1964

Karen Lumley, English politician (died 2023)

Karen Elizabeth Lumley was a British Conservative politician and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Redditch in Worcestershire from 2010 to 2017.


28/03/1962

Jure Franko, Slovenian skier

Jure Franko is a Slovenian-Yugoslav former alpine skier, best known for winning a giant slalom silver medal at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo.


Simon Bazalgette, English businessman

Simon Bazalgette is a business leader, advisor and investor in the sports, leisure, media and entertainment industries.


28/03/1961

Byron Scott, American basketball player and coach

Byron Antom Scott is an American former professional basketball player and coach in the National Basketball Association (NBA). As a role player, Scott won three NBA championships with the Los Angeles Lakers during their Showtime era in the 1980s. He was named the NBA Coach of the Year with the New Orleans Hornets in 2008.


28/03/1960

José Maria Neves, Cape Verdeian politician, 4th Prime Minister of Cape Verde

José Maria Pereira Neves is a Cape Verdean politician who is currently the president of Cape Verde, having previously served as the Prime Minister of Cape Verde from 2001 to 2016. He is a member of the African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV). In the 2021 presidential election, he was elected with 51.7% of votes, beating his nearest rival Carlos Veiga who got 42.4% of the total votes.


28/03/1959

Laura Chinchilla, Costa Rican politician, 46th President of Costa Rica

Laura Chinchilla Miranda is a Costa Rican political scientist and politician who served as President of Costa Rica from 2010 to 2014. She was one of Óscar Arias Sánchez's two Vice-Presidents and his administration's Minister of Justice. She was the governing PLN candidate for president in the 2010 general election, where she won with 46.76% of the vote on 7 February. She was the eighth woman president of a Latin American country and the first woman to become President of Costa Rica. She was sworn in as President of Costa Rica on 8 May 2010.


28/03/1958

Edesio Alejandro, Cuban composer (died 2025)

Edesio Alejandro Rodríguez Salvá was a Cuban and Spanish guitarist, singer and composer of electronic music. He wrote incidental music, music for television and more than 50 film scores such as Clandestinos and Hello Hemingway, as well as concert pieces. His works were often experimental, using synthesizers; they were influenced by rock music and Cuban music fusioned with genres such as rap and hip-hop. Some works combined actors, dancers and musicians in unusual line-ups.


Curt Hennig, American wrestler (died 2003)

Curtis Michael Hennig, better known by the ring name Mr. Perfect, was an American professional wrestler. He performed under his real name for promotions including the American Wrestling Association (AWA), the World Wrestling Federation, World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and NWA Total Nonstop Action. Hennig was the son of wrestler Larry "The Axe" Hennig and the father of wrestler Curtis Axel. He is considered one of the greatest in ring technical wrestlers of all time.


28/03/1957

Harvey Glance, American sprinter (died 2023)

Harvey Edward Glance was an American sprint runner. He won gold medals in tandem with his teammates at the 4 × 100 m relay at the 1976 Summer Olympics, 1979 and 1987 Pan American Games, and 1987 World Championships.


28/03/1955

Reba McEntire, American singer-songwriter and actress

Reba Nell McEntire, or simply Reba, is an American country singer and actress. Dubbed "The Queen of Country", she has sold more than 75 million records worldwide. Since the 1970s, she has placed over 100 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, 25 of which reached the number-one spot. An actress in both film and television, McEntire starred in the television series Reba, which aired for six seasons. She also owns several businesses, including a restaurant and a clothing line.


28/03/1954

Donald Brown, American pianist and educator

Donald Ray Brown is an American jazz pianist and producer.


28/03/1953

Melchior Ndadaye, Burundian banker and politician, 4th President of Burundi (died 1993)

Melchior Ndadaye was a Burundian banker and politician who became the first democratically elected and first Hutu president of Burundi after winning the landmark 1993 election. Though he attempted to smooth the country's bitter ethnic divide, his reforms antagonised soldiers in the Tutsi-dominated army, and he was assassinated amidst a failed military coup in October 1993, after only three months in office. His assassination sparked an array of brutal tit-for-tat massacres between the Tutsi and Hutu ethnic groups, and ultimately led to the decade-long Burundi Civil War.


28/03/1949

Ronnie Ray Smith, American sprinter (died 2013)

Ronald Ray Smith was an American athlete, winner of the gold medal in the 4 × 100 m relay at the 1968 Summer Olympics. He attended San Jose State College during the "Speed City" era, coached by Lloyd (Bud) Winter and graduating in sociology.


28/03/1948

Janice Lynde, American actress

Janice Lynde is an American actress.


Dianne Wiest, American actress

Dianne Evelyn Wiest is an American actress. She has won two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress for 1986's Hannah and Her Sisters and 1994's Bullets Over Broadway, one Golden Globe Award for Bullets Over Broadway, the 1997 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for Road to Avonlea, and the 2008 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for In Treatment. In addition, she was nominated for an Academy Award for 1989's Parenthood.


Milan Williams, American keyboard player (died 2006)

Milan B. Williams was an American keyboardist and a founding member of The Commodores.


28/03/1947

David McKinley, American politician (died 2026)

David Bennett McKinley was an American businessman and politician who served as the U.S. representative for West Virginia's 1st congressional district from 2011 to 2023. A member of the Republican Party, McKinley was a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates from 1980 to 1994, and chaired the West Virginia Republican Party from 1990 to 1994.


28/03/1946

Wubbo Ockels, Dutch physicist and astronaut (died 2014)

Wubbo Johannes Ockels was a Dutch physicist and astronaut with the European Space Agency who, in 1985, became the first Dutch citizen in space when he flew on STS-61-A as a payload specialist. He later became professor of aerospace engineering at Delft University of Technology.


Henry Paulson, American banker and politician, 74th United States Secretary of the Treasury

Henry Merritt "Hank" Paulson Jr. is an American investment banker and financier who served as the 74th United States secretary of the treasury from 2006 to 2009. Prior to his role in the Department of the Treasury, Paulson was the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of major investment bank Goldman Sachs.


Alejandro Toledo, Peruvian economist and politician, President of Peru

Alejandro Celestino Toledo Manrique is a Peruvian former politician who served as President of Peru, from 2001 to 2006. He gained international prominence after leading the opposition against president Alberto Fujimori, who held the presidency from 1990 to 2000. On 21 October 2024 he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for taking $35 million in bribes to award the Brazilian company Odebrecht with a highway contract.


28/03/1945

Rodrigo Duterte, Filipino politician, 16th President of the Philippines

Rodrigo Roa Duterte is a Filipino politician who served as the 16th president of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022. He served as mayor of Davao City for three non-consecutive terms between 1988 and 2016. Duterte is the first Philippine president from Mindanao, and the oldest person to assume office, beginning his term at age 71. Duterte is the chairman of PDP–Laban, the ruling party during his presidency.


28/03/1944

Rick Barry, American basketball player

Richard Francis Dennis Barry III is an American former professional basketball player. Barry ranks among the most prolific scorers and all-around players in basketball history. He is the only player to lead the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), American Basketball Association (ABA), and National Basketball Association (NBA) in points per game in a season. He ranks as the all-time ABA scoring leader in regular season and postseason (33.5) play, while his 36.3 points per game are the most in NBA Finals history.


Ken Howard, American actor (died 2016)

Kenneth Joseph Howard Jr. was an American actor. He was known for his roles as Thomas Jefferson in 1776 (1972) and as high school basketball coach and former Chicago Bulls player Ken Reeves in the television show The White Shadow (1978–1981). Howard won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play in 1970 for his performance in Child's Play, and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for his work in Grey Gardens (2009).


28/03/1943

Richard Eyre, English director, producer, and screenwriter

Sir Richard Charles Hastings Eyre is an English film, theatre, television and opera director. Eyre has received numerous accolades including three Laurence Olivier Awards as well as nominations for six BAFTA Awards and two Tony Awards. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1992 News Year Honours, and knighted in the 1997 New Year Honours.


Conchata Ferrell, American actress (died 2020)

Conchata Galen Ferrell was an American actress. She played Berta the housekeeper on the sitcom Two and a Half Men from 2003 to 2015, and she received two nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for the role, as well as a TV Land Award in 2009. Ferrell had previously been nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her performance in L.A. Law. A seasoned stage actress, Farrell's performance in the stage play The Sea Horse earned her an Obie Award, a Drama Desk Award and a Theatre World Award. Her big screen work included roles in such films as Network (1976), Where the River Runs Black (1986), For Keeps (1988), Edward Scissorhands (1990), True Romance (1993), Erin Brockovich (2000) and Krampus (2015). Farrell's turn in the 1979 frontier western saga Heartland earned her a Western Heritage Award.


28/03/1942

Daniel Dennett, American philosopher and academic (died 2024)

Daniel Clement Dennett III was an American philosopher and cognitive scientist. His research centered on philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and philosophy of biology, particularly as those fields relate to evolutionary biology and cognitive science.


Neil Kinnock, Welsh politician, Vice-President of the European Commission

Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock is a Welsh politician who was Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 1983 to 1992. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1970 to 1995, first for Bedwellty and then for Islwyn. He was Vice-President of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004. Kinnock was positioned on the soft left of the Labour Party.


Mike Newell, English director and producer

Michael Cormac Newell is an English film and television director and producer. He won the BAFTA for Best Direction for Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), which also won the BAFTA Award for Best Film, and directed the films Donnie Brasco (1997) and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005).


Samuel Ramey, American opera singer

Samuel Ramey is an American operatic bass and voice actor. At the height of his career, he was greatly admired for his range and versatility, having possessed a sufficiently accomplished bel canto technique which enabled him to sing the music of Handel, Mozart and Rossini but with enough vocal power to handle the more overtly dramatic roles in Verdi, Puccini, and Meyerbeer operas.


Jerry Sloan, American basketball player and coach (died 2020)

Gerald Eugene Sloan was an American professional basketball player and coach. He played 11 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) before beginning a 30-year coaching career, 23 of which were spent as head coach of the Utah Jazz (1988–2011). NBA commissioner David Stern referred to Sloan as "one of the greatest and most respected coaches in NBA history". Sloan was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009.


28/03/1940

Tony Barber, English-Australian television host

Anthony Ferraro Louis Barber is a British Australian Gold Logie award-winning television game show host, radio announcer, singer and media personality, who has been active in the industry since the early 1960s.


Luis Cubilla, Uruguayan footballer and coach (died 2013)

Luis Alberto Cubilla Almeida was a Uruguayan professional footballer and manager. He had a successful playing career winning 16 major titles. He then went on to become one of the most successful managers in South American football with 17 major titles.


Michael Plumb, American equestrian

John Michael Plumb is an American equestrian and Olympic champion who competes in the sport of three-day eventing. He holds the title of the US Olympic competitor who has competed in the greatest number of Olympics, winning two team gold medals, three team silvers and one individual silver.


28/03/1936

Mario Vargas Llosa, Peruvian writer and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2025)

Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquess of Vargas Llosa was a Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist, and politician. Vargas Llosa was one of the most significant Latin American novelists and essayists and one of the leading writers of his generation. Some critics consider him to have had a more substantial international impact and worldwide audience than any other writer of the Latin American Boom. In 2010, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature for "his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat".


28/03/1935

Michael Parkinson, English journalist and author (died 2023)

Sir Michael Parkinson was an English television presenter, broadcaster, journalist and author. He presented his television talk show Parkinson from 1971 to 1982 and from 1998 to 2007, as well as other talk shows and programmes both in the UK and abroad. He also worked in radio and was described by The Guardian as "the great British talkshow host".


Józef Szmidt, Polish triple jumper (died 2024)

Józef Szmidt was a German and Polish Olympic athlete and the first triple jumper to reach 17 metres.


28/03/1934

Laurie Taitt, Guyanese-English hurdler (died 2006)

John Lawrence Taitt was a British sprint hurdler. He was born in Georgetown, Demerara-Mahaica, British Guiana and competed at the 1964 Summer Olympics.


28/03/1933

Frank Murkowski, American soldier, banker, and politician, 8th Governor of Alaska

Frank Hughes Murkowski is an American politician. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a United States senator representing Alaska from 1981 to 2002 and as the eighth governor of Alaska from 2002 to 2006.


28/03/1930

Robert Ashley, American composer (died 2014)

Robert Reynolds Ashley was an American composer, who was best known for his television operas and other theatrical works, many of which incorporate electronics and extended techniques. His works often involve intertwining narratives and take a surreal multidisciplinary approach to sound, theatrics and writing, and have been continuously performed by various interpreters during and after his life, including Automatic Writing (1979) and Perfect Lives (1983).


Jerome Isaac Friedman, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate

Jerome Isaac Friedman is an American physicist. He is institute professor and professor of physics, emeritus, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He won the 1990 Nobel Prize in Physics along with Henry Kendall and Richard Taylor, "for their pioneering investigations concerning deep inelastic scattering of electrons on protons and bound neutrons, which have been of essential importance for the development of the quark model in particle physics.", work which showed an internal structure for protons later known to be quarks. Friedman sits on the board of sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.


28/03/1928

Zbigniew Brzezinski, Polish-American political activist and analyst; United States National Security Advisor (died 2017)

Zbigniew "Zbig" Kazimierz Brzeziński was a Polish-American diplomat and political scientist. He served as a counselor to Lyndon B. Johnson from 1966 to 1968 and was Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor from 1977 to 1981. As a scholar, Brzeziński belonged to the realist school of international relations, standing in the geopolitical tradition of Halford Mackinder and Nicholas J. Spykman, while elements of liberal idealism have also been identified in his outlook. Brzeziński was the primary organizer of The Trilateral Commission.


Alexander Grothendieck, German-French mathematician and theorist (died 2014)

Alexander Grothendieck, later Alexandre Grothendieck in French, was a German-born French mathematician who became the leading figure in the creation of modern algebraic geometry. His research extended the scope of the field and added elements of commutative algebra, homological algebra, sheaf theory, and category theory to its foundations, while his so-called "relative" perspective led to revolutionary advances in many areas of pure mathematics. He is considered by many to be the greatest mathematician of the twentieth century.


28/03/1926

Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart, 18th Duchess of Alba (died 2014)

María del Rosario Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart y Silva, 18th Duchess of Alba GE was a Spanish aristocrat.


Polly Umrigar, Indian cricketer (died 2006)

Pahlan Ratanji "Polly" Umrigar was an Indian cricketer. He played in the Indian cricket team and played first-class cricket for Bombay and Gujarat. Umrigar played mainly as a middle-order batsman but also bowled occasional medium pace and off spin. He captained India in eight Test matches from 1955 to 1958. When he retired in 1962, he had played in the most Tests (59), scored the most Test runs (3,631), and recorded the most Test centuries (12) of any Indian player. He scored the first double century by an Indian in Test cricket against New Zealand in Hyderabad. In 1998, he received the C. K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award, the highest honour the Indian cricket board can bestow on a former player.


28/03/1925

Innokenty Smoktunovsky, Russian actor (died 1994)

Innokenty Mikhailovich Smoktunovsky was a Soviet and Russian stage and film actor. He was named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1974 and a Hero of Socialist Labour in 1990.


Dorothy DeBorba, American child actress (died 2010)

Dorothy Adele DeBorba was an American child actress who was a regular in the Our Gang series of short subjects as the leading lady from 1930 to 1933.


28/03/1924

Freddie Bartholomew, American actor (died 1992)

Frederick Cecil Bartholomew, known for his acting work as Freddie Bartholomew, was an English-American child actor who was very popular in 1930s Hollywood films. His most famous starring roles are in Captains Courageous (1937) and Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936). His child acting contemporary Mickey Rooney said of him, "He was one of the finest, if not the finest child stars that we had on the scene at that time." His Captains Courageous co-star Spencer Tracy said of him "Freddie Bartholomew's acting is so fine and so simple and so true that it's way over people's heads."


28/03/1923

Paul C. Donnelly, American scientist and engineer (died 2014)

Paul Charles Donnelly was an American guided missile pioneer and a senior NASA manager during the Apollo Moon landing program at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). Responsible for the checkout of all Apollo launch vehicles and spacecraft, he was also involved in every U.S. manned launch from Alan Shepard's Mercury suborbital flight in 1961 through the tenth Space Shuttle mission (STS-41B) in 1984.


Thad Jones, American trumpet player and composer (died 1986)

Thaddeus Joseph Jones was an American jazz trumpeter, composer and bandleader who has been called "one of the all-time greatest jazz trumpet soloists".


28/03/1922

Neville Bonner, Australian politician (died 1999)

Neville Thomas Bonner was an Australian politician, and the first Aboriginal Australian to become a member of the Parliament of Australia. He was appointed by the Queensland Parliament to fill a casual vacancy in the representation of Queensland in the Senate in 1971, and in 1972 became the first Indigenous Australian to be elected to the parliament by popular vote. Bonner was an elder of the Jagera people.


Grace Hartigan, American painter and educator (died 2008)

Grace Hartigan was an American abstract expressionist painter and a significant member of the vibrant New York School of the 1950s and 1960s. Her circle of friends, who frequently inspired one another in their artistic endeavors, included Jackson Pollock, Larry Rivers, Helen Frankenthaler, Willem and Elaine de Kooning and Frank O'Hara. Her paintings are held by numerous major institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. As director of the Maryland Institute College of Art's Hoffberger School of Painting, she influenced numerous young artists.


Joey Maxim, American boxer and actor (died 2001)

Giuseppe Antonio Berardinelli was an American professional boxer. He was the World Light Heavyweight Champion from 1950 to 1952. He took the ring-name Joey Maxim from the Maxim gun, the world's first self-acting machine gun, based on his ability to rapidly throw a large number of left jabs.


28/03/1921

Harold Agnew, American physicist and academic (died 2013)

Harold Melvin Agnew was an American physicist, best known for having flown as a scientific observer on the Hiroshima bombing mission and, later, as the third director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.


Dirk Bogarde, English actor and author (died 1999)

Sir Dirk Bogarde was an English actor, novelist and screenwriter. Initially a matinée idol in films such as Doctor in the House (1954) for the Rank Organisation, he later acted in art house films, evolving from "heartthrob to icon of edginess".


28/03/1919

Tom Brooks, Australian cricket umpire (died 2007)

Thomas Francis Brooks was an Australian former first-class cricketer and later an umpire. Born in Paddington, New South Wales, Brooks played first-class cricket for New South Wales.


Eileen Crofton, British physician and author (died 2010)

Lady Eileen Crofton was a British physician and author. She was best known for her anti-smoking campaigns.


Vic Raschi, American baseball player and coach (died 1988)

Victor John Angelo Raschi was an American Major League Baseball pitcher. Nicknamed "the Springfield Rifle", he was one of the top pitchers for the New York Yankees in the late 1940s and early 1950s, forming the "Big Three" of the Yankees' pitching staff. He also pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals and the Kansas City Athletics.


28/03/1915

Jay Livingston, American singer-songwriter (died 2001)

Jay Livingston was an American composer best known as half of a composing-songwriting duo with Ray Evans, with whom he specialized in composing film scores and original soundtrack songs. Livingston composed the music while Evans wrote the lyrics.


28/03/1914

Edward Anhalt, American screenwriter and producer (died 2000)

Edward Anhalt was an American screenwriter, producer, and documentary filmmaker. After working as a journalist and documentary filmmaker for Pathé and CBS-TV, he teamed with his wife Edna Anhalt, one of his five wives, during World War II to write pulp fiction.


Bohumil Hrabal, Czech author (died 1997)

Bohumil Hrabal was a Czech writer, often named among the best Czech writers of the 20th century.


Edmund Muskie, American politician, 64th Governor of Maine, 58th United States Secretary of State (died 1996)

Edmund Sixtus Muskie was an American statesman and politician who served as the 58th United States Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter from 1980 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as a U.S. senator from Maine from 1959 to 1980, the 64th governor of Maine from 1955 to 1959, and a member of the Maine House of Representatives from 1946 to 1951. Muskie was the Democratic vice presidential nominee in the 1968 presidential election.


Everett Ruess, American explorer, poet, and painter (died 1934)

Everett Ruess was an American artist, poet, and writer. He carried out solo explorations of the High Sierra, the California coast, and the deserts of the American Southwest. In 1934, he disappeared while traveling through a remote area of Utah; his fate remains unknown.


28/03/1913

Toko Shinoda, Japanese artist (died 2021)

Toko Shinoda was a Japanese artist. Shinoda is best known for her abstract sumi ink paintings and prints. Shinoda's oeuvre was predominantly executed using the traditional means and media of East Asian calligraphy, but her resulting abstract ink paintings and prints express a nuanced visual affinity with the bold black brushstrokes of mid-century abstract expressionism. In the postwar New York art world, Shinoda's works were exhibited at the prominent art galleries including the Bertha Schaefer Gallery and the Betty Parsons Gallery. Shinoda remained active all her life and in 2013, she was honored with a touring retrospective exhibition at four venues in Gifu Prefecture to celebrate her 100th birthday. Shinoda has had solo exhibitions at the Seibu Museum at Art, Tokyo in 1989, the Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu in 1992, the Singapore Art Museum in 1996, the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art in 2003, the Sogo Museum of Art in 2021, the Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery in 2022, and among many others. Shinoda's works are in the collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the Art Institute of Chicago, the British Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Harvard Art Museums, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, the Singapore Art Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the National Gallery of Victoria, and other leading museums of the world. Shinoda was also a prolific writer published more than 20 books.


28/03/1912

A. Bertram Chandler, English-Australian author (died 1984)

Arthur Bertram Chandler was an Anglo-Australian merchant marine officer, sailing the world in everything from tramp steamers to troop ships, but who later turned his hand to a second career as a prolific author of pulp science fiction. He also wrote under the pseudonyms of George Whitley, Andrew Dunstan and S.H.M. Many of his short stories draw on his extensive sailing background. In 1956, he emigrated to Australia and became an Australian citizen. By 1958 he was an officer on the Sydney–Hobart route. Chandler commanded various ships in the Australian and New Zealand merchant navies, including his service as the last master of the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne; by law, the ship was required to have an officer on board while awaiting its towing to China to be broken up. Chandler wrote over 40 novels and 200 works of short fiction, winning the Australian Ditmar Awards for the short story "The Bitter Pill" and for three novels: False Fatherland, The Bitter Pill, and The Big Black Mark. One of Chandler's daughters, Jenny Chandler, married British horror fiction writer Ramsey Campbell. His other children were Penelope Anne Chandler and Christopher John Chandler.


Marina Raskova, Russian pilot and navigator (died 1943)

Marina Mikhaylovna Raskova was the first woman in the Soviet Union to achieve the diploma of professional air navigator. Raskova went from a young woman with aspirations of becoming an opera singer to a military instructor to the Soviet Union's first female navigator. She was the navigator to many record-setting as well as record-breaking flights and the founding and commanding officer of the 587th Bomber Aviation Regiment, a women's aviation regiment which was renamed the 125th M.M. Raskova Borisov Guards Dive Bomber Regiment in her honor. Raskova became one of over 800,000 women in the military service, founding three female air regiments, one of which eventually flew over 30,000 sorties in World War II and produced at least 30 Heroes of the Soviet Union.


28/03/1911

Consalvo Sanesi, Italian race car driver (died 1998)

Consalvo Sanesi was best known as the Alfa Romeo works' test driver in the period following World War II, but he also competed in races with the Alfa Romeo Tipo 158/159 cars in the period before the Formula One World Championship came into being. He competed in five Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 3 September 1950. Although, on his day, his experience with the cars meant that he was often one of the fastest men on the racetrack, somehow this rarely translated into good results. He scored only 3 championship points. He found some success driving in sports car racing, continuing into the mid-1960s.


28/03/1910

Jimmie Dodd, American actor and singer-songwriter (died 1964)

James Wesley Dodd was an American actor, singer, and songwriter best known as the master of ceremonies for the popular 1950s Walt Disney television series The Mickey Mouse Club, as well as the writer of its well-known theme song, "The Mickey Mouse Club March". A different version of this march, much slower in tempo and with different lyrics, became the alma mater that closed each episode.


Ingrid of Sweden, Queen of Denmark (died 2000)

Ingrid of Sweden was Queen of Denmark from 20 April 1947 to 14 January 1972 as the wife of King Frederik IX.


28/03/1909

Nelson Algren, American novelist and short story writer (died 1981)

Nelson Algren was an American writer. His 1949 novel The Man with the Golden Arm won the National Book Award and was adapted as the 1955 film of the same name.


28/03/1907

Irving Paul Lazar, American lawyer and talent agent (died 1993)

Irving Paul "Swifty" Lazar was an American lawyer, talent agent and dealmaker, representing both movie stars and authors.


28/03/1906

Murray Adaskin, Canadian violinist, composer, and conductor (died 2002)

Murray Adaskin, was a Canadian violinist, teacher, and composer.


Robert Allen, American actor (died 1998)

Robert Allen was an American actor in both feature films and B-movie westerns between 1935 and 1944.


Dorothy Knowles, South African-English author, fencer and academic (died 2010)

Dorothy Knowles was a British academic, known to her friends as Diana. She was an analyst of French drama who taught at Liverpool University from 1934 to 1967. She was also an accomplished fencer. Knowles is known to historians of British cinema for her 1934 book The Censor, the Drama and the Film, in which she criticised the British Board of Film Censors for what she regarded as unaccountable political censorship. In 1989 she published a study of the work of the playwright Armand Gatti.


28/03/1905

Pandro S. Berman, American production manager and producer (died 1996)

Pandro Samuel Berman, also known as Pan Berman, was an American film producer.


Marlin Perkins, American zoologist and television host (died 1986)

Richard Marlin Perkins was an American zoologist. He is best known as the host of the television program Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom from 1963 to 1985.


28/03/1904

Margaret Tucker, Australian author and activist (died 1996)

Margaret Lilardia Tucker MBE was an Aboriginal Australian activist and writer who was among the first Aboriginal authors to publish an autobiography If Everyone Cared, in 1977; a new edition of this work was published in 2024.


28/03/1903

Rudolf Serkin, Czech-American pianist and educator (died 1991)

Rudolf Serkin was a Bohemian-born Austrian-American pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Beethoven interpreters of the 20th century.


28/03/1902

Flora Robson, English actress (died 1984)

Dame Flora McKenzie Robson was an English actress and star of the theatrical stage and cinema, particularly renowned for her performances in plays demanding dramatic and emotional intensity. Her range extended from queens to murderers.


28/03/1900

Edward Wagenknecht, American critic and educator (died 2004)

Edward (Charles) Wagenknecht was an American literary critic and teacher who specialized in 19th-century American literature. He wrote and edited many books on literature and movies, and taught for many years at various universities, including the University of Chicago and Boston University. He also contributed many book reviews and other writings to such newspapers as the Boston Herald, The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune, and to such magazines as The Yale Review and The Atlantic Monthly.


28/03/1899

Gussie Busch, American businessman (died 1989)

August Anheuser "Gussie" Busch Jr. was an American brewing magnate who built the Anheuser-Busch into the largest brewery in the world by 1957; he served as company chairman from 1946 to 1975.


Buck Shaw, American football player and coach (died 1977)

Lawrence Timothy "Buck" Shaw was an American football player and coach. He was the head coach for Santa Clara University, the University of California, Berkeley, the San Francisco 49ers, the United States Air Force Academy and the Philadelphia Eagles. He attended the University of Notre Dame, where he became a star player on Knute Rockne's first unbeaten team. He started his coaching career with one year as head coach at North Carolina State and four years as a line coach at Nevada in Reno.


28/03/1897

Sepp Herberger, German footballer and manager (died 1977)

Josef "Sepp" Herberger was a German football player and manager. He is most famous for being the manager of the West Germany national team that won the 1954 FIFA World Cup final, a match later dubbed The Miracle of Bern, defeating the overwhelming favourites from Hungary. Previously he had also coached the Breslau Eleven, one of the greatest teams in German football history.


28/03/1895

Christian Herter, American politician, United States Secretary of State (died 1966)

Christian Archibald Herter was an American diplomat and Republican politician who was the 59th governor of Massachusetts from 1953 to 1957 and United States Secretary of State from 1959 to 1961. He served as president of the board of trustees at the Dexter School from 1937 to 1939. His moderate tone of negotiations was confronted by the intensity of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in a series of unpleasant episodes that turned the Cold War even colder in 1960–61.


Donald Grey Barnhouse, American pastor and theologian (died 1960)

Donald Grey Barnhouse, was an American Christian preacher, pastor, theologian, radio pioneer, and writer. He was pastor of the Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia from 1927 to his death in 1960. The Bible Study Hour, his pioneering radio program continues, now known as Dr. Barnhouse & the Bible.


Spencer W. Kimball, American religious leader, 12th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (died 1985)

Spencer Woolley Kimball was an American religious leader who was the twelfth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.


28/03/1894

Ernst Lindemann, German captain (died 1941)

Otto Ernst Lindemann was a German Kapitän zur See. He was the only commander of the battleship Bismarck during its eight months of service in World War II.


28/03/1893

Spyros Skouras, Greek-American businessman (died 1971)

Spyros Panagiotis Skouras was a Greek-American motion picture pioneer and film executive who was the president of 20th Century-Fox from 1942 to 1962. He resigned June 27, 1962, but was chairman of the company for several more years. He also had numerous ships, owning Prudential Lines.


28/03/1892

Corneille Heymans, Belgian physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1968)

Corneille Jean François Heymans was a Belgian physiologist. He studied at the Jesuit College of Saint Barbara and then at Ghent University, where he obtained a doctor's degree in 1920.


Tom Maguire, Irish republican General (died 1993)

Thomas Maguire was an Irish republican who held the rank of commandant-general in the Western Command of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and led the South Mayo flying column.


28/03/1890

Paul Whiteman, American violinist, composer, and bandleader (died 1967)

Paul Samuel Whiteman was an American Jazz bandleader, composer, orchestral director, and violinist.


28/03/1887

Beulah Dark Cloud, American actress (died 1945)

Beulah Dark Cloud was a Native American actress and performer who appeared in several silent films by D. W. Griffith.


28/03/1884

Angelos Sikelianos, Greek poet and playwright (died 1951)

Angelos Sikelianos was a Greek lyric poet and playwright. His themes include Greek history, religious symbolism as well as universal harmony in poems such as The Moonstruck, Prologue to Life, Mother of God, and Delphic Utterance. His plays include Sibylla, Daedalus in Crete, Christ in Rome, The Death of Digenis, The Dithyramb of the Rose and Asclepius. Although occasionally his grandiloquence blunts the poetic effect of his work, some of Sikelianos finer lyrics are among the best in Western literature. Every year from 1946 to 1951, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature.


28/03/1881

Martin Sheridan, Irish-American discus thrower and jumper (died 1918)

Martin John Sheridan was an Irish-American athlete and three time Olympic Games gold medallist in discus throw.


28/03/1879

Terence MacSwiney, Irish republican, politician, Lord Mayor of Cork, died on hunger strike (died 1920)

Terence James MacSwiney was an Irish playwright, author and politician. He was elected as Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Cork during the Irish War of Independence in 1920. He was arrested by the British Government on charges of sedition and imprisoned in Brixton Prison. His death there in October 1920 after 74 days on hunger strike brought him and the Irish Republican campaign to international attention.


28/03/1873

John Geiger, American rower (died 1956)

John Francis Geiger was an American rower who competed in the 1900 Summer Olympics. He was part of the American boat Vesper Boat Club, which won the gold medal in the eights. He played American football for the Latrobe Athletic Association in 1898 and 1900.


28/03/1868

Maxim Gorky, Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright (died 1936)

Alexei Maximovich Peshkov, popularly known as Maxim Gorky, was a Russian and Soviet writer, journalist, and proponent of socialism. He was nominated five times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Before his success as an author, he travelled widely across the Russian Empire, changing jobs frequently; these experiences would later influence his writing. He associated with fellow Russian writers Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov, both mentioned by Gorky in his memoirs.


28/03/1862

Aristide Briand, French politician, Prime Minister of France, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1932)

Aristide Pierre Henri Briand was a French statesman who served eleven terms as Prime Minister of France during the French Third Republic. He is mainly remembered for his focus on international issues and reconciliation politics during the interwar period (1918–1939).


28/03/1851

Bernardino Machado, Portuguese academic and politician, 3rd President of Portugal (died 1944)

Bernardino Luíz Machado Guimarães was the president of Portugal, serving from 1915 to 1917 and again from 1925 to 1926.


28/03/1850

Kyrle Bellew, English theatre actor (died 1911)

Harold Kyrle Money Bellew was an English stage and silent film actor. He notably toured with Cora Brown-Potter in the 1880s and 1890s, and was cast as the leading man in many stage productions alongside her. He was also a signwriter, gold prospector and rancher mainly in Australia.


28/03/1849

James Darmesteter, French historian and author (died 1894)

James Darmesteter was a French author, orientalist, and antiquarian.


28/03/1847

Gyula Farkas, Hungarian mathematician and physicist (died 1930)

Gyula Farkas de Kisbarnak was a Hungarian mathematician and physicist.


28/03/1840

Emin Pasha, German-Jewish Egyptian physician and politician (died 1892)

Mehmed Emin Pasha was an Ottoman physician of German Jewish origin, naturalist, and governor of the Egyptian province of Equatoria on the upper Nile. The Ottoman Empire conferred the title "Pasha" on him in 1886, and thereafter he was referred to as "Emin Pasha".


28/03/1836

Emmanuel Benner, French artist (died 1896)

Emmanuel Benner was a French Academic painter and draughtsman. The son of the painter Jean Benner-Fries, he was twin to fellow artist, Jean Benner, and the uncle of the painter Emmanuel Michel Benner, Jean's son. Like his twin brother, he was portrayed by fellow Alsatian, Jean-Jacques Henner.


Jean Benner, French artist (died 1906)

Jean Benner was a French artist. He was twin to fellow artist, Emmanuel Benner, and the father of Emmanuel M. Benner, another artist.


Frederick Pabst, German-American brewer, founded the Pabst Brewing Company (died 1904)

Johann Gottlieb Friedrich "Frederick" Pabst was a German-American ship's captain and brewer and the namesake of the Pabst Brewing Company. Pabst was born in Prussia and emigrated to the United States with his parents when he was 12. He became a ship's captain and married Maria Best, daughter of a small brewery owner, Jacob Best. After a shipping accident, Pabst bought into his father-in-law's brewery company, learned the business, increased output, and helped the brewery to go public, after which he became president of the company in 1873. The company's name was later changed to the Pabst Brewing Company. Pabst also developed a popular resort north of Milwaukee, built the 14-story Pabst Building in downtown Milwaukee, helped organize the Wisconsin National Bank, and built Milwaukee's Pabst Theater.


28/03/1832

Henry D. Washburn, American politician and general (died 1871)

Henry Dana Washburn was a U.S. representative from Indiana and a colonel and was breveted twice as brigadier general and major general in the Union Army during the American Civil War.


28/03/1819

Joseph Bazalgette, English architect and engineer (died 1891)

Sir Joseph William Bazalgette CB was a British civil engineer. As Chief Engineer of London's Metropolitan Board of Works, his major achievement was the creation of the London Main Drainage, the sewerage system for central London, in response to the Great Stink of 1858, which was instrumental in relieving the city of cholera epidemics, while beginning to clean the River Thames.


28/03/1818

Wade Hampton III, American general and politician, 77th Governor of South Carolina (died 1902)

Wade Hampton III was an American politician from South Carolina. He was a prominent member of one of the richest families in the antebellum Southern United States, owning thousands of acres of cotton land in South Carolina and Mississippi, as well as thousands of slaves. He became a senior general in the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War. He also had a career as a leading Democratic Party politician in state and national affairs.


28/03/1815

Arsène Houssaye, French author and poet (died 1896)

Arsène Houssaye was a French novelist, poet and man of letters.


28/03/1811

John Neumann, Czech-American bishop and saint (died 1860)

John Nepomucene Neumann was a Bohemian-born American prelate of the Catholic Church.


28/03/1806

Thomas Hare, English lawyer and political scientist (died 1891)

Thomas Hare was a British lawyer and supporter of electoral reform. He is credited with inventing the single transferable vote system of proportional representation which he was a proponent and defender, now used in national elections in Ireland and Malta, in Australian Senate and state elections, and in city elections in Northern Ireland, the U.S., New Zealand and Scotland.


28/03/1795

Georg Heinrich Pertz, German historian and author (died 1876)

Georg Heinrich Pertz was a German historian and librarian.


28/03/1793

Henry Schoolcraft, American geographer, geologist, and ethnologist (died 1864)

Henry Rowe Schoolcraft was an American geographer, geologist, and ethnologist, noted for his early studies of Native American cultures, as well as for his 1832 expedition to the source of the Mississippi River. He is also noted for his major six-volume study of Native Americans commissioned by Congress and published in the 1850s.


28/03/1760

Thomas Clarkson, English activist (died 1846)

Thomas Clarkson was an English abolitionist, and a leading campaigner against the slave trade in the British Empire. He helped found the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade and helped achieve passage of the Slave Trade Act 1807, which ended British trade in slaves.


28/03/1750

Francisco de Miranda, Venezuelan general and politician (died 1816)

Sebastián Francisco de Miranda y Rodríguez de Espinoza, commonly known as Francisco de Miranda, was a Venezuelan military leader and revolutionary who fought in the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolution and the Spanish American wars of independence. He is regarded as a precursor of South America's liberation from the Spanish Empire, and remains known as the "First Universal Venezuelan" and the "Great Universal American".


28/03/1727

Maximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bavaria, (died 1777)

Maximilian III Joseph, also known by his epithet "the much beloved" was a Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire and Duke of Bavaria from 1745 to 1777. He was the last of the Bavarian branch of the House of Wittelsbach and because of his death, the War of Bavarian Succession broke out.


28/03/1725

Andrew Kippis, English minister and author (died 1795)

Andrew Kippis was an English nonconformist clergyman and biographer.


28/03/1652

Samuel Sewall, English judge (died 1730)

Samuel Sewall was a judge, businessman, and printer in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, best known for his involvement in the Salem witch trials, for which he later apologized, and his essay The Selling of Joseph (1700), which criticized slavery. He served for many years as the chief justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature, the province's high court.


28/03/1638

Frederik Ruysch, Dutch botanist and anatomist (died 1731)

Frederik Ruysch was a Dutch botanist and anatomist. He is known for developing techniques for preserving anatomical specimens, which he used to create dioramas or scenes incorporating human parts. His anatomical preparations included over 2,000 anatomical, pathological, zoological, and botanical specimens, which were preserved by either drying or embalming. Ruysch is also known for his proof of valves in the lymphatic system, the vomeronasal organ in snakes, and arteria centralis oculi. He was the first to describe the disease that is today known as Hirschsprung's disease, as well as several pathological conditions, including intracranial teratoma, enchondromatosis, and Majewski syndrome.


28/03/1613

Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang of China (died 1688)

Bumbutai, of the Khorchin Mongol Borjigit clan, was the consort of Hong Taiji. She was 21 years his junior. She was honoured as Empress Dowager Zhaosheng during the reign of her son, Fulin, the Shunzhi Emperor, and as Grand Empress Dowager Zhaosheng during the reign of her grandson, Xuanye, the Kangxi Emperor.


28/03/1592

John Amos Comenius, Czech bishop and educator (died 1670)

John Amos Comenius was a Czech philosopher, pedagogue and theologian who is considered the father of modern education. He served as the last bishop of the Unity of the Brethren before becoming a religious refugee and one of the earliest champions of universal education, a concept eventually set forth in his book Didactica Magna. As an educator and theologian, he led schools and advised governments across Protestant Europe through the middle of the seventeenth century.


28/03/1522

Albert Alcibiades, German prince (died 1557)

Albert II was the margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach (Brandenburg-Bayreuth) from 1527 to 1553. He was a member of the Franconian branch of the House of Hohenzollern. Because of his bellicose nature, Albert was given the cognomen Bellator during his lifetime. Posthumously, he became known as Alcibiades.


28/03/1515

Teresa of Ávila, Spanish nun and saint (died 1582)

Teresa of Ávila, religious name Teresa of Jesus, was a Carmelite nun, prominent Spanish mystic and spiritual reformer.


28/03/1472

Fra Bartolomeo, Italian painter (died 1517)

Fra Bartolomeo or Bartolommeo, also known as Bartolommeo di Pagholo, Bartolommeo di San Marco, Bartolomeo di Paolo di Jacopo del Fattorino, and his original nickname Baccio della Porta, was an Italian Renaissance painter of religious subjects. He spent all his career in Florence until his mid-forties, when he travelled to work in various cities, as far south as Rome. He trained with Cosimo Rosselli and in the 1490s fell under the influence of Savonarola, which led him to become a Dominican friar in 1500, renouncing painting for several years. Typically his paintings are of static groups of figures in subjects such as the Virgin and Child with Saints.


Lives Remembered on 28th March

On 28th March, 95 remarkable people passed away — from 193 to 2026. Remember the lives and legacies of those we lost on this day.

28/03/2026

Marinella, Greek singer (born 1938)

Kyriaki Papadopoulou, known by her stage name Marinella, was a Greek folk singer whose career spanned several decades. Marinella was well regarded due to her impressive vocal range. Since the beginning of her professional singing career in 1956, she released 66 solo albums, and was also featured on many albums by other musicians. She represented Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 1974, marking the country's first entry in the contest.


Mary Beth Hurt, American actress (born 1946)

Mary Beth Hurt was an American actress of stage and screen. She was a three-time Tony Award-nominated actress, as well as a BAFTA Award and Independent Spirit Award nominee. Hurt was also the recipient of an Obie Award and a Clarence Derwent Award.


Liamine Zéroual, Algerian politician, 6th President of Algeria (born 1941)

Liamine Zéroual was an Algerian politician who served as the sixth president of Algeria from 31 January 1994 to 27 April 1999.


28/03/2024

Larry Lloyd, English professional football player and coach (born 1948)

Laurence Valentine Lloyd was an English professional football player and coach.


Mark Spiro, American songwriter, record producer and recording artist (born 1957)

Mark Spiro was an American songwriter, record producer and recording artist.


28/03/2023

Paul O'Grady, English comedian, actor and drag queen (born 1955)

Paul James O'Grady was an English drag queen, comedian, broadcaster, actor, and writer. He achieved notability in the London gay scene during the 1980s with his drag persona Lily Savage, through which he gained wider popularity in the 1990s. O'Grady subsequently dropped the character and in the 2000s became the presenter of various television and radio shows, including The Paul O'Grady Show.


Ryuichi Sakamoto, Japanese composer, record producer, and actor (born 1952)

Ryuichi Sakamoto was a Japanese musician, composer, keyboardist, record producer, singer and actor. He pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the synth-based band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his YMO bandmates Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, Sakamoto influenced and pioneered a number of electronic music genres. As a film score composer, Sakamoto won an Academy Award (Oscar), BAFTA, Grammy and two Golden Globe Awards.


28/03/2021

Didier Ratsiraka, Malagasy politician and naval officer (born 1936)

Didier Ignace Ratsiraka was a Malagasy politician and naval officer who was the third president of Madagascar from 1975 to 1993 and the fifth from 1997 to 2002. At the time of his death, he was the longest-serving president of Madagascar.


Joseph Edward Duncan, American serial killer (born 1963)

Joseph Edward Duncan III was an American convicted serial killer and child molester who was on death row in federal prison following the 2005 kidnappings and murders of members of the Groene family of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. He was also serving 11 consecutive sentences of life without parole for the 1997 murder of Anthony Martinez of Beaumont, California. Additionally, he confessed to — but had not been charged with — the 1996 murder of two girls, Sammiejo White and Carmen Cubias, in Seattle, Washington. At the time of the attack on the Groene family, Duncan was on the run from a child molestation charge in Minnesota.


28/03/2016

James Noble, American actor (born 1922)

James Wilkes Noble was an American actor, best known for his portrayal of sweet-natured, dense, naive Governor Eugene X. Gatling on ABC's 1979–1986 sitcom Benson.


28/03/2015

Chuck Brayton, American baseball player and coach (born 1925)

Frederick Charles Brayton, alternately known as Chuck or Bobo, was an American college baseball head coach. Brayton led the Washington State Cougars baseball teams over 33 seasons, from 1962 to 1994. Brayton was the winningest coach in WSU history, with a record of 1,162 wins, 523 losses and eight ties—the fourth-best total in NCAA history at the time of his retirement.


Joseph Cassidy, Canadian-English priest and academic (born 1954)

Joseph Patrick Michael Cassidy FRSA was a Canadian-born priest in the Church of England, theologian and academic. He was formerly a Roman Catholic priest and Jesuit. He was Principal of St Chad's College at Durham University, England and a member of the university's theology department. He was also a non-residentiary canon of Durham Cathedral.


Miroslav Ondříček, Czech cinematographer (born 1934)

Miroslav Ondříček was a Czech cinematographer. He worked on over 40 films, including Amadeus, Ragtime and If.....


Gene Saks, American actor and director (born 1921)

Gene Saks was an American director and actor. An inductee of the American Theater Hall of Fame, his acting career began with a Broadway debut in 1949. As a director, he was nominated for seven Tony Awards, winning three for his direction of I Love My Wife, Brighton Beach Memoirs and Biloxi Blues. He also directed a number of films during his career. He was married to Bea Arthur from 1950 until 1978, and subsequently to Keren Saks from 1980 to his death in 2015.


28/03/2014

Jeremiah Denton, American admiral and politician (born 1924)

Jeremiah Andrew Denton Jr. was an American politician and United States Navy two-star admiral who served as a U.S. senator representing Alabama from 1981 to 1987. He was the first Republican to be popularly elected to a Senate seat in Alabama.


Lorenzo Semple, Jr., American screenwriter and producer (born 1923)

Lorenzo Elliott Semple III, known professionally as Lorenzo Semple Jr., was an American writer. He is best known for his work on the television series Batman, as well as political thriller films The Parallax View (1974) and Three Days of the Condor (1975).


28/03/2013

George E. P. Box, English-American statistician and educator (born 1919)

George Edward Pelham Box was a British statistician, who worked in the areas of quality control, time-series analysis, design of experiments, and Bayesian inference. He has been called "one of the great statistical minds of the 20th century". His quote "All models are wrong but some are useful" has been widely discussed.


Richard Griffiths, English actor (born 1947)

Richard Thomas Griffiths was an English actor. He was known for his portrayals of Vernon Dursley in the Harry Potter films (2001–2011), Uncle Monty in Withnail and I (1987), and Henry Crabbe in Pie in the Sky (1994–1997). He received numerous accolades in his career and was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2008.


Hugh McCracken, American guitarist, harmonica player, and producer (born 1942)

Hugh Carmine McCracken was an American rock guitarist and session musician based in New York City, primarily known for his performance on guitar and also as a harmonica player. McCracken was additionally an arranger and record producer.


Bob Teague, American college football star and television news-reporter (born 1929)

Robert Lewis Teague was an African-American college football star and television news reporter.


Gus Triandos, American baseball player and scout (born 1930)

Gus Triandos was an American professional baseball player and scout. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher and a first baseman, most prominently as a member of the Baltimore Orioles where he was a four-time All-Star player. He also played for the New York Yankees and the Detroit Tigers of the American League (AL) and the Philadelphia Phillies and Houston Astros of the National League (NL). In 1981, he was inducted into the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame. Triandos is notable for being the first catcher in MLB history to catch a no-hitter in both the American League and the National League, catching a no-hitter by Hoyt Wilhelm in 1958 while on the Orioles in the AL and Jim Bunning's perfect game while on the Phillies in the NL.


28/03/2012

John Arden, English author and playwright (born 1930)

John Arden was an English playwright who at his death was lauded as "one of the most significant British playwrights of the late 1950s and early 60s".


Ioannis Banias, Greek politician (born 1939)

Ioannis (Yannis) Banias was a Greek politician, and former member of the Hellenic Parliament for the Coalition of Radical Left (2007–2009).


Harry Crews, American novelist (born 1935)

Harry Eugene Crews was an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist. He often made use of violent, grotesque characters and set them in regions of the Deep South.


Addie L. Wyatt, African American labor leader (born 1924)

Addie L. Wyatt was a leader in the United States Labor movement and a civil rights activist. Wyatt is known for being the first African-American woman elected international vice president of a major labor union, the Amalgamated Meat Cutters Union. Wyatt began her career in the union in the early 1950s and advanced in leadership. In 1975, with the politician Barbara Jordan, she was the first African-American woman named by Time magazine as Person of the Year.


28/03/2010

June Havoc, American actress, dancer, and director (born 1912)

June Havoc was a Canadian-born American actress, dancer, stage director and memoirist.


28/03/2009

Maurice Jarre, French-American composer and conductor (born 1924)

Maurice-Alexis Jarre was a French composer and conductor, mainly of film scores. He was particularly known for his collaborations with film director David Lean, composing the scores to all of his films from 1962 to 1984. He received numerous accolades over the course of his career, including three Academy Awards, three BAFTA Awards, four Golden Globes, and a Grammy Award.


Janet Jagan, 6th President of Guyana (born 1920)

Janet Rosenberg Jagan was an American-born Guyanese politician who served as the 6th President of Guyana from 1997 to 1999. She was the first female president of Guyana, and the first American-born woman to serve as a head of state. She previously served as the first female Prime Minister of Guyana from 17 March 1997 to 19 December 1997. The wife of Cheddi Jagan, whom she succeeded as president, she was awarded Guyana's highest national award, the Order of Excellence, in 1993, and the UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Gold Medal for Women's Rights in 1998.


28/03/2006

Pro Hart, Australian painter (born 1928)

Kevin Charles "Pro" Hart, MBE, was an Australian artist, born in Broken Hill, New South Wales, who was considered the father of the Australian Outback painting movement and his works are widely admired for capturing the true spirit of the outback. He grew up on his family's sheep farm in Menindee and was nicknamed "Professor" during his younger days, when he was known as an inventor.


Charles Schepens, Belgian-American ophthalmologist and author (born 1912)

Charles Louis Schepens was a Belgian and American ophthalmologist, regarded by many in the profession as "the father of modern retinal surgery", and member of the French Resistance.


Caspar Weinberger, American captain, lawyer, and politician, 15th United States Secretary of Defense (born 1917)

Caspar Willard Weinberger was an American politician and businessman who served in a variety of state and federal positions for three decades as a Republican, most notably as Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1987. During the Iran–Contra investigation, he was indicted on charges of lying to Congress and obstructing government investigations but was pardoned by President George H. W. Bush before facing trial.


28/03/2005

Moura Lympany, English-Monacan pianist (born 1916)

Dame Moura Lympany was an English concert pianist.


Robin Spry, Canadian director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1939)

Robin Spry was a Canadian film director, producer and writer. He was perhaps best known for his documentary films Action: The October Crisis of 1970 and Reaction: A Portrait of a Society in Crisis about Quebec's October Crisis. His 1969 film Prologue won the BAFTA Award for Best Documentary.


28/03/2004

Peter Ustinov, English-Swiss actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1921)

Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov was a British actor and humanitarian. An internationally known raconteur, he was a fixture on television talk shows and lecture circuits for much of his career. Ustinov received numerous accolades including two Academy Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, a Silver Bear, and a Grammy Award, as well as nominations for three BAFTA Awards, two Tony Awards, and two Laurence Olivier Awards. In 1992, Ustinov was awarded with the British Academy Britannia Award.


28/03/2000

Anthony Powell, English soldier and author (born 1905)

Anthony Dymoke Powell was an English novelist best known for his 12-volume work A Dance to the Music of Time, published between 1951 and 1975. It is on the list of longest novels in English.


28/03/1996

Shin Kanemaru, Japanese politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Japan (born 1914)

Shin Kanemaru was a Japanese politician who was a significant figure in the political arena of Japan from the 1970s to the early 1990s. He was also Director General of the Japan Defense Agency from 1977 to 1978.


28/03/1994

Eugène Ionesco, Romanian-French playwright and critic (born 1909)

Eugène Ionesco was a Romanian-French playwright who wrote mostly in French, and was one of the foremost figures of the French avant-garde theatre in the 20th century. Ionesco instigated a revolution in ideas and techniques of drama, beginning with his "anti play", The Bald Soprano, which contributed to the beginnings of what is known as the Theatre of the Absurd. He wrote a number of plays that, following the ideas of the philosopher Albert Camus, explore concepts of absurdism and surrealism. He was made a member of the Académie française in 1970, and was awarded the 1970 Austrian State Prize for European Literature, and the 1973 Jerusalem Prize.


28/03/1992

Nikolaos Platon, Greek archaeologist (born 1909)

Nikolaos Platon was a Greek archaeologist. He discovered the Minoan palace of Zakros on Crete. In 1936, after excavations near Staphylos village in Skopelos Greece, he also discovered a Minoan pit tomb which proved that it belonged to king Staphylus. This finding is considered one of the most important art specimens in the Mycenaean and Minoan period.


28/03/1987

Maria von Trapp, Austrian-American singer (born 1905)

Maria Augusta von Trapp DHS, often styled as "Baroness", was the stepmother and matriarch of the Trapp Family. She wrote the memoir The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, which was published in 1949 and was the inspiration for the 1956 West German film The Trapp Family, which in turn inspired the 1959 Broadway musical The Sound of Music and its 1965 film version.


28/03/1986

Virginia Gilmore. American actress (born 1919)

Virginia Gilmore was an American film, stage, and television actress.


28/03/1985

Marc Chagall, Russian-French painter (born 1887)

Marc Chagall was a Russian and French artist of Jewish ancestry. An early modernist, he was associated with the École de Paris, as well as several major artistic styles and created works in a wide range of artistic formats, including painting, drawings, book illustrations, stained glass, stage sets, ceramics, tapestries and fine art prints.


28/03/1982

William Giauque, Canadian chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1895)

William Francis Giauque was a Canadian-born American chemist and Nobel laureate. He was recognized in 1949, for his studies in the properties of matter, at temperatures close to absolute zero. He spent virtually all of his educational and professional career at the University of California, Berkeley.


28/03/1980

Dick Haymes, Argentinian-American actor and singer (born 1918)

Richard Benjamin Haymes was an Argentine singer, songwriter and actor. He was one of the most popular male vocalists of the 1940s and early 1950s. He was the older brother of Bob Haymes, an actor, television host, and songwriter.


28/03/1979

Emmett Kelly, American clown and actor (born 1898)

Emmett Leo Kelly was an American circus performer who created the clown character "Weary Willie", based on the hobos of the Great Depression in the 1930s.


28/03/1977

Eric Shipton, English mountaineer and explorer (born 1907)

Eric Earle Shipton, CBE, was an English Himalayan mountaineer.


28/03/1976

Richard Arlen, American actor (born 1899)

Richard Arlen was an American actor of film and television.


28/03/1974

Arthur Crudup, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1905)

Arthur William "Big Boy" Crudup was an American Delta blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known, outside blues circles, for his songs "That's All Right" (1946), "My Baby Left Me" and "So Glad You're Mine", later recorded by Elvis Presley and other artists.


Dorothy Fields, American songwriter (born 1905)

Dorothy Fields was an American librettist and lyricist. She wrote more than 400 songs for Broadway musicals and films. Her best-known pieces include "The Way You Look Tonight" (1936), "A Fine Romance" (1936), "On the Sunny Side of the Street" (1930), "Don't Blame Me" (1948), "Pick Yourself Up" (1936), "I'm in the Mood for Love" (1935), "You Couldn't Be Cuter" (1938) and "Big Spender" (1966). Throughout her career, she collaborated with various influential figures in the American musical theater, including Jerome Kern, Cy Coleman, Irving Berlin, Arthur Schwartz, and Jimmy McHugh. Along with Ann Ronell, Dana Suesse, Bernice Petkere, and Kay Swift, she was one of the first successful Tin Pan Alley and Hollywood female songwriters.


Françoise Rosay, French actress (born 1891)

Françoise Rosay was a French opera singer, diseuse, and actress who enjoyed a film career of over sixty years and who became a legendary figure in French cinema. She went on to appear in over 100 movies in her career.


28/03/1972

Donie Bush, American baseball player, manager, and team owner (born 1887)

Owen Joseph "Donie" Bush was an American professional baseball player, manager, team owner, and scout. He was active in professional baseball from 1905 until his death in 1972. He was 84 years old.


28/03/1969

Dwight D. Eisenhower, American general and politician, 34th President of the United States (born 1890)

Dwight David Eisenhower, also known as Ike, was the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. He led the Allied Expeditionary Force during the Second World War, launching decisive campaigns in North Africa and Normandy and becoming a General of the Army.


28/03/1965

Clemence Dane, English author and playwright (born 1888)

Winifred Ashton CBE, better known by the pseudonym Clemence Dane, was an English novelist and playwright.


28/03/1963

Antonius Bouwens, Dutch target shooter (born 1876)

Antonius Hubertus Maria "Antoine" Bouwens was a Dutch sport shooter who competed in the early 20th century in pistol shooting. He participated in Shooting at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris and won a bronze medal with the Dutch pistol team. He also competed at the 1920 Summer Olympics.


28/03/1962

Hugo Wast, Argentinian author (born 1883)

Gustavo Adolfo Martínez Zuviría, best known under his pseudonym Hugo Wast, was a renowned Argentine novelist and script writer.


28/03/1958

W. C. Handy, American trumpet player and composer (born 1873)

William Christopher Handy was an American composer and musician who referred to himself as the Father of the Blues. He was one of the most influential songwriters in the United States. One of many musicians who played the distinctively American blues music, Handy did not create the blues genre but was one of the first to publish music in the blues form, thereby taking the blues from a regional music style with a limited audience to a new level of popularity.


28/03/1957

Stylianos Lenas, Greek-Cypriot member of the National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters (EOKA) against the British rule (born 1931)

Stylianos Lenas was a member of EOKA, and one of the Cypriots who were wounded in battle against British soldiers.


28/03/1953

Jim Thorpe, American football player and Olympic gold medalist (born 1887)

James Francis Thorpe was an American athlete who won Olympic gold medals and played professional football, baseball, and basketball. A citizen of the Sac and Fox Nation, he was the first Native American to win a gold medal for the United States in the Olympics. Considered one of the most versatile athletes of modern sports, Thorpe won two Olympic gold medals in the 1912 Summer Olympics.


28/03/1947

Karol Świerczewski, Polish general (born 1897)

Karol Wacław Świerczewski was a Polish and Soviet Red Army general and statesman. He was a Bolshevik Party member and served in the Soviet Red Army during the Russian Civil War and participated in the wars against the Polish and Ukrainian Republics. He also participated alongside the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War. At the start of World War II In 1939, he participated in the Soviet invasion of Poland. At the end of the war he was installed as one of leaders of the Soviet-sponsored Polish Provisional Government of National Unity. Soon later, Świerczewski died in a country-road ambush shot by the militants from OUN-UPA. He was an icon of communist propaganda for the following several decades.


28/03/1944

Stephen Leacock, English-Canadian political scientist and author (born 1869)

Stephen Butler Leacock was a Canadian teacher, political scientist, writer, and humourist. From 1915 to 1925, he was the best-known English-speaking humourist in the world.


28/03/1943

Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1873)

Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music. Early influences of Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and other Russian composers gave way to a thoroughly personal idiom notable for its song-like melodicism, expressiveness, dense contrapuntal textures, and rich orchestral colours. The piano is featured prominently in Rachmaninoff's compositional output and he used his skills as a performer to fully explore the expressive and technical possibilities of the instrument.


28/03/1942

Miguel Hernández, Spanish poet and playwright (born 1910)

Miguel Hernández Gilabert was a 20th-century Spanish-language poet and playwright associated with the Generation of '27 and the Generation of '36 movements. Born and raised in a family of low resources, he was self-taught in what refers to literature, and struggled against an unfavourable environment to build up his intellectual education, such as a father who physically abused him for spending time with books instead of working, and who took him out of school as soon as he finished his primary education. At school, he became a friend of Ramón Sijé, a well-educated boy who lent and recommended books to Hernández, and whose death would inspire his most famous poem, Elegy.


28/03/1941

Marcus Hurley, American basketball player and cyclist (born 1883)

Marcus Latimer Hurley was an American cyclist who competed in the early twentieth century. He specialized in sprint cycling and won 4 gold medals in Cycling at the 1904 Summer Olympics and a bronze medal in the 2 mile race.


Virginia Woolf, English writer (born 1882)

Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English writer and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. She helped to pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device.


28/03/1934

Mahmoud Mokhtar, Egyptian sculptor and educator (born 1891)

Mahmoud Mukhtar was an Egyptian sculptor. He attended the College of Fine Arts in Cairo upon its opening in 1908 by Prince Yusuf Kamal, and was part of the original "Pioneers" of the Egyptian Art movement. Despite his early death, he greatly impacted the realization and formation of contemporary Egyptian art. His work is credited with signaling the beginning of the Egyptian modernist movement, and he is often referred to as the father of modern Egyptian sculpture.


28/03/1929

Katharine Lee Bates, American poet and songwriter (born 1859)

Katharine Lee Bates was an American author and poet, chiefly remembered for her anthem "America the Beautiful", but also for her many books and articles on social reform, on which she was a noted speaker.


Lomer Gouin, Canadian lawyer and politician, Premier of Quebec (born 1861)

Sir Jean Lomer Gouin was a Canadian politician. He served as 13th premier of Quebec, as a Cabinet minister in the federal government of Canada, and as the 15th lieutenant governor of Quebec.


28/03/1923

Charles Hubbard, American archer (born 1849)

Charles Randolph Hubbard was an American archer who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and died in Hamilton, Ohio. Hubbard won the silver medal in the team competition. In the Double American round he finished 11th.


28/03/1917

Albert Pinkham Ryder, American painter (born 1847)

Albert Pinkham Ryder was an American painter best known for his poetic and moody allegorical works and seascapes, as well as his eccentric personality. While his art shared an emphasis on subtle variations of color with tonalist works of the time, it was unique for accentuating form in a way that some art historians regard as a precursor to modernism.


28/03/1916

James Strachan-Davidson, English classical scholar, academic administrator, translator, and author (born 1843)

James Leigh Strachan-Davidson was an English classical scholar, academic administrator, translator, and author of books on Roman history. He was Master of Balliol College, Oxford, from 1907 until his death in 1916.


28/03/1910

Édouard Colonne, French violinist and conductor (born 1838)

Édouard Juda Colonne was a French conductor and violinist, and a champion of the music of Berlioz and other eminent 19th-century composers.


28/03/1903

Magdalene Thoresen, Danish writer (born 1819)

Anna Magdalene Thoresen, née Kragh was a Danish-Norwegian poet, novelist, short story writer and playwright. She is said to have inspired a number of other writers to model characters after her. Her stepdaughter, Suzannah Ibsen, was married to Henrik Ibsen. A selection of her letters has been published as Breve fra Magdalene Thoresen 1855-1901. After the death of her Norwegian husband, she moved back to Denmark.


28/03/1900

Piet Joubert, South African soldier and politician (born c. 1831)

Petrus Jacobus Joubert(20 January 1831 – 28 March 1900), better known as Piet Joubert, was a South African politician who served as the commandant–general of the South African Republic from 1880 to 1900. He also served as Vice-President to Paul Kruger from May 1883 to October 1884 and from May 1896 until his death. He served in First Boer War, Second Boer War, and the Malaboch War.


28/03/1893

Edmund Kirby Smith, American general (born 1824)

Edmund Kirby Smith was a Confederate States Army general, who oversaw the Trans-Mississippi Department from 1863 to 1865. Before the American Civil War, Smith served as an officer of the United States Army.


28/03/1884

Georgios Zariphis, Greek banker and financier (born 1810)

Georgios Y. Zariphis, also known as Yorgo Zarifi, was a prominent Ottoman Greek banker and financier. He was also well known as a prominent benefactor of his time. Zariphis met Sultan Abdul Hamid II when the latter was a shahzade with a low expectation of ascending to the throne. The prince, having financial troubles, called on the expertise of Zariphis to manage his personal wealth. After Abdul Hamid II became sultan, he continued to utilize Zarifi's advisory services during the First Constitutional Era.


28/03/1881

Modest Mussorgsky, Russian pianist and composer (born 1839)

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a Russian composer, one of the group known as "The Five." He was an innovator of Russian music in the Romantic period and strove to achieve a uniquely Russian musical identity, often in deliberate defiance of the established conventions of Western music.


28/03/1874

Peter Andreas Hansen, Danish-German astronomer and mathematician (born 1795)

Peter Andreas Hansen was a Danish-born German astronomer.


28/03/1870

George Henry Thomas, American general (born 1816)

George Henry Thomas was an American general in the Union Army during the American Civil War and one of the principal commanders in the Western Theater. Thomas served in the Mexican–American War, and despite being a Virginian whose home state would join the Confederate States of America during the Civil War, he was a Southern Unionist who chose to remain in the U.S. Army.


28/03/1868

James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan, English lieutenant and politician (born 1797)

Lieutenant-General James Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan was a British Army officer who commanded the Light Brigade during the Crimean War, leading its disastrous charge at the Battle of Balaclava. Throughout his life in politics and his long military career, Cardigan characterised the arrogant and extravagant aristocrat of the period. His progression through the British army was marked by many episodes of extraordinary incompetence, but also by generosity to the men under his command and genuine bravery. As a member of the aristocracy, he had actively and steadfastly opposed any political reform in Britain but, in the last year of his life, he relented and came to acknowledge that such reform would bring benefit to all classes of society.


28/03/1822

Angelis Govios, leader of the Greek War of Independence (born 1780)

Angelis Govios or Govginas was a leader of the Greek War of Independence. He is known for the reorganization of the Struggle against the Ottomans in Euboea. A statue in his honour has been erected near the Euboean town of Psachna.


28/03/1818

Antonio Capuzzi, Italian violinist and composer (born 1755)

Giuseppe Antonio Capuzzi was an Italian violinist and composer.


28/03/1718

Thomas Micklethwaite, Lord Commissioner of the Treasury (born 1678)

Thomas Micklethwaite was a British MP who served as the Lord Commissioner of the Treasury from 1717 to 1718.


28/03/1690

Emmanuel Tzanes, Greek Renaissance painter (born 1610)

Emmanuel Tzanes, also known as Bounialis, Emmanuel Tzane-Bounialis, Emmanuel Zane, or Emmanuel Tzane, was a Greek Renaissance iconographer, author, clergyman, and educator. He spent the latter half of his life in Venice, where he was parish priest of the church of San Giorgio dei Greci and a member of the Flanginian School run by the city's Greek Confraternity. Tzanes painted icons in the style of the Cretan school, influenced by contemporary trends in Venetian painting. His known extant works, over 130 in number, can be found in public foundations, private collections, churches and monasteries in Greece. The most popular of these is The Holy Towel, finished in 1659. Tzanes was a collaborator with Philotheos Skoufos, and brothers with the painter Konstantinos Tzanes and the poet Marinos Tzanes.


28/03/1687

Constantijn Huygens, Dutch poet and composer (born 1596)

Sir Constantijn Huygens, Lord of Zuilichem, was a Dutch Golden Age poet and composer. He was also secretary to two Princes of Orange: Frederick Henry and William II, and the father of the scientist Christiaan Huygens.


28/03/1584

Ivan the Terrible, Russian king (born 1530)

Ivan IV Vasilyevich, commonly known as Ivan the Terrible, was Grand Prince of Moscow and all Russia from 1533 to 1547, and the first Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia from 1547 until his death in 1584. Ivan's reign was characterised by Russia's transformation from a medieval state to a fledgling empire, but at an immense cost to its people and long-term economy.


28/03/1566

Sigismund von Herberstein, Austrian historian and diplomat (born 1486)

Siegmund (Sigismund) Freiherr von Herberstein was a Carniolan diplomat, writer, historian and member of the Holy Roman Empire Imperial Council. He was most noted for his extensive writing on the geography, history and customs of Russia, and contributed greatly to early Western European knowledge of that area.


28/03/1563

Heinrich Glarean, Swiss poet and theorist (born 1488)

Heinrich Glarean also styled Henricus Glareanus was a Swiss music theorist, poet, humanist, philosopher and cartographer. He was born in Mollis and died in Freiburg im Breisgau.


28/03/1346

Venturino of Bergamo, Dominican preacher (born 1304)

Venturino of Bergamo was an Italian Dominican preacher. His cause for beatification is only within preliminary stages.


28/03/1285

Pope Martin IV

Pope Martin IV, was the head of the Catholic Church and leader of the Papal States from 22 February 1281 until his death on 22 March 1285. He was the last French pope to hold his court in Rome before the papacy moved to Avignon.


28/03/1241

Valdemar II of Denmark (born 1170)

Valdemar II Valdemarsen, later remembered as Valdemar the Victorious and Valdemar the Conqueror, was King of Denmark from 1202 until his death in 1241.


28/03/1239

Emperor Go-Toba of Japan (born 1180)

Emperor Go-Toba was the 82nd emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His reign spanned the years from 1183 through 1198.


28/03/1134

Stephen Harding, founder of the Cistercian order

Stephen Harding was an English-born monk and abbot, who was one of the founders of the Cistercian Order. He is honoured as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church.


28/03/1072

Ordulf, Duke of Saxony

Ordulf was the duke of Saxony from 1059, when he succeeded his father Bernard II, until his death. He was a member of the Billung family.


28/03/0966

Flodoard, Frankish canon and chronicler

Flodoard of Reims was a Frankish chronicler and priest of the cathedral church of Reims in the West Frankish kingdom during the decades following the dissolution of the Carolingian Empire. His historical writings are major sources for the history of Western Europe, especially France, in the early and mid-tenth century.


28/03/0592

Guntram, French king (born 532)

Saint Gontrand, also called Gontran, Gontram, Guntram, Gunthram, Gunthchramn, and Guntramnus, was the king of the Kingdom of Orléans from AD 561 to AD 592. He was the third-eldest and second-eldest-surviving son of Chlothar I and Ingunda. On his father's death in 561, he became king of a fourth of the Kingdom of the Franks, and made his capital at Orléans. The name "Gontrand" denotes "War Raven".


28/03/0193

Pertinax, Roman emperor (born 126)

Publius Helvius Pertinax was Roman emperor for the first three months of 193, succeeding Commodus and becoming the first ruler of the turbulent Year of the Five Emperors.


Celebrations & Special Days Worldwide on 28th March

Christian feast day: Christopher Wharton

Christopher Wharton was an English Roman Catholic priest. He is a Catholic martyr, beatified in 1987.


Christian feast day: Jeanne-Marie de Maille

Jeanne-Marie de Maille was a French Roman Catholic anchoress and a member of the Third Order of Saint Francis. Maille was born to nobles and married a nobleman herself though remained childless since she decided to remain chaste with spousal permission. The pair lived together until her husband died during a conflict. Subsequently, Maille became an anchoress at a church where she was characterised by humility and holiness. Pope Pius IX confirmed her beatification on 27 April 1871.


Christian feast day: Józef Sebastian Pelczar

Józef Sebastian Pelczar was a Polish Roman Catholic bishop and was also the co-founder of the Sister Servants of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus which he had established in 1894 with Ludwika Szczęsna. He also served in several episcopal posts and served as the Bishop of Przemyśl.


Christian feast day: Priscus

Priscus is one of several Catholic saints and martyrs. In the 1921 Benedictine Book of Saints there are seven figures named Priscus mentioned.


Christian feast day: Pope Sixtus III

Pope Sixtus III, also called Pope Xystus III, was the bishop of Rome from 31 July 432 to his death on 18 August 440. His ascension to the papacy is associated with a period of increased construction in the city of Rome. His feast day is celebrated by the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church on 28 March.


Christian feast day: Stephen Harding

Stephen Harding was an English-born monk and abbot, who was one of the founders of the Cistercian Order. He is honoured as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church.


Christian feast day: March 28 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

March 27 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - March 29


Serfs Emancipation Day (Tibet)

Serfs' Emancipation Day, observed annually on 28 March, is a holiday in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China that celebrates the emancipation of serfs in Tibet. The holiday was adopted by the Tibetan legislature on 19 January 2009 and it was promulgated that same year. In modern Tibetan history, the Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai declared the dissolution of the Tibetan government on 28 March 1959 and he replaced it with the temporary Preparatory Committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region (PCTAR), with the Panchen Lama also replacing the Dalai Lama as its acting chairman.


Teachers' Day (Czech Republic and Slovakia)

Teachers' Day is a special day for the appreciation of teachers. It may include celebrations to honor them for their special contributions in a particular field area, or the community tone in education. This is one of the most celebrated days and the primary reason why countries celebrate this day on different dates, unlike many other International Days. For example, Argentina has commemorated Domingo Faustino Sarmiento's death on 11 September as Teachers' Day since 1915. In India, the birthday of the second president Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, 5 September, is celebrated as Teachers' Day since 1962.


What Happened on 28th March?

44 significant events took place on Tuesday, 28th March — stretching from 37 to 2025. Explore the moments that shaped history on this day.

28/03/2025

An earthquake strikes close to Mandalay, Myanmar with a magnitude of 7.7, killing over 5400 people.

On 28 March 2025, at 12:50:52 MMT, a moment magnitude (Mw) 7.7–7.9 earthquake struck the Sagaing Region of Myanmar, with an epicenter close to Mandalay, the country's second-largest city. The shaking caused by this strike-slip shock reached a maximum Modified Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). It was the most powerful earthquake to strike Myanmar since 1912, and the second deadliest in Myanmar's modern history, surpassed only by upper estimates of the 1930 Bago earthquake. The earthquake caused extensive damage in Myanmar, particularly in areas near the rupture, and significant damage in neighboring Thailand. Hundreds of homes were also damaged in Yunnan, China, while more than 400 apartments were affected in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.


28/03/2020

The region of Uusimaa (with the capital city Helsinki) is temporarily isolated from the rest of Finland due to increased COVID-19 infections.

Uusimaa is a region of Finland. It borders the regions of Southwest Finland, Kanta-Häme, Päijät-Häme, and Kymenlaakso. Finland's capital and largest city, Helsinki, along with its surrounding metropolitan area, is located in the Uusimaa region, which is Finland's most populous region. Its population is 1,734,000.


28/03/2006

At least one million union members, students and unemployed take to the streets in France in protest at the government's proposed First Employment Contract law.

Nationwide protests occurred in France from February to April 2006 in opposition to a measure set to deregulate labour. Young people were the primary participants in the protests as the bill would have directly affected their future jobs in a way that they considered negative.


28/03/2005

An earthquake shakes northern Sumatra with a magnitude of 8.6 and killing over 1000 people.

The 2005 Nias–Simeulue earthquake occurred on 28 March off the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia in the subduction zone of the Sunda megathrust. At least 915 people were killed, mostly on the island of Nias. It was among the top 10 most powerful recorded worldwide since 1900, with a magnitude of 8.6 that caused a relatively small tsunami. Damage ranged from hundreds of buildings destroyed in Nias to widespread power outages throughout the island of Sumatra. Following the mainshock, eight major aftershocks occurred ranging from 5.5 to 6.0 magnitudes.


28/03/2003

In a friendly fire incident, two American A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft attack British tanks participating in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, killing one soldier.

In military terminology, friendly fire or fratricide is an attack by belligerent or neutral forces on friendly troops while attempting to attack enemy or hostile targets. Examples include misidentifying the target as hostile, cross-fire while engaging an enemy, long range ranging errors or inaccuracy. Accidental fire not intended to attack enemy or hostile targets, and deliberate firing on one's own troops for disciplinary reasons is not called friendly fire, and neither is unintentional harm to civilian or neutral targets, which is sometimes referred to as collateral damage. Training accidents and bloodless incidents also do not qualify as friendly fire in terms of casualty reporting.


28/03/2001

Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos begins operation.

Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos, commonly initialised as AIA, is the largest international airport in Greece, serving the city of Athens and region of Attica. It began operation on 28 March 2001 and is the main base of Aegean Airlines, as well as other smaller Greek airlines. It replaced the old Ellinikon International Airport.


28/03/1999

Kosovo War: Serb paramilitary and military forces kill at least 130 Kosovo Albanians in Izbica.

The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that lasted from 28 February 1998 until 11 June 1999. It was fought between the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), which controlled Kosovo before the war, and the Kosovo Albanian separatist militia known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). The conflict ended when the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) intervened by beginning air strikes in March 1999 which resulted in Yugoslav forces withdrawing from Kosovo.


28/03/1994

In South Africa, African National Congress security guards kill dozens of Inkatha Freedom Party protesters.

The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election resulted in Nelson Mandela being elected as President of South Africa. Cyril Ramaphosa, the incumbent national president, has served as president of the ANC since 18 December 2017.


28/03/1990

United States President George H. W. Bush posthumously awards Jesse Owens the Congressional Gold Medal.

George Herbert Walker Bush was the 41st president of the United States, serving from 1989 to 1993. Bush was Ronald Reagan's vice president from 1981 to 1989. He was the father of George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the United States.


28/03/1979

A coolant leak at the Three Mile Island's Unit 2 nuclear reactor outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania leads to the core overheating and a partial meltdown.

Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station, is a shut-down nuclear power plant on Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, US, on the Susquehanna River just south of Harrisburg. It has two separate units, Unit 1 (TMI-1) and Unit 2 (TMI-2).


The British House of Commons passes a vote of no confidence against James Callaghan's government by one vote, precipitating a general election.

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 members known as members of Parliament (MPs), who are elected to represent constituencies by the first-past-the-post system and hold their seats until Parliament is dissolved.


28/03/1978

The US Supreme Court hands down 5–3 decision in Stump v. Sparkman, a controversial case involving involuntary sterilization and judicial immunity.

The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on questions of U.S. constitutional or federal law. It also has original jurisdiction over a narrow range of cases, specifically "all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party". In 1803, the court asserted itself the power of judicial review, the ability to invalidate a statute for violating a provision of the Constitution. It is also able to strike down presidential directives for violating either the Constitution or statutory law.


28/03/1970

An earthquake strikes western Turkey at about 23:05 local time, killing 1,086 and injuring at least 1,200.

The 1970 Gediz earthquake, also known as the 1970 Kütahya-Gediz earthquake struck western Turkey on 28 March at about 23:02 local time with an estimated magnitude of 7.2 on the Mw scale.


28/03/1969

Greek poet and Nobel Prize laureate Giorgos Seferis makes a famous statement on the BBC World Service opposing the junta in Greece.

The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning for Literature, is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words of Alfred Nobel, "in the field of literature, produced the most outstanding work in an idealistic direction". Though individual works are sometimes cited as being particularly noteworthy, the award is based on an author's body of work as a whole. The Swedish Academy decides who, if anyone, will receive the prize.


28/03/1968

Brazilian high school student Edson Luís de Lima Souto is killed by military police at a student protest.

Edson Luís de Lima Souto was a Brazilian teenage student killed by the military police of Rio de Janeiro after a confrontation in the restaurant Calabouço, in downtown Rio de Janeiro. Edson was one of the first students to be killed by the Brazilian military government, and the aftermath of his death marked the beginning of a turbulent year for the regime, which ended with the enactment of AI-5, a decree restricting most of the basic human rights guarantees.


28/03/1965

An Mw 7.4 earthquake in Chile sets off a series of tailings dam failures, burying the town of El Cobre and killing at least 500 people.

The 1965 La Ligua earthquake struck near La Ligua in Aconcagua Province, Chile, about 140 km (87 mi) from the capital Santiago on Sunday, March 28 at 12:33 local time. The moment magnitude (Mw) 7.4–7.6 earthquake killed 400–500 people and inflicted US$1 billion in damage. Many deaths were from El Cobre, a mining location that was wiped out after a series of dam failures caused by the earthquake spilled mineral waste onto the area, burying hundreds of residents. The shock was felt throughout the country and along the Atlantic coast of Argentina.


28/03/1963

Civil rights movement: Over one hundred high school students conduct a sit-in protest in Rome, Georgia.

The civil rights movement was a social movement in the United States from 1954 to 1968 which aimed to abolish legalized racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement in the country, which most commonly affected African Americans. The movement had origins in the Reconstruction era in the late 19th century, and modern roots in the 1940s and in Mohandas Gandhi's nonviolent movement in India. After years of nonviolent protests and civil disobedience campaigns, the civil rights movement achieved many of its legislative goals in the 1960s, during which it secured new protections in federal law for the civil rights of all Americans, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968.


28/03/1961

ČSA Flight 511 crashes in Igensdorf, Germany, killing 52.

Czechoslovak Airlines (ČSA) Flight 511 was a flight operated by an Ilyushin Il-18 that crashed in Igensdorf near Nuremberg on 28 March 1961 while flying across West Germany.


28/03/1959

The State Council of the People's Republic of China dissolves the government of Tibet.

The State Council of the People's Republic of China, synonymous with Central People's Government, is the supreme administrative organ of the country's unified state apparatus and the executive organ of the National People's Congress (NPC), the supreme organ of state power. It is composed of a premier, vice premiers, state councilors, ministers, chairpersons of commissions, an auditor-general, the governor of the People's Bank of China, and a secretary-general.


28/03/1946

Cold War: The United States Department of State releases the Acheson–Lilienthal Report, outlining a plan for the international control of nuclear power.

The Cold War was a period of international geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc. It began in the aftermath of the Second World War and ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The term cold war is used because there was no direct fighting between the two superpowers, though each supported opposing sides in regional conflicts known as proxy wars. In addition to the struggle for ideological and economic influence and an arms race in both conventional and nuclear weapons, the Cold War was expressed through technological rivalries such as the Space Race, espionage, propaganda campaigns, embargoes, and sports diplomacy.


28/03/1942

World War II: A British combined force permanently disables the Louis Joubert Lock in Saint-Nazaire in order to keep the German battleship Tirpitz away from the mid-ocean convoy lanes.

Combined Operations Headquarters was a department of the British War Office set up during Second World War to harass the Germans on the European continent by means of raids carried out by use of combined naval and army forces.


28/03/1941

World War II: First day of the Battle of Cape Matapan in Greece between the navies of the United Kingdom and Australia, and the Royal Italian navy.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides, including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.


28/03/1939

Spanish Civil War: Generalissimo Francisco Franco conquers Madrid after a three-year siege.

The Spanish Civil War was fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republicans and the Nationalist rebels. Republicans loyal to the left-leaning Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic included socialists, anarchists, communists, and separatists, supported by the Soviet Union. The opposing Nationalists were an alliance of fascist Falangists, monarchists, conservatives, and traditionalists, supported by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Initially led by a military junta, until General Francisco Franco was appointed supreme leader on 1 October 1936 of what he called the Spanish State. Due to the international political climate at the time, the war was variously viewed as class struggle, religious struggle, or struggle between republican democracy and dictatorship, revolution and counterrevolution, or between fascism and communism. The Nationalists won the war in early 1939, and ruled Spain until Franco's death in November 1975.


28/03/1933

The Imperial Airways biplane City of Liverpool is believed to be the first airliner lost to sabotage when a passenger sets a fire on board.

Imperial Airways was an early British commercial long-range airline, operating from 1924 to 1939 and principally serving the British Empire routes to South Africa, India, Australia and the Far East, including Malaya and Hong Kong. Passengers were typically businessmen or colonial administrators, and most flights carried about 20 passengers or fewer. Accidents were frequent: in the first six years, 32 people died in seven incidents. Imperial Airways never achieved the levels of technological innovation of its competitors and was merged into the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) in 1939. BOAC in turn merged with the British European Airways (BEA) in 1974 to form British Airways.


28/03/1920

Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1920 affects the Great Lakes region and Deep South states.

On March 28, 1920, a large outbreak of at least 37 tornadoes, 31 of which were significant, took place across the Midwestern and Southern United States. The tornadoes left at least 153 dead and at least 1,215 injured. Many communities and farmers alike were caught off-guard as the storms moved to the northeast at speeds that reached over 60 mph (97 km/h). Most of the fatalities occurred in Georgia (37), Ohio (28), and Indiana (21), while the other states had lesser totals. Little is known about many of the specific tornadoes that occurred, and the list below is only partial.


28/03/1918

General John J. Pershing, during World War I, cancels 42nd 'Rainbow' Division's orders to Rolampont for further training and diverted it to the occupy the Baccarat sector. Rainbow Division becomes "the first American division to take over an entire sector on its own, which it held longer than any other American division-occupied sector alone for a period of three months".

In the United States military, a general is the most senior general-grade officer; it is the highest achievable commissioned officer rank that may be attained in the United States Armed Forces, with exception of the Navy and Coast Guard, which have the equivalent rank of admiral instead. The official and formal insignia of "general" is defined by its four stars.


Finnish Civil War: On the so-called "Bloody Maundy Thursday of Tampere", the Whites force the Reds to attack the city center, where the city's fiercest battles being fought in Kalevankangas with large casualties on both sides. During the same day, an explosion at the Red headquarters of Tampere kills several commanders.

The Finnish Civil War was a civil war in 1918 fought for the leadership and control of recently independent Finland between White Finland and the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic. The clashes took place in the context of the national, political, and social turmoil caused by World War I in Europe. The belligerents were the paramilitary Red Guards, led by a section of the Social Democratic Party with backup of the Russian bolsheviks, and the paramilitary White Guards of the senate. General C. G. E. Mannerheim led the White Guards with major assistance by both the Finnish Jäger Battalion trained in Germany and the German Imperial Army, along the German goal to control Fennoscandia and Petrograd of Russia. The Reds, composed of industrial and agrarian working class people, controlled the cities and industrial centres of southern Finland. The Whites, composed of land owners and the middle and upper class, controlled the rural central and northern Finland.


28/03/1910

Henri Fabre becomes the first person to fly a seaplane, the Fabre Hydravion, after taking off from water runway Étang le Barre, near Marseille.

Henri Fabre was a French aviator and the inventor of the first successful seaplane, the Fabre Hydravion.


28/03/1862

American Civil War: In the Battle of Glorieta Pass, Union forces stop the Confederate invasion of the New Mexico Territory. The battle began on March 26.

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States, which they saw as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war ended with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.


28/03/1860

First Taranaki War: The Battle of Waireka begins.

The First Taranaki War was an armed conflict over land ownership and sovereignty that took place between Māori and the Colony of New Zealand in the Taranaki region of New Zealand's North Island from March 1860 to March 1861.


28/03/1854

Crimean War: France and Britain declare war on Russia.

The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont from October 1853 to February 1856. Geopolitical causes of the war included the Eastern question, expansion of Imperial Russia in the preceding Russo-Turkish wars, and the British and French preference to preserve the Ottoman Empire to maintain the balance of power in the Concert of Europe.


28/03/1842

First concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Otto Nicolai.

Vienna Philharmonic is an orchestra that was founded in 1842 and has been considered to be one of the finest in the world.


28/03/1814

War of 1812: In the Battle of Valparaíso, two American naval vessels are captured by two Royal Navy vessels.

The War of 1812 was a conflict initiated by the United States against the United Kingdom and its allies fought mainly in North America and at sea during the wider Napoleonic Wars. The United States declared war on Britain on 18 June 1812. Although peace terms were agreed upon in the December 1814 Treaty of Ghent, the war did not officially end until the peace treaty was ratified by the United States Congress on 17 February 1815.


28/03/1809

Peninsular War: France defeats Spain in the Battle of Medellín.

The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by the Iberian nations Spain and Portugal, along with the United Kingdom, against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain, it is considered to overlap with the Spanish War of Independence. It overlapped with the War of the Fifth Coalition (1809) and the War of the Sixth Coalition (1812–1814).


28/03/1802

Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers discovers 2 Pallas, the second asteroid ever to be discovered.

Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers was a German astronomer. He found a convenient method of calculating the orbit of comets, and in 1802 and 1807, discovered the second and the fourth asteroids Pallas and Vesta.


28/03/1801

Treaty of Florence is signed, ending the war between the French Republic and the Kingdom of Naples.

The Treaty of Florence, which followed the Armistice of Foligno, brought to an end the war between the French Republic and the Kingdom of Naples, one of the Wars of the French Revolution. Forced by the French military presence, Naples ceded some territories in the Tyrrhenian Sea and accepted French garrisons to their ports on the Adriatic Sea. All Neapolitan harbours were closed to British and Ottoman vessels.


28/03/1795

Partitions of Poland: The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, a northern fief of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, ceases to exist and becomes part of Imperial Russia.

The Partitions of Poland were three partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place between 1772 and 1795, toward the end of the 18th century. The partitions ended the existence of the state, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland and Lithuania for 123 years. The partitions were conducted by the Habsburg monarchy, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Russian Empire, which divided up the Commonwealth lands among themselves progressively in the process of territorial seizures and annexations.


28/03/1776

Juan Bautista de Anza finds the site for the Presidio of San Francisco.

Juan Bautista de Anza Bezerra known more simply as "Juan Bautista de Anza" was a Spanish expeditionary leader, military officer, and politician primarily in California and New Mexico under the Spanish Empire. He is credited as one of the founding fathers of Spanish California and served as an official within New Spain as Governor of the province of New Mexico. Later, as governor of the Spanish colony of Santa Fe de Nuevo México, he put an end to the wars with the Comanche, overseeing the peace treaty of 1786.


28/03/1745

War of the Austrian Succession: In the Battle of Vilshofen, Austrian forces defeat French forces.

The War of the Austrian Succession, 1740 to 1748, was a conflict between the European great powers, fought primarily in Europe, the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Related conflicts include King George's War, the War of Jenkins' Ear, the First Carnatic War, and the First and Second Silesian Wars.


28/03/1566

The foundation stone of Valletta, Malta's capital city, is laid by Jean Parisot de Valette, Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

Valletta, also known as Città Umilissima, is the capital city of Malta and one of its 68 council areas. Located between the Grand Harbour to the east and Marsamxett Harbour to the west, its population as of 2021 was 5,157. As Malta's capital city, it is a commercial centre for shopping, bars, dining, and café life. It is also the southernmost capital of Europe, and, at just 0.61 square kilometres (0.24 sq mi), it is the European Union's smallest capital city.


28/03/1065

The Great German Pilgrimage, which had been under attack by Bedouin bandits for three days, is rescued by the Fatimid governor of Ramla.

The Great German Pilgrimage of 1064–1065 was a large pilgrimage to Jerusalem which took place a generation before the First Crusade.


28/03/0364

Roman Emperor Valentinian I appoints his brother Flavius Valens co-emperor.

Valentinian I, sometimes known as Valentinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 364 to 375. He is the second-last emperor to govern the empire as a whole, albeit only from February to March of 364, after which he appointed Valens to rule over the Eastern half the empire, while he remained in control of the West. The founder of the Valentinian dynasty, he is noted for his successful campaigns on the Rhine and Danube frontiers.


28/03/0193

After assassinating the Roman Emperor Pertinax, his Praetorian Guards auction off the throne to Didius Julianus.

Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden or secret attack, of a person—especially a prominent or important one—typically for political or ideological reasons. Assassinations may be ordered by both individuals and organizations and carried out by their accomplices. Acts of assassination have been performed since ancient times. A person who carries out an assassination is called an assassin.


28/03/0037

Roman emperor Caligula accepts the titles of the Principate, bestowed on him by the Senate.

AD 37 (XXXVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Proculus and Pontius. The denomination AD 37 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.