Historical Events on Saturday, 28th March

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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. A member of the Republican Party, he also served as the 43rd vice president under President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1989 and previously in various other federal positions.

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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).

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 were loyal to the left-leaning Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic and 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 and initially led by a military junta, until General Francisco Franco was appointed supreme leader on 1 October 1936 for 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 fascism and communism. The Nationalists won the war in early 1939, and ruled Spain until Franco's death in November 1975.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 lasted a little over four years, ending with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when 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.

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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).

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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.

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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.

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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.

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28/03/1776

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

Juan Bautista de Anza Bezerra Nieto 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 he only did so from February 26th to March 28th of 364, after which he appointed Valens to rule over the Eastern half the empire, while he remained in control of the West. During his reign, he fought successfully against the Alamanni, Quadi, and Sarmatians, strengthening the border fortifications and conducting campaigns across the Rhine and Danube. Also, his general Theodosius the Elder defeated a revolt in Africa and the Great Conspiracy. Valentinian founded the Valentinian dynasty, with his sons Gratian and Valentinian II succeeding him in the western half of the empire and his daughter Galla marrying emperor Theodosius I.

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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.

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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.

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