March 28 in History

March 28 spans 44 recorded events across recorded history, from 37 to 2025. Below is a curated digest of the most significant moments tied to this date.

Holidays and observances on March 28

See all 9 holidays
Treaty of Florence is signed, ending the war between the French Republic and the

1801 — Treaty of Florence is signed, ending the war between the French Republic and the Kingdom of Naples.

By · — Wikipedia · Report an error

Historical Events 44 events 37 – 2025

More major events on March 28

The featured story and these ranked highlights form a quick summary. Every recorded event remains available in the chronology below.

  1. 1994 In South Africa, African National Congress security guards kill dozens of Inkatha Freedom Party protesters. Source
  2. 1963 Civil rights movement: Over one hundred high school students conduct a sit-in protest in Rome, Georgia. Source

Did you know

In 1801, Treaty of Florence is signed, ending the war between the French Republic and the Kingdom of Naples. This featured entry focuses on the immediate decision and its direct historical impact.

Did you know

In the history of France, the French Republic, retroactively referred to as the First Republic and sometimes referred to in historiography as Revolutionary France, was founded on 21 September 1792 during the French Revolution. This helps explain why the event mattered beyond the initial announcement.

Did you know

The First Republic lasted until the declaration of the First Empire on 18 May 1804 under Napoléon Bonaparte, although the form of government changed several times. This clarifies the institutional and public response around the event.

Did you know

In 1801, Treaty of Florence is signed, ending the war between the French Republic and the Kingdom of Naples had consequences that extended beyond the first headline. The key context is the institutions involved, the policy shift, and how the public response evolved afterward.

Did you know

In 1801, Treaty of Florence is signed, ending the war between the French Republic and the Kingdom of Naples had consequences that extended beyond the first headline. The key context is the institutions involved, the policy shift, and how the public response evolved afterward.


Choose year
Choose topic

Showing all 43 events

37 30s

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

The 30s decade ran from January 1, AD 30, to December 31, AD 39.
193 AD_193

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

Year 193 (CXCIII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Sosius and Ericius. The denomination 193 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.
364 Valentinian I

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

Valentinian I (Latin: Valentinianus; 321 – 17 November 375), 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 of 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. Born into a military family in Pannonia, Valentinian rose through the ranks under emperors Constantius II, Julian and Jovian. Following Jovian's early death, Valentinian was proclaimed emperor, and he subsequently selected his brother Valens as co-emperor. During his reign, he fought successfully against the Alamanni, Quadi, and Sarmatians, strengthening the border fortifications and conducting campaigns across the frontiers. In addition, he dispatched his general Theodosius the Elder to suppress a revolt in Africa and the Great Conspiracy, a coordinated assault on Roman Britain by Picts, Scoti, and Saxons. Valentinian suffered a fatal stroke at a meeting with Quadi envoys in Pannonia, with his sons Gratian and Valentinian II succeeding him in the western half of the empire.
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.
1566 Valletta

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.
1745 War_of_the_Austrian_Succession

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.
1776 Juan Bautista de Anza

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

Juan Bautista de Anza Bezerra (July 6 or 7, 1736 – December 19, 1788) 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.
1795 Partitions of Poland

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's lands among themselves progressively in the process of territorial seizures and annexations. The First Partition was decided on 5 August 1772, after the Bar Confederation lost the war with Russia. The Second Partition occurred in the aftermath of the Polish–Russian War of 1792 and the Targowica Confederation, when Russian and Prussian troops entered the commonwealth and the partition treaty was signed during the Grodno Sejm on 23 January 1793 (without Austria). The Third Partition took place on 24 October 1795, in reaction to the unsuccessful Polish Kościuszko Uprising the previous year. With this partition, the commonwealth ceased to exist. In English, the term "Partitions of Poland" is sometimes used geographically as toponymy, to mean the three parts that the partitioning powers divided the commonwealth into, namely: the Austrian Partition, the Prussian Partition and the Russian Partition. In Polish, there are two separate words for the two meanings. The consecutive acts of dividing and annexation of Poland are referred to as rozbiór (plural: rozbiory), while the term zabór (plural: zabory) refers to parts of the commonwealth that were annexed in 1772–1795 and which became part of Imperial Russia, Prussia, or Austria. Following the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the borders of the three partitioned sectors were redrawn; the Austrians established Galicia in the Austrian partition, whereas the Russians gained Warsaw from Prussia and formed an autonomous polity known as Congress Poland in the Russian partition. In Polish historiography, the term "Fourth Partition of Poland" has also been used, in reference to any subsequent annexation of Polish lands by foreign invaders. Depending on source and historical period, this could mean the events of 1815, or 1832 and 1846, or 1939. The term "Fourth Partition" in a temporal sense can also mean the diaspora communities that played an important political role in re-establishing the Polish sovereign state after 1918: after the end of World War I, the Central Powers' surrender to the Western Allies, the chaos of the Russian Revolution and the Treaty of Versailles finally allowed for the restoration of Poland's full independence after 123 years.
1802 Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers

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

Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers (; German: [ˈɔlbɐs]; 11 October 1758 – 2 March 1840) 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.
1809 Peninsular War

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). The war can be said to have started when the French and Spanish armies invaded and occupied Portugal in 1807 by transiting through Spain, but it escalated in 1808 after Napoleonic France occupied Spain, which had been its ally. Napoleon Bonaparte forced the abdications of Ferdinand VII and his father Charles IV and then installed his brother Joseph Bonaparte on the Spanish throne and promulgated the Bayonne Constitution. Most Spaniards rejected French rule and fought a bloody war to oust them. The war on the peninsula lasted until the Sixth Coalition defeated Napoleon in 1814, and is regarded as one of the first wars of national liberation. It is also significant for the emergence of large-scale guerrilla warfare. In 1808, the Spanish army in Andalusia defeated the French at the Battle of Bailén, considered the first open-field defeat of the Napoleonic army on a European battlefield. Besieged by 70,000 French troops, a reconstituted national government, the Cortes—in effect a government-in-exile—fortified itself in the secure port of Cádiz in 1810. The British army, under Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, guarded Portugal and campaigned against the French alongside the reformed Portuguese Army and provided whatever supplies they could get to the Spanish, while the Spanish armies and guerrillas tied down vast numbers of Napoleon's troops. In 1812, when Napoleon set out with a massive army on what proved to be a disastrous invasion of Russia, a combined allied army defeated the French at Salamanca and took the capital Madrid. In the following year the Coalition defeated King Joseph Bonaparte's army at the Battle of Vitoria, paving the way for victory in the war in the Iberian Peninsula. Pursued by the armies of Britain, Spain and Portugal, Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult, no longer getting sufficient support from a depleted France, led the exhausted and demoralized French forces in a fighting withdrawal across the Pyrenees during the winter of 1813–1814. The years of fighting in Spain were a heavy burden on France's Imperial Army. While the French won several battles they were eventually defeated, as their communications and supplies were severely tested and their units were frequently isolated, harassed or overwhelmed by Spanish partisans fighting an intense guerrilla war of raids and ambushes. The Spanish armies were repeatedly beaten and driven to the peripheries, but they would regroup and relentlessly hound and demoralize the French troops. This drain on French resources led Napoleon, who had unwittingly provoked a total war, to call the conflict the "Spanish ulcer". For France, the Peninsular War bogged down Napoleon's troops, which allowed the rest of Europe to challenge Napoleon once more, including in the War of the Fifth Coalition and the French invasion of Russia, and culminating in Napoleon's defeat in the War of the Sixth Coalition. The war against Napoleon's occupation led to the Spanish Constitution of 1812, promulgated by the Cortes of Cádiz, later a cornerstone of European liberalism. Though victorious in war—France would never again threaten a full-scale invasion of Spain—the burden of war destroyed the social and economic fabric of both Portugal and Spain, and the following civil wars between liberal and absolutist factions ushered in revolts in Spanish America that led to the independence of all of Spain's colonies on the American mainland, and the beginning of an era of social turbulence, increased political instability, and economic stagnation in Iberia itself.
1814 War_of_1812

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 Senate on 17 February 1815.
1842 Vienna Philharmonic

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

Vienna Philharmonic (VPO; German: Wiener Philharmoniker) is an orchestra that was founded in 1842 and has been considered to be one of the finest in the world. The Vienna Philharmonic is based at the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria. Its members are selected from the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera. Selection involves a lengthy process, with each musician demonstrating their capability for a minimum of three years' performance for the opera and ballet. After this probationary period, the musician may request an application for a position in the orchestra from the Vienna Philharmonic's board. The Vienna Philharmonic hires no musician over 35 years of age, and has a mandatory retirement age of 65; 30 years of service are required for full pension.
1854 Crimean_War

Crimean War: France and Britain declare war on Russia.

The Crimean War was fought between Russia and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom, and Sardinia from October 1853 to February 1856. Geopolitical causes of the war included the Eastern question, the expansion of 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.
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.
1862 American Civil War

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 (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States. The South saw slavery 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. Decades of controversy over slavery came to a head when Abraham Lincoln, a Republican who opposed slavery's expansion, won the 1860 presidential election. Seven slave states in the South responded to Lincoln's victory by seceding from the United States and forming the Confederate States of America. The Confederacy seized US forts and other federal assets in the South. The war began on April 12, 1861, when the Confederacy bombarded Fort Sumter in South Carolina. A wave of enthusiasm for war swept over the North and South, as military recruitment soared. Four more Southern states seceded after the war began and, led by its president, Jefferson Davis, the Confederacy comprised eleven states, containing a third of the US population. Four years of intense combat, mostly in the South, ensued. During 1861–1862 in the western theater, the Union made permanent gains, though in the eastern theater the conflict was inconclusive. The abolition of slavery became a Union war goal on January 1, 1863, when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared all slaves in rebel states to be free, applying to more than 3.5 million of the 4 million enslaved people in the country. To the west, the Union first destroyed the Confederacy's river navy by the summer of 1862, then much of its western armies, and seized New Orleans. The successful 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River, while Confederate general Robert E. Lee's incursion north failed at the Battle of Gettysburg. General Ulysses S. Grant's western successes led Lincoln to promote him to command of all Union armies in 1864. Inflicting an ever-tightening naval blockade of Confederate ports, the Union marshaled resources and manpower to attack the Confederacy from all directions. This led to the fall of Atlanta in 1864 to Union general William Tecumseh Sherman, followed by his March to the Sea, which culminated in his taking Savannah. The last significant battles raged around the ten-month siege of Petersburg, gateway to the Confederate capital of Richmond. The Confederates abandoned Richmond, and on April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant following the Battle of Appomattox Court House, setting in motion the end of the war. Lincoln lived to see this victory but was shot by an assassin on April 14, dying the next day. By the end of the war, much of the South's infrastructure had been destroyed. The Confederacy collapsed, the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, and four million enslaved black people were freed. The war-torn nation then entered the Reconstruction era in an attempt to rebuild the country, bring the former Confederate states back into the United States, and grant civil rights to freed slaves. The war is one of the most extensively studied and written about episodes in the history of the United States. It remains the subject of cultural and historiographical debate. Of continuing interest is the myth of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy. The war was among the first to use industrial warfare. Railroads, the electrical telegraph, steamships, the ironclad warship, and mass-produced weapons were widely used. The war left an estimated 700,000 soldiers dead, along with an undetermined number of civilian deaths, making it the deadliest in American history. The technology and brutality of the Civil War foreshadowed the coming world wars.
1910 Henri Fabre

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 (French pronunciation: [ɑ̃ʁi fabʁ]; 29 November 1882 – 30 June 1984) was a French aviator and the inventor of the first successful seaplane, the Fabre Hydravion. Henri Fabre was born into a prominent family of shipowners in the city of Marseille. He was educated in the Jesuit College of Marseilles where he undertook advanced studies in sciences. He intensively studied aeroplane and propeller designs. He patented a system of flotation devices which he used when he succeeded in taking off from the surface of the Etang de Berre on 28 March 1910. On that day, he completed four consecutive flights, the longest about 600 metres. the Hydravion has survived and is displayed in the Musée de l'Air in Paris. Henri Fabre was soon contacted by Glenn Curtiss and Gabriel Voisin who used his invention to develop their own seaplanes. As late as 1971, Fabre said he was still sailing his own boat single-handedly in Marseille harbour. He died at the age of 101 as one of the last living pioneers of human flight.
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.
1918 Finnish Civil War

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 fought in 1918 for the leadership and control of recently independent Finland (formerly part of Russia) between White Finland and the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic (Red Finland). The clashes took place in the context of the national, political, and social turmoil caused by World War I (Eastern Front) 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 from March-April 1918 by 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. In the years before the civil war, Finland had experienced rapid population growth, industrialisation, gradually increasing urbanisation and the rise of a comprehensive labour movement. The country's political and governmental systems were in an unstable phase of democratisation and modernisation. The socio-economic condition and education of the population had gradually improved, and national awareness and culture had progressed. World War I led to the collapse of the Russian Empire, causing a power vacuum in Finland, and the subsequent struggle for dominance led to militarisation and an escalating crisis between the left-leaning labour movement and the conservatives. The Reds carried out an unsuccessful general offensive in February 1918, supplied with weapons by Soviet Russia. A counteroffensive by the Whites began in March, reinforced by the German Empire's military detachments in April. The decisive engagements were the Battles of Tampere and Viipuri, won by the Whites, and the Battles of Helsinki and Lahti, won by German troops, leading to overall victory for the Whites and the German forces. Political violence became a part of this warfare with around 12,000 casualties - most of them were Reds. Moreover, about 12,500 Red prisoners died of malnutrition and disease in camps. In total around 38,000 people died in the conflict, where around one million Finns of the total population of three million had been more or less involved with. In the immediate aftermath, Finland passed from the sphere of influence of Soviet Russia to the German power sphere with a plan to establish a German-led Finnish monarchy. The scheme ended with Germany's defeat in World War I, and Finland instead emerged as a sovereign, democratic, constitutional state with proper civil society. The civil war divided the nation for decades. The Finnish society was gradually reunited through social compromises based on a long-term culture of moderate politics, religion and a post-war economic recovery.
1920 1920 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak

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. Severe thunderstorms began developing in Missouri during the early morning hours. The storms moved quickly to the northeast towards Chicago, Illinois. The first tornado injured five people 35 mi (56 km) southeast of Springfield, Missouri, in Douglas County. This first tornado was a harbinger of things to come as the morning went on and the atmosphere began to destabilize, due to the abundance of sunshine that preceded the cold front in the warm sector, which covered the lower Great Lakes region extending southward well past the Ohio River Valley.
1933 Imperial_Airways

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.
1939 Spanish Civil War

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

The Spanish Civil War (Spanish: guerra civil española) was fought in Spain 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 Falangists, monarchists, conservatives, and traditionalists, who established the military-led Spanish State and were directly aided by an intervention from Fascist Italy and participation of Nazi Germany. 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 communism and fascism. The Nationalists won the war in early 1939, and ruled Spain until Franco's death in November 1975. The war began after the partial failure of the coup d'état of July 1936 against the Popular Front government by a group of generals of the Spanish Republican Armed Forces. They were supported by right-wing groups including the Christian traditionalist party CEDA; monarchists, including both the opposing Alfonsists and the religious conservative Carlists; and the Falange Española de las JONS, a fascist political party. However, rebelling units in almost all important cities did not gain control, leaving Spain militarily and politically divided. The Nationalists were 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. The rebellion was countered by the arming of left-wing social movements and parties, and the formation of militias. This led to rapid socioeconomic and political transformation in the Republican zone, referred to as the Spanish Revolution. The Nationalist forces received munitions, soldiers, and air support from Fascist Italy which conducted a large-scale intervention and Nazi Germany which sent its Condor Legion, while the Republican government received support from the Soviet Union and Mexico. Other countries, such as the United Kingdom, France, and the United States, continued to recognise the Republican government, but followed official policies of non-intervention. Despite this, tens of thousands of citizens from non-interventionist countries directly participated in the conflict, mostly in the pro-Republican International Brigades. Franco gradually emerged as the primary leader of the Nationalists, becoming the dictator of the Spanish State by 1937 and co-opting Falangism, gaining recognition as a fascist leader. The Nationalists advanced from their strongholds in the south and west, capturing most of Spain's northern coastline in 1937 and besieging Madrid. After much of Catalonia was captured in 1938 and 1939 and Madrid was cut off from Barcelona, the Republican military position became hopeless. On 5 March 1939, in response to allegedly increasing communist dominance of the Republican government and the deteriorating military situation, Colonel Segismundo Casado led a military coup against the Republican government, intending to seek peace with the Nationalists. These peace overtures, however, were rejected by Franco. Following internal conflict between Republican factions in Madrid in the same month, Franco entered the capital and declared victory on 1 April 1939. Hundreds of thousands of those associated with the Republicans fled Spain, mostly to refugee camps in southern France; many of those who stayed were persecuted by the victorious Nationalists. The war became notable for the passion and political division it inspired worldwide, and for the many atrocities that occurred. Organised purges occurred in territory captured by Franco's forces to consolidate power. Mass executions took place in areas controlled by the Republicans, with the participation of local authorities varying by location.
1941 World_War_II

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, with many engaging in total war on an unprecedented scale. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the deaths of 60 to 75 million people, a majority of whom were civilians. 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.
1942 Combined_Operations_Headquarters

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.
1946 Cold_War

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.
1959 State Council of China

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

The State Council 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. The Government Administration Council of the Central People's Government was established in 1949 with the proclamation of the People's Republic of China. Under the 1954 constitution, the Government Administration Council was succeeded by the State Council, which became the supreme administrative organ of the state. Since 1982, the State Council has undergone institutional reforms every five years. The main functions of the State Council are to formulate administrative measures, issue decisions and orders, and monitor their implementation; draft legislative bills for submission to the NPC or its Standing Committee; and prepare the economic plan and the state budget for deliberation and approval by the NPC. The premier of the State Council is responsible for the State Council and exercises overall leadership of its work. The secretary-general of the State Council, under the leadership of the premier, is responsible for handling the daily work of the State Council and heads the General Office of the State Council. The premier is appointed by the NPC after a nomination from the president; the premier then nominates members of the State Council for appointment by the NPC or its Standing Committee. The executive meeting of the State Council, consisting of the premier, vice premiers, state councilors, and the secretary-general, is held two to three times a month, while the plenary meeting, consisting of all members of the State Council, is held every six months. The State Council directly oversees provincial-level People's Governments, and in practice maintains membership with top levels of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The State Council is constitutionally accountable to the NPC and its Standing Committee. The Organic Law of the State Council outlines that the State Council is led by the CCP Central Committee and follows CCP ideology. Aside from a few, members of the State Council are also members of the CCP Central Committee.
1961 ČSA Flight 511 (March 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. A German investigation commission stated that the primary cause of the accident was pilot error or an autopilot malfunction. Soviet investigators dismissed this conclusion and stated that the accident was caused by an explosion near the tail of the plane.
1963 Civil_rights_movement

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 Mahatma 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.
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 (also known as the Aconcagua 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 (adjusted for inflation) 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.
1968 Edson Luís de Lima Souto

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

Edson Luís de Lima Souto (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈɛdʒsõ luˈiz dʒi ˈlimɐ ˈsowtu]; February 24, 1950 – March 28, 1968) was a Brazilian teenage student killed by the military police of Rio de Janeiro after a confrontation in the restaurant Calabouço (IPA: [ˌkalɐˈbowsu]), 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.
1969 Nobel_Prize_in_Literature

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.
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.
1978 Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States

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 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.
1979 Three_Mile_Island_Nuclear_Generating_Station

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).
1979 House_of_Commons_of_the_United_Kingdom

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.
1990 George_H._W._Bush

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 and previously in various other positions. His son, George W. Bush, served as the 43rd president.
1994 African_National_Congress

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.
1999 Kosovo_War

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.
2001 Athens_International_Airport

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 the region of Attica as well as connecting traffic. 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.
2003 Friendly_fire

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 unintentional attack by allied or neutral forces on friendly troops while attempting to attack enemy or hostile targets. Many NATO militaries refer to these incidents as blue on blue. Examples include misidentifying the target as hostile, cross-fire while engaging an enemy, and long-range ranging errors or inaccuracy. Accidental fire not intended to attack enemy or hostile targets, or 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.
2005 2005_Nias–Simeulue_earthquake

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

On 28 March 2005, at 23:09:37 WIB, a Mw 8.6–8.7 earthquake struck the Banyak Islands, located off the coast of Aceh, Indonesia. It was the most powerful earthquake globally since the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake three months prior, and is tied with the 2012 Indian Ocean, 1957 Andreanof Islands, 1950 Assam–Tibet and 1946 Aleutian Islands earthquakes as the tenth-largest earthquake ever recorded by seismometers.
2006 2006_youth_protests_in_France

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.
2020 Uusimaa

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.
2025 2025_Myanmar_earthquake

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.

History runs on facts, and this project runs on coffee!

Your support is incredibly helpful and genuinely appreciated.

Support with a coffee ☕