History of Today in India – 28 March

Explore the history of today 28 March in India, including important events, famous personalities, and milestones for UPSC SSC,Banking & PSC exams.

Last updated on 28 March 2026, 04:21 AM

📜 Important Events on 28 March in World History

28 Mar 2025: An earthquake strikes close to Mandalay, Myanmar with a magnitude of 7.7, killing over 100 people. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 2005: An earthquake shakes northern Sumatra with a magnitude of 8.6 and killing over 1000 people. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 2001: Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos begins operation. Read more
28 Mar 1999: Kosovo War: Serb paramilitary and military forces kill at least 130 Kosovo Albanians in Izbica. Read more
28 Mar 1994: In South Africa, African National Congress security guards kill dozens of Inkatha Freedom Party protesters. Read more
28 Mar 1990: United States President George H. W. Bush posthumously awards Jesse Owens the Congressional Gold Medal. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1979: The British House of Commons passes a vote of no confidence against James Callaghan’s government by one vote, precipitating a general election. Read more
28 Mar 1978: The US Supreme Court hands down 5–3 decision in Stump v. Sparkman, a controversial case involving involuntary sterilization and judicial immunity. Read more
28 Mar 1970: An earthquake strikes western Turkey at about 23:05 local time, killing 1,086 and injuring at least 1,200. Read more
28 Mar 1969: Greek poet and Nobel Prize laureate Giorgos Seferis makes a famous statement on the BBC World Service opposing the junta in Greece. Read more
28 Mar 1968: Brazilian high school student Edson Luís de Lima Souto is killed by military police at a student protest. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1963: Civil rights movement: Over one hundred high school students conduct a sit-in protest in Rome, Georgia. Read more
28 Mar 1961: ČSA Flight 511 crashes in Igensdorf, Germany, killing 52. Read more
28 Mar 1959: The State Council of the People’s Republic of China dissolves the government of Tibet. Read more
28 Mar 1946: Cold War: The United States Department of State releases the Acheson–Lilienthal Report, outlining a plan for the international control of nuclear power. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1939: Spanish Civil War: Generalissimo Francisco Franco conquers Madrid after a three-year siege. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1920: Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1920 affects the Great Lakes region and Deep South states. Read more
28 Mar 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”. Read more
28 Mar 1918: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1860: First Taranaki War: The Battle of Waireka begins. Read more
28 Mar 1854: Crimean War: France and Britain declare war on Russia. Read more
28 Mar 1842: First concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Otto Nicolai. Read more
28 Mar 1814: War of 1812: In the Battle of Valparaíso, two American naval vessels are captured by two Royal Navy vessels. Read more
28 Mar 1809: Peninsular War: France defeats Spain in the Battle of Medellín. Read more
28 Mar 1802: Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers discovers 2 Pallas, the second asteroid ever to be discovered. Read more
28 Mar 1801: Treaty of Florence is signed, ending the war between the French Republic and the Kingdom of Naples. Read more

🎂 Important Births on 28 March in World History

28 Mar 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). Read more
28 Mar 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. 98 on 19 August 2024. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1996: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1995: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1992: Sergi Gómez, Spanish footballer Sergi Gómez Solà is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a central defender for Primeira Liga club Alverca. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1991: 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. Read more
28 Mar 1991: Lisa-Maria Moser, Austrian tennis player Lisa-Maria Moser is an Austrian former tennis player. Read more
28 Mar 1991: 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. Read more
28 Mar 1991: 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. Read more
28 Mar 1991: 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. Read more
28 Mar 1991: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1990: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1989: 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. Read more
28 Mar 1989: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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 five times and is also an eight-time Pro Bowler. Read more
28 Mar 1988: 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. Read more
28 Mar 1987: Yohan Benalouane, French-Tunisian footballer Yohan Ben Alouane is a Tunisian former professional footballer who played as a defender. Read more
28 Mar 1987: 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. Read more
28 Mar 1987: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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 is a former one-time TNA X Division Champion. He also makes appearances on the independent circuit. Read more
28 Mar 1986: 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. Read more
28 Mar 1986: 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. Read more
28 Mar 1986: 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. Read more
28 Mar 1986: 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. Read more
28 Mar 1985: Stefano Ferrario, Italian footballer Stefano Ferrario is an Italian former footballer who played for Serie D club Cattolica. Read more
28 Mar 1985: Steve Mandanda, French footballer Steve Mandanda Mpidi is a former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Read more
28 Mar 1985: 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. Read more
28 Mar 1985: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1983: Ladji Doucouré, French sprinter and hurdler Ladji Doucouré is a French track and field athlete. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1981: 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. Read more
28 Mar 1980: Stiliani Pilatou, Greek long jumper Stiliani “Stella” Pilatou is a Greek long jumper. Read more
28 Mar 1980: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1975: Kate Gosselin, American television personality Katie Irene 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. Read more
28 Mar 1975: Iván Helguera, Spanish footballer Iván Helguera Bujía is a Spanish former professional footballer. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1973: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1970: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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, and Hercules. 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1968: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1962: Simon Bazalgette, English businessmanSimon Bazalgette is a business leader, advisor and investor in the sports, leisure, media and entertainment industries. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1958: Curt Hennig, American wrestler (died 2003) Curtis Michael Hennig, better known by the ring name Mr. Perfect, was an American professional wrestler. Considered one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time by peers, critics, and fans, 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1954: Donald Brown, American pianist and educator Donald Ray Brown is an American jazz pianist and producer. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1948: Janice Lynde, American actress Janice Lynde is an American actress. Read more
28 Mar 1948: 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. Read more
28 Mar 1948: Milan Williams, American keyboard player (died 2006) Milan B. Williams was an American keyboardist and a founding member of The Commodores. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1946: 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. Read more
28 Mar 1946: 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. Read more
28 Mar 1945: Rodrigo Duterte, Filipino politician, 16th President of the Philippines Rodrigo Roa Duterte is a Filipino lawyer and politician who served as the 16th president of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022. He had served as the mayor of Davao City in the past. Duterte is the first Philippine president from Mindanao, and is the oldest person to assume office, beginning his term at age 71. Duterte is the chairman of Partido Demokratiko Pilipino, the ruling party during his presidency. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1944: 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). Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1943: 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. 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1942: 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. Read more
28 Mar 1942: 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). Read more
28 Mar 1942: Samuel Ramey, American opera singer Samuel Ramey is an American operatic bass. 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. Read more
28 Mar 1942: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1940: 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. Read more
28 Mar 1940: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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”. Read more
28 Mar 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”. Read more
28 Mar 1935: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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). Read more
28 Mar 1930: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1928: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1926: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1925: Dorothy DeBorba, American child actress (died 2010) Dorothy Adele DeBorba was an American child actress of Portuguese descent who was a regular in the Our Gang series of short subjects as the leading lady from 1930 to 1933. Read more
28 Mar 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.” Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1923: 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”. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1922: 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. Read more
28 Mar 1922: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1921: 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”. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1919: 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. Read more
28 Mar 1919: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1914: Bohumil Hrabal, Czech author (died 1997) Bohumil Hrabal was a Czech writer, often named among the best Czech writers of the 20th century. Read more
28 Mar 1914: 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. Read more
28 Mar 1914: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1912: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1910: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1906: Murray Adaskin, Canadian violinist, composer, and conductor (died 2002) Murray Adaskin, was a Canadian violinist, teacher, and composer. Read more
28 Mar 1906: Robert Allen, American actor (died 1998) Robert Allen was an American actor in both feature films and B-movie westerns between 1935 and 1944. Read more
28 Mar 1906: 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. Read more
28 Mar 1905: Pandro S. Berman, American production manager and producer (died 1996) Pandro Samuel Berman, also known as Pan Berman, was an American film producer. Read more
28 Mar 1905: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1899: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1895: 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. Read more
28 Mar 1895: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1892: 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. Read more
28 Mar 1890: Paul Whiteman, American violinist, composer, and bandleader (died 1967) Paul Samuel Whiteman was an American Jazz bandleader, composer, orchestral director, and violinist. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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 Asklepius. 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1879: Terence MacSwiney, Irish republican politician and hunger striker; Lord Mayor of Cork (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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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 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. Read more
28 Mar 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). Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1849: James Darmesteter, French historian and author (died 1894)
James Darmesteter was a French author, orientalist, and antiquarian. Read more
28 Mar 1847: Gyula Farkas, Hungarian mathematician and physicist (died 1930) Gyula Farkas de Kisbarnak was a Hungarian mathematician and physicist. Read more
28 Mar 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”. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1836: 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. Read more
28 Mar 1836: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1815: Arsène Houssaye, French author and poet (died 1896) Arsène Houssaye was a French novelist, poet and man of letters. Read more
28 Mar 1811: John Neumann, Czech-American bishop and saint (died 1860) John Nepomucene Neumann was a Bohemian-born American prelate of the Catholic Church. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more

🕊️ Important Deaths on 28 March in World History

28 Mar 2024: Larry Lloyd, English professional football player and coach (born 1948) Laurence Valentine Lloyd was an English professional football player and coach. Read more
28 Mar 2024: Mark Spiro, American songwriter, record producer and recording artist (born 1957) Mark Spiro was an American songwriter, record producer and recording artist. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 2023: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 2021: 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, Duncan 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 2015: Chuck Brayton, American baseball player and coach (born 1925) Frederick Charles Brayton, usually known as Chuck Brayton or Bobo Brayton, was an American college baseball head coach; he led the Washington State Cougars for 33 seasons, from 1962 to 1994. He is the winningest coach in school history, with a record of 1,162 wins, 523 losses and eight ties—the fourth-best total in NCAA history at the time he retired. Read more
28 Mar 2015: 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. Read more
28 Mar 2015: Miroslav Ondříček, Czech cinematographer (born 1934) Miroslav Ondříček was a Czech cinematographer. He worked on over 40 films, including Amadeus, Ragtime and If….. Read more
28 Mar 2015: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 2014: 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). Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 2013: 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. Read more
28 Mar 2013: 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. Read more
28 Mar 2013: 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. Read more
28 Mar 2013: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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”. Read more
28 Mar 2012: 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). Read more
28 Mar 2012: 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. Read more
28 Mar 2012: 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. Read more
28 Mar 2010: June Havoc, American actress, dancer, and director (born 1912) June Havoc was a Canadian-born American actress, dancer, stage director and memoirist. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 2009: 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. 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 2006: 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. Read more
28 Mar 2006: 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. Read more
28 Mar 2005: Moura Lympany, English-Monacan pianist (born 1916) Dame Moura Lympany DBE was an English concert pianist. Read more
28 Mar 2005: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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 was nominated for three BAFTA Awards, two Tony Awards, and two Laurence Olivier Awards. In 1992, Ustinov was awarded with the British Academy Britannia Award. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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, which includes 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1986: Virginia Gilmore. American actress (born 1919) Virginia Gilmore was an American film, stage, and television actress. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1977: Eric Shipton, English mountaineer and explorer (born 1907) Eric Earle Shipton, CBE, was an English Himalayan mountaineer. Read more
28 Mar 1976: Richard Arlen, American actor (born 1899) Richard Arlen was an American actor of film and television. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1974: 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. Read more
28 Mar 1974: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1969: Dwight D. Eisenhower, American general and politician, 34th President of the United States (born 1890) Dwight David “Ike” Eisenhower was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. Earlier, during World War II, he became a General of the Army, and was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe. Eisenhower planned and supervised two of the most consequential military campaigns of the War: Operation Torch in the North Africa campaign in 1942–1943 and the invasion of Normandy in 1944. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1941: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1929: 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1900: Piet Joubert, South African soldier and politician (born c. 1831) Petrus Jacobus Joubert, 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1874: Peter Andreas Hansen, Danish-German astronomer and mathematician (born 1795) Peter Andreas Hansen was a Danish-born German astronomer. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 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. Read more
28 Mar 1818: Antonio Capuzzi, Italian violinist and composer (born 1755) Giuseppe Antonio Capuzzi was an Italian violinist and composer. Read more

Why is 28 March Important in World History?

Several significant political, cultural, educational, and sporting events took place on 28 March, making it an important topic for general knowledge and competitive examinations.

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What happened on 28 March in World history?

On 28 March, several important historical events, notable births, and major milestones occurred in World history.

Is History of Today important for competitive exams?

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