On This Day in History.........

1535 Bloemkamp Abbey (Oldeklooster) attacked & destroyed
1556 Karel V's son Philip II crowned king of Spain
1556 Origin of Fasli Era (India)
1738 English parliament declares war on Spain (War of Jenkin's Ear)
1774 Britain passes Coercive Act against Massachusetts
1794 Louvre opens to the public (although officially opened since August)
1796 Bethel African Methodist Church of Philadelphia is 1st US-African church
1797 Nathaniel Briggs of New Hampshire patents a washing machine
1799 New York State abolished slavery
1804 Ohio passed law restricting movement of Blacks, 1804
1834 Senate censure President Jackson for taking federal deposits from Bank of US
1837 Felix Mendelssohn marries Cécile Jeanrenaud
1844 José Zorilla's "Don Juan Tenorio" premieres in Madrid
1845 Mexico drops diplomatic relations with US
1849 Dutch princess Marianne & Prince Albert of Prussia separate
1854 During the Crimean War, Britain & France declare war on Russia
1859 1st performance of John Brahms' 1st Serenade for orchestra
1862 Skirmish at Bealeton Station, Virginia
1866 1st ambulance goes into service
1871 San Francisco Art Association holds open reception at 430 Pine
1885 US Salvation Army officially organized
1891 1st world weightlifting championship held
1896 The opera "Andrea Chenier" is produced (Milan)
1902 27.9 cm precipitation at McMinnville TN (state record)
1905 Paramaribo-Dam railway opens in Suriname, never used
1910 1st seaplane, takes off from water at Martigues France (Henri Fabre)
1917 Jews are expelled from Tel Aviv & Jaffa by Turkish authorities
1917 Puccini's "La Rondine" premieres in Monte Carlo
1920 Actor Douglas Fairbanks marries actress Mary Pickford
1920 Thomas Masaryk elected President of Czechoslovakia
1922 1st microfilm device introduced
1922 Stanley Cup: Toronto St Pats (NHL) beat Vancouver Millionaires (PCHA), 3 games to 2
1924 WGN-AM in Chicago IL begins radio transmissions
1927 Majestic Theater opens at 245 W 44th St NYC
1929 Democratic constitution goes into effect in Ecuador
1930 1st performance of Walter Piston's Suite for orchestra (Boston)
1930 Constantinople & Angora changes names to Istanbul & Ankara
1935 Goddard uses gyroscopes to control a rocket
1939 Dutch hunter shoots English bombers down
1939 Philip Barry's "Philadelphia Story" premieres in New York NY
1939 Renaissance Big 5 win 1st pro basketball championship
1939 Spanish Civil War ends, Madrid falls to Francisco Franco
1941 Sea battle at Cape Matapan: British fleet under Cunningham defeats Italy
1942 234 RAF bombers attack Lübeck
1942 4th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Stanford beats Dartmouth 53-38
1942 British naval forces raid Nazi occupied French port of St Nazaire
1944 6th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Utah defeats Dartmouth 42-40
1944 Astrid Lindgren sprains ankle & begins writing Pippi Longstocking
1945 Last German V-1 (buzz bomb) attack on London
1948 2nd Tony Awards: Mister Roberts win
1950 12th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: City College of New York beats Bradley 71-68; CCNY becomes 1st to win NCAA & National Invitation Basketball in same year
1952 US Ladies Figure Skating Championship won by Tenley Albright
1952 US Men's Figure Skating Championship won by Richard Button
1953 "New Faces (of 1952)" closes at Royale Theater NYC after 365 performances
1953 "Stock exchanges open, dikes closed" raises ƒ5,200,000
1953 7th Tony Awards: Crucible & Wonderful Town win
1953 KCAU TV channel 9 in Sioux City IA (ABC) begins broadcasting
1953 US Ladies Figure Skating Championship won by Tenley Albright
1953 US Men's Figure Skating Championship won by Hayes A Jenkins
1954 8th Tony Awards: Teahouse of the August Moon & Kismet win
1954 Louise Suggs wins LPGA Betsy Rawls Golf Open
1954 WKAQ TV channel 2 in San Juan PR ™ begins broadcasting
1955 New Zealand cricket all out for 26 vs England at Eden Park
1957 1st National Curling Championship held
1959 11 days after Tibet uprising, China dissolves Tibet's government & installs Panchen Lama
1960 Pope John raises the 1st Japanese, 1st African & 1st Filipino cardinal
1960 Scotch factory explodes burying 20 firefighters (Glasgow Scotland)
1962 Devastating 8 for 6 spell by Gibbs gives West Indies cricket victory over India
1962 Military coup in Syria, President Nazim al-Kudsi flees
1963 AFL's New York Titans become the New York Jets
1965 Jo Ann Prentice wins LPGA All State Ladies' Golf Invitational
1967 "Sherry!" opens at Alvin Theater NYC for 65 performances
1967 UN Secretary General U Thant makes public proposals for peace in Vietnam
1969 Pope Paul VI names JGM Willebrands cardinal
1970 1,086 die when 7.3 earthquake destroys 254 villages (Gediz Turkey)
1971 25th Tony Awards: Sleuth & Company win
1972 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR
1972 Wilt Chamberlain plays his last pro basketball game
1974 Rock group Raspberries break up
1975 Washington Capitals win 1st game on road after 37 straight road losses also sets own team record with 17 straight losses
1977 39th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Marquette beats North Carolina 67-59
1977 49th Academy Awards: "Rocky", Peter Finch & Faye Dunaway win
1977 Morarji Desai forms government in India
1979 British government of Callaghan falls
1979 Lazarus & Vosburgh's "Day in Hollywood & night in Ukraine" premieres
1979 Major nuclear accident at 3 Mile Island, Middletown PA (no deaths)
1981 Christa Rothenburger skates ladies world record 500 meter 40.18 seconds)
1981 France performs nuclear test
1981 Gabi Schönbrunn skates ladies world record 3 km (4 :1.70)
1981 Viv Richards scores century in the 1st Test at his home Antigua
1981 Yevgeni Kulikov skates world record 500 meter (36.91 seconds)
1982 12th Easter Seal Telethon raises $19,500,000
1982 1st NCAA Women's Basketball Championship: Louisiana Tech beats Cheney 76-62
1982 Amy Alcott wins LPGA Women's Kemper Golf Open
1982 JN Duartes christian-democrats win elections in El Salvador
1985 International Cometary Explorer measures solar wind ahead of Halley's Comet
1985 Neil Simon's "Biloxi Blues" premieres in New York NY
1985 STS 51-D vehicle moves to launch pad
1986 Extremist Sikhs kill 13 hindus in Ludhiana India
1986 John N McMahon, ends term as deputy director of CIA
1987 Stacking of Discovery's SRBs gets underway
1989 New Zealand wins America's Cup over Stars & Stripes, in a New York court
1990 Bengal beat Delhi in rained-out cricket Ranji Trophy final on quotient
1990 Michael Jordan scores 69 points, 4th time he scores 60 points in a game
1990 President Bush awards Jesse Owens the Congressional Gold Medal
1991 Mike Tyson admits paternity to Kimberly Scarborough's son
1992 6th American Comedy Awards: Cathy Ladman, Judy Watkins, Billy Crystal
1992 Ann Transon runs female world record 50k (3 :5 :1)
1992 PBA National Championship Won by Eric Forkel
1993 13th Golden Raspberry Awards: Shining Through wins
1993 22nd Nabisco Dinah Shore Golf Championship won by Helen Alfredsson
1993 Conservatives win French parliamentary election
1993 Type II supernova detected in M81 (NGC 3031)
1994 Armed Zulus demonstrate in Johannesburg, over 53 killed
1994 Italy's right-wing alliance under Silvio Berlusconi wins election
1995 Julia Roberts & Lyle Lovett split-up
1995 Queensland beat South Australia to win 1st ever cricket Sheffield Shield
1995 World's largest bank-Japan's Mitsubishi Bank & Bank of Tokyo merge
1996 "Seven Guitars" opens at Walter Kerr Theater NYC
1996 Katie Beam, 17, of Oklahoma, crowned 35th Miss Teenage America
1997 "City" soap opera's final episode on ABC-TV
1999 18th NCAA Women's Basketball Championship: Purdue beats Duke 62-45 in San Jose CA
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Missing in Action......

1968 ARCHER BRUCE R. ROCHESTER NY 03/16/73 RELEASED BY PRG ALIVE IN 98
1968 BOYER ALAN LEE IL
1968 BROWN GEORGE R. HOLLYHILL FL
1968 GRAHAM DENNIS L. GREENSBURG KS
1968 GROSSE CHRISTOPHER A. HARLINGEN TX
1968 HUSTON CHARLES G. SIDNEY OH
1968 MAC CANN HENRY E. MARBLEHEAD MA
1968 MONTAGUE PAUL J. ANTHONY KS 03/16/73 RELEASED BY PRG ALIVE IN 98
1968 WALLACE MICHAEL W. SALT LAKE CITY UT REMAINS RETURNED 03/23/89
1969 BELCHER ROBERT A. BATON ROUGE LA
1969 MILLER MICHAEL A. TUCSON AZ

Births which occurred on March 28:

1468 Charles I Duke of Savoy
1472 Fra Bartolomeo monk, Florentine Renaissance painter
1483 Raphael Urbino Italy, painter (School of Athens)
1515 Theresa of Avila/Teresa de Jesus Spanish mystic writer/saint
1592 Jan Amos Komensky [Comenius] Moravian educational reformer
1603 Stephan Otto composer
1615 Pieter de Groot Dutch regent/diplomat
1621 Heinrich Schwemmer composer
1643 Jose Solana composer
1660 Arnold Houbraken Dutch schilder/writer
1660 Georg Ludwig German monarch of Hanover/King George I of Great Britain
1727 Maximilian III Jozef Elector of Bayern (1745-77)
1729 Pieter Fouquet Dutch art seller (Atlas of Fouquet)
1731 Rámon de la Cruz Spanish playwright/interpreter
1737 Francesco Zannetti composer
1741 Johann Andre composer
1750 Francisco A G de Miranda Venezuelan freedom fighter
1760 Thomas Clarkson English abolitionist (Negro Emancipation)
1766 Joseph Weigl Austria composer/conductor (Emmeline)
1770 Sophie Mereau writer
1779 Angelo Maria Benincori composer
1799 Karl Adolph von Basedow German artist (Ziekte van Basedow)
1806 Ludolf AJW Sloet van de Beele Governor-General of Netherland Indies (1861-66)
1817 Mariano Soriano Fuertes y Piqueras composer
1818 Wade Hampton Charleston SC, Lieutenant General (Confederate Army), died in 1902
1840 Mehemed Emin Pasja German explorer/Governor (Equatoria)
1853 Rudolf Kittel German theologist (Psalms)
1859 Joséphin Péladan French writer/founder (French Rosicrucians)
1862 Aristide Briand France, premier (1909-22) (Nobel 1926)
1868 Cuno Amiet Swiss painter
1868 Maxim Gorki [Aleksei Peshikov] Russia, writer (Mother)
1868 Wojciech Gawronski composer
1871 Willem Mengelberg Utrecht Netherlands, conductor (New York Philharmonic 1922-30)
1872 José Sanjurjo y Sacanell Spanish General (Morocco)
1880 Rosina Lhévinne Kiev Ukraine, pianist/professor (Juilliard Graduate School)
1883 William H Harris composer
1885 Marc-Jean-Baptiste Delmas composer
1886 Jaroslav Novotny composer
1887 Rudolf F W Boskaljon Curaçao, musician/composer
1890 Paul Whiteman Denver CO, orchestra leader (Paul Whiteman's TV Teen Club)
1891 Karel Cruysberghs Flemish author
1891 Peter Suhrkamp German publisher (Suhrkamp Verlag)
1895 Spencer W Kimball 12th prophet of Mormon church
19-- Elvera Roussel actress (Hope-Guiding Light)
19-- Stephanie Dunnam Oak Harbor WA, actress (Kay-Emerald Point NAS)
19-- Tom O'Rourke New York NY, actor (Justin Marler-Guiding Light)
1900 Achille Longo composer
1900 Robert Harris actor (Big Caper, Laughing Anne)
1902 Dame Flora Robson South Shields England, actress (Dominique is Dead, The Years Between)
1902 Paul Godwin [Goldfein], Polish/Dutch violinist
1903 Rudolf Serkin Eger Bohemia, pianist (Marlboro School of Music)
1904 Fosco Giachetti Livorno Italy, actor (Wastrel, We the Living)
1905 Marlin Perkins Carthage MO, TV host (Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom)
1905 Pandro S Berman film producer
1906 Joseph Wright Canada, oarsman (Olympics-gold-1928)
1906 Robert (Bob) Allen actor (Texas Rangers)
1907 Herbert "Herb" Hall clarinetist/saxophonist
1909 Nelson Algren US, novelist (Man with the Golden Arm)
1910 Ingrid Queen Mother of Denmark
1911 Myfanwy Piper librettist
1912 A[rthur] Bertram Chandler UK, sci-fi author (Empress of Outer Space)
1914 Bohumil Hrabal writer
1914 Edmund Sixtus Muskie (Senator-Democrat-ME), US Secretary of State (1980)
1914 Frank Lovejoy Bronx NY, actor (Man Against Crime, Meet McGraw)
1915 Jay Livingston composer (Buttons & Bows, Mona Lisa, Tammy)
1915 Raymond Emery cricketer (New Zealand Test batsman vs West Indies 1952)
1918 Youly Algaroff ballet dancer
1919 Jacob Avshalomov Tsingtao China, composer (Sinfonietta, The Oregon)
1919 Tom Brooks cricketer (New South Wales fast bowler of the 30's, later Test umpire)
1920 Gene Chappie (Representative-Republican-CA, 1981-86)
1920 Lord Butterfield
1921 Dirk Bogarde Hampstead London England, actor (Death in Venice, The Servant)
1924 Freddie Bartholomew Dublin Ireland, actor (Anna Karenina, David Copperfield)
1924 Gerhart Fritsch writer
1924 Peter Baer artist/printmaker
1925 Innokenti Smoktunovsky actor (Bely Prazdnik, Zakoldovannye)
1926 Francis Burt composer
1926 Polly Umrigar cricketer (Indian batsman & captain)
1928 Jose Luis de Delas composer
1928 Zbigniew Brzezinski Warsaw Poland, national security advisor (Carter)
1929 Aubrey J Watson Sr bishop
1930 Amelia Rosselli poet
1930 George Bruce painter
1930 Robert Ashley composer
1932 Sven Oskar Lindqvist Swedish writer (Myten om Wu Tao-tzu)
1933 Frank Murkowski (Senator-Republican-AK)
1934 Siegfried Thiele composer
1936 Mario Vargas Llosa Peru, writer (Aunt Julia)/Presidential candidate
1940 J Michael Plumb Islip NY, equestrian (Olympics-2 gold/4 silver-1976,84)
1940 Kevin Loughery NBA star/coach (Baltimore, Philadelphia)
1941 Alf Clausen Minneapolis MN, orchestra leader (Mary, Simpsons)
1941 Charlie McCoy Oak Hill WV, harmonica player (Hee Haw)
1942 Brian Jones [Lewis B Hopkin] Cheltenham Gloucestershire England, pop guitarist (Rolling Stones)
1942 Neil Kinnock Wales, leader of the British opposition (Labour)
1942 Samuel Ramey Colby KS, bass (La Scala)
1943 Conchata Ferrell Charleston WV, actress (Deadly Hero, For Keeps, Susan-LA Law)
1943 Mike Newell director (Bad Blood, Awakening, Amazing Grace & Chuck)
1943 Richard Eyre British director (National Theatre)
1944 Ken Howard El Centro CA, actor (Ken-White Shadow, Dynasty, 1776)
1944 Rick Barry ABA/NBA forward (New York Nets, Golden State Warriors)
1945 Chuck Portz Santa Monica CA, bassist (Turtles-Happy Together)
1945 Hans Brunhart leader of Liechtenstein (1978-93)
1946 Richard Sussman rocker
1947 Bruce Gilbert producer (China Syndrome, 9 to 5, On Golden Pond)
1948 Dianne Wiest Kansas City MO, actress (Radio Days, Hannah & Her Sisters, Footloose)
1948 John Evans [Evan] rock drummer (Jethro Tull, Blades-A Song for Jeffrey)
1944 Rick Barry Elizabeth NJ, basketball player (San Francisco Warriors/1966 NBA rookie of the year)
1948 Wubbo J Ockels Almelo Netherlands, astronaut (STS 22)
1949 Milan Williams US keyboardist (Commodores-Three Times a Lady)
1949 Ronnie Ray Smith 4 X 100 meter relay runner (Olympics-gold-1968)
1949 Shafiq Ahmed cricketer (Pakistani batsman during the 70's)
1953 Nydia M Velazquez (Representative-Democrat-NY, 1993- )
1955 Reba McEntire McAlester OK, country singer (Can't Even Get the Blues)
1956 Asoka De Silva cricket leg-spinner (Sri Lanka in 10 Tests 1985-91)
1956 Evelin Jahl German Democratic Republic, discus thrower (Olympics-2 gold-1976)
1956 T A Sekar Indian cricket pace-bowler (2 Tests 1982-83 little impact)
1957 Harvey Glance Phoenix City AL, 4x100 meter runner (Olympics-gold-1976)
1958 Bart Wayne Conner Morton Grove IL, gymnast (Olympics-2 gold-1984)
1959 Petra Delhees Jauch Switzertand, tennis star
1959 Todd Curtis actor (Capitol, Skip-Young & Restless)
1961 Byron Scott NBA guard (Vancouver Grizzlies)
1962 Ged Grimes [Danny Wilson], rocker (Mary's Prayer)
1963 Bernice King daughter of Martin Luther King Jr
1963 Therese Washtock Vancouver British Columbia, 3 day equestrian (Olympics-96)
1965 Jeff Beukeboom Ajax, NHL defenseman (New York Rangers)
1966 Jason Garrett NFL quarterback (Dallas Cowboys)
1966 Nathalie Herreman France, tennis star
1966 Serge Djelloul hockey defenseman (Team France 1998)
1967 David Lang NFL running back (Dallas Cowboys)
1967 Ed[ward] Grose Juneau AK, rower (Olympics-1996)
1967 Shawn Boskie Hawthorne NV, pitcher (California Angels)
1968 Chad Biafore hockey defenseman (Team Italy 1998)
1968 Dennis Postlewait Jacksonville NC, Nike golfer (1994 Wichita Open)
1968 Max Perlich actor (JH Brodie-Homicide)
1968 Nasser Hussain cricketer (Essex & England batsman)
1968 Teee Williams Los Angeles CA, volleyball outside hitter (Olympics-bronze-92, 96)
1969 Cheryl "Salt" James rocker (Salt 'n' Pepa-Shake Ya Thang)
1969 Craig Paquette Long Beach CA, infielder (Kansas City Royals)
1969 Earnest Stewart soccer player (Willem II)
1969 Elliot Perry NBA guard (Phoenix Suns, Milwaukee Bucks)
1969 Scottie Graham NFL running back (Minnesota Vikings, Cincinnati Bengals)
1970 James Johnson NFL/WLAF running back (Tampa Buccaneers, Frankfurt Galaxy)
1970 Jason B Gailes Taunton MA, rower (Olympics-silver-1996)
1970 Shawn Price NFL defensive end (Green Bay Packers, Carolina Panthers, Buffalo Bills)
1971 Damien Marsh Georgia, Australian 100 meter/200 meter swimmer (Olympics-96)
1971 Wesley Person NBA guard (Phoenix Suns, Cleveland Cavaliers)
1972 Derek West offensive tackle (Indianapolis Colts)
1972 Jonathan Edwards Boston MA, doubles luger (Olympics-1994)
1972 Keith Tkachuk Melrose MA, NHL left wing (Winnipeg Jets, Phoenix, USA)
1972 Michael Smith NBA forward (Sacramento Kings)
1972 Mike Morton linebacker (Oakland Raiders)
1972 Shannon Mitchell NFL tight end (San Diego Chargers)
1973 Andrew Whittall cricketer (cousin of Guy Zimbabwe off-spinner 1996)
1974 K C Jones NFL center (Denver Broncos-Superbowl 32)
1975 Atta-ur-Rehman cricketer (Pakistani quickie, debut vs England 1992 age 17)
1977 Angelo Garcia Brooklyn NY, singer (Menudo-Cannonball)
1978 Nafisa Joseph Miss India-Universe (1997)
1979 Juli Keech Miss South Dakota Teen-USA (1997)
1980 Cara Lewis Miss Mississippi Teen-USA (1997)
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Deaths which occurred on March 28:

0193 Publius Helvius Pertinax Roman Emperor (192-93), assassinated
0193 Roman Emperor Pertinax assassinated
0593 Guntram French king in Burgundy, dies at about 67
1134 Stefanus Harding 3rd abbott of Cîteaux/saint, dies
1285 Martinus IV [Simon de Brion], Pope (1281-85), dies
1566 Siegmund Freiherr von Herberstein Austrian diplomat, dies at 79
1673 Adam Pijnacker Dutch landscape painter/etcher, buried at 51
1677 Wenzel Hollar Bohemia cartoonist/etcher, dies at about 69
1687 Constantine Huygens diplomat/poet/composer (Bluebottles), dies at 90
1701 Domenico Guidi Italian sculptor, dies at 75
1712 Jan van der Heyden Dutch inventor (street lantern), dies at 75
1758 Jonathan Edwards US theologist (Great Awakening), dies at 54
1799 Etta L J "baronne" Palm-Aelders Dutch adventurer/spy, dies at 55
1801 Ralph Abercromby English army commander (North Holland), dies at 66
1818 Giuseppe Antonio Capuzzi composer, dies at 62
1840 Simon-Antoine-Jean Lhuillier Swiss mathematician, dies at 89
1847 Mariano Rodriguiz de Ledesma composer, dies at 67
1849 Stephan L Endlicher Austrian priest/botany, dies at 44
1856 Pyotr Ivanovich Turchaninov composer, dies at 76
1860 Johann Ludwig Bohner composer, dies at 73
1863 James Cooper US attorney/senator/Union-Brigadier-General, dies at 52
1865 Albert G Bilders Dutch landscape painter, dies at 26
1868 James Thomas Brudenell 7th earl of Cardigan, dies at about 70
1877 Vincenzo Fioravanti composer, dies at 77
1880 Achille Peri composer, dies at 67
1880 Eelco Refer linguistic (Oera Linda Book?), dies at 49
1881 Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky composer, dies at 42
1885 Fredrick Vilhelm Ludvig Norman composer, dies at 53
1887 Ditler G Monrad Danish bishop/premier (1863- ), dies at 75
1889 Matilde "Tillie" Ziegler killed by husband William Kemmler
1891 Dick Pilling cricketer ("Prince of Wicketkeepers", England 1881-88), dies
1896 E Rundle Charles writer, dies
1907 Pavel Ivanovich Blaramberg composer, dies at 65
1908 John Eliot English meteorology, dies at 68
1910 Edouard [Judas] Colonne French violinist/conductor, dies
1914 Hanus Trnecek composer, dies at 55
1927 Karl Prohaska composer, dies at 57
1928 Giuseppe Ferrata composer, dies at 63
1941 Virginia [Adeline] Woolf-Stephen author (To Lighthouse), commits suicide at 59
1942 Herman A van Karnebeek Dutch foreign minister (1918-27), dies at 67
1942 Miguel Hernadez Gilabert Spanish poet (Viento del Pueblo), dies at 31
1943 Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff Russian composer/pianist, dies at 69
1944 Rabbi Chayyim Most Maggid of Kovono, killed by Nazis
1944 Stephen Butler Leacock writer/economist (Literary Lapses), dies at 75
1947 Rudolph Hermann Simonsen composer, dies at 57
1949 Grigoras Dinicu composer, dies at 59
1950 Georgine M "May" Basting actress (Occupier), dies at 67
1953 James Francis Thorpe decathlete (Olympics-gold-12), dies at 64
1954 Francis B Young British physician/writer (In South Africa), dies at 69
1956 Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup vocalist, dies of a heart attack
1958 Chuck Klein Philadelphia Phillie homerun hitter, dies at 53
1958 W[illiam] C[hristopher] Handy US conductor/composer (St Louis Blues), dies at 84
1959 James Neblett cricketer (one Test West Indies vs England 1935), dies
1960 Ian Keith US actor (Ramses I-10 Commandments), dies at 61
1963 Alec A Templeton composer/pianist (Alec Templeton Time), dies at 52
1965 VAA Mary English princess, dies at 67
1969 Dwight D Eisenhower 34th President/General (WWII), dies in Washington DC at 78
1971 Felix Wolfes composer, dies at 78
1973 Hakuun Yasutani Zen teacher/co-founder (Sanbo Kyodan), dies
1974 Dorothy Fields US singer (Way you Look Tonight), dies at 68
1974 Françoise Rosay actress (Interlude, Women in Prison), dies at 82
1975 Renzo Massarani composer, dies at 77
1979 Emmett Kelly circus clown (Weary Willy), dies at 80
1980 Dick Haymes actor (Real Life, Betrayal), dies
1980 Jesse Owens (Olympics-gold-36), dies in Tucson AZ at the age of 66
1983 Ank [Anna M] van der Moer actress (Verkade, Dutch Comedy), dies at 71
1983 Martinus A Jansen bishop of Rotterdam (1956-70), dies at 77
1984 Kenneth Whitty 1st Secretary at British Embassy in Athens, shot dead
1985 Marc Chagall French painter, dies at 97
1985 Nand Baert Belgian radio/tv-host, dies at 53
1986 Victor J Lopez actor (Chuey-Man From Atlantis), dies at 39
1986 Virginia Gilmore actress (Jennie, Western Union), dies
1987 Maria Augusta Trapp singer (Trapp Family Singers), dies at 82
1987 Patrick Troughton actor (Dr Who-Dr Who), dies at 56
1990 Helene Fortescu Reynolds actress (Bermuda Mystery), dies at 65
1991 Carlos Montalban actor (Bananas), dies at 85
1992 Wendell Mayes writer, dies of cancer at 72
1994 Albert Goldman US biographer (Lives of John Lennon), dies at 66
1994 Eugene Ionesco playwright (Rhinoceros, Bald Soprano), dies at 84
1994 John Logan Gorlay journalist, dies at 74
1995 Hugh Edward R O'Connor actor (In the Heat of the Night), ODs at 32
1995 Jack Regan broadcaster, dies at 53
1995 Vivienne Byerley publicist, dies at 88
1996 Barbara McLean film Editor, dies at 86
1996 Charles Barnet "Roscoe" Harvey soldier, dies at 95
1996 David Band banker, dies at 53
1996 Edith Fowke folklorist, dies at 82
1996 Hans Blumenberg philosopher, dies at 75
1996 James Herbert Lloyd Morrell bishop, dies at 89
1996 Ken Dibbs actor (Suddenly, Party Girl, High Society), dies at 78
1996 Shin Kanemaru Vice President of Japan (1986-87), dies at 81
1996 Simon Harcourt Nowell-Smith British bibliophile, dies at 87

1774 British Parliament adopts the Coercive Acts

Upset by the Boston Tea Party and other blatant acts of destruction of British property by American colonists, the British Parliament enacts the Coercive Acts, to the outrage of American Patriots, on this day in 1774.

The Coercive Acts were a series of four acts established by the British government. The aim of the legislation was to restore order in Massachusetts and punish Bostonians for their “Tea Party,” in which members of the revolutionary-minded Sons of Liberty boarded three British tea ships in Boston Harbor and dumped 342 crates of tea—nearly $1 million worth in today’s money—into the water to protest the Tea Act.

Passed in response to the Americans’ disobedience, the Coercive Acts included:

“The Boston Port Act,” which closed the port of Boston until damages from the Boston Tea Party were paid.

“The Massachusetts Government Act,” which restricted Massachusetts; democratic town meetings and turned the governor’s council into an appointed body.

“The Administration of Justice Act,” which made British officials immune to criminal prosecution in Massachusetts.

“The Quartering Act,” which required colonists to house and quarter British troops on demand, including in their private homes as a last resort.

A fifth act, the Quebec Act, which extended freedom of worship to Catholics in Canada, as well as granting Canadians the continuation of their judicial system, was joined with the Coercive Acts in colonial parlance as one of the “Intolerable Acts,” as the mainly Protestant colonists did not look kindly on the ability of Catholics to worship freely on their borders.

More important than the acts themselves was the colonists’ response to the legislation. Parliament hoped that the acts would cut Boston and New England off from the rest of the colonies and prevent unified resistance to British rule. They expected the rest of the colonies to abandon Bostonians to British martial law. Instead, other colonies rushed to the city’s defense, sending supplies and forming their own Provincial Congresses to discuss British misrule and mobilize resistance to the crown. In September 1774, the First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia and began orchestrating a united resistance to British rule in America.
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1862 Battle of Glorieta Pass

Union forces stop the Confederate invasion of New Mexico territory when they turn the Rebels back at Glorieta Pass.

This action was part of the broader movement by the Confederates to capture New Mexico and other parts of the West. This would secure territory that the Rebels thought was rightfully theirs but had been denied them by political compromises made before the Civil War. Furthermore, the cash-strapped Confederacy could use western mines to fill their treasury. From San Antonio, the Rebels moved into southern New Mexico (which included Arizona) and captured the towns of Mesilla, Doýa Ana, and Tucson. General Henry H. Sibley, with 3,000 troops, now moved north against the Federal stronghold at Fort Craig on the Rio Grande.

Sibley's force collided with Union troops at Val Verde near Fort Craig on February 21, but the Yankees were unable to stop the invasion. Sibley left parts of his army to occupy Albuquerque and Santa Fe, and the rest of the troops headed east of Santa Fe along the Pecos River. Their next target was the Union garrison at Fort Union, an outpost on the other side of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. At Pigeon's Ranch near Glorieta Pass, they encountered a Yankee force of 1,300 Colorado volunteers under Colonel John Slough. The battle began at 11:00 a.m., and the Federal force was thrown back before taking cover among the adobe buildings of Pigeon's Ranch. A Confederate attack late in the afternoon pushed the Union troops further down the pass, but nightfall halted the advance. Union troops snatched victory from the jaws of defeat when Major John Chivington led an attack on the Confederate supply train, burning 90 wagons and killing 800 animals.

With their supplies destroyed, the Confederates had to withdraw to Santa Fe. They lost 36 men killed, 70 wounded, and 25 captured. The Union army lost 38 killed, 64 wounded, and 20 captured. After a week in Santa Fe, the Rebels withdrew down the Rio Grande. By June, the Yankees controlled New Mexico again. The Confederates did not return for the rest of the war.
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1915 First American citizen killed during WWI

On March 28, 1915, the first American citizen is killed in the eight-month-old European conflict that would become known as the First World War.

Leon Thrasher, a 31-year-old mining engineer and native of Massachusetts, drowned when a German submarine, the U-28, torpedoed the cargo-passenger ship Falaba, on its way from Liverpool to West Africa, off the coast of England. Of the 242 passengers and crew on board the Falaba, 104 drowned. Thrasher, who was employed on the Gold Coast in British West Africa, was returning to his post there from England as a passenger on the ship.

The Germans claimed that the submarine’s crew had followed all protocol when approaching the Falaba, giving the passengers ample time to abandon ship and firing only when British torpedo destroyers began to approach to give aid to the Falaba. The British official press report of the incident claimed that the Germans had acted improperly: “It is not true that sufficient time was given the passengers and the crew of this vessel to escape. The German submarine closed in on the Falaba, ascertained her name, signaled her to stop, and gave those on board five minutes to take to the boats. It would have been nothing short of a miracle if all the passengers and crew of a big liner had been able to take to their boats within the time allotted.”

The sinking of the Falaba, and Thrasher’s death specifically, was mentioned in a memorandum sent by the U.S. government—drafted by President Woodrow Wilson himself—to the German government after the German submarine attack on the British passenger ship Lusitania on May 7, 1915, in which 1,201 people were drowned, including 128 Americans. The note struck a clear warning tone, calling for the U.S. and Germany to come to a “clear and full understanding as to the grave situation which has resulted” from the German policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. Germany abandoned the policy shortly thereafter; its renewal, in early 1917, provided the final impetus for U.S. entry into World War I that April.
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1941 Cunningham leads fateful British strike at Italians

On this day, Andrew Browne Cunningham, Admiral of the British Fleet, commands the British Royal Navy's destruction of three major Italian battleships and two destroyers in the Battle of Cape Matapan in the Mediterranean. The destruction, following on the attack on the Italian Fleet at Taranto by the British in November 1940, effectively put an end to any threat the Italian navy posed to the British.

Admiral Cunningham was one of Britain's most distinguished naval officers, having served as Gen. Dwight Eisenhower's naval deputy. As Commander in Chief Mediterranean, he had a clear-cut goal: to disable the Italian navy. When the war began, Britain's ships were generally older than Italy's. By the fall of 1940, with the surrender of the French to the Germans the previous June, Britain was alone and shaky in the Mediterranean.

Admiral Cunningham knew he had to confront the Italian navy soon and considered an offensive while the Italian Fleet was still in harbor the most prudent strategy. On November 11, 1940, the British aircraft carrier Illustrious was 170 miles southeast of the Italian navy port at Taranto in southern Italy. Twenty-one Swordfish aircraft took off from the Illustrious and launched a raid against the Italian Fleet. The Italians lost three battleships, sending a shockwave through the Italian navy.

The next major engagement between the Royal and Italian fleets was at Cape Matapan, off Greece's southern tip. On March 25, 1941, British air reconnaissance picked up increased Italian naval activity off Greece and Crete, and further intelligence confirmed an Italian plan to attack a British convoy in the area. Two days later, Admiral Cunningham put his battle fleet to sea to meet up with Vice-Admiral Pridham-Wippell's cruiser force. The element of surprise was crucial, given that the Italian fleet was larger, faster, better armed, and more modern.

The Italian battleship Vittorio Veneto spotted Pridham-Wippell's cruisers and opened fire. The Italians missed and the Brits got away; the RAF followed up with an air attack, but this time it was the Vittorio Veneto that got away. But, on March 28, the British battleship Warspite proved a better shot, firing five 15-inch shells at the Italian battleship Fiume, crippling it. Another Italian battleship, the Zara, was hit broadside by the Brits' Valiant and Barham and suffered a similar fate. The Pola was also struck by an 18-inch torpedo; it caught fire and lay dead in the water. Once the crew was taken off, torpedoes sank it. On top of these crushing losses, two escorting destroyers, the Alfieri and the Carducci, were also sunk by the Royal Navy.

In total, the Italians lost 2,303 men from the five ships. The long-term effect on the Italian navy was to effectively render it impotent.

Footnote: Exactly one year later, on March 28, 1942, a British sub near Antipaxo sunk the Italian ocean liner Galilea, which was being used to transport troops from North Africa back to Italy. The loss of the liner entailed the loss of 768 Italian soldiers and crewmen.
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1961 Diem's popular support questioned

A U.S. national intelligence estimate prepared for President John F. Kennedy declares that South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem and the Republic of Vietnam are facing an extremely critical situation. As evidence, the reports cites that more than half of the rural region surrounding Saigon is under communist control and points to a barely failed coup against Diem the preceding November.

Not only were Diem's forces losing to the Viet Cong on the battlefield, the report alleged that he had not effectively dealt with the discontent among a large segment of South Vietnamese society, which had given rise to the coup against him. The report questioned Diem's ability to rally the people against the communists. Kennedy wondered what to do about Diem, who was staunchly anticommunist but did not have a lot of credibility with the South Vietnamese people because he was Catholic while the country was predominantly Buddhist. Kennedy and his advisers tried to convince Diem to put in place land reform and other measures that might build popular support, but Diem steadfastly refused to make any meaningful concessions to his opponents. He was assassinated in November 1963 during a coup by a group of South Vietnamese generals.
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1967 American pacifists arrive in Haiphong

The Phoenix, a private U.S. yacht with eight American pacifists aboard, arrives in Haiphong, North Vietnam, with $10,000 worth of medical supplies for the North Vietnamese. The trip, financed by a Quaker group in Philadelphia, was made in defiance of a U.S. ban on American travel to North Vietnam. No charges were filed against the participants and the group made a second trip to North Vietnam later.