HISTORY AT A GLANCE
TODAY is Tuesday, March 28, the 87th day of 2017. There are 278 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1941 – World War II: Battle of Cape Matapan – in the Mediterranean Sea, British Admiral Andrew Browne Cunningham leads the Royal Navy in the destruction of three major Italian heavy cruisers and two destroyers. 1942 – World War II: St Nazaire Raid: In occupied France, British naval forces successfully raid the Germanoccupied port of Saint-Nazaire. 1959 – The State Council of the People’s Republic of China
dissolves the government of Tibet. 1968 – Brazilian high school student Edson Luís de Lima Souto is shot by the police in a protest for cheaper meals at a restaurant for low-income students. The aftermath of his death is one of the first major events against the military dictatorship. 1969 – Greek poet and Nobel Prize laureate Giorgos Seferis makes a famous statement on the BBC World Service opposing the junta in Greece. 1970 – Gediz earthquake: A 7.2 magnitude earthquake strikes western Turkey at about 23:05 local time, killed 1,086 and injured 1,260. 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. 1979 – The British House of Commons passes a vote of no confidence against James Callaghan’s government, precipitating a general election. 1990 – President George H. W. Bush posthumously awards
Jesse Owens the Congressional Gold Medal. 1994 – In South Africa, Zulus and African National Congress supporters battle in central Johannesburg, resulting in 18 deaths. 1999 – Kosovo War: Serb paramilitary and military forces kill
146 Kosovo Albanians in the Izbica massacre. 2003 – In a friendly fire incident, two A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft from the United States Idaho Air National Guard’s 190th Fighter Squadron attack British tanks participating in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, killing British soldier Matty Hull. 2005 – The 2005 Sumatra earthquake rocks Indonesia, and at magnitude 8.7 is the fourth strongest earthquake since 1965. 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.