HISTORY AT A GLANCE
TODAY is Friday, July 28, the 209th day of 2017. There are 156 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date: 1942 – World War II: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin issues Order No. 227. In response to alarming German advances, all those who retreat or otherwise leave their positions without orders to do so are to be tried in a military court, with punishment ranging from duty in a shtrafbat battalion, imprisonment in a Gulag, or execution. 1943 – World War II: Operation Gomorrah: The Royal Air Force bombs Hamburg, Germany causing a firestorm that kills 42,000 German civilians. 1945 – A U.S. Army B-25 bomber crashes into the 79th floor
of the Empire State Building killing 14 and injuring 26. 1957 – Heavy rain and a mudslide in Isahaya, western Kyushu,
Japan, kills 992. 1965 – Vietnam War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces his order to increase the number of United States troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000. 1973 – Summer Jam at Watkins Glen: Nearly 600,000 people attend a rock festival at the Watkins Glen International Raceway. 1974 – Spetsgruppa A, Russia’s elite special force, was
formed. 1976 – The Tangshan earthquake measuring between 7.8 and 8.2 moment magnitude flattens Tangshan in the People’s Republic of China, killing 242,769 and injuring 164,851. 1984 – The 1984 Summer Olympics officially known as the Games of the XXIII Olympiad were opened in Los Angeles. 1996 – The remains of a prehistoric man are discovered near Kennewick, Washington. Such remains will be known as the Kennewick Man. 2001 – Australian Ian Thorpe becomes the first swimmer to
win six gold medals at a single World Championships. 2005 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army calls an end to its thirty-year-long armed campaign in Northern Ireland. 2008 – The historic Grand Pier in Weston-super-Mare burns
down for the second time in 80 years. 2010 – Airblue Flight 202 crashes into the Margalla Hills north of Islamabad, Pakistan, killing all 152 people aboard. It is the deadliest aviation accident in Pakistan history and the first involving an Airbus A321.