Mar 28 in History

● 193 — Pertinax, Roman Emperor since January 1 — the first in the tumultuous Year of the Five Emperors — is assassinated by the Praetorian Guards. They auction off the throne to Didius Julianus, who is assassinated by a soldier on June 1.

1842 — Composer Otto Nicolai conducts the first concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

1879 — British mounted troops under Colonel Evelyn Wood go up Hlobane Mountain to battle the Zulus, only to be surrounded by a 22,000-man impi. The Battle of Hlobane becomes the worst rout of the British cavalry, and the last Zulu victory, of the AngloZulu War (January 11-July 4 1879).

1881 — Barnum and Bailey’s Circus — “The Greatest Show on Earth” — is formed when PT Barnum and James A Bailey join forces. After another merger in 1919, it becomes known as Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. It closes its doors on May 21 2017. 1910 — French aviator Henri Fabre becomes the first to fly a seaplane, taking off from a water runway near Martigues, France, in his Fabre Hydravion.

1968 — Nasser Hussain, England cricketer (19892004) — 96 Tests, 5,764 runs, average 37.18; 88 ODIs, 2,332 runs, average 30.28 — and commentator, is born in Madras (now Chennai), India. 1979 — In the US’s worst commercial nuclear accident, the Unit 2 reactor (owned by FirstEnergy) of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, comes to a partial meltdown and is decommissioned just three months after being commissioned on December 30 1978. Thousands living near the plant leave the area before the 12-day crisis ends, during which time some radioactive water and gases are released. Mechanical and human factors allowed Unit 2 to lose cooling water. It costs more than $1bn and takes more than a decade to remove the damaged nuclear fuel. Unit 1 (owned by Exelon), commissioned on September 2 1974, is decommissioned on September 20 2019. 1982 — Armscor chairman Commandant Piet Marais announces that SA had developed (by Denel Land Systems) the G5 towed howitzer of 155mm calibre that outranges its counterparts of a similar calibre by at least 50%. It is one of many military developments in response to the international sanctions and arms embargo imposed on the country.

1990 — Jesse Owens is posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by President George Bush. Owens won the 100m, 200m, 4x100m relay and long jump at the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936.

1985 — Stanislas (Stan) Wawrinka, Swiss tennis champion (Australian Open 2014, French Open 2015, US Open 2016), is born in Lausanne.