On this day: March 28

Events on March 28

• 37 Roman emperor Caligula accepts the titles of the Principate, bestowed on him by the Senate. Wikipedia
• 193 After assassinating the Roman Emperor Pertinax, his Praetorian Guards auction off the throne to Didius Julianus. Wikipedia
• 364 Roman Emperor Valentinian I appoints his brother Flavius Valens co-emperor. Wikipedia
• 1566 The foundation stone of Valletta, Malta's capital city, is laid by Jean Parisot de Valette, Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Wikipedia
• 1795 Partitions of Poland: The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, a northern fief of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, ceases to exist and becomes part of Imperial Russia. Wikipedia
• 1802 German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers discovered Pallas, the second asteroid to be identified, but at the time considered to be a planet. Wikipedia
• 1802 Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers discovers 2 Pallas, the second asteroid ever to be discovered. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1902 The Hexham Abbey high-altar cross, amongst the most important works produced that year by the Keswick School of Industrial Art, was unveiled on Good Friday. Wikipedia
• 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". Wikipedia
• 1918 World War I: British and Australian troops defeated German forces at the First Battle of Dernancourt in northern France. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1920 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1920 affects the Great Lakes region and Deep South states. Wikipedia
• 1939 Spanish Civil War: Generalissimo Francisco Franco conquers Madrid after a three-year siege. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1942 Second World War: The port of Saint-Nazaire in German-occupied France was disabled by British naval forces. Wikipedia
• 1946 Cold War: The United States Department of State releases the Acheson–Lilienthal Report, outlining a plan for the international control of nuclear power. Wikipedia
• 1968 Colonel Sun, written by Kingsley Amis, was published, becoming the first James Bond novel published after the death of Ian Fleming in 1964. Wikipedia
• 1969 Greek poet and Nobel Prize laureate Giorgos Seferis makes a famous statement on the BBC World Service opposing the junta in Greece. Wikipedia
• 1970 An earthquake strikes western Turkey at about 23:05 local time, killing 1,086 and injuring at least 1,200. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1990 United States President George H. W. Bush posthumously awards Jesse Owens the Congressional Gold Medal. Wikipedia
• 2005 An earthquake shakes northern Sumatra with a magnitude of 8.6 and killing over 1000 people. Wikipedia
• 2015 A siege of a hotel in Mogadishu by al-Shabaab militants, which began the previous day and killed at least 20 people, ended with the Somali Armed Forces recapturing the premises. Wikipedia
• 2020 The region of Uusimaa (with the capital city Helsinki) is temporarily isolated from the rest of Finland due to increased COVID-19 infections. Wikipedia
• 2025 An earthquake strikes close to Mandalay, Myanmar with a magnitude of 7.7, killing over 5400 people. Wikipedia

Born on March 28

• 1515 Teresa of Ávila, Spanish nun and saint (died 1582) Wikipedia
• 1592 John Amos Comenius, Czech bishop and educator (died 1670) Wikipedia
• 1862 Aristide Briand, French politician, Prime Minister of France, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1932) Wikipedia
• 1868 Maxim Gorky, Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright (died 1936) Wikipedia
• 1892 Corneille Heymans, Belgian physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1968) Wikipedia
• 1895 Christian Herter, American politician, United States Secretary of State (died 1966) Wikipedia
• 1914 Edmund Muskie, American politician, 64th Governor of Maine, 58th United States Secretary of State (died 1996) Wikipedia
• 1925 Innokenty Smoktunovsky, Russian actor (died 1994) Wikipedia
• 1928 Zbigniew Brzezinski, Polish-American political activist and analyst; United States National Security Advisor (died 2017) Wikipedia
• 1928 Alexander Grothendieck, German-French mathematician and theorist (died 2014) Wikipedia
• 1930 Jerome Isaac Friedman, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate Wikipedia
• 1936 Mario Vargas Llosa, Peruvian writer and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2025) Wikipedia
• 1942 Daniel Dennett, American philosopher and academic (died 2024) Wikipedia
• 1945 Rodrigo Duterte, Filipino politician, 16th President of the Philippines Wikipedia
• 1948 Dianne Wiest, American actress Wikipedia
• 1955 Reba McEntire, American singer-songwriter and actress Wikipedia
• 1959 Laura Chinchilla, Costa Rican politician, 46th President of Costa Rica Wikipedia
• 1970 Vince Vaughn, American actor Wikipedia
• 1981 Julia Stiles, American actress Wikipedia
• 1985 Stanislas Wawrinka, Swiss tennis player Wikipedia
• 1985 Steve Mandanda, French footballer Wikipedia
• 1986 Lady Gaga, American singer-songwriter and actress Wikipedia

Died on March 28

• 193 Pertinax, Roman emperor (born 126) Wikipedia
• 1285 Pope Martin IV Wikipedia
• 1584 Ivan the Terrible, Russian king (born 1530) Wikipedia
• 1881 Modest Mussorgsky, Russian pianist and composer (born 1839) Wikipedia
• 1941 Virginia Woolf, English writer (born 1882) Wikipedia
• 1943 Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1873) Wikipedia
• 1969 Dwight D. Eisenhower, American general and politician, 34th President of the United States (born 1890) Wikipedia
• 1982 William Giauque, Canadian chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1895) Wikipedia
• 1985 Marc Chagall, Russian-French painter (born 1887) Wikipedia
• 1994 Eugène Ionesco, Romanian-French playwright and critic (born 1909) Wikipedia
• 2004 Peter Ustinov, English-Swiss actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1921) Wikipedia
• 2009 Maurice Jarre, French-American composer and conductor (born 1924) Wikipedia
• 2013 Richard Griffiths, English actor (born 1947) Wikipedia
• 2024 Larry Lloyd, English professional football player and coach (born 1948) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Christopher Wharton Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Jeanne-Marie de Maille Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Józef Sebastian Pelczar Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Priscus Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Pope Sixtus III Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Stephen Harding Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: March 28 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Serfs Emancipation Day (Tibet) Wikipedia
• Teachers' Day (Czech Republic and Slovakia) Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “March 28” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.