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 The Praetorian Guard assassinated Roman emperor Pertinax and sold the imperial office in an auction to Didius Julianus. Wikipedia
• 364 Roman Emperor Valentinian I appoints his brother Flavius Valens co-emperor. Wikipedia
• 1646 Irish Confederate Wars: Donough MacCarty, 1st Earl of Clancarty, signed the First Ormond Peace for the Confederates in exchange for greater freedom of religion. 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
• 1842 First concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Otto Nicolai. Wikipedia
• 1854 Crimean War: France and Britain declare war on Russia. 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 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
• 1933 After an on-board fire that may have been the first incident of airliner sabotage, the Imperial Airways biplane City of Liverpool broke apart in mid-air, killing fifteen people. Wikipedia
• 1935 The Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will, directed by Leni Riefenstahl, premiered in Berlin. 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 The US Department of State released the Acheson–Lilienthal Report, a proposal for the international control of nuclear weapons. Wikipedia
• 1963 Civil rights movement: Over one hundred high school students conducted a sit-in protest in Rome, Georgia. 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
• 1979 British prime minister James Callaghan was defeated by one vote in a vote of no confidence after his government struggled to cope with widespread strikes during the Winter of Discontent. 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
• 1997 In the Tragedy of Otranto, the Italian Navy vessel Sibilla collided with the Albanian civilian vessel Kateri i Radës, causing the latter to sink and leading to dozens of deaths. Wikipedia
• 1999 Kosovo War: Serbian police and special forces killed around 93 Kosovo Albanians in the village of Izbica. Wikipedia
• 2001 Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos begins operation. 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
• 2025 A magnitude-7.7 earthquake killed more than 5,000 people in Myanmar and Thailand. 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
• 1914 Bohumil Hrabal, Czech author (died 1997) 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
• 1960 José Maria Neves, Cape Verdeian politician, 4th Prime Minister of Cape Verde 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
• 1953 Jim Thorpe, American football player and Olympic gold medalist (born 1887) 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

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

Sources

• Wikipedia — “March 28” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/March 28” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

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 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for March 28 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.