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Today in History

Staff
Thursday March 28, 2002

Thursday, March 28 is the 87th day of 2002. There are 278 days left in the year. 

 

Highlight in History: 

On March 28, 1969, the 34th president of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, died in Washington at age 78. 

 

On this date: 

In 1834, the U.S. Senate voted to censure President Jackson for the removal of federal deposits from the Bank of the United States. 

In 1854, during the Crimean War, Britain and France declared war on Russia. 

In 1898, the Supreme Court ruled that a child born in the United States to Chinese immigrants was a U.S. citizen. 

In 1939, the Spanish Civil War ended as Madrid fell to the forces of Francisco Franco. 

In 1930, the names of the Turkish cities of Constantinople and Angora were changed to Istanbul and Ankara. 

In 1941, novelist and critic Virginia Woolf died in Lewes, England. 

In 1942, during World War II, British naval forces raided the Nazi-occupied French port of St. Nazaire. 

In 1943, composer Sergei Rachmaninoff died in Beverly Hills, Calif. 

In 1953, athlete Jim Thorpe died in Lomita, California. 

In 1979, America’s worst commercial nuclear accident occurred inside the Unit 2 reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Middletown, Pennsylvania. 

Ten years ago: Democrats Bill Clinton and Jerry Brown clashed over Brown’s flat-tax proposal, with Clinton charging the plan would hurt the poor, and Brown accusing Clinton of inventing “another big lie.” 

Five years ago: A medical examiner revealed that some members of the Heaven’s Gate cult who’d committed suicide in a California mansion had also been castrated in apparent pursuit of the group’s ideal of androgynous immortality. 

One year ago: A federal appeals court in San Francisco threw out a record $107 million verdict against anti-abortion activists, ruling that a Web site and wanted posters branding abortion doctors “baby butchers” and criminals were protected by the First Amendment. The authors of a book on the Oklahoma City bombing revealed that during prison interviews, Timothy McVeigh had shown no remorse for what happened, and called the 19 children who died “collateral damage.” 

 

 

Today’s Birthdays: Former White House national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski is 74. Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska) is 69. Country musician Charlie McCoy is 61. Movie director Mike Newell is 60. Actress Conchata Ferrell is 59. Actor Ken Howard is 58. Actress Dianne Wiest is 54. Rhythm-and-blues musician Milan Williams (The Commodores) is 54. Country singer Reba McEntire is 47. Actress Tracey Needham (“The Division”) is 35. Actor Max Perlich is 34. Rapper Salt (Salt-N-Pepa) is 33. Actor Vince Vaughn is 32. Rapper Mr. Cheeks (Lost Boyz) is 31. Actor Ken L. (“The Parkers”) is 29. Actress Julia Stiles is 21.