March 28th

Paris is sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collects a huge ransom in exchange for leaving.

Roman Emperor Valentinian I appoints his brother Flavius Valens co-emperor.

President George W. Bush publicly rejected the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate, a pact never ratified by the Senate.

Supreme Court rules unanimously that an anonymous tip does not justify a stop-and-frisk action against a person.

Jesse Owens receives the Congressional Gold Medal. The African American athlete dominated the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, which were held during the reign of Adolf Hitler's racist nazi regime.

Three Mile Island nuclear power plant experiences a partial meltdown and radioactive leak. The coolant leak was the worst commercial nuclear accident in the United States. A continuous string of nuclear disasters, such as Three Mile Island (1979), Chernobyl (1986), and Fukushima (2011) continue to raise doubts about the security and environmental benefit of nuclear power.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States, died in Washington, D.C., at age 78.

The most violent earthquake (9.2) in the United States struck Prince William Sound, Alaska.

The Alfred Hitchcock film 'The Birds' premiered in New York.

Cold War: The United States State Department releases the Acheson-Lilienthal Report, outlining a plan for the international control of nuclear power.

Novelist and critic Virginia Woolf drowned herself near her home in England at age 59.

The Spanish Civil War ended as Madrid fell to the forces of Francisco Franco.

The names of the Turkish cities of Constantinople and Angora were changed to Istanbul and Ankara, respectively.

The first seaplane in history takes off. French inventor Henri Fabre's Canard (Fabre Hydravion) was the first floatplane to take off from water under its own power. The first flight measured 457 meters.

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

The U.S. Senate voted to censure President Andrew Jackson for the removal of federal deposits from the Bank of the United States.

Nathaniel Briggs of New Hampshire patented a washing machine.