What happened on March 28 ?

193 - Roman Emperor Pertinax is assassinated by Praetorian Guards, who then sell the throne in an auction to Didius Julianus.

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

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

1776 - Juan Bautista de Anza finds the site for the Presidio of San Francisco.

1794 - Allies under the prince of Coburg defeated French forces at Le Cateau.

1795 - Partitions of Poland: The Duchy of Courland, a northern fief of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, ceases to exist and becomes part of Imperial Russia.

1802 - Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers discovers 2 Pallas, the second asteroid known to man.

1809 - Peninsular War: In the Battle of Medelin the France defeats Spain.

1834 - The United States Senate censures President Andrew Jackson for his actions in defunding the Second Bank of the United States.

1854 - Crimean War: France declares war on Russia.

1860 - First Taranaki War: The Battle of Waireka begins.

1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Glorieta Pass - In New Mexico, Union forces succeed in stopping the Confederate invasion of New Mexico territory. The battle began on March 26.

1871 - The Paris Commune is formally established in Paris.

1910 - Henri Fabre becomes the first person to fly a seaplane after taking off from a water runway near Martigues, France.

1913 - Guatemala becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.

1930 - Constantinople and Angora change their names to Istanbul and Ankara.

1939 - Spanish Civil War: Generalissimo Francisco Franco conquers Madrid.

1941 - World War II: Battle of Cape Matapan - In the Mediterranean Sea, British Admiral Andrew Browne Cunningham leads the Royal Navy in the destruction of three major Italian battleships and two destroyers.

1942 - World War II: In occupied France, British naval forces raid the German-occupied port of St. Nazaire.

1946 - Cold War: The United States State Department releases the Acheson-Lilienthal Report, outlining a plan for the international control of nuclear power.

1978 - US Supreme Court hands down 5-3 decision in Stump v. Sparkman, 435 U.S. 349, a controversial case involving involuntary sterilization and judicial immunity.

1979 - In Pennsylvania, a pump in the reactor cooling system fails at Three Mile Island, resulting in the evaporation of some contaminated water causing a nuclear meltdown.

1979 - British Prime Minister James Callaghan, is defeated by one vote in a Motion of No Confidence. This results in Parliament being dissolved in order to make way for a forthcoming General Election.

1990 - President George H. W. Bush posthumously awards Jesse Owens the Congressional Gold Medal.

1994 - In South Africa, Zulus and African National Congress supporters battle in central Johannesburg, resulting in 18 deaths.

2005 - The 2005 Sumatran earthquake rocks Indonesia, and at magnitude 8.7 is the second strongest earthquake since 1960.

2006 - At least 1 million union members, students and unemployed take to the streets in France in protest at the government's proposed First Employment Contract law.