Holidays Calendar for March 28, 2017

The piano is one of the most influential instruments in the history of Western music, as well as one of the most popular instruments to learn for beginners. To celebrate the piano and everything it represents, German musician and composer Nils Frahm established Piano Day, which is celebrated on the 88th day of the year (March 29 in regular years and March 28 in leap years).

March 28 is Day of the National Security Service Officers in Azerbaijan. This professional holiday was established in 1997 by President Heydar Aliyev.

The teachers of the Czech Republic and Slovakia accept congratulations on their professional holiday on March 28. Teachers' Day in these countries marks the birth anniversary of John Amos Comenius, an outstanding Czech pedagogue, theologist, and philosopher.

National Weed Appreciation Day is celebrated every March 28 to remind people that, while weeds can be incredibly annoying, they are actually beneficial to many ecosystems around the world.

March 28 is Serf Emancipation Day in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. This holiday has been celebrated annually since 2009.

The Day of the Revival of the Balkar People is an annual observance celebrated on March 28 in Kabardino-Balkaria, an autonomous republic within the Russian Federation. It commemorates the return of the Balkar people to their ancestral homeland after 13 years of exile.

Black Forest cake, also known as Black Forest gâteau, is a German specialty known and loved around the world. Celebrate National Black Forest Cake Day on March 28 with a big slice of this delicious cake.

National Triglycerides Day is celebrated annually on March 28. It was created to raise awareness of the importance of a healthy lifestyle for the prevention of cardiovascular conditions and encourage people to monitor their triglyceride levels.

National Something on a Stick Day is a fun food-themed holiday observed annually on March 28. It was created to celebrate skewered foods and encourage people to get creative in the kitchen.

American Diabetes Association Alert Day, also known as simply American Diabetes Alert Day, is observed on the fourth Tuesday in March every year. Its main goals are to raise public awareness of the dangers of diabetes and encourage Americans to take the Type 2 Diabetes Risk Test.

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This Day in History

  • 2023 Died: Paul O'Grady, English comedian and broadcaster, drag queen, actor, and writer. He achieved notability in the London gay scene during the 1980s with his drag persona Lily Savage.
  • 2023 Died: Ryuichi Sakamoto, a Japanese composer, pianist, record producer, and actor who pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra.
  • 2005 A powerful earthquake occurred off the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia, killing approximately 1300 people, mostly on the island of Nias.
  • 1990 Jesse Owens, an American track and field athlete and four-time Olympic gold medalist, was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.
  • 1987 Died: Maria von Trapp, the stepmother and matriarch of the Trapp Family Singers. Her memoir inspired the famous musical The Sound of Music.
  • 1986 Born: Lady Gaga (stage name of Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta), American singer, songwriter, actress, and activist noted for her flamboyant performances and music videos.
  • 1983 Died: Suzanne Belperron, French jewelry designer. After the WWII, she took over the Herz jewelry house and renamed it Herz-Belperron.
  • 1982 Died: William Giauque, American chemist who was awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his contributions to chemical thermodynamics.
  • 1981 Born: Gareth David-Lloyd, Welsh actor best known for playing Ianto Jones on the Doctor Who spin-off, sci-fi television series Torchwood.
  • 1979 The British House of Commons passed a vote of no confidence against the Labour government of James Callaghan. The vote was brought by Margaret Thatcher.
  • 1979 A partial nuclear meltdown occurred in one of the two Three Mile Island nuclear reactors. It was the worst accident in US commercial nuclear power plant history.
  • 1972 Born: Keith Tkachuk, American former professional ice hockey player who played in the NHL for 18 years. His sons are professional hockey players Matthew and Brady Tkachuk.
  • 1972 Born: Nick Frost, English actor, comedian and screenwriter best known for his work in the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy alongside Simon Pegg.
  • 1970 Born: Vince Vaughn, American actor, producer, screenwriter, and activist known for his roles in the films Wedding Crashers, Starsky & Hutch, The Internship, etc.
  • 1969 Greek poet and Nobel laureate Giorgos Seferis made a statement on the BBC World Service opposing the Greek military junta (Regime of the Colonels).
  • 1969 Died: Dwight D. Eisenhower, American politician, statesman and military leader who served as the 34th President of the United States from 1953 to 1961.
  • 1968 Brazilian teenage student Edson Luís de Lima Souto was killed by the military police after a confrontation in a restaurant in Rio de Janeiro.
  • 1958 Died: Marc Chagall, Russia and French artist who is sometimes referred to as the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century.
  • 1953 Died: Jim Thorpe, American athlete who won Olympic gold medals for the 1912 decathlon and pentathlon. He also played basketball and American football.
  • 1948 Born: Dianne Wiest, American actress who has won two Academy Awards for her supporting roles in Woody Allen's films Hannah and Her Sisters and Bullets Over Broadway.
  • 1944 Died: Stephen Leacock, Canadian author, humorist, teacher, and political scientist who is known for his light humor along with criticisms of people's follies.
  • 1942 The Royal Navy and British Commandos undertook the St Nazaire Raid, also known as Operation Chariot, during the Second World War.
  • 1941 Died: Virginia Woolf, English novelist, essayist, critic, and publisher whose best known works include Mrs Dalloway, Orlando, and To the Lighthouse.
  • 1939 A three-year siege of Madrid during the Spanish Civil War ended. The city fell to the nationalist troops led by General Francisco Franco.
  • 1930 Born: Jerome Isaac Friedman, American physicist who was awarded the 1990 Nobel Prize in Physics along with Richard Taylor and Henry Kendall.
  • 1928 Died: Nathan Stubblefield, American inventor who is best known for the invention of wireless telephony, or wireless transmission of the human voice.
  • 1910 Born: Ingrid of Sweden, Queen consort of Denmark from 1947 to 1972 as the wife of King Frederick IX. She married the then-crown prince of Denmark in 1935.
  • 1892 Born: Corneille Jean François Heymans, Flemish physiologist who was awarded the 1938 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.
  • 1881 Died: Modest Mussorgsky, Russian composer of the Romantic period who belonged to the group The Five, also known as The Mighty Handful.
  • 1868 Born: Maxim Gorky (pen name of Alexei Peshkov), Russian and Soviet writer and dramatist who founded the Socialist realism literary method.
  • 1802 German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers discovered asteroid 2 Pallas, the second asteroid to have been discovered (after Ceres in 1801).
  • 1750 Born: Francisco de Miranda, Venezuelan revolutionary and politician who served as the 3rd President of the First Republic of Venezuela.
  • 1592 Born: John Amos Comenius, Czech teacher, educator, writer, and philosopher who is considered to be the father of modern education.
  • 1566 Jean Parisot de Valette laid the cornerstone of the city of Valletta, the capital of Malta. The stone was placed in Our Lady of Victories Church.