April 28th Major News Events

1975 Vietnam Last US Citizens Evacuated

1975: US Involvement in Vietnam is now complete as helicopters and marines bring out the last US Citizens and parents of thousands of South Vietnamese children are begging the US to save the children as US Marines are using pistol and rifle butts to smash the fingers of Vietnamese trying to climb over the walls and enter the US Embassy compound.

1986 Soviet Union Chernobyl

1986: Two days after monitoring stations in Sweden, Finland and Norway began reporting sudden high discharges of radioactivity in the atmosphere. The Soviet Union via the official news agency, Tass, said there has been an accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine.

1994 USA Aldrich Ames

1994: A CIA double agent Aldrich Ames is jailed for life after admitted selling secrets to the Soviet Union and then Russia.

1995 South Korea Gas Explosion

1995: A gas explosion beneath a busy city street in Taegu, South Korea, kills more than 100 people many of them children on their way to school.

1996 Australia Gunman Kills 32

1996: A gunman has shot and killed 32 people in the tourist town of Port Arthur, Tasmania. The gunman is now holding three people hostage in a local guest-house. The gunman "Martin Bryant" did kill the three hostages during the siege and is captured by police the next day and is found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole.

2004 USA Abu Ghraib Prisoner Abuse Scandal

2004: The first photos of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal were shown on CBS' "60 Minutes II." . The US army has all ready instituted and was already acting on these photographs prior to the 60 Minutes Showing and those involved are all in Iraq, awaiting court martial. The abuses were committed by some personnel of the 372nd Military Police Company of the United States together with additional American governmental agencies.

2006 Wiretapping Lawsuit Against AT&T

2006: The Bush administration has said that it will be trying to halt the lawsuit that is accusing AT&T of illegally helping the National Security Agency spy on Americans citizens. In an 8-page document that was filed with a federal court in a northern district of California, the U.S. Justice Department said that it would intervene in the lawsuit. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group based in San Francisco, had filed a class action lawsuit against the federal government in January. The suit claims AT&T's alleged cooperation violates the Constitution's free speech and privacy rights and contravenes the federal wiretapping law, which prohibits electronic surveillance "except as authorized."

2008 Supreme Court Approves Indiana’s Photo ID Voting

2008: The Supreme Court has issued a decision to uphold an Indiana law that requires citizens to provide photo identification when voting. It is hoped that this will guard against fraud. Critics of the law argue that it discriminates against poor voters, ethnic minorities and the elderly, who are less likely to carry ID, but the Court ruled that the law did not constitute a burden on voters. Other states have similar rules, and the court's ruling could prompt even more states to adopt the law.

2010 Cape Wind Offshore Wind Farm Approved

2010: The Cape Wind Project an offshore wind farm covering covers 24 square miles and including 130 horizontal-axis wind turbines is approved by United States Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar the wind farm will be on Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound off Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. The Wind farm is predicted to generate 454 megawatts (enough power for 420,000 homes).

2011 Police Join Protests in Burkina Faso

2011: Police officers in Burkina Faso join protesters over the high cost of living by shooting their guns in the air. Protesters had been gathering in the capital Ouagadougou throughout the previous few weeks, uniting in anger over high food prices and unpaid housing allowances to soldiers.

2012 Chinese Dissident Under US Protection

2012: Blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng was under the protection of the US after escaping house arrest and going to the US embassy according to a ChinaAid, a US-based rights group. Reports out of the country stated that his nephew and brother who had helped him escape were detained by police.

2013 Italy New Government Sworn In

2013: A two-month long political stalemate ended with the swearing-in of Italy's "Grand Coalition" government. Enrico Letta of the Democratic Party became the new Prime Minister and the coalition included members of Berlusconi's People of Freedom party. Outside of the ceremony two police officers were shot by a suspect who admitted to targeting politicians.

2014 Taiwan Anti-Nuclear Protesters Clash With Police

2014: Thousands of protesters clashed with police as they were protesting the construction of a fourth nuclear power plant in Taiwan. The protesters refused the leave the site and were hit with water cannons by police who were trying to get them to disperse.