This Day in History: Spanish Civil war ended with surrender of Madrid to Franco’s forces

The following are some of the major events to have occurred on March 28:

1920 – Hollywood stars Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford married.

1939 – The Spanish Civil war ended with the surrender of Madrid to General Francisco Franco’s forces.

1969 – Dwight Eisenhower, U.S. Army commander, Republican statesman and president from 1953-1961, died. He was commander-in-chief of Allied armies during World War Two.

1979 – The United States’ worst nuclear accident occurred at Three Mile Island near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. A partial meltdown of one of the reactors released radioactive gas into the atmosphere, forcing the evacuation of residents.

1985 – Russian-born French artist Marc Chagall died at 97; French poet Guillaume Apollinaire coined the word “surrealist” to describe Chagall’s work.

2002 – Billy Wilder, the first film maker to win three Academy Awards in a year — for “The Apartment” in 1960 — died. He was a master storyteller specialising in the dark side of American life. His best known films included “Double Indemnity”, “The Lost Weekend”, “Sunset Boulevard”, “Stalag 17” and “Some Like It Hot”.

2003 – Fire destroys Brighton’s historic West Pier, built in 1866.

2004 – Oscar-winning British actor and playwright Peter Ustinov, one of the world’s best loved raconteurs and mimics, died aged 82. He won Oscars for his roles in the films “Spartacus” and “Topkapi”.

2005 – Nearly 1,000 people were killed in an earthquake of magnitude 8.7 that hit Nias island off western Indonesia.

2007 – Michael Phelps sets new swimming world record in men’s 200m butterfly.

2008 – World’s first fluorescent frog found in Argentina.