This day in history‚ March 28

Events that took place on March 28

1939 The Spanish civil war ends as Madrid falls to General Francisco Franco.

1946 – Juan Peron is elected President of Argentina‚ a position he keeps for six years.

1960 – Many black people heed a call by ANC leaders to burn their pass books. Three days earlier‚ Chief Albert Luthuli‚ Nelson Mandela‚ Walter Sisulu and Duma Nokwe burned their pass books. A week before‚ PAC supporters burned their passbooks at Sharpeville‚ and were massacred by the police.

1969 – Dwight D Eisenhower dies in Washington DC.

1994 - After the Inkatha Freedom Party stages a march in central Johannesburg‚ 19 IFP members were killed by ANC security guards after apparent information that the IFP would attack the ANC’s headquarters‚ Shell House. But the Nugent commission of Inquiry concluded that the ANC guards’ action was unjustified. The incident came in the midst of extreme tensions between the two parties in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The IFP was convinced that the ANC would undermine traditional authorities if it came to power‚ while the ANC saw the IFP as a supporter of apartheid.

1996 – President Nelson Mandela appoints Trevor Manuel as the first black Minister of Finance after the resignation of Chris Liebenberg from the government of national unity. Jay Naidoo replaced Pallo Jordan as Minister of Posts and Telecommunications. Gill Marcus was appointed Manuel’s Deputy Minister of Finance.

Sources: South African History Online; Historynet