March 28 Birthday
March 28, 1979: Reactor 2 at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Pennsylvania experienced a partial meltdown. A stuck valve allowed coolant to drain, and the reactor core was exposed. Operators misread the indicators and shut off the emergency cooling system, making the situation worse. About half the core melted. The accident was caused by a combination of mechanical failure, operator error, and design flaws in the control room — indicators were confusing and contradictory. The containment building held, and the amount of radiation released was small. No one was killed. But the accident destroyed public confidence in nuclear power in the United States. No new nuclear plants were ordered after 1979 for thirty years. The industry was already in trouble — Three Mile Island was the funeral. The Spanish Civil War ended on March 28, 1939, when Nationalist forces entered Madrid. The war had lasted two years and eight months and killed an estimated 500,000 people. General Francisco Franco had launched a military coup against the elected Republican government in July 1936. The war was a rehearsal for World War II — Germany and Italy supported Franco with aircraft and troops; the Soviet Union supported the Republic. The International Brigades, volunteers from fifty countries, fought for the Republic. Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, and Martha Gellhorn were among the foreign witnesses. Orwell was shot through the throat and wrote Homage to Catalonia about his disillusionment with the Communist faction. Franco ruled Spain as a dictator until his death in 1975. On March 28, 1854, Britain and France declared war on Russia, beginning the Crimean War. The conflict was triggered by a dispute over which church — Catholic or Orthodox — would have control of holy sites in Jerusalem, which was under Ottoman rule. Russia wanted to protect Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire; Britain and France wanted to prevent Russian expansion. The war was notable for its incompetence — the Charge of the Light Brigade, in which 600 British cavalry charged into a valley lined with Russian artillery on three sides because of a vague order, killed 110 men. Florence Nightingale revolutionized nursing. The war was the first to be photographed and the first to have war correspondents — William Howard Russell of the Times of London reported from the front, and his dispatches embarrassed the government into reform. Maxim Gorky, born this day in 1868, was the pen name of Alexei Maximovich Peshkov. "Gorky" means "bitter" in Russian. He was orphaned at eleven, raised by his grandmother, and beaten by his grandfather. His autobiographical trilogy — Childhood, In the World, and My Universities — describes a life of poverty and violence. He supported the Bolsheviks but was appalled by their violence. He died in 1936, possibly poisoned on Stalin's orders. People born on March 28 fall under the zodiac sign of Aries. The birthstone is Aquamarine and the birth flower is Daffodil. Historical events on March 28 include 1939: Madrid falls to Nationalist forces, ending the Spanish Civil War, 1854: Britain and France declare war on Russia (Crimean War begins), 1979: Partial meltdown at Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. Famous people born on March 28 include Maxim Gorky (1868), Reba McEntire (1955), Vince Vaughn (1970).