Becker named Unicef ambassador
1986 - West German tennis star Boris Becker agreed to become an ambassador for Unicef. The 18-year-old Wimbledon champion told a press conference, he contacted Unicef and offered to help after reading that 40,000 children died in the world every day because of a lack of simple medicines. Unicef is launching a five-year worldwide vaccination programme, which they hope will cut the number of deaths by half. Becker, along with film personalities Danny Kaye, Liv Ullman and Peter Ustinov, will help spread the Unicef message. “It would be tremendous if I can help, hopefully for a long time,” the tennis idol said. Becker is also one of scores of sports stars supporting “Sport Aid”, which is being heralded as the biggest sports spectacle ever.
March 28
1800 - Act of Union with England passes in Ireland’s Parliament.
1854 - Britain and France declare war on Russia during the Crimean War.
1871 - The Paris Commune is formally established.
1927 - Majestic Theatre opens at New York City.
1930 - Turkish cities of Constantinople and Angora change names to Istanbul and Ankara.
1938 - Japan installs puppet government of Chinese Republic in Nanking.
1942 - British naval forces raid the Nazi occupied French port of St. Nazaire during Second World War.
1945 - United States invades Cebu in the heart of the Philippines.
1969 - Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States, dies in Washington, at age 78.
1979 - America’s worst commercial nuclear accident occurs at Three Mile Island.
1989 - UAE signs a deal with Britain to buy Hawk fighters to strengthen its armed forces.
1993 - President Boris Yeltsin survives a determined bid to oust him from office when Russia’s supreme legislature failed to impeach him by just 72 votes.
1993 - Chinese Premier Li Peng is re-elected for a second term.
1995 - Mireille Durocher Bertin, an outspoken lawyer, is assassinated on a Port-au-Prince street, Haiti.
2005 - A powerful 8.7 magnitude earthquake hit Indonesia’s Sumatra island, killing around 300.
2006 - Palestinian parliament approves Hamas Cabinet.
2011 - A blast at an ammunition factory in Yemen kills more than 110 people.
2012 - The newly-renovated Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Centre for Arabic Language and Islamic Studies opens in Beijing, China.
