Anniversaries and commemorations come and go daily. Most of us, even the best historians, miss most occasions. If we think of history as events then we are faced with a continually showering in the grains of sand. Nevertheless, we do pick out certain patterns in the remembrance of historical dates. The blog here reminds us of some dates where the local, state, national, and global perspectives entwine.
What Time is It? It is flow of a sandstorm that will on each day compress somewhere into a structure – sandstone, selected and only remembered in the longue durée.
On Monday, 28 May 1945, U.S.-born Irish-raised William Joyce (“Lord Haw-Haw”) is captured. He is later charged with high treason in London for his English-language wartime broadcasts on German radio, convicted, and then hanged in January 1946.
On Wednesday, 28 May 1980, A fiery bus crash near the small village of Webb, Saskatchewan, claims 22 lives.
On Sunday, 28 May 1995, The 7.0 Mw Neftegorsk earthquake strikes northern Sakhalin Island in Russia with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), leaving 1,989 people dead and 750 injured.
On Sunday, 28 May 2000, 250,000 people walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in support of reconciliation with Australia’s Aboriginal people.
On Friday, 28 May 2010, the 2010 Ahmadiyya mosques massacre in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan, killed 94 people during Friday prayers at two mosques.
Images Citations in Composite: ID 17208541 © Anhong | Dreamstime.com; ID 35001957 © DiversityStudio1 | Dreamstime.com; ID 156394527 © Gerd Zahn | Dreamstime.com
Neville Buch