Football player Diego Ribas da Cunha

Events in 1985 and 28-2

Events in the world in the birth year of Diego Ribas da Cunha

• Soviet leader Chernenko dies at 73 and is replaced by Mikhail Gorbachev, 54 (March 11). Under the slogans of glasnost and Perestroika, Gorbachev initiates a broad program of reform and liberalization. Background: Rulers of Russia since 1533
• Two Shi'ite Muslim gunmen capture TWA airliner with 133 aboard, 104 of them Americans (June 14); 39 remaining hostages freed in Beirut (June 30).
• PLO terrorists hijack Achille Lauro, Italian cruise ship, with 80 passengers, plus crew (Oct. 7); American, Leon Klinghoffer, killed (Oct. 8); Italian government toppled by political crisis over hijacking (Oct. 16).
• Reagan and Gorbachev meet at summit (Nov. 19); agree to step up arms control talks and renew cultural contacts (Nov. 21). Background: nuclear disarmament
• Terrorists seize Egyptian Boeing 737 airliner after takeoff from Athens (Nov. 23); 59 dead as Egyptian forces storm plane on Malta (Nov. 24).

Birthday Diego Ribas da Cunha (28-2) in history

• Day 28-2 year 1784: Pastor John Wesley issues the "Declaration of Declaration," officially establishing the Methodist Church.
• Day 28-2 year 1849: The steamship California landed in San Francisco, bringing the first East Coasters to the Gold Rush.
• Day 28-2 year 1916: Henry James, American novelist and critic, died.
• Day 28-2 year 1948: The last British troops left India.
• Day 28-2 year 1953: James Watson and Francis Crick described their theory that two DNA strands were coiled in a double helix.
• Day 28-2 year 1983: The final episode of M*A*S*H aired. It was the most watched television program in history.
• Day 28-2 year 1986: Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was shot to death in central Stockholm.
• Day 28-2 year 1993: Four federal agents were killed in Waco, Texas, after they tried to serve an arrest warrant for weapons charges on Branch Davidian sect leader David Koresh, starting a 51-day standoff.