Today in History: Methane Gas Accumulated in Ümraniye Dumpster Exploded: 39 People Died

April 28 is the 118nd (119rd in leap years) day of the year according to the Gregorian calendar. The number of days left until the end of the year is 247.

Railways

• 28 April 1886 The completion time of Mersin-Tarsus-Adana Railway was extended by 3.
• 28 APRIL 1921 Erzurum, Erzincan, Samsun, The allocation of budget to the Ministry of Public Works was made for the construction of the basin gravel road.

Events

• 1915 – The First Battle of Kirte begins.
• 1916 – The British troops, who had been under siege for 5 months in the Kut'ül-Amâre region, surrendered.
• 1920 – The Istanbul Government published the Anatolian Extraordinary General Inspector in order to continue the reign in Anatolia.
• 1920 - Azerbaijan joined the Soviet Union. (They broke up again in 1991.)
• 1935 – The name of the Red Crescent Society was changed to Kızılay.
• 1936 – Upon the unexpected death of King Fuad in Egypt, 16-year-old Prince Farouk becomes King.
• 1941 - Civil servants were banned from being students.
• 1945 - Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci are shot. Their bodies were exhibited at a gas station by hanging them by their feet.
• 1947 - Thor Heyerdahl and his crew of five set sail from Peru in the boat Kon-Tiki. Their aim was to prove that Peruvians had settled in Polynesia long ago.
• 1950 – Nightingale Nursing College was opened in Istanbul.
• 1956 – Istanbul Trade Unions Union Congress convened.
• 1960 – In the events that broke out at Istanbul University, Forestry Faculty student Turan Emeksiz died. Martial law was declared in Istanbul and Ankara.
• 1963 – Landless villagers marched in Adana.
• 1967 – Expo '67 fair was opened to the public in Montreal, Canada.
• 1969 – President Charles de Gaulle resigned after the “no” votes were outnumbered in the referendum held in France.
• 1971 – Martial Law was accepted in the Turkish Grand National Assembly. Cumhuriyet ve Akşam newspapers were closed for 10 days.
• 1972 – It was decided to show domestic films in order to make television programs watchable.
• 1975 – CHP Chairman Bülent Ecevit was attacked with stones and guns in Erzincan.
• 1977 – Red Army Faction members Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe are sentenced to life imprisonment in West Germany.
• 1979 – The first aircraft carrier of the Soviet Union, 'Kyiv 28', passed through the Bosphorus.
• 1980 – Abdi İpekçi's murder suspect, Mehmet Ali Ağca, was sentenced to death in absentia in the trial in Istanbul.
• 1980 – The Process Leading to the 12 September 1980 Coup in Turkey (1979 - 12 September 1980): 21 people were killed across the country.
• 1984 – Işık Yönder, a businessman who is the wife of Şadiye Yönder, the Secretary of the Turkish Embassy in Tehran, and who also trades between Iran and Turkey, was killed by an ASALA militant.
• 1988 – Agop Agopian, the founder of the Armenian organization ASALA, was killed by two unidentified people in Athens.
• 1988 – As a result of the explosive decompression that occurred during Aloha Airlines Flight 243, a 35 m² section in the front of the passenger cabin of the aircraft broke off and left the aircraft. The plane made an emergency landing at Kahului Airport on the island of Maui.
• 1993 – Ümraniye garbage dump in Istanbul exploded due to accumulated methane gas: 39 people died.
• 1996 - Port Arthur massacre, Australia. 35 people died.
• 2001 - Millionaire Dennis Tito becomes the world's first space tourist.
• 2003 – More than 25 thousand Greek Cypriots passed to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus within the framework of free transitions with the Republic of Cyprus.
• 2004 – San Marino wins their first ever victory against Liechtenstein 1-0.
• 2008 – A passenger train derails and crashes into another train in Zibo city in eastern China's Shandong province; 70 people died, 420 people were injured. 

Births

• 1442 – IV. Edward, King of England (d. 1483)
• 1541 – Mustafa Âlî from Gallipoli, Ottoman poet, writer and historian (d. 1600)
• 1545 – Yi Sun-sin, Korean Admiral (d. 1598)
• 1758 – James Monroe, 5th President of the United States (d. 1831)
• 1878 – Lionel Barrymore, American actor (d. 1954)
• 1889 – António de Oliveira Salazar, Portuguese statesman (d. 1970)
• 1891 – Boris Iofan, Jewish-born Soviet architect (d. 1976)
• 1908 – Oskar Schindler, German businessman (who saved the Jews from the Holocaust) (d. 1974)
• 1912 – Odette Sansom Hallowes, French resistance fighter (d. 1995)
• 1916 – Ferruccio Lamborghini, Italian automaker (d. 1993)
• 1924 - Kenneth Kaunda, first Prime Minister of Zambia
• 1926 – Harper Lee, American author and Pulitzer Prize winner (d. 2016)
• 1926 – Hulusi Sayın, Turkish soldier and retired Lieutenant General (d. 1991)
• 1928 – Yves Klein, French painter (d. 1962)
• 1936 – Kazım Kartal, Turkish film actor (d. 2003)
• 1936 – Tariq Aziz, Iraqi politician and former Iraqi Foreign Minister (d. 2015)
• 1937 – Saddam Hussein, 5th president of Iraq (d. 2006)
• 1941 – Ann-Margret, Swedish-American actress, singer, and dancer
• 1941 – K. Barry Sharpless, American chemist and Nobel Prize laureate in Chemistry
• 1948 – Terry Pratchett, English fantasy comedy writer (d. 2015)
• 1950 - Jay Leno, American comedian
• 1966 – Todd Anthony Shaw, better known by his stage name Too $hort, American rapper and actor
• 1967 – Karl Wührer, American actor
• 1968 – Howard Donald, English singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist, dancer, DJ and home record producer
• 1970 – Diego Simeone, Argentine football player
• 1972 – Joseph Bruce, American producer, rapper, wrestler, and actor
• 1972 – Sevda Demirel, Turkish model, singer, film actress and program host
• 1973 – Jorge Garcia, American actor and comedian
• 1974 – Penélope Cruz, Spanish actress and winner of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
• 1974 – Margo Dydek, Polish basketball player (d. 2011)
• 1977 – Onur Akay, Turkish classical music artist
• 1978 – Nate Richert, American actor, songwriter, director, and musician
• 1979 – Sofia Vitória Portuguese singer-songwriter
• 1980 – Bradley Wiggins, Belgian former professional road cyclist and track bike racer
• 1980 – Karolina Gocheva, Macedonian singer
• 1981 – Jessica Alba, American actress
• 1982 – Nikki Grahame, British model and television presenter (d. 2021)
• 1982 – Chris Kaman, US-born German professional basketball player
• 1983 - Roger Johnson, English former football player
• 1984 – Dmitri Torbinski, Russian national football team player
• 1986 – Jenna Ushkowitz, American stage and television actress and singer
• 1987 – Zoran Tošić, Serbian national football player
• 1988 - Jonathan Biabiany, French football player
• 1988 - Spencer Hawes, American basketball player
• 1988 - Juan Mata, Spanish national football player
• 1989 – Kim Sung-kyu, South Korean singer and actor
• 1995 – Melanie Martinez, American singer

Deaths

• 224 – IV. Erdevân or Artabanus was ruler of the Parthian Empire from 216 to 224
• 1076 – II. Svend, king of Denmark from 1047-1076 (b. 1019)
• 1197 – Rhys ap Gruffydd was ruler of the kingdom of Deheubarth in South Wales from 1155 to 1197 (b. 1132)
• 1257 – Shajarud, first ruler of the Mamluk Sultanate
• 1641 – Hans Georg von Arnim-Boitzenburg, German general (b. 1583)
• 1813 – Mikhail Kutuzov, Russian field marshal (b. 1745)
• 1849 – René Primevère Lesson, French surgeon, naturalist, ornithologist, and herpetologist (b. 1794)
• 1853 – Ludwig Tieck, German writer, poet, translator, and storyteller (b. 1773)
• 1859 – Johannes Peter Müller, German physiologist, comparative anatomist, and ichthyologist (b. 1801)
• 1865 – Samuel Cunard, Canadian-born British shipbuilder (founder of the “Cunard Line,” which also produced the Titanic) (b. 1787)
• 1870 – Karl Schapper, German socialist and trade union leader (b. 1812)
• 1903 – J. Willard Gibbs, American scientist (b. 1839)
• 1908 – William Arnson Willoughby, American physician and politician (b. 1844)
• 1912 – Jules Bonnot, French anarchist and outlaw (b. 1876)
• 1918 – Gavrilo Princip, Serbian assassin (b. 1894)
• 1922 – Paul Deschanel, 10th president of the Third Republic in France (b. 1855)
• 1936 – Fuad I (Ahmed Fuad Pasha), King of Egypt (b. 1868)
• 1944 – Alim Khan, last emir of the Emirate of Bukhara and the Uzbek Mangit Dynasty (b. 1880)
• 1945 – Benito Mussolini, Italian politician and journalist (b. 1883)
• 1954 – Léon Jouhaux, French socialist trade union leader (b. 1879)
• 1960 – Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, Chilean soldier and politician (b. 1877)
• 1960 – Turan Emeksiz, Turkish student (b. 1940)
• 1960 – Antonie Pannekoek, Dutch astronomer, Marxist theorist, and revolutionary (b. 1873)
• 1970 – Ed Begley, American actor (b. 1901)
• 1972 – Rainer von Fieandt, Prime Minister of Finland (b. 1890)
• 1978 – Mohammed Daoud Khan, President of Afghanistan (b. 1918)
• 1978 – Muammer Karaca, Turkish theater artist (b. 1906)
• 1988 – Agop Agopian, founder and leader of ASALA (b. 1951)
• 1992 – Francis Bacon, Irish-British painter (b. 1909)
• 1999 – Alf Ramsey, English manager (b. 1920)
• 1999 – Arthur L. Schawlow, American physicist (b. 1921)
• 2002 – Alexander Lebed, Russian general (b. 1950)
• 2002 – Cüneyt Canver, Turkish politician, journalist and writer (b. 1952)
• 2005 – Chris Candido, American professional wrestler (b. 1972)
• 2005 – Percy Heath, American jazz musician and bassist of the “Modern Jazz Quartet” (b. 1923)
• 2006 – Turgut Yarkent, Turkish songwriter (“I Faced You By Saying My Mihrab”, “Heared That You Forgotten My Eyes Color”.) (b. 1916)
• 2007 – Sabahattin Savcı, Turkish politician and former Minister of Forestry (b. 1925)
• 2007 – Ümit Haluk Bayülken, Turkish diplomat, politician and former Minister of National Defense (b. 1921)
• 2012 – Patricia Medina, English-American actress (b. 1919)
• 2013 – János Starker, Hungarian popular cellist (b. 1924)
• 2015 – Ashura Hara, Japanese professional wrestler and rugby player (b. 1947)
• 2016 – Jenny Diski, English novelist and author (b. 1947)
• 2017 – Jesús Alvarado Nieves, Mexican professional wrestler who wrestled in the Lucha pound style (b. 1959)
• 2018 – Larry Harvey, American artist, philanthropist, and activist (b. 1948)
• 2019 – Bruce Bickford, American animator and filmmaker (b. 1947)
• 2019 – Caroline Bittencourt, Brazilian model and television presenter (b. 1981)
• 2019 – Sylvia Bretschneider, German politician (b. 1960)
• 2019 – Wayson Choy, Chinese-Canadian author and novelist (b. 1939)
• 2019 – Jo Sullivan Loesser, American actress and singer (b. 1927)
• 2019 – John Singleton, Academy Award-nominated film director, screenwriter, and producer (b. 1968)
• 2020 – David S. Boe, American musician (b. 1936)
• 2020 – Jill Gascoine, English actress (b. 1937)
• 2020 – Georgianna Glose, American activist (b. 1946)
• 2020 – Ladislav Hejdánek, Czech philosopher, activist, educator and politician (b. 1927)
• 2020 – Robert May, Australian scientist and academic (b. 1936)
• 2020 – Silas Silvius Njiru, Kenyan Roman Catholic bishop (b. 1928)
• 2020 – Syahrul, Indonesian politician, member of the Greater Indonesian Movement Party (b. 1960)
• 2021 – Michael Collins, American astronaut (b. 1930)
• 2021 – Anish Deb, Indian writer who writes in Bengali (b. 1951)
• 2021 – José de la Paz Herrera, Honduran football player, manager and politician (b. 1940)
• 2021 – Clyde Leon, Trinidad and Tobago national football player (b. 1983)
• 2021 – El Risitas was a Spanish comedian and actor (b. 1956)

Holidays and special occasions

• Fellowship Week (28 April – 4 May)
• World Occupational Health and Safety Day
• World Day of Remembrance of Victims of Work Accidents
• World Labs Day
• No Violence to Health Care Day