September 28

2018 Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami 2018

2018 Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami

On the evening of September 28, 2018, a magnitude-7.5 earthquake struck off Central Sulawesi near the Palu–Koro fault. Within minutes, tsunami waves swept into Palu Bay and neighboring coastlines while large-scale liquefaction and ground flows swallowed entire neighborhoods. More than 4,300 people died, thousands were injured or displaced, and the disaster reshaped scientific understanding and local policy about near‑field tsunamis and ground‑failure risk. Read more


2009 Guinean protests (Conakry stadium massacre) 2009

2009 Guinean protests (Conakry stadium massacre)

On 28 September 2009 a peaceful opposition rally at the Stade du 28 Septembre in Conakry turned into one of the bloodiest episodes in Guinea’s recent history. Security forces opened fire on the crowd, and survivors reported summary killings, mass detentions and widespread sexual violence. International investigators later concluded that at least 157 people were killed and more than a hundred women and girls were raped; the events prompted regional isolation of the junta and long, unfinished demands for justice. Read more


Sinking of the MS Estonia 1994

Sinking of the MS Estonia

On the night of September 28, 1994, the ro‑ro ferry MS Estonia foundered in international waters southeast of Utö, Finland, after a failure of its bow visor allowed seawater to flood the vehicle deck. Of the 989 people aboard, 137 survived and 852 died. The disaster exposed fatal vulnerabilities in roll‑on/roll‑off ferry design, prompted a multinational investigation and sweeping safety changes, and left questions and grief that persist decades later. Read more


Pakistan International Airlines Flight 268 1992

Pakistan International Airlines Flight 268

On September 28, 1992, Pakistan International Airlines Flight 268, an Airbus A300-200 (registration AP-ADT), struck the Mullagori Hills west of Kathmandu while on approach to Tribhuvan International Airport. All 167 people on board were killed. The accident was attributed to controlled flight into terrain after the aircraft descended below published safe approach altitudes; investigation findings led to renewed emphasis on crew resource management, approach discipline, and terrain‑awareness systems.

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Fifth Battle of Ypres (1918) 1918

Fifth Battle of Ypres (1918)

Beginning on 28 September 1918, Allied forces — prominently including re‑engaged Belgian units alongside British and French formations — launched a coordinated offensive in the Ypres salient and across West Flanders. Part of the larger Hundred Days Offensive that had broken German initiative in August, the action pushed German lines back toward the River Lys, freed towns and villages long under occupation, and helped fracture the German defensive position in northern Belgium.

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Balangiga encounter (Balangiga Massacre) 1901

Balangiga encounter (Balangiga Massacre)

On September 28, 1901, Filipino guerrillas and townspeople in the coastal village of Balangiga, Samar, launched a surprise attack on Company C of the U.S. 9th Infantry. Nearly half the garrison was killed in a violent, close-quarters action that shocked the American public and provoked a brutal reprisal campaign across Samar led by Brig. Gen. Jacob H. Smith. The episode became a study in guerrilla warfare, occupation policy, and the long shadow of memory — including the removal and eventual return of church bells taken as trophies.

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Explore more events in September

Soviet invasion of Poland (1939) Sep 17

Soviet invasion of Poland (1939)

On September 17, 1939, the Red Army crossed the eastern border of the Second Polish Republic — moving into territories that are now western Ukraine, western Belarus and parts of Lithuania — announcing it would “restore order” after what Soviet authorities described as the collapse of the Polish state. The advance followed the secret division of Eastern Europe in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and coincided with a German invasion from the west, opening a painful chapter of occupation, mass arrests, deportations and political reordering whose consequences echoed through the war and into the Cold War era.

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Sinking of the Jun'yō Maru Sep 18

Sinking of the Jun'yō Maru

On September 18, 1944, the Japanese transport Jun'yō Maru was torpedoed off the west coast of Sumatra while carrying thousands of Allied prisoners of war and Javanese forced labourers. The overcrowded, unmarked "hell ship" foundered quickly; historians estimate roughly 5,000–5,620 people died, making it one of the deadliest single-ship losses of life in World War II.

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Hurricane Irma Sep 10

Hurricane Irma

Hurricane Irma, a Category 5 storm with record-breaking power, made landfall in Florida on September 10, 2017, after tearing through the Caribbean. With winds reaching 185 mph and massive storm surges, Irma became one of the most destructive hurricanes in U.S. history, leaving behind billions in damage, over 100 fatalities, and reshaping the region's approach to disaster preparedness.

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