Almanac for April 28th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for April 28th: https://ko-fi.com/post/April-28-K3K61EMNXS

Artist Birthday: Harper Lee

I'm not obsessed with Harper Lee. Shut up.

Author Julie S. Howlin post of the day: Terry Pratchett's birthday

Bummer April 28th

April 28, 1988: Aloha Airlines Flight 243 experiences an explosive decompression during a flight between Hilo and Honolulu International Airports. A section of the left side of the jet’s roof shears off. Flight attendant C.B. Lansing is swept out of the aircraft; her body is never recovered. Eight people are seriously injured, although the aircraft is able to land safely on a runway in Maui. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigates the incident and determines that metal fatigue, exacerbated by the humid, salty Hawaiian climate, is the likely cause.

April 28, 1996: A 25-year-old man in Port Arthur, Tasmania (Lutruwita), Australia, sits down at the Broad Arrow Café. He eats a meal, then points a rifle at the table next to his and kills two tourists from Malaysia. Within the next 15 seconds he has fired 17 shots, killing 12 people and wounding ten. The man then proceeds to a gift shop nearby, where he kills eight more people and wounds two more. He kills seven more people, including a 3-year-old and a 6-year-old, in the parking lot. He then kills four occupants of a car and steals the car. At a service station, he kills a woman and locks her boyfriend inside the trunk of his car. The boyfriend’s body is found the next day, along with the bodies of a husband and wife with whom the perpetrator has had an argument. 

In all 35 people die in Australia’s worst incident of gun violence. Although the citizens of Tasmania are known as generally supportive of gun ownership rights, this appalling incident convinced many Australians to participate in the subsequent voluntary gun buy-back program. Australia also strengthened its gun laws after the Port Arthur massacre. The perpetrator is sentenced to life in prison.