Brussels, Belgium. Major events recorded on May 28 include the surrender of Belgium’s King Leopold to invading German forces in World War Two and the start of the evacuation of defeated Allied armies from Dunkirk. By June 2, the operation had saved 224,585 British troops and 112,546 French and Belgian troops.
Religious and political deaths
In 1981, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, Poland’s Roman Catholic primate and a leading opponent of the country’s Communist authorities, died.
Conflict and upheaval
In 1991, rebel tanks entered Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, at dawn and toppled the remnants of a Marxist government whose 17-year rule had brought war and famine.
Disasters and agreements
In 1995, Russia’s worst recorded earthquake killed 1,989 people in the far eastern oil-producing town of Neftegorsk on Sakhalin Island. The quake measured 7.5 on the Richter scale.
In 1997, Russia and Ukraine signed agreements giving Russia the right to base its part of the former Soviet Black Sea Fleet at Sevastopol on Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula for 20 years.
Weapons, protests and diplomacy
In 1998, Pakistan officially became a nuclear power after conducting five nuclear test blasts.
In 1999, Polish police removed hundreds of crosses from outside Auschwitz, ending an 11-month protest by radical Roman Catholics that had badly damaged relations with Jewish groups.
In 2002, NATO and Russia launched a new forum for security cooperation, with Russia sitting as an equal alongside the 19 NATO allies in the NATO-Russia Council.
Sports
In 2003, Montreal Canadiens ice hockey player Patrick Roy announced his retirement after an 18-year career as one of the greatest goaltenders in NHL history.