Here’s a brief look back in time for this day, March 28.
In 1979, panic spreads in Pennsylvania’s Dauphin County as a partial nuclear meltdown occurs at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station. Mechanical and design failures resulted in the Unit 2 reactor to lose its ability to cool itself down, sounding the alarm at 4 a.m. as radioactive material began leaking into the air. There were no recorded fatalities nor injuries as a result, but some residents reported adverse health effects afterwards. While this is so far the worst recorded nuclear disaster in U.S. history, only small amounts of radiation was reported to have leaked. It’d take years to fully clean the area and shut down Unit 2 permanently. Controversy surrounding former Pennsylvania governor Dick Thornburg’s response to the disaster was a hot topic of national news as events unfolded. Most residents at this time criticized his alleged coddling of the facility’s corporate owners and representatives of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, who kept emphasizing that no radiation had leaked out at all: a statement that was later found to be false. Today, the facility has been shut down since 2019, however there have been talks with Microsoft to bring the facility back online in 2027 to help provide electricity for planned datacenters.
In 1984, then-Colts owner Robert Irsay announces the team’s relocation from Baltimore, MD, to Indianapolis, IN. However, most will dispute whether this was a formal announcement. In fact, Irsay covertly forced the team to Indianapolis in the middle of the night. He had hired movers to pack the team’s equipment and ship them to the Hoosier Dome with the blessing of then-Mayor of Indianapolis William Hudnet III. The background behind this relocation was primarily due to the State of Maryland’s reluctance to fund and construct a new stadium for the Baltimore Colts, who had been sharing Memorial Stadium with the Baltimore Orioles, which is a baseball team. After years of hearings within the state’s capital, the NFL gave Irsay permission to seek a new city for the Colts. However, on March 27 this year, the state senate passed a bill that gave the City of Baltimore the right to seize ownership of the Colts by rules of eminent domain. Time was running out fast. What made matters worse was Phoenix, AZ’s, withdrawal from accepting the Colts, who was a top prospect. Desperate, Irsay makes a phone call to Mayor Hudnet, and Indianapolis becomes the Colts’ new home.