June 1981 - June 28, 1981 (Sunday)

June 28, 1981 (Sunday)

• The Tehran headquarters of the Iran's Islamic Republican Party was destroyed at 9:05 pm by a powerful bomb that killed 74 government leaders as they met in Tehran. The Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, Secretary-General of the party, Chief Justice, and second-in-command to the Ayatollah Khomeini, was speaking at the meeting when the bomb, hidden in a trash basket near the podium, exploded. The roof of the two story IRP hall collapsed, killing nearly all of the 90 people inside at the time. In addition to Beheshti, four cabinet ministers, six deputy ministers, and 27 members of parliament were killed.
• Giovanni Spadolini became the 65th Prime Minister of Italy. As leader of the Italian Republican Party (PRI), he was the first premier since 1945 to be from a party other than the Christian Democrats.
• Fifty members of the Lighthouse Gospel Tract Foundation in Arizona waited in vain for The Rapture, after predicting June 28, 1981 for the date of the return of Jesus. On July 10, the group's leader revised the new date to August 7, 1981.
• Born Mara Santangelo, Italian tennis player, in Latina
• Died: Terry Fox, 22, Canadian athlete and cancer activist&