July 28, 1981 (Tuesday)
- An earthquake of magnitude 7.3 struck the Kerman province of Iran, around Shahdad. Initial death estimates were as high as 5,000 people, but the United Nations later concluded that 1,500 had died in the sparsely populated province.
- Died: Rolf Wütherich, 54, mechanic who had been passenger with James Dean in Dean's fatal car accident on September 30, 1955. Like Dean, Wütherich was killed while driving a Porsche at high speed, losing control in the German village of Kupferzell.
- Died: Father Stanley Rother, American missionary who had been a Roman Catholic priest in Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala, for 13 years, was murdered by Guatemalan soldiers
Read more about this topic: July 1981
Famous quotes containing the word july:
“People in Stamps used to say that the whites in our town were so prejudiced that a Negro couldn’t buy vanilla ice cream. Except on July Fourth. Other days he had to be satisfied with chocolate.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)