Events January January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA. January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhanov, Joseph Stalin's personal secretary, crosses the border to Iran to defect from the Soviet Union. January 17 – The OGPU arrests Leon Trotsky in Moscow; he assumes a status of passive resistance and is exiled with his family. January 26 – The volcanic island Anak Krakatau appears. February February – The Ford River Rouge Complex at Dearborn, Michigan, an automobile plant begun in 1917, is completed as the world's largest integrated factory. February 8 – Scottish inventor John Logie Baird broadcasts a transatlantic television signal from London to Hartsdale, New York. February 11–19 – The 1928 Winter Olympics are held in St. Moritz, Switzerland, the first as a separate event. Sonja Henie of Norway wins her first gold medal, in women's figure skating. February 20 – The Japanese general election produces a hung parliament. February 25 – Charles Jenkins Laboratories of Washington, D.C., becomes the first holder of a television license from the Federal Radio Commission. March March 15 March 15 incident: The Japanese government cracks down on socialists and communists, arresting over 1000 people. Chinese warlord Shi Yousan sets fire to the Shaolin Monastery in Henan, destroying some of its ancient structures and artifacts. March 21 – Charles Lindbergh is presented with the Medal of Honor for his first transatlantic flight. March 22 – The Muslim Brotherhood is founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna. March 24 – Excavation work begins after the old Canaanite city of Ugarit is accidentally rediscovered. April April 10 – Pineapple Primary: The United States Republican Party primary elections in Chicago are preceded by violence, bombings and assassination attempts (two politicians are killed, Octavius C. Granady and Giuseppe Esposito). April 12 – A bomb attack against Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini in Milan kills 17 bystanders. April 13 – The West Plains, Missouri Dance Hall explosion occurs. April 12–14 – The first east–west transatlantic flight by aeroplane takes place from Dublin, Ireland, to Greenly Island, Canada, using the German Junkers W 33 Bremen. April 14 – An earthquake occurs in Chirpan, Bulgaria, followed four days later by another in Plovdiv. Between them, they destroy more than 21,000 buildings, and kill almost 130 people. April 19 – The last section ("wise –