Today in History - May 28: Murderer caught after a horse hair found at the crime scene
A New York man was convicted of rape and murder based on the discovery of a single horse hair on May 28, 1936.
Six weeks earlier, novelist Nancy Titterton was found dead in her home.
Police found the strand of horse hair on her bedspread.
The detectives found the horse hair had been used to stuff a repaired couch which was found downstairs.
Suspicions then fell on one of the assistants at a nearby upholsterer, who had delivered the couch on the day Titterton was found dead.
Under interrogation, John Fiorenza confessed to the crime but pleaded insanity.
But the jury was unconvinced, and he was executed on January 22 the following year.
In a major embarrassment for the Soviet Union, a West German teenager evaded air defence systems to land a light plane outside Red Square in Moscow on May 28, 1987.
Eighteen-year-old amateur Mathias Rust flew from Helsinki into Moscow, baffling Soviet air traffic control.
By pure luck, the overhead power lines for the Red Square trolleycar had been removed for maintenance that morning.
He landed without issue, greeted curious passersby before he was arrested two hours later.
He was jailed for hooliganism but pardoned a year later.
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