MAY 15/IYAR 28
Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day):
On this (Hebrew) date in 5728 (1967), Israeli paratroopers liberated the Old City of Jerusalem during the Six Day War, restoring Jewish control of the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site. Soldiers danced, sang and cried at the Western Wall, the site of Jewish prayers for centuries. Iyar 28 is celebrated every year as Yom Yerushalayim, including a special service of prayer composed by the Chief Rabbinate, commemorating the reunification of the Holy City, which has stood as the capital of the Jewish nation for over 3,000 years.
1845:
Birthday of Elie Mechnikov, biologist who discovered that certain white blood cells that he named “phyagocytes” could ingest and destroy harmful foreign particles such as bacteria. He also observed that lactic-acid bacteria in the digestive system could help extend human life, a discovery for which he was awarded the 1908 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine.
