TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS THURSDAY, AUG. 27, the 240th day of 2020. There are 126 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY:
On this date in 2008, Barack Obama was nominated for president by the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
In 1776, the Battle of Long Island began during the Revolutionary War as British troops attacked American forces who ended up being forced to retreat two days later.
In 1858, the second debate between senatorial candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas took place in Freeport, Illinois.
In 1908, Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th president of the United States, was born near Stonewall, Texas.
In 1949, a violent white mob prevented an outdoor concert headlined by Paul Robeson from taking place near Peekskill, New York. (The concert was held eight days later.)
In 1963, author, journalist and civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois died in Accra, Ghana, at age 95.
In 1979, British war hero Lord Louis Mountbatten and three other people, including his 14-year-old grandson Nicholas, were killed off the coast of Ireland in a boat explosion claimed by the Irish Republican Army.
In 1989, the first U.S. commercial satellite rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida — a Delta booster carrying a British communications satellite, the Marcopolo 1.
In 2005, coastal residents jammed freeways and gas stations as they rushed to get out of the way of Hurricane Katrina, which was headed toward New Orleans.
In 2009, Jaycee Lee Dugard, kidnapped when she was 11, was reunited with her mother 18 years after her abduction in South Lake Tahoe, California.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Author Lady Antonia Fraser is 88. Actor Tommy Sands and bluegrass singer-musician J.D. Crowe are 83. Actor Tuesday Weld is 77. Actor G.W. Bailey and rock singer-musician Tim Bogert are 76. Actor Marianne Sagebrecht is 75. Country musician Jeff Cook is 71. Actor Paul Reubens is 68. Rock musician Alex Lifeson (Rush) and actor Peter Stormare are 67. Actor Diana Scarwid is 65. Rock musician Glen Matlock (The Sex Pistols) is 64. Golfer Bernhard Langer is 63. Country singer Jeffrey Steele, gospel singer Yolanda Adams and movie director Tom Ford (Film: “Nocturnal Animals”) are 59. Country musician Matthew Basford (Yankee Grey) and writer-producer Dean Devlin are 58. Rock musician Mike Johnson is 55. Rap musician Bobo (Cypress Hill) is 53. Country singer Colt Ford and actor Chandra Wilson are 51. Rock musician Tony Kanal (No Doubt) is 50. Actors Sarah Chalke and RonReaco Lee are 44. Rapper Mase is 43. Actorsinger Demetria McKinney is 42. Actors Aaron Paul and Shaun Weiss, and rock musician Jon Siebels (Eve 6) are 41. Actors Patrick J. Adams and Karla Mosley are 39. Actor Amanda Fuller is 36. Singer Mario is 34. Actor Alexa PenaVega is 32. Actor Ellar Coltrane is 26. Actor Savannah Paige Rae is 17.