TODAY IN HISTORY
On Aug. 26, 2020, all three scheduled NBA playoff games were postponed, with players — led by members of the Milwaukee Bucks — choosing to boycott in their strongest statement yet against racial injustice. (The games resumed three days later.)
Also on this date In 1883,
the island volcano Krakatoa began cataclysmic eruptions, leading to a massive explosion the following day.
In 1920,
the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing American women’s right to vote, was certified in effect by Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby.
In 1939,
the first televised major league baseball games were shown on experimental station W2XBS: a double-header between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers. (The Reds won the first game, 5-2, the Dodgers the second, 6-1.)
In 1957,
the Soviet Union announced it had successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile.
In 1968,
the Democratic National Convention opened in Chicago; the four-day event that resulted in the nomination of Hubert H. Humphrey for president was marked by a bloody police crackdown on antiwar protesters in the streets.
In 1985,
13-year-old AIDS patient Ryan White began “attending” classes at Western Middle School in Kokomo, Indiana, via a telephone hook-up at his home — school officials had barred Ryan from attending classes in person.
In 2018,
a gunman opened fire on fellow gamers at a video game tournament in Jacksonville, Florida, killing two men and wounding 10 others before taking his own life.
More than 2 million people along the Eastern Seaboard were ordered to move to safer ground as Hurricane Irene approached the coast.
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick remained seated on the bench rather than standing for the national anthem before the Niners hosted the Green Bay Packers in an exhibition game, saying he believed the United States was oppressing African Americans and other minorities.
Seventeen-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse was arrested in Illinois in the shooting deaths of two people and the wounding of another during a third night of protests in Kenosha, over the police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake. (Rittenhouse, who said he was defending himself, is awaiting trial on charges including two homicide counts.)
Associated Press