Today in history
Today is Wednesday, Aug. 28, the 240th day of 2019. There are 125 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On August 28, 1955, Emmett Till, a black teenager from Chicago, was abducted from his uncle’s home in Money, Mississippi, by two white men after he had supposedly whistled at a white woman; he was found brutally slain three days later.
On this date:
In 1916, Italy declared war on Germany during World War I.
In 1944, during World War II, German forces in Toulon and Marseille (mahr-SAY’), France, surrendered to Allied troops.
In 1963, more than 200,000 people listened as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
In 1968, police and antiwar demonstrators clashed in the streets of Chicago as the Democratic National Convention nominated Hubert H. Humphrey for president.
In 1987, a fire damaged the Arcadia, Fla., home of Ricky, Robert and Randy Ray, three hemophiliac brothers infected with AIDS whose court-ordered school attendance had sparked a local uproar. Academy Award-winning movie director John Huston died in Middletown, R.I., at age 81.
In 1990, an F5 tornado struck the Chicago area, killing 29 people.
In 1996, Democrats nominated President Bill Clinton for a second term at their national convention in Chicago. The troubled 15year marriage of Britain’s Prince Charles and Princess Diana officially ended with the issuing of a divorce decree.
In 2005, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin (NAY’gin) ordered everyone in the city to evacuate after Hurricane Katrina grew to a monster storm.
In 2008, surrounded by an enormous, adoring crowd at Invesco Field in Denver, Barack Obama accepted the Democratic presidential nomination, promising what he called a clean break from the “broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W. Bush.”
In 2012, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney swept to the Republican presidential nomination at a storm-delayed national convention in Tampa, Florida.
In 2013, a military jury sentenced Maj. Nidal Hasan to death for the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood that claimed 13 lives.