TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Saturday, Aug. 28, the 240th day of 2021. There are 125 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On August 28, 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.
On this date:
• In 1609, English sea explorer Henry Hudson and his ship, the Half Moon, reached present-day Delaware Bay.
• In 1941, Japan’s ambassador to the U.S., Kichisaburo Nomura, presented a note to President Franklin D. Roosevelt from Japan’s prime minister, Prince Fumimaro Konoye, expressing a desire for improved relations.
• In 1955, Emmett Till, a Black teen 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.
• In 1964, two days of race-related rioting erupted in North Philadelphia over a false rumor that white police officers had beaten to death a pregnant Black woman.
• In 1968, police and anti-war demonstrators clashed in the streets of Chicago as the Democratic National Convention nominated Hubert H. Humphrey for president.
• In 1988, 70 people were killed when three Italian stunt planes collided during an air show at the U.S. Air Base in Ramstein (RAHM’shtyn), West Germany.
• In 1996, the troubled 15-year 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 2009, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office announced that Michael Jackson’s death was a homicide caused primarily by the powerful anesthetic propofol (PROH’-puh-fahl) and another sedative, lorazepam (lor-AZ’-uh-pam).
• In 2013, a military jury sentenced Maj. Nidal Hasan to death for the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood that claimed 13 lives. On the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial, President Barack Obama stood on the same steps as he challenged new generations to seize the cause of racial equality.
• In 2017, floodwaters reached the rooflines of single-story homes as Hurricane Harvey poured rain on the Houston area for a fourth consecutive day; thousands of people had been rescued from the flooding.
• In 2018, a white former police officer, Roy Oliver, was convicted of murder for fatally shooting a Black 15-year-old boy, Jordan Edwards, while firing into a car packed with teenagers in suburban Dallas; Oliver was sentenced the following day to 15 years in prison.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Sonny Shroyer is 86. Actor Marla Adams is 83. Actor Ken Jenkins is 81. Former Defense Secretary William S. Cohen is 81. Actor David Soul is 78. Former MLB manager and player Lou Piniella (pihnEHL’-uh) is 78. Actor Barbara Bach is 75. Actor Debra Mooney is 74. Singer Wayne Osmond (The Osmonds) is
70. Actor Daniel Stern is 64. Olympic gold medal figure skater Scott Hamilton is 63. Actor John Allen Nelson is
62. Actor Emma Samms is
61. Actor Jennifer Coolidge is 60. Movie director David Fincher is 59. Actor Amanda Tapping is 56. Country singer Shania (shah-NY’-uh) Twain is 56. Actor Billy Boyd is 53. Actor Jack Black is 52. Actor Jason Priestley is 52. Actor Daniel Goddard (TV: “The Young and the Restless”) is 50. Olympic gold medal swimmer Janet Evans is 50. Actor J. August Richards is
48. Rock singer-musician Max Collins (Eve 6) is 43. Actor Carly Pope is 41. Country singer Jake Owen is 40. Country singer LeAnn Rimes is 39. Actor Kelly Thiebaud is 39. Actor Alfonso Herrera is 38. Actor Sarah Roemer is 37. Actor Armie Hammer is 35. Rock singer Florence Welch (Florence and the Machine) is 35. Actor Shalita Grant is 33. Country-pop singer Cassadee Pope (TV: “The Voice”) is 32. Actor Katie Findlay is 31. Actor/singer Samuel Larsen is 30. Actor Kyle Massey is 30. Actor Quvenzhane (kwuh-VEHN’zhah-nay) Wallis is 18. Reality TV star Alana Thompson, AKA “Honey Boo Boo,” is 16.