TODAY INHISTORY
Today isThursday, Aug. 27.
TODAY'SHIGHLIGHT OnAugust27,2008,
Barack Obamawas nominated for president by theDemocratic NationalConvention in Denver.
ONTHISDATE
In 1776, the Battle ofLong Islandbegan during the Revolutionary War as British troops attackedAmerican forceswhoended up being forced to retreat two days later.
In1858, the second debatebetween senatorial candidates Abraham Lincoln andStephenA. Douglas took place in Freeport, Ill.
In1908, Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th president of the UnitedStates, was born nearStonewall, Texas.
In 1949, a violent white mobpreventedan outdoor concert headlinedbyPaul Robeson fromtaking place nearPeekskill, NewYork.
(The concertwas held eight days later.)
In 1963, author, journalist and civil rights activistW.E.B. DuBois died inAccra, Ghana, at age 95.
In 1979, Britishwar hero Lord Louis Mountbatten and three other people, including his 14-year-old grandson Nicholas, were killed offthe coast of Ireland in aboat explosion claimedby the Irish RepublicanArmy.
In1989, the firstU.S. commercial satellite rocket was launched fromCape Canaveral, Florida— aDelta boostercarrying a British communications satellite, theMarcopolo 1.
In1998, two suspects in the bombing of theU.S. Embassy inKenyawere brought to theUnitedStates to face charges. Mohamed RashedDaoud al-‘Owhali and Mo ham med Sad diq Odehwere convictedin
2001 ofconspiring to carry out the bombing; bothwere sentencedto life in prison.) In2005, coastal residents jammedfreeways and gas stations as they rushed to get out of thewayof HurricaneKatrina, whichwas headed towardNewOrleans. In2006, a ComairCRJ-100 crashed after trying to take offfromthewrong runway in Lexington, Ky., killing49 people and leaving the copilot the sole survivor. In2009, mourners filedpast the closed casket of the late Sen. EdwardKennedy at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. Jaycee LeeDugard, kidnapped when she was 11, was reunitedwith hermother 18 years after herabduction inSouth LakeTahoe, California.
Tenyears ago: Aijalon Gomes, anAmerican who’dbeen held for seven months in NorthKorea for trespassing, stepped offa plane in hishometownof Boston accompaniedby former President Jimmy Carter, whohad flownto Pyongyang to negotiate his freedom.
Fiveyearsago: Visiting residents on tidy porch stoops and sampling food at a corner restaurant, President BarackObama held out thepeople ofNew Orleans as an extraordinary example of renewal and resilience 10years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
Oneyearago: Sixteen womenwhosaid theyhad been sexually abusedby Jeffrey Epstein poured out theiranger in court, as a judge gavethema chance to testify even though Epstein had diedbehind bars; the hearingwas held on a normally routine request to throwout the indictment because of thedefendant’s death.