TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Saturday, May 28, the 149th day of 2016. There are 217 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History
On May 28, 1934, the Dionne quintuplets — Annette, Cecile, Emilie, Marie and Yvonne — were born to Elzire Dionne at the family farm in Ontario, Canada.
On this date
1533 — The Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, declared the marriage of England’s King Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn valid. 1892 — The Sierra Club was organized in San Francisco. 1912 — The Senate Commerce Committee issued its report on the Titanic disaster that cited a “state of absolute unpreparedness,” improperly tested safety equipment and an “indifference to danger” as some of the causes of an “unnecessary tragedy.” 1929 — The first all-color talking picture, “On with the Show!” produced by Warner Bros., opened in New York. 1940 — During World War II, the Belgian army surrendered to invading German forces. 1959 — The U.S. Army launched Able, a rhesus monkey, and Baker, a squirrel monkey, aboard a Jupiter missile for a suborbital flight which both primates survived. 1961 — Amnesty International had its beginnings with the publication of an article in the British newspaper The Observer, “The Forgotten Prisoners.” 1977 — Fire raced through the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Kentucky, killing 165 people. 1985 — David Jacobsen, director of the American University Hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, was abducted by pro-Iranian kidnappers. (He was freed 17 months later.) 1998 — Comic actor Phil Hartman of “Saturday Night Live” and “NewsRadio” fame was shot to death at his home in Encino, California, by his wife, Brynn, who then killed herself.
Five years ago
President Barack Obama praised Poland’s transition to democracy following a meeting in Warsaw with President Bronislaw Komorowski.
After a four-year blockade, Egypt permanently opened the Gaza Strip’s main gateway to the outside world.
North Korea freed Eddie Jun, an American it had held for a half year for reportedly proselytizing.
One year ago
A federal grand jury indictment handed up in Chicago revealed that former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert had agreed to pay $3.5 million in hush money to keep an unidentified person silent about “prior misconduct” by the Illinois Republican. (Hastert later pleaded guilty to breaking banking law; prosecutors said the money was intended to conceal past sexual abuse against a student wrestler while Hastert was a high school teacher and coach.)
Today’s Birthdays
Rockabilly singer-musician Sonny Burgess is 87. Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani is 72. Singer Gladys Knight is 72. Singer John Fogerty is 71. U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C.., is 56. Singer Kylie Minogue is 48. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is 45. TV personality Elisabeth Hasselbeck is 39. Actress Alexa Davalos is 34. Actress Megalyn Echikunwoke is 34. Pop singer Colbie Caillat is 31. Actor Joseph Cross is 30. Johnson Elementary School first-grader Sam Bradley, son of Scott and Erin Bradley of Rome, is 7.