Today in history

SUNDAY, MAY 28

Today’s highlight

On May 28, 1863, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, made up of freed Blacks, left Boston to fight for the Union in the Civil War.

On this date

1892: The Sierra Club was organized in San Francisco.

1918: American troops fought their first major battle during World War I as they launched an offensive against the German-held French village of Cantigny (kahn-tee-nyee’); the Americans succeeded in capturing the village.

1934: The Dionne quintuplets — Annette, Cecile, Emilie, Marie and Yvonne — were born to Elzire Dionne at the family farm in Ontario, Canada.

1937: Neville Chamberlain became prime minister of Britain.

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.

1964: The charter of the Palestine Liberation Organization was issued at the start of a meeting of the Palestine National Congress in Jerusalem.

1972: Edward, the Duke of Windsor, who had abdicated the English throne to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson, died in Paris at age 77. In 1977, 165 people were killed when fire raced through the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Kentucky.

Today’s birthdays

Actor Carroll Baker is 92. Producer-director Irwin Winkler is 92. Basketball Hall of Famer Jerry West is 85. Singer Gladys Knight is 79. Singer John Fogerty is 78. Country musician Jerry Douglas is 67. Rapper Chubb Rock is 55. Singer Kylie Minogue is 55. Actor Justin Kirk is 54. Olympic gold medal figure skater Ekaterina Gordeeva is 52. Pop singer Colbie Caillat is 38. Actor Carey Mulligan is 38. Actor Joseph Cross is 37.