World News
August 28, MLK delivers the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech
Today is Wednesday, August 28, the 241st day of 2024. There are 125 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On August 28, 1963, during the March on Washington, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. his “I Have a Dream” speech to an estimated 250,000 people in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Also on this date:
In 1845 the first issue of the magazine “Scientific American” was published; it remains the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States.
In 1862, the Second Battle of Bull Run began in Prince William County, Virginia, during the Civil War; the Union army withdrew two days later after suffering 14,000 casualties.
In 1898, pharmacist Caleb Bradham of New Bern, North Carolina changed the name of the carbonated drink he had created five years earlier from “Brad’s Drink” to “Pepsi-Cola.”
In 1955, Emmett Till, a black teenager from Chicago, was kidnapped from his uncle’s house in Money, Mississippi, by two white men after whistling at a white woman four days earlier; three days later he was found brutally murdered.
In 1957, U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond (D.S.C.) began what remains the longest speaking filibuster in Senate history (24 hours and 18 minutes) in an attempt to delay passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957 .
In 1968, police and anti-war protesters clashed on the streets of Chicago as the Democratic National Convention nominated Hubert H. Humphrey for president.
In 1988, 70 people were killed when three Italian Air Force stunt planes collided during an air show at the US Air Force Base in Ramstein (RAHM’-shtyn), West Germany.
In 2005, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation as Hurricane Katrina approached the city.
In 2013, a military jury sentenced Major Nidal Hasan to death for the 2009 Fort Hood shooting that killed 13 people and injured 30.
In 2016, six scientists completed a year-long Mars simulation on the Big Island of Hawaii, where they emerged after living in a virtually isolated dome on Mauna Loa.
Today’s Birthdays:
- Former Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen is 84.
- Actor Ken Jenkins (TV: “Scrubs”) is 84.
- Former MLB manager and player Lou Piniella (pih-NEHL’-uh) is 81.
- Former MLB pitcher Ron Guidry (GIH’-dree) is 74.
- Former US Poet Laureate Rita Dove is 72.
- Artist Ai Weiwei is 67.
- Actor Daniel Stern is 67.
- Olympic gold medal figure skater Scott Hamilton is 66.
- Actor Jennifer Coolidge is 63.
- Film director David Fincher is 62.
- Country singer Shania (shah-NY’-uh) Twain is 59.
- “Pokemon” creator Satoshi Tajiri is 59.
- Actor Billy Boyd is 56.
- Actor Jack Black is 55.
- Hockey Hall of Famer Pierre Turgeon is 55.
- Actor Jason Priestley is 55.
- Technology director Sheryl Sandberg is 55.
- Olympic gold medal swimmer Janet Evans is 53.
- Actor Carly Pope is 43.
- Country singer Jake Owen is 43.
- Country singer LeAnn Rimes is 42.
- Rock singer Florence Welch (Florence and the Machine) is 38.
- Actor Quvenzhane (kwuh-VEHN’-zhah-nay) Wallis is 21.
