Today is Wednesday, Aug. 28, the 241st day of 2024. There are 125 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On Aug. 28, 1963, during the March on Washington, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech before 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 “Scientific American” magazine 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 retreated two days later after suffering 14,000 casualties.
In 1898, pharmacist Caleb Bradham of New Bern, North Carolina changed the name of the carbonated beverage he’d created five years earlier from “Brad’s Drink” to “Pepsi-Cola.”
In 1955, Emmett Till, a Black teenager from Chicago, was abducted from his uncle’s home in Money, Mississippi, by two white men after he had allegedly whistled at a white woman four days prior; he was found brutally slain three days later.
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 effort to stall the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
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 Air Force stunt planes collided during an air show at the U.S. Air 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 Maj. Nidal Hasan to death for the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood that claimed 13 lives and left 30 people injured.
In 2016, six scientists completed a yearlong Mars simulation on the big island of Hawaii, where they emerged after living in a dome in near isolation on Mauna Loa.
Today’s Birthdays:
- Former Defense Secretary 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 U.S. 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 executive 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.
