Today in History

Today is Wednesday, Aug. 28, the 240th day of 2019. There are 125 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On August 28, 1955, Emmett Till, a black teen-ager from Chicago, was abducted from his uncle's home in Money, Mississippi, by two white men after he had supposedly whistled at a white woman; he was found brutally slain three days later.

On this date:

In 1916, Italy declared war on Germany during World War I.

In 1944, during World War II, German forces in Toulon and Marseille, France, surrendered to Allied troops.

In 1963, more than 200,000 people listened as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

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 1987, a fire damaged the Arcadia, Florida, home of Ricky, Robert and Randy Ray, three hemophiliac brothers infected with AIDS whose court-ordered school attendance had sparked a local uproar. Academy Award-winning movie director John Huston died in Middletown, Rhode Island, at age 81.

In 1990, an F5 tornado struck the Chicago area, killing 29 people.

In 1996, Democrats nominated President Bill Clinton for a second term at their national convention in Chicago. The troubled 15-year marriage of Britain's Prince Charles and Princess Diana officially ended with the issuing of a divorce decree.

In 2005, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered everyone in the city to evacuate after Hurricane Katrina grew to a monster storm.

In 2008, surrounded by an enormous, adoring crowd at Invesco Field in Denver, Barack Obama accepted the Democratic presidential nomination, promising what he called a clean break from the "broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W. Bush."

In 2012, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney swept to the Republican presidential nomination at a storm-delayed national convention in Tampa, Florida.

In 2013, a military jury sentenced Maj. Nidal Hasan to death for the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood that claimed 13 lives. On the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial, President Barack Obama stood on the same steps as he challenged new generations to seize the cause of racial equality.

In 2017, floodwaters reached the rooflines of single-story homes as Hurricane Harvey poured rain on the Houston area for a fourth consecutive day; thousands of people had been rescued from the flooding.

Ten years ago: The Los Angeles County coroner's office announced that Michael Jackson's death was a homicide caused primarily by the powerful anesthetic propofol and another sedative, lorazepam. Celebrity disc jockey Adam Goldstein, known as DJ AM, was found dead in his New York apartment; he was 36.

Five years ago: Comedian Joan Rivers was rushed to New York's Mount Sinai Hospital after she suffered cardiac arrest at a doctor's office where she'd gone for a routine outpatient procedure (Rivers died a week later at age 81). Acknowledging he "didn't get it right" with a two-game suspension for Ravens running back Ray Rice, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell (guh-DEHL') announced tougher penalties for players accused of domestic violence, including six weeks for a first offense and at least a year for a second. Glenn Cornick, 67, the original bass player in the rock band Jethro Tull, died in Hilo, Hawaii.

One year ago: A white former police officer, Roy Oliver, was convicted of murder for fatally shooting an unarmed black 15-year-old boy, Jordan Edwards, while firing into a car packed with teenagers in suburban Dallas; Oliver was sentenced the following day to 15 years in prison. Puerto Rico's governor raised the official death toll from Hurricane Maria in the U.S. territory from 64 to 2,975, after an independent study found that the number of people who died in the aftermath of the 2017 storm had been severely undercounted. Mourners filed into an African American history museum in Detroit for a public viewing for the late Aretha Franklin, part of a week of commemorations for the soul legend.

Today's Birthdays: Actor Sonny Shroyer is 84. Actress Marla Adams is 81. Actor Ken Jenkins is 79. Former Defense Secretary William S. Cohen is 79. Actor David Soul is 76. Former MLB manager and player Lou Piniella is 76. Actress Barbara Bach is 73. Actress Debra Mooney is 72. Singer Wayne Osmond (The Osmonds) is 68. Actor Daniel Stern is 62. Olympic gold medal figure skater Scott Hamilton is 61. Actor John Allen Nelson is 60. Actress Emma Samms is 59. Actress Jennifer Coolidge is 58. Movie director David Fincher is 57. Actress Amanda Tapping is 54. Country singer Shania Twain is 54. Actor Billy Boyd is 51. Actor Jack Black is 50. Actor Jason Priestley is 50. Actor Daniel Goddard (TV: "The Young and the Restless") is 48. Olympic gold medal swimmer Janet Evans is 48. Actor J. August Richards is 46. Rock singer-musician Max Collins (Eve 6) is 41. Actress Carly Pope is 39. Country singer Jake Owen is 38. Country singer LeAnn Rimes is 37. Actress Kelly Thiebaud is 37. Actor Alfonso Herrera is 36. Actress Sarah Roemer is 35. Actor Armie Hammer is 33. Rock singer Florence Welch (Florence and the Machine) is 33. Actress Shalita Grant is 31. Country-pop singer Cassadee Pope (TV: "The Voice") is 30. Actress Katie Findlay is 29. Actor/singer Samuel Larsen is 28. Actor Kyle Massey is 28. Actress Quvenzhane Wallis is 16. Reality TV star Alana Thompson, AKA "Honey Boo Boo," is 14.

Thought for Today: "The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference." -- Elie Wiesel, Romanian-born journalist-author.

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