Today in History

Today in History

Today is Friday, Aug. 28, the 241st day of 2020. There are 125 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On August 28, 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.

On this date:

In 1917, ten suffragists demanding that President Woodrow Wilson support a constitutional amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote were arrested as they picketed outside the White House.

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

In 1955, Emmett Till, a Black teen 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.

In 1964, two days of race-related rioting erupted in North Philadelphia over a false rumor that white police officers had beaten to death a pregnant Black woman.

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 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 2009, 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.

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 2014, 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).

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.

In 2018, 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.

Ten years ago: Conservative commentator Glenn Beck and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin headlined a "Restoring Honor" rally attended by tens of thousands in Washington. U.S. and Afghan forces repelled attackers wearing American uniforms and suicide vests in a pair of simultaneous assaults before dawn on NATO bases near the Pakistan border. A gunman in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, shot and killed the mother of his two children, the woman's boyfriend and three other people before fleeing with the children to Rancho Cucamonga, California, where he killed himself (the children were unharmed).

Five years ago: President Barack Obama compared tensions between the U.S. and Israel over the Iranian nuclear deal to a family feud, and said in a webcast with Jewish Americans that he expected quick improvements in ties between the longtime allies once the accord was implemented. A jury in Concord, New Hampshire, acquitted Owen Labrie, a prep school graduate, of rape but convicted him of committing lesser sex offenses against a 15-year-old freshman girl in a case that exposed a tradition in which seniors competed to see how many younger students they could have sex with.

One year ago: New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand dropped out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination; the campaign collapsed amid low polling and major fundraising struggles. Hurricane Dorian strengthened as it moved toward the U.S. Southeast coast; the storm left little damage in its wake in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson maneuvered to give his political opponents less time to block a chaotic no-deal Brexit, winning Queen Elizabeth's approval to suspend Parliament. (Britain's highest court later ruled that Johnson broke the law by suspending Parliament.)

Today's Birthdays: Actor Sonny Shroyer is 85. Actor Marla Adams is 82. Actor Ken Jenkins is 80. Former Defense Secretary William S. Cohen is 80. Actor David Soul is 77. Former MLB manager and player Lou Piniella (pihn-EHL'-uh) is 77. Actor Barbara Bach is 74. Actor Debra Mooney is 73. Singer Wayne Osmond (The Osmonds) is 69. Actor Daniel Stern is 63. Olympic gold medal figure skater Scott Hamilton is 62. Actor John Allen Nelson is 61. Actor Emma Samms is 60. Actor Jennifer Coolidge is 59. Movie director David Fincher is 58. Actor Amanda Tapping is 55. Country singer Shania Twain is 55. Actor Billy Boyd is 52. Actor Jack Black is 51. Actor Jason Priestley is 51. Actor Daniel Goddard (TV: "The Young and the Restless") is 49. Olympic gold medal swimmer Janet Evans is 49. Actor J. August Richards is 47. Rock singer-musician Max Collins (Eve 6) is 42. Actor Carly Pope is 40. Country singer Jake Owen is 39. Country singer LeAnn Rimes is 38. Actor Kelly Thiebaud is 38. Actor Alfonso Herrera is 37. Actor Sarah Roemer is 36. Actor Armie Hammer is 34. Rock singer Florence Welch (Florence and the Machine) is 34. Actor Shalita Grant is 32. Country-pop singer Cassadee Pope (TV: "The Voice") is 31. Actor Katie Findlay is 30. Actor/singer Samuel Larsen is 29. Actor Kyle Massey is 29. Actor Quvenzhane (kwuh-VEHN'-zhah-nay) Wallis is 17. Reality TV star Alana Thompson, AKA "Honey Boo Boo," is 15.