Today in History

Today in History

Today is Thursday, Aug. 27, the 240th day of 2020. There are 126 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On August 27, 2008, Barack Obama was nominated for president by the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

On this date:

In 1776, the Battle of Long Island began during the Revolutionary War as British troops attacked American forces who ended up being forced to retreat two days later.

In 1858, the second debate between senatorial candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas took place in Freeport, Ill.

In 1908, Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th president of the United States, was born near Stonewall, Texas.

In 1949, a violent white mob prevented an outdoor concert headlined by Paul Robeson from taking place near Peekskill, New York. (The concert was held eight days later.)

In 1963, author, journalist and civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois died in Accra, Ghana, at age 95.

In 1964, President Lyndon Baines Johnson accepted his party's nomination for a term in his own right, telling the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, "Let us join together in giving every American the fullest life which he can hope for."

In 1979, British war hero Lord Louis Mountbatten and three other people, including his 14-year-old grandson Nicholas, were killed off the coast of Ireland in a boat explosion claimed by the Irish Republican Army.

In 1989, the first U.S. commercial satellite rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida -- a Delta booster carrying a British communications satellite, the Marcopolo 1.

In 1998, two suspects in the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Kenya were brought to the United States to face charges. (Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-'Owhali and Mohammed Saddiq Odeh were convicted in 2001 of conspiring to carry out the bombing; both were sentenced to life in prison.)

In 2005, coastal residents jammed freeways and gas stations as they rushed to get out of the way of Hurricane Katrina, which was headed toward New Orleans.

In 2006, a Comair CRJ-100 crashed after trying to take off from the wrong runway in Lexington, Ky., killing 49 people and leaving the co-pilot the sole survivor.

In 2009, mourners filed past the closed casket of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. Jaycee Lee Dugard, kidnapped when she was 11, was reunited with her mother 18 years after her abduction in South Lake Tahoe, California.

Ten years ago: Aijalon Gomes, an American who'd been held for seven months in North Korea for trespassing, stepped off a plane in his hometown of Boston accompanied by former President Jimmy Carter, who had flown to Pyongyang to negotiate his freedom. Cuba issued a pair of surprising free market decrees, allowing foreign investors to lease government land for at least 99 years and loosening state controls on commerce to let citizens grow and sell their own fruits and vegetables.

Five years ago: Visiting residents on tidy porch stoops and sampling food at a corner restaurant, President Barack Obama held out the people of New Orleans as an extraordinary example of renewal and resilience 10 years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Ex-NBA star Darryl Dawkins, 58, whose board-shattering dunks earned him the moniker "Chocolate Thunder" and helped pave the way for breakaway rims, died in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

One year ago: Sixteen women who said they had been sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein poured out their anger in court, as a judge gave them a chance to testify even though Epstein had died behind bars; the hearing was held on a normally routine request to throw out the indictment because of the defendant's death. Rapper Meek Mill pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor gun charge in a deal resolving a 2007 arrest that had kept the rapper on probation or in prison for most of his adult life. In her debut at the U.S. Open, 15-year-old Coco Gauff trailed by a set and a break before recovering to beat Anastasia Potapova of Russia.

Today's Birthdays: Author Lady Antonia Fraser is 88. Actor Tommy Sands is 83. Bluegrass singer-musician J.D. Crowe is 83. Actor Tuesday Weld is 77. Actor G.W. Bailey is 76. Rock singer-musician Tim Bogert is 76. Actor Marianne Sagebrecht is 75. Country musician Jeff Cook is 71. Actor Paul Reubens is 68. Rock musician Alex Lifeson (Rush) is 67. Actor Peter Stormare is 67. Actor Diana Scarwid is 65. Rock musician Glen Matlock (The Sex Pistols) is 64. Golfer Bernhard Langer is 63. Country singer Jeffrey Steele is 59. Gospel singer Yolanda Adams is 59. Movie director Tom Ford (Film: "Nocturnal Animals") is 59. Country musician Matthew Basford (Yankee Grey) is 58. Writer-producer Dean Devlin is 58. Rock musician Mike Johnson is 55. Rap musician Bobo (Cypress Hill) is 53. Country singer Colt Ford is 51. Actor Chandra Wilson is 51. Rock musician Tony Kanal (No Doubt) is 50. Actor Sarah Chalke is 44. Actor RonReaco Lee is 44. Rapper Mase is 43. Actor-singer Demetria McKinney is 42. Actor Aaron Paul is 41. Rock musician Jon Siebels (Eve 6) is 41. Actor Shaun Weiss is 41. Contemporary Christian musician Megan Garrett (Casting Crowns) is 40. Actor Kyle Lowder is 40. Actor Patrick J. Adams is 39. Actor Karla Mosley is 39. Actor Amanda Fuller is 36. Singer Mario is 34. Actor Alexa PenaVega is 32. Actor Ellar Coltrane is 26. Actor Savannah Paige Rae is 17.