Today is Sunday, Aug. 28, the 240th day of 2005. There are 125 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
Fifty years ago, on Aug. 28, 1955, Emmett Till, a black teenager from Chicago, was abducted from his uncle’s home in Money, Miss., by two white men after he had supposedly whistled at a white woman. He was found brutally murdered three days later. (Two men charged with Till’s murder — Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam — were acquitted at trial. They later confessed in a magazine article to beating and shooting Till.)
On this date:
In 1609, Henry Hudson discovered Delaware Bay.
In 1774, Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American-born saint, was born in New York City.
In 1916, Italy’s declaration of war against Germany took effect during World War I.
In 1917, 10 suffragists were arrested as they picketed the White House.
In 1947, legendary bullfighter Manolete was mortally wounded by a bull during a fight in Linares, Spain; he died the following day at age 30.
In 1963, 200,000 people participated in a peaceful civil rights rally in Washington D.C., where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
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 1973, more than 520 people died as an earthquake shook central Mexico.
In 1988, 70 people were killed when three Italian stunt planes collided during an air show at the U.S. Air Base in Ramstein, West Germany.
In 1996, Democrats nominated President Clinton for a second term at their national convention in Chicago.
Ten years ago: Chase Manhattan and Chemical Banking announced a $10 billion-dollar deal to create the biggest bank in the nation. A mortar shell tore through a crowded market in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, killing 38 people and triggering NATO airstrikes against the Bosnian Serbs. California Governor Pete Wilson formally entered the GOP presidential race.
Five years ago: Authorities in Peru announced that four years after military judges convicted American Lori Berenson of planning a rebel attack, the military had overturned her life sentence, clearing the way for a new civilian trial. (Berenson, who maintains her innocence, was later convicted of “terrorist collaboration” and sentenced to 20 years in prison.)
One year ago: Islamic militants claiming to be holding two French journalists in Iraq gave France 48 hours to overturn the law banning the wearing of Islamic head scarves in schools. (The reporters, Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, were released in December 2004.) The U.S. men’s basketball team won the bronze, the 100th U.S. medal of the Athens Games.
Today’s Birthdays: Country singer Billy Grammer is 80. Actor Ben Gazzara is 75. Former Defense Secretary William S. Cohen is 65. Actor David Soul is 62. Baseball manager Lou Piniella is 62. Actress Alice Playten is 58. Singer Wayne Osmond (The Osmonds) is 54. Actor Daniel Stern is 48. Olympic gold medal figure skater Scott Hamilton is 47. Actress Emma Samms is 45. Country singer Shania Twain is 40. Actor Billy Boyd (“The Lord of the Rings”) is 37. Actor Jack Black is 36. Actor Jason Priestley is 36. Olympic gold medal swimmer Janet Evans is 34. Actor J. August Richards is 32. Rock singer-musician Max Collins (Eve 6) is 27. Actress Carly Pope is 25. Country singer LeAnn Rimes is 23. Actor Michael Galeota is 21.
Thought for Today: “The essence of immorality is the tendency to make an exception of one’s self.” — Jane Addams, American social worker and Nobel Peace laureate (1860-1935).