TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: AUG 28
1189 Third Crusade: the Crusaders begin the Siege of Acre under Guy of Lusignan
1609 English explorer Henry Hudson, discovers and explores Delaware Bay
1619 Ferdinand II was elected Holy Roman Emperor. His policy of “One church, one king” was his way of trying to outlaw Protestantism.
1655 New Amsterdam & Peter Stuyvesant bars Jews from military service
1676 Indian chief King Philip, also known as Metacom, is killed by English soldiers, ending the war between Indians and colonists.
1789 Sir William Herschel discovers Saturn’s moon Enceladus
1845 Scientific American magazine publishes its first issue
1907 “American Messenger Company” was started by two teenagers, Jim Casey and Claude Ryan. The company’s name was later changedto “United Parcel Service.”
1937 Toyota Motor Corporation is Formed
1938 The first degree given to a ventriloquist’s dummy is awarded to Charlie McCarthy–Edgar Bergen’s wooden partner. The honorary degree, “Master of Innuendo and Snappy Comeback,” is presented on radio by Ralph Dennis, the dean of the School of Speech at Northwestern University.
1941 The German U-boat U-570 is captured by the British and renamed Graph
1945 Chinese communist leader Mao Tse-Tung arrives in Chunking to confer with Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-Shek in a futile effort to avert civil war.
1955 Emmett Till is Murdered in Mississippi. The 14-year old African-American boy was brutally killed by white men after he was allegedly reported to have flirted with a white woman a day before.
1957 Sen Thurmond begins 24-hr filibuster against civil rights bill
1963 One of the largest demonstrations in the history of the United States, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, takes place and reaches its climax at the base of the Lincoln Memorial when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “I have a dream” speech.
1968 Clash between police and anti-war demonstrators during Democratic Party’s National Convention in Chicago.
1981 The Centers for Disease Control announced a medical task force had been formed to look into the incidence of Kaposi’s sarcoma and pneumocystis in homosexual men. AIDS was later found to be the cause.
1981 John Hinckley Jr. pleads innocent to attempting to assassinate Pres. Ronald Reagan.
1983 Israeli’s prime minister Menachem Begin announces his resignation.
1986 US Navy officer Jerry A. Whitworth given 365-year prison term for spying for USSR.
1996 A divorce decree was issued for Britain’s Charles and Princess Diana. This was the official end to the 15-year marriage.
2003 Power blackout affects half-million people in southeast England and halts 60% of London’s underground trains.
2005 Hurricane Katrina reaches Category 5 strength; Louisiana Superdome opened as a “refuge of last resort” in New Orleans.
REFERENCE: HISTORY.NET, ONTHISDAY.COM, TIMEANDDATE.COM, INFOPLEASE.COM, FACTMONSTER.COM, SCOPESYS.COM, ON-THIS-DAY.COM, THEPEOPLEHISTORY.COM
