This day in history

[August 28, 2009]  (AP)  Today is Friday, Aug. 28, the 240th day of 2009. There are 125 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On Aug. 28, 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.

On this date:

In 1609, English sea explorer Henry Hudson and his ship, the Half Moon, reached present-day Delaware Bay.

In 1774, Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American-born saint, was born in New York City.

In 1907, United Parcel Service had its beginnings as the American Messenger Company of Seattle.

In 1947, legendary bullfighter Manolete died after being gored during a fight in Linares, Spain; he was 30.

In 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 slain three days later.

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 600 people died as an earthquake shook central Mexico.

In 1983, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin announced his resignation.

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 1995, a mortar shell tore through a crowded market in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, killing some three dozen people and triggering NATO airstrikes against the Bosnian Serbs.

Ten years ago: Three crewmen aboard the Mir space station returned safely to Earth after bidding farewell to the 13-year-old Russian orbiter.

Five years 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.

One year ago: 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." Former U.S. Marine Jose Luis Nazario Jr., accused of killing unarmed Iraqi detainees in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, was acquitted of voluntary manslaughter in Riverside, Calif.

Today's birthdays: Country singer Billy Grammer is 84. Actor Ben Gazzara is 79. Actor Sonny Shroyer is 74. Actor Ken Jenkins is 69. Former Defense Secretary William S. Cohen is 69. Actor David Soul is 66. Baseball manager Lou Piniella is 66. Actress Debra Mooney is 62. Actress Alice Playten is 62. Singer Wayne Osmond (The Osmonds) is 58. Actor Daniel Stern is 52. Olympic gold medal figure skater Scott Hamilton is 51. Actor John Allen Nelson is 50. Actress Emma Samms is 49. Actress Jennifer Coolidge is 48. Movie director David Fincher (Film: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") is 47. Actress Amanda Tapping is 44. Country singer Shania Twain is 44. Actor Billy Boyd is 41. Actor Jack Black is 40. Actor Jason Priestley is 40. Olympic gold medal swimmer Janet Evans is 38. Actor J. August Richards is 36. Rock singer-musician Max Collins (Eve 6) is 31. Actress Carly Pope is 29. Country singer LeAnn Rimes is 27. Actor Michael Galeota is 25. Country singer Jake Owen is 25. Actor Armie Hammer is 23. Actor Kyle Massey is 18.

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)

[Associated Press]

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