This day in history

[May 28, 2010]  (AP)  Today is Friday, May 28, the 148th day of 2010. There are 217 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On May 28, 1863, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, made up of freed blacks, left Boston to fight for the Union in the Civil War.

On this date:

In 1533, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, declared the marriage of England's King Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn valid.

In 1892, the Sierra Club was organized in San Francisco.

In 1918, the Battle of Cantigny (kahn-tee-NYEE') began during World War I as American troops captured the French town from the Germans.

In 1929, the first all-color talking picture, "On with the Show," opened in New York.

In 1934, the Dionne quintuplets -- Annette, Cecile, Emilie, Marie and Yvonne -- were born to Elzire Dionne at the family farm in Ontario, Canada.

In 1937, Neville Chamberlain became prime minister of Britain.

In 1940, during World War II, the Belgian army surrendered to invading German forces.

In 1959, the U.S. Army launched Able, a rhesus monkey, and Baker, a squirrel monkey, aboard a Jupiter missile for a suborbital flight which both primates survived.

In 1972, Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor, who had abdicated the English throne to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson, died in Paris at age 77.

In 1985, David Jacobsen, director of the American University Hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, was abducted by pro-Iranian kidnappers (he was freed 17 months later).

Ten years ago: President Alberto Fujimori of Peru won a lopsided re-election victory in a runoff vote that had been boycotted by his opponent. Juan Montoya won the 84th Indianapolis 500, becoming the first rookie champion since Graham Hill in 1966.

Five years ago: Two bombs exploded in a crowded market in the Indonesian town of Tentena, killing at least 22 people and wounding 40.

One year ago: A white New York City police officer mistakenly killed an off-duty black colleague in a friendly fire incident in East Harlem. (A grand jury declined to indict Officer Andrew Dunton in the shooting of Officer Omar Edwards, who had drawn his gun and was chasing a man who had broken into his car.) Kavya Shivashankar, a 13-year-old girl from Kansas, spelled "laodicean" (indifference to religion) to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Today's birthdays: Rockabilly singer-musician Sonny Burgess is 81. Actress Carroll Baker is 79. Producer-director Irwin Winkler is 79. Actor John Karlen is 77. Basketball Hall-of-Famer Jerry West is 72. Actress Beth Howland is 69. Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani is 66. Singer Gladys Knight is 66. Singer Billy Vera is 66. Singer John Fogerty is 65. Actress-director Sondra Locke is 63. Country musician Jerry Douglas (Alison Krauss and Union Station) is 54. Actor Brandon Cruz (TV: "The Courtship of Eddie's Father") is 48. Country singer Phil Vassar is 48. Actress Christa Miller is 46. Singer-musician Chris Ballew (Presidents of the USA) is 45. Rapper Chubb Rock is 42. Singer Kylie Minogue (KY'-lee mihn-OHG') is 42. Actor Justin Kirk is 41. Television personality Elisabeth Hasselbeck ("The View") is 33. Actor Jesse Bradford is 31. Actress Monica Keena is 31. Pop singer Colbie Caillat (kal-LAY') is 25. Actress Carey Mulligan is 25. Actor Joseph Cross is 24.

Thought for today: "Time does not become sacred to us until we have lived it, until it has passed over us and taken with it a part of ourselves." -- John Burroughs, American author and naturalist (1837-1921)

[Associated Press]

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