Today is Saturday, May 28, the 149th day of 2016. There are 217 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On May 28, 1934, the Dionne quintuplets — Annette, Cecile, Emilie, Marie and Yvonne — were born to Elzire Dionne at the family farm in Ontario, Canada.
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 1912, the Senate Commerce Committee issued its report on the Titanic disaster that cited a “state of absolute unpreparedness,” improperly tested safety equipment and an “indifference to danger” as some of the causes of an “unnecessary tragedy.”
In 1929, the first all-color talking picture, “On with the Show!” produced by Warner Bros., opened in New York.
In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt pushed a button in Washington signaling that vehicular traffic could begin crossing the just-opened Golden Gate Bridge in California. Neville Chamberlain became prime minister of Britain.
In 1940, during World War II, the Belgian army surrendered to invading German forces.
In 1945, the novel “Brideshead Revisited” by Evelyn Waugh was published in London by Chapman & Hall.
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 1961, Amnesty International had its beginnings with the publication of an article in the British newspaper The Observer, “The Forgotten Prisoners.”
In 1977, 165 people were killed when fire raced through the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Kentucky.
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).
In 1998, comic actor Phil Hartman of “Saturday Night Live” and “NewsRadio” fame was shot to death at his home in Encino, California, by his wife, Brynn, who then killed herself.
Ten years ago: Pope Benedict XVI visited the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland as “a son of the German people” and asked God why he had remained silent during the “unprecedented mass crimes” of the Nazi Holocaust. Barry Bonds hit his 715th home run during the San Francisco Giants’ 6-3 loss to the Colorado Rockies to slip past Babe Ruth and pull in right behind Hank Aaron’s long-standing record of 755. Sam Hornish Jr. won the second-closest Indianapolis 500 ever, by point-0635 seconds.
Five years ago: President Barack Obama praised Poland’s transition to democracy following a meeting in Warsaw with President Bronislaw Komorowski (kah-mah-RAWF’-skee). After a four-year blockade, Egypt permanently opened the Gaza Strip’s main gateway to the outside world. North Korea freed Eddie Jun, an American it had held for a half year for reportedly proselytizing.
One year ago: A federal grand jury indictment handed up in Chicago revealed that former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert had agreed to pay $3.5 million in hush money to keep an unidentified person silent about “prior misconduct” by the Illinois Republican. (Hastert later pleaded guilty to breaking banking law; prosecutors said the money was intended to conceal past sexual abuse against a student wrestler while Hastert was a high school teacher and coach.) Sepp Blatter defiantly resisted calls for him to resign as FIFA president and deflected blame for the massive bribery and corruption scandal engulfing soccer’s world governing body. For the second straight year, the Scripps National Spelling Bee ended with co-champions as Vanya Shivashankar and Gokul Venkatachalam (GO’-kul VEHN’-kuh-TAHTCH’-uh-lum) were the last two standing.
Today’s Birthdays: Rockabilly singer-musician Sonny Burgess is 87. Actress Carroll Baker is 85. Producer-director Irwin Winkler is 85. Actor John Karlen is 83. Basketball Hall-of-Famer Jerry West is 78. Actress Beth Howland is 75. Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani is 72. Singer Gladys Knight is 72. Actress-director Sondra Locke is 72. Singer Billy Vera is 72. Actor Jean-Pierre Leaud is 72. Singer John Fogerty is 71. Country musician Jerry Douglas (Alison Krauss and Union Station) is 60. Actor Louis Mustillo is 58. U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C.., is 56. Actor Brandon Cruz (TV: “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father”) is 54. Country singer Phil Vassar is 52. Actress Christa Miller is 52. Singer-musician Chris Ballew (Presidents of the USA) is 51. Rapper Chubb Rock is 48. Singer Kylie Minogue (KY’-lee mihn-OHG’) is 48. Actor Justin Kirk is 47. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is 45. Olympic gold medal figure skater Ekaterina Gordeeva is 45. Television personality Elisabeth Hasselbeck is 39. Actor Jake Johnson is 38. Actor Jesse Bradford is 37. Actress Monica Keena is 37. Actress Alexa Davalos is 34. Actress Megalyn Echikunwoke (eh-cheek-uh-WALK’-ay) is 34. Pop singer Colbie Caillat (kal-LAY’) is 31. Actress Carey Mulligan is 31. Actor Joseph Cross is 30.
Thought for Today: “The bravest thing you can do when you are not brave is to profess courage and act accordingly.” — Corra May Harris, American writer (1869-1935).
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