Today in History
Today is Tuesday, May 28, the 149th day of 2024. 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 1863, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, made up of freed Black men, left Boston to fight for the Union in the Civil War.
In 1892, the Sierra Club was founded in San Francisco.
In 1918, American troops fought their first major battle during World War I as they launched an offensive against the German-held French village of Cantigny (kahn-tee-NYEE’); the Americans succeeded in capturing the village.
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 1964, the charter of the Palestine Liberation Organization was issued at the start of a meeting of the Palestine National Congress in Jerusalem.
In 1972, Edward, the Duke of Windsor, who had abdicated the English throne to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson, died in Paris at age 77.
In 1977, 165 people were killed when fire raced through the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Kentucky.
In 1987, to the embarrassment of Soviet officials, Mathias Rust (mah-TEE’-uhs rust), a young West German pilot, landed a private plane in Moscow’s Red Square without authorization. (Rust was freed by the Soviets the following year.)
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.
In 2013, calling it perhaps the biggest money-laundering scheme in U.S. history, federal prosecutors charged seven people with running what amounted to an online, underworld bank, saying that Liberty Reserve handled $6 billion for drug dealers, child pornographers, identity thieves and other criminals around the globe.
In 2020, people torched a Minneapolis police station that the department was forced to abandon amid spreading protests over the death of George Floyd. Protesters in New York defied a coronavirus prohibition on public gatherings, clashing with police; demonstrators blocked traffic and smashed vehicles in downtown Denver before police used tear gas to disperse the crowd. At least seven people were shot as gunfire erupted during a protest in Louisville, Kentucky, to demand justice for Breonna Taylor, a Black woman who was fatally shot by police in her home in March.
In 2021, officials announced that the remains of more than 200 children, some as young as 3 years old, had been found buried on the site of what was once Canada’s largest indigenous residential school.
In 2022, director Ruben Ostlund’s social satire “Triangle of Sadness” won the Palme d’Or at the 75th Cannes Film Festival, giving Ostlund one of cinema’s most prestigious prizes for the second time.
In 2023, the critically acclaimed HBO drama “Succession” ended with its the finale of its fourth season.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Carroll Baker is 93. Producer-director Irwin Winkler is 93. Basketball Hall of Famer Jerry West is 86. Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani is 80. Singer Gladys Knight is 80. Singer Billy Vera is 80. Singer John Fogerty (Creedence Clearwater Revival) is 79. Country musician Jerry Douglas is 68. Actor Louis Mustillo is 66. Former governor and U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., is 64. Actor Brandon Cruz (TV: “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father”) is 62. Country singer Phil Vassar is 60. Actor Christa Miller is 60. Singer-musician Chris Ballew (Presidents of the USA, Caspar Babypants) is 59. Rapper Chubb Rock is 56. Singer Kylie Minogue (KY’-lee mihn-OHG’) is 56. Actor Justin Kirk is 55. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is 53. Olympic gold medal figure skater Ekaterina Gordeeva is 53. Television personality Elisabeth Hasselbeck is 47. R&B singer Jaheim is 47. Actor Jake Johnson is 46. Actor Jesse Bradford is 45. Actor Monica Keena is 45. Actor Alexa Davalos is 42. Actor Megalyn Echikunwoke (eh-cheek-uh-WALK’-ay) is 42. Pop singer Colbie Caillat (kal-LAY’) is 39. Actor Carey Mulligan is 39. Actor Joseph Cross is 38. Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Craig Kimbrel is 36.