Today is Tuesday, May 28th, the 149th day of 2024. There are 217 days left this year.
Today’s History Highlights:
Elzir Dionne’s Dionne quintuplets, Annette, Cécile, Emily, Marie and Yvonne, were born on May 28, 1934, on 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.
The Sierra Club was founded in San Francisco in 1892.
In 1918, American forces launched an offensive against the German-occupied French village of Cantigny, fighting the first major battle of World War I, and American forces succeeded in capturing the village.
In 1937, Neville Chamberlain became British Prime Minister.
In 1940, during World War II, the Belgian army surrendered to the invading German forces.
In 1959, the U.S. Army sent a rhesus monkey named Able and a squirrel monkey named Baker on a suborbital Jupiter missile flight, and both primates survived.
In 1964, at the start of the Palestinian National Congress meeting in Jerusalem, the Charter of the Palestine Liberation Organization was issued.
Edward, Duke of Windsor, who abdicated the British throne in 1972 to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson, died in Paris at the age of 77.
In 1977, a fire broke out at the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Kentucky, killing 165 people.
In 1987, to the embarrassment of Soviet authorities, a young West German pilot, Matthias Rast, landed his private plane on Moscow’s Red Square without permission. (Rast was released by the Soviets the following year.)
In 1998, comedian Phil Hartman, known for his work on Saturday Night Live and Newsradio, was shot and killed by his wife, Brynn, in their Encino, California, home, who then committed suicide.
In 2013, federal prosecutors charged seven people with running an online underground bank in what they called perhaps the largest money-laundering scheme in U.S. history. They alleged that Liberty Reserve handled $6 billion for drug dealers, child pornographers, identity thieves and other criminals around the world.
In 2020, a Minneapolis police station was set on fire after police were forced to abandon it amid widespread protests over the death of George Floyd. Demonstrators in New York defied COVID-19 bans on gatherings and clashed with police. Demonstrators blocked traffic and destroyed vehicles in downtown Denver, but police used tear gas to disperse the crowds. At least seven people were shot dead in Louisville, Kentucky, during a shootout during a demonstration demanding justice for Breonna Taylor, a black woman who was shot and killed by police in her home in March.
In 2021, authorities announced that the remains of more than 200 children, including some as young as three years old, had been discovered buried at the site of what was once Canada’s largest Indigenous residential school.
In 2022, Ruben Östlund’s social satire film The Triangle of Sadness won the Palme d’Or at the 75th Cannes Film Festival, making Östlund the recipient of one of the most prestigious awards in the film industry for the second time.
In 2023, the highly acclaimed HBO drama Succession came to an end with its fourth season finale.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor Carroll Baker is 93. Producer and 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 Luis Mustillo is 66. Former Governor and Congressman Mark Sanford R.S.C. is 64. Actor Brandon Cruz (TV’s “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father”) is 62. Country singer Phil Vasser is 60. Actor Christa Miller is 60. Singer and musician Chris Barreau (The President of the USA, Casper Babypants) is 59. Rapper Chubb Rock is 56. Singer Kylie Minogue is 56. Actor Justin Kirk is 55. Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio is 53. Olympic figure skating gold medalist 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 is 42. Pop singer Colbie Caillat is 39. Actor Carey Mulligan is 39. Actor Joseph Cross is 38. Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Craig Kimbrel is 36 years old.
