Today is Wednesday, Aug. 28, the 240th day of 2013. There are 125 days left in the year.
Highlight in History
• In 1922, the first radio commercial aired on WEAF in New York City; the 10-minute advertisement was for the Queensboro Realty Co., which had paid a fee of $100.
• In 1945, the Allies began occupying Japan at the end of World War II.
• In 1955, Emmett Till (right), 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 1963, more than 200,000 people listened as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
• In 1972, Mark Spitz (left) of the United States won the first two of his seven gold medals at the Munich Olympics, finishing first in the 200-meter butterfly and anchoring the 400-meter freestyle relay.
• In 1973, an earthquake shook Veracruz, Mexico; death toll estimates range from 600 to 1,200.
• In 1990, an F5 tornado struck the Chicago area, killing 29 people.
• Ten years ago: A Defense Department survey found that nearly 1 in 5 female Air Force Academy cadets said they had been sexually assaulted during their time at the academy.
• Five years 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.”
• One year ago: Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney swept to the Republican presidential nomination at a storm-delayed national convention in Tampa, Fla.
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)
Source: Associated Press