On August 28, 1955, while visiting family in Money, Mississippi, 14-year-old Emmett Till, an African American from Chicago, is brutally murdered for allegedly flirting with a white woman four days earlier.
His assailants—the white woman’s husband and his brother—made Emmett carry a 75-pound cotton gin fan to the bank of the Tallahatchie River and ordered him to take off his clothes. The two men then beat him nearly to death, gouged out his eye, shot him in the head and then threw his body, tied to the cotton gin fan with barbed wire, into the river.
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1960: Nigeria Participated for the first time in preliminary matches of the world cup losing 4 – 1 to Ghana ahead the 1962 World Cup finals.
1963: Martin Luther King Jr. delivers “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington
On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., the African American civil rights movement reaches its high-water mark when Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech to about 250,000 people attending the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The demonstrators—Black and white, poor and rich—came together in the nation’s capital to demand voting rights and equal opportunity for African Americans and to appeal for an end to racial segregation and discrimination.
1969: Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe held a press conference in Nigeria House in London, identifying himself with the cause of one indestructible and indivisible Nigeria.
1996: After four years of separation, Charles, the divorce of Charles, the Prince of Wales, and Princess Diana was finalized in a decree absolute issued in London’s High Court. Under the terms of the divorce settlement, Diana was stripped of her ‘Royal Highness’ title.
2003: An electricity blackout cut off power to around 500,000 people living in the south east England and brought 60% of London’s underground rail network to a halt.
2003: Britney Spears and Madonna kiss at the VMAs
In what became an instantly iconic moment of early 2000s pop culture, Britney Spears and Madonna share a passionate kiss at the MTV Video Music Awards on August 28, 2003.
2005: Hurricane Katrina reaches Category 5 strength; Louisiana Superdome opened as a “refuge of last resort” in New Orleans.
BIRTHS ON THIS DAY: August 28
Mercy Johnson, 40 years
Mercy Johnson Okojie hails from Okene in Kogi State, located in the middle belt region of Nigeria. Born in Lagos State on 28 August 1984 in Lagos. A Nigerian actress, film director and film producer. Right after her secondary education, she auditioned for a role in the movie titled The Maid and subsequently acted in other movies such as Hustlers, Baby Oku in America, and War in the Palace.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born on 28 August 1749 in Frankfurt, Germany.
He was a German polymath and writer, who is widely regarded as the greatest and most influential writer in the German language. His persistent thirst for knowledge was his greatest motivation.
His work has had a profound and wide-ranging influence on Western literary, political, and philosophical thought from the late 18th century to the present day. He died on 22 March 1832 in Weimar at 82.
