Local History

50 years ago: Donald Gollnast was elected president of the New Ulm Business Districts Inc.

10 years ago: River Bend Education District’s board of directors approved soliciting bids for the renovation of the Quality Fitness building as the new home of the district’s offices and the Area Learning Center.

5 years ago: Brown County commissioners learned that there were more and longer chemically-dependent (CD) in-patient stays in fiscal year 2013 than in 2012.

One year ago: La Plaza Fiesta in Madelia held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to commemorate its new building.

And elsewhere…

Today is Tuesday, Aug. 28, the 240th day of 2018. There are 125 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight:

On August 28, 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.

On this date:

In 1609, English sea explorer Henry Hudson and his ship, the Half Moon, reached present-day Delaware Bay.

In 1862, the Second Battle of Bull Run (also known as Second Manassas) began in Prince William County, Virginia, during the Civil War; the result was a Confederate victory.

In 1916, Italy declared war on Germany during World War I.

In 1941, Japan’s ambassador to the U.S., Kichisaburo Nomura, presented a note to President Franklin D. Roosevelt from Japan’s prime minister, Prince Fumimaro Konoye, expressing a desire for improved relations.

In 1955, Emmett Till, a black teen-ager from Chicago, was abducted from his uncle’s home in Money, Mississippi, by two white men after he had supposedly whistled at a white woman; he was found brutally slain three days later.

In 1968, police and anti-war demonstrators clashed in the streets of Chicago as the Democratic National Convention nominated Hubert H. Humphrey for president.

In 1972, Mark Spitz 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 1988, 70 people were killed when three Italian stunt planes collided during an air show at the U.S. Air Base in Ramstein, West Germany.

In 1990, an F5 tornado struck the Chicago area, killing 29 people.

In 1995, a mortar shell tore through a crowded market in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, killing some three dozen people and triggering NATO airstrikes against the Bosnian Serbs.

In 1996, the troubled 15-year marriage of Britain’s Prince Charles and Princess Diana officially ended with the issuing of a divorce decree.

In 2005, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered everyone in the city to evacuate after Hurricane Katrina grew to a monster storm.

Five years ago: A military jury sentenced Maj. Nidal Hasan to death for the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood that claimed 13 lives.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor David Soul is 75. Former MLB manager and player Lou Piniella is 75. Actress Barbara Bach is 72. Actor Daniel Stern is 61. Olympic gold medal figure skater Scott Hamilton is 60. Actress Emma Samms is 58. Country singer Shania Twain is 53. Actor Billy Boyd is 50. Actor Jack Black is 49. Actor Jason Priestley is 49. Country singer LeAnn Rimes is 36. Actor Armie Hammer is 32. Reality TV star Alana Thompson, AKA “Honey Boo Boo,” is 13.

Thought for Today: “The man who views the world at fifty the same as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.” — Muhammad Ali, American boxing champion (1942-2016).