# Today in History **URL:** \ **Category:** Thread Games\ **Created:** [July 10, 2016, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530 "2016-07-10T04:53:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 69
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2018, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1364 "2018-08-26T16:39:32Z")
**August 26, 1928:** At a cafe in Paisley, Scotland, a woman found the remains of a snail in her bottle of ginger beer, giving rise to the landmark civil case _Donoghue v. Stevenson_ ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2018, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1365 "2018-08-27T15:34:27Z")
**August 27, 1927:** [Five Canadian women](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Famous_Five_(Canada)) file a petition to the Supreme Court of Canada, asking, “Does the word ‘Persons’ in Section 24 of the British North America Act, 1867, include female persons?” ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2018, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1366 "2018-08-28T01:38:41Z")
**August 27, 1881** : [The Georgia/South Carolina Hurricane](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://devastatingdisasters.com/georgiasouth-carolina-hurricane-august-1881/&ved=2ahUKEwjNkonEy47dAhUkpFkKHWAZDccQFjADegQIBhAB&usg=AOvVaw04qDHaNNtEyPSYH7WvmIBf) strikes at the border of these states. Though only a Catagory 2 storm, at least 700 are killed. Exactly two years later the infamous [Sea Island Hurricane](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1893_Sea_Islands_hurricane) would strike in the same area on the same date and kill over 2000. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2018, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1367 "2018-08-28T09:54:34Z")
**August 28, 1898:** Caleb Bradham’s beverage “Brad’s Drink” is renamed “Pepsi-Cola”. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2018, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1368 "2018-08-28T13:53:57Z")
**August 28, 1990** : [The Plainfield tornado](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_Plainfield_tornado) in Illinois kills 29 and injures over 350. It is the only F5 tornado to ever strike near Chicago. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1369 "2018-08-29T05:02:22Z")
**August 28, 1955** : Black teenager Emmett Till is brutally murdered in Mississippi, galvanizing the nascent civil rights movement. **August 28, 1957** : U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond begins a filibuster to prevent the Senate from voting on Civil Rights Act of 1957; he stopped speaking 24 hours and 18 minutes later, the longest filibuster ever conducted by a single Senator. **August 28, 1963** : March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom: The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his _I Have a Dream_ speech. **August 28, 1964** : The Philadelphia race riot begins. **August 28, 1968** : Rioting takes place in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention, triggering a brutal police crackdown. **August 28, 1990** : Iraq declares Kuwait to be its newest province. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1370 "2018-08-29T05:12:36Z")
**August 29, 1949** : [The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb.](https://www.wired.com/2007/08/dayintech-0829/) ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1371 "2018-08-29T12:00:33Z")
**August 29, 2005:** Hurricane Katrina devastates much of the U.S. Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, killing up to 1,836 people and causing $125 billion in damage. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1372 "2018-08-29T13:36:33Z")
\*\*August 29, 1898: \*\*Preston Sturges, the noted American director and producer, was born. He is perhaps best known for such films as _The Great McGinty, Sullivan’s Travels, The Lady Eve_ and _The Palm Beach Story_. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1373 "2018-08-29T22:36:07Z")
**August 29, 1831** : Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction. **August 29, 1991** : Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union suspends all activities of the Soviet Communist Party. **August 29, 1997** : Netflix is launched as an internet DVD rental service. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2018, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1374 "2018-08-31T10:36:59Z")
**August 31, 1997:** Diana, Princess of Wales, dies following a car crash in Paris, along with her companion Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2018, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1375 "2018-08-31T14:28:18Z")
**August 31, 1886** : [An estimated 7.0 earthquake strikes Charleston, South Carolina](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/benchmarks-august-31-1886-magnitude-7-earthquake-rocks-charleston-south-carolina&ved=2ahUKEwiTjsOcvZfdAhVvs1kKHfu9CtMQFjAqegQIBxAB&usg=AOvVaw1oj521ppWKl0T5pVUKD1F7). This is the strongest known earthquake ever in the southeastern United States. Between 60 and 100 are killed and hundreds more are injured. Many of the city’s buildings are destroyed. The earthquake is felt as far away as Maine and Cuba. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2018, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1376 "2018-08-31T19:25:12Z")
\*\*August 31, 1740: \*\*Johann Friedrich Oberlin, Alsatian pastor, humanitarian and philanthropist, later the namesake of Oberlin College, is born. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2018, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1377 "2018-09-01T04:50:17Z")
\*\*September 1, 1939: \*\*General George C. Marshall becomes Chief of Staff of the United States Army. Oh, yeah, and Nazi Germany invades Poland, beginning World War II. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2018, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1378 "2018-09-01T05:11:38Z")
**September 1, 1894** : [The Great Hinkley Fire](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://library.massasoit.edu/americanfires/hickley&ved=2ahUKEwiHpuHhgZndAhULTt8KHdJpDkMQFjAiegQIARAB&usg=AOvVaw3vE9UH_DxUpLqTmir6ZZLi) destroys over 400 square miles in a single day. The town of Hinkley, Minnesota is completely destroyed. The official death toll from the flash fire storm is 418, but most scholars put the death toll as at least twice that number. Thomas P. “Boston” Corbett, the man known to have killed John Wilkes Booth after the Lincoln assassination is believed to have died in the tragic firestorm. ---
**Author:** ![CharmaChameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@CharmaChameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CharmaChameleon)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2018, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1379 "2018-09-01T21:28:31Z")
**September 1, 1894:** Upon an act of Congress, Labor Day is declared a national holiday. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2018, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1380 "2018-09-03T05:26:04Z")
**September 3, 1867** : [The overloaded passenger steamship _Princess Alice_](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-44800309)collides with the collier _Bywell Castle_ on the Thames River. The accident splits the pleasure craft _Princess Anne_ and sends most of her passengers into the polluted Thames waterway. Somewhere between 650 and 700 perish. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1381 "2018-09-04T04:53:23Z")
**September 4, 1963** : [Swissair Flight 306](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swissair_Flight_306) crashes shortly after takeoff in Zurich. All 80 aboard are killed. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1382 "2018-09-04T20:02:50Z")
History’s about more than crashes and disasters, innit? **September 4, 1781:** Los Angeles is founded as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora La Reina de los Ángeles (The Village of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels) by 44 Spanish settlers. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2018, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1383 "2018-09-05T04:48:38Z")
**September 5, 1881** : [The Great Thumb Fire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thumb_Fire) in Michigan kills 282 and burns over a million acres in a single day. The first relief effort ever of the newly-formed American Red Cross was for this fire. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530.md?page=68) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530.md?page=70)