This day in history

Dear Congressman,


I thought today that I would give you a brief run down on this day in history. Not that August 28 is really famous for that much, but I couldn't come up with anything else to write about, so this is it.

If you were part of the Lenape Indian tribe hanging out with your buddies at the shoreline of Poutaxat Bay in 1609, you were fairly shocked to see Henry Hudson sailing into view on the Half Moon and to eventually find out you were actually hanging out at Delaware Bay.

If you were a slave in an English colony on August 27, 1883 then you were no longer one today, as on this day slavery was banned by Parliament throughout the British Empire.

Today is a day of mourning for fans of all audio/visual media world-wide because in 1922 Queensboro Realty Company coughed up $100 to WEAF radio in New York City and then proceeded to spend 10 minutes of airtime touting the luxury of their new Hawthorne Apartment complex in the first commercial ever. The world has never been the same since.

Manuel Laureano Rodriguez Sanchez, aka Manolete, was considered one of Spain's greatest bullfighters of all time. But as Paul Gleason's character in the movie "The Breakfast Club" so aptly stated "You mess with the bull, you get the horns" came to pass for Manolete in Linares,Spain on this day in 1947 when, after defeating one bull earlier in the day, the second bullfight did not go as planned. Manolete managed to thrust his sword deep into the bull for the "estocada" to end the fight, however the bull had other ideas and before dying decided to implant a horn deeply into the bullfighter's right thigh, causing him to die later that day from the severe loss of blood that ensued. Final score: Manolete 2, Bulls 1.

In 1972, it was man-style to wear tight swimsuits, a large bushy mustache and to be able to swim fast, as Mark Spitz did all three to win his first gold medal in the 200 meter butterfly. Mark went on to win 6 more gold medals in Munich that year, and then went on to make millions pimping everything from Wheaties to razors to milk. It is unknown whether or not he has ever taken a bong hit, however....

John W. Hinkley was in court on this day in 1981, as the United States Justice system and the rest of the planet were rather interested as to why he thought Jodi Foster would be impressed with him if he tried to pump Ronald Reagan full of lead. Ronnie survived, Jodi moved on, and John pleaded not guilty, to which he eventually was found not guilty, but was awarded lifetime room and board in a white padded room as his reward.

And tragically, if you are a fan of airshows, this was not the day to be at one in 1988 in Ramstein, Germany as an Italian Air Force jet collided with 2 other jets while performing a flyby stunt. All three jets crashed and killed there pilots, with one of them careening into the crowd, killing 67 of them and injuring over 300, mainly due to burns caused by the aviation fuel. Yikes!