Today in History: August 28, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers “I Have a Dream” speech

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Today is Wednesday, Aug. 28, the 241st day of 2024. There are 125 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Aug. 28, 1963, during the March on Washington, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech before an estimated 250,000 people in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Also on this date:

In 1845, the first issue of “Scientific American” magazine was published; it remains the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States.

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In 1862, the Second Battle of Bull Run began in Prince William County, Virginia, during the Civil War; the Union army retreated two days later after suffering 14,000 casualties.

In 1898, pharmacist Caleb Bradham of New Bern, North Carolina changed the name of the carbonated beverage he’d created five years earlier from “Brad’s Drink” to “Pepsi-Cola.”

In 1955, Emmett Till, a Black teenager from Chicago, was abducted from his uncle’s home in Money, Mississippi, by two white men after he had allegedly whistled at a white woman four days prior; he was found brutally slain three days later.

In 1957, U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond (D-S.C.) began what remains the longest speaking filibuster in Senate history (24 hours and 18 minutes) in an effort to stall the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

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 1988, 70 people were killed when three Italian Air Force stunt planes collided during an air show at the U.S. Air Base in Ramstein (RAHM’-shtyn), West Germany.

In 2005, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation as Hurricane Katrina approached the city.

In 2013, a military jury sentenced Maj. Nidal Hasan to death for the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood that claimed 13 lives and left 30 people injured.

In 2016, six scientists completed a yearlong Mars simulation on the big island of Hawaii, where they emerged after living in a dome in near isolation on Mauna Loa.

Today’s Birthdays:

Former Defense Secretary William S. Cohen is 84.
Actor Ken Jenkins (TV: “Scrubs”) is 84.
Former MLB manager and player Lou Piniella (pih-NEHL’-uh) is 81.
Former MLB pitcher Ron Guidry (GIH’-dree) is 74.
Former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove is 72.
Artist Ai Weiwei is 67.
Actor Daniel Stern is 67.
Olympic gold medal figure skater Scott Hamilton is 66.
Actor Jennifer Coolidge is 63.
Film director David Fincher is 62.
Country singer Shania (shah-NY’-uh) Twain is 59.
“Pokemon” creator Satoshi Tajiri is 59.
Actor Billy Boyd is 56.
Actor Jack Black is 55.
Hockey Hall of Famer Pierre Turgeon is 55.
Actor Jason Priestley is 55.
Technology executive Sheryl Sandberg is 55.
Olympic gold medal swimmer Janet Evans is 53.
Actor Carly Pope is 43.
Country singer Jake Owen is 43.
Country singer LeAnn Rimes is 42.
Rock singer Florence Welch (Florence and the Machine) is 38.
Actor Quvenzhane (kwuh-VEHN’-zhah-nay) Wallis is 21.

Saints come out swinging, beat Omaha

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A strong start from the Saints set them up for an 8-2 victory on the road Tuesday night over the Omaha Storm Chasers, who led the Triple-A International League at the season’s halfway point.

St. Paul notched five runs in the first inning, after Payton Eeles, DaShawn Keirsey Jr. and Yunior Severino loaded the bases, and Michael Helman landed an RBI single to center.

Deigo Castillo added a bases loaded walk and Jair Camargo hit a sacrifice fly. Rylan Bannon brought the total to five with a two-run single to right-center.

After scheduled starter Caleb Boushley was promoted to the Twins, the game fell to the bullpen pitchers. Ryan Jensen threw two scoreless innings, Zack Weiss allowed just one run during his two innings, and Nick Wittgren got a perfect fifth in his three innings, letting one run by. Josh Winder finished up for the Saints with another two shutout innings.

The Saints’ seventh run, in the sixth inning, was Carson McCusker’s first Triple-A homer.

Kiersey Jr. made it to 11 hits in the season, going 3-5 with an RBI and two runs, which is tied for the fourth most in a single season with the Saints with Jermaine Palacios.

The Storm Chasers and the Saints continue the series with game two tonight, at 6:35 p.m.

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Twins come back once, can’t do it twice in loss to Braves

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As Twins manager Rocco Baldelli sat down to address the media on Tuesday night, he took a light blue marker to the piece of paper on the podium that read “Stay humble,” and crossed out the last four letters of the second word.

He then wrote out a new word.

“Stay humble,” the paper now reads.

That’s the message Baldelli is hoping to impart to his team, which dropped its seventh of nine games on Tuesday night.

The Twins competed one four-run comeback in the game. Doing it twice was simply not in the cards. After rallying back to tie game in the eighth inning, the Twins fell behind by four runs again in the 10th and this time, their rally came up short. The Twins fell 8-6 in 10 innings at Target Field after the Atlanta Braves tagged Jhoan Duran for four runs.

“I’m a pitcher and sometimes you can have a day like that,” Duran, who retired just one of the six batters he faced, said. “It’s not like every day you throw good, you know?”

The loss was the Twins’ (72-60) third straight and was yet another tough defeat in a week and a half that seems to be full of them.

After a 10-6 loss to the Braves (72-60) a night before, Baldelli addressed his team. First baseman Carlos Santana, who made multiple highlight reel grabs in Tuesday’s game, took a simple message from it.

“Keep (focused),” Santana said of Baldelli’s speech. “One month left. Try to finish strong.”

The Twins have exactly 30 games remaining in their season. They are in position to win a Wild Card berth and are trying to chase down Cleveland and Kansas City, who now are tied atop the American League Central and are 2 1/2 games in front of the Twins.

“There’s a lot of high hopes for this club, a lot of lofty goals. But if we want to achieve those goals, we’ve got to play better baseball,” catcher Ryan Jeffers said. “Yeah, we understand we’re relying on some young guys, we’re relying on young guys to give us really important roles. We’re depleted with injuries. There’s a lot of things you can point fingers at. But at the end of the day, we believe in this team and we know we’ve got to play better.”

They’re doing so without some of their top players — Carlos Correa, Byron Buxton and Joe Ryan are among those who are on the injured list — but they still firmly believe in the group of players they have on the field.

That group of players rallied back in the seventh inning for three runs after threatening to break through in each of the first six innings to cut into Atlanta’s four-run lead.

The Braves had scored two runs in the second on a Michael Harris II home run off starter Simeon Woods Richardson and another two in the fifth on a Marcell Ozuna single, but Trevor Larnach’s single in the eighth inning fully complete the comeback and wiped that lead away entirely.

They showed some fight two innings later after Duran gave up the four runs, stringing together three straight singles to produce a pair of runs before Matt Wallner struck out to end the game.

“We still have 30 games left to play,” Baldelli said. “There’s a lot of time do so some damage, so it’s time to do some damage.”

Atlanta Braves’ Michael Harris II hits a 2-run home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

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Grandstand review: T-Pain and Ludacris draw huge crowd with fun, nostalgic show

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What’s likely to stand as the most-attended concert of this year’s Minnesota State Fair Grandstand season saw two guys who last had hits during the Obama administration set a sold-out crowd of 14,005 on fire Tuesday night.

It turns out T-Pain and Ludacris have a lot more smashes between them that one might remember and the pairing proved to be the perfect match for the Great Minnesota Get-Together. The pair offered an evening of breezy, nostalgic bangers that had the well-lubricated audience singing and dancing along.

Best known for his use of Auto-Tune (even though he’s got a great singing voice), Faheem “T-Pain” Najm clearly surprised some fans by starting promptly at 7 p.m. (Unless there are weather issues, Grandstand shows follow a tight schedule.) But he quickly won over the whole place with his playfully goofy stage presence.

Midway through his hour-long show, T-Pain gave a shout-out to a fan in the crowd hoisting an “I (heart) T-Pain” sign and dressed in the rapper’s signature top hat and white sunglasses. With a smile, he then dedicated his 2005 breakthrough “I’m ‘n Luv (Wit a Stripper)” to her. Much of his other banter was far too racy to repeat here, but he did accurately call the crowd and show “fun as hell.”

T-Pain packed in more than 20 songs (both his own and tracks he guested on), even if many were cut down to a verse and chorus. “Chopped ‘n’ Skrewed,” “Can’t Believe It,” “Best Love Song,” “Low,” “Hey Baby (Drop It to the Floor),” “5 O’Clock,” “Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin’)” and “Welcome to My Hood” all earned cheers from the audience.

Christopher “Ludacris” Bridges followed a similar path, winnowing down his hits (and guest spots) to their essence. And where T-Pain’s staging was sparse at best, Ludacris had more razzle-dazzle to back him including an intro video that featured a nod to his role in the long-running “Fast and Furious” franchise. Later, he asked how many people knew him from the movies and the crowd roared back in response.

While he resorted to some tired concert tricks — “you guys are the loudest crowd we’ve ever had,” that sort of thing — Ludacris chose his set list wisely, with a midsection run of Usher’s “Yeah,” Taio Cruz’s “Break Your Heart,” Justin Bieber’s “Baby” and Fergie’s “Glamorous” hitting the crowd hard. His own numbers — “Money Maker,” “How Low,” “Move Bitch,” “Stand Up” — also helped to fashion a fun and memorable evening.

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