August 28^th in history

Encyclopædia Britannica presents people and events from this day in history:

Paul Martin: Biography of the Day

Paul Martin

Liberal politician Paul Martin—who, as prime minister of Canada (2003–06), fostered economic growth and introduced progressive social policies but lost power amid a financial scandal in his party—was born this day in 1938.

 

Rita Dove: Biography of the Day

Rita Dove

"A good poem is like a bouillon cube. It's concentrated and it nourishes you when you need it."

Rita Dove

African American writer and teacher Rita Dove, born this day in 1952, was poet laureate of the United States in 1993–95. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1987 for Thomas and Beulah (1986), a cycle of poems chronicling the lives of her maternal grandparents, born in the Deep South at the turn of the 20th century.

 

Civil Rights March on Washington: 28 August 1963 - This Day in History

On this day in 1963, some 200,000 people marched on Washington, D.C., an event that became a high point of the civil rights movement, especially remembered for the famous “I Have a Dream” speech of Martin Luther King, Jr.

More Events on this day:

1993: The spacecraft Galileo took pictures of the asteroid Ida.

1914: The first major engagement of the British and German navies during World War I occurred at the Battle of Helgoland Bight.

1850: Richard Wagner's opera Lohengrin was performed for the first time, at Weimar, Germany.

1793: The Siege of Toulon in the French Revolutionary Wars began.

476: The fall of the Western Roman Empire was completed as Emperor Romulus Augustulus was deposed by the German warrior Odoacer.