The RMS Falaba was carrying 13 tons of high explosive cargo
which detonated when she was struck by the U-28‘s torpedo .

On March 28, 1915, the first American citizen is killed in the eight-month-old
European conflict that would become known as the First World War, Leon
Thrasher (below), a 31-year-old mining engineer from Massachusetts,
drowned when a German submarine, the U-28, torpedoed the cargo-
passenger ship RMS Falaba (above), on its way from Liverpool. 

Leon Chester Thrasher

The song "Brown Eyed Girl" by Northern Irish singer/songwriter Van
Morrison was released as a single in June 1967 on the Bang label,
peaking at No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. It featured The Sweet
Inspirations singing back-up vocals and is considered to be Van
Morrison’s signature song. It has remained a staple on classic rock
radio, and has been covered by hundreds of bands over the
decades.

Van Morrison (Sir George Ivan Morrison) will be 72 on August 31.

SANDY KOZEL

 
The most serious nuclear accident in United States history took
place at the Three Mile Island plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
on this day in 1979.

Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower ( October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969)

Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States and one of
the most highly regarded American generals of World War II.

Reba Nell McEntire is 62 years young today.

Reba was in the family singing group "the Singing McEntires"
as a child. Red Steagall discovered her during her performance
of the National Anthem at the National Rodeo in Oklahoma City
when she was a sophomore in college.

The Afro-Cuban music sound in “Groovin” included a conga, a Cuban-
influenced bass guitar line from ace session musician Chuck Rainey,
and a harmonica part, performed first for the single version by New
York session musician, Michael Weinstein, and later for the album
version by Gene Cornish.

The single became an instant hit in May of 1967, spending four weeks
atop the Billboard pop singles chart, but not four consecutive weeks
because the sequence was interrupted by Aretha Franklin‘s "Respect"
which spent a week at No. 1 in the middle of "Groovin’"’s run. The song
was RIAA–certified a gold record on June 13, 1967.

MIKE GRACIA

On this day in 1997, Dexter King (left), son of Martin Luther King
Jr., met with his father’s convicted assassin James Earl Ray in
prison.

Milton Berle  (Mendel Berlinger) (July 12, 1908 – March 27, 2002)

Quentin Jerome Tarantino is 54 years old today. He
was born in Knoxville, TN.

Tarantino dropped out of Narbonne High School his freshman
year to go to acting school in Toluca Lake.