August 28
1521. The Ottoman Turks occupy Belgrade.
1867. The US takes possession of the previously unoccupied Midway Atoll, which will come to prominence during WWII.
1898. Caleb Bradham, a North Carolina pharmacist who, like most in that day had a soda fountain, rebrands his soft drink from what was previously known as "Brad's Drink" to "Pepsi-Cola". The inspiration for the name was the combination of the terms pepsin and cola, pepsin being the pepsin enzyme that aids in digestion, much as he believed his cola did.
In 1923 Bradham and his company would declare bankruptcy, largely as a result of fluctuations in the price of sugar. He would return to his pharmacy, while his company would be acquired out of bankruptcy by Craven Holding Company for $35,000. Today, Pepsi has worldwide operations with over 200,000 employees, approximately $44 billion in annual revenues and profits of approximately $6 billion per year.
1961. Motown (short for "Motor" "Town", a nickname for Detroit) Records releases what will be its first hit -- Please Mr. Postman, by the Marvelettes.
1963. Leading his march on Washington for jobs and freedom, Martin Luther King gives his I Have a Dream speech.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk
2005. Hurricane Katrina, the sixth strongest Atlantic hurricane in recorded history, begins to make landfall in Louisiana and Mississippi. The hurricane and subsequent floods would cause over 1,800 lost lives, over $80 billion in damages and over 7 million gallons of petroleum being spilled.
