Today is Friday, May 28, the 149th day of 2004. There are 217 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On May 28, 1934, the Dionne quintuplets – Annette, Cecile, Emilie, Marie and Yvonne – were born to Elzire Dionne at the family farm in Ontario, Canada.

On this date:

In 1533, England’s Archbishop declared the marriage of King Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn valid.

In 1863, the first black regiment from the North left Boston to fight in the Civil War.

In 1892, the Sierra Club was organized in San Francisco.

In 1929, the first all-color talking picture, “On with the Show,” opened in New York.

In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt pushed a button in Washington, D.C., signaling that vehicular traffic could cross the just-opened Golden Gate Bridge in California.

In 1937, Neville Chamberlain became prime minister of Britain.

In 1972, the Duke of Windsor, who had abdicated the English throne to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson, died in Paris at age 77.

In 1977, 165 people were killed when fire raced through the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Ky.

In 1984, President Reagan led a state funeral at Arlington National Cemetery for an unidentified American soldier killed in the Vietnam War. (However, the remains were later identified as those of Air Force First Lieutenant Michael J. Blassie, and were sent to St. Louis for hometown burial.)

In 1987, Mathias Rust, a 19-year-old West German pilot, landed a private plane in Moscow’s Red Square.

Ten years ago: Palestine Liberation Organization officials announced that Yasser Arafat had named himself interior minister of the autonomous zones as part of an interim government; 14 other prominent Palestinians, mostly Arafat allies, were appointed to other positions.

Five years ago: Russia’s Balkan envoy, Viktor Chernomyrdin, met face-to-face with Slobodan Milosevic for nine hours, declaring the Yugoslav president key to a Kosovo peace plan despite complications caused by Milosevic’s indictment for war crimes.

One year ago: President Bush signed a 10-year, $350 billion package of tax cuts, saying they already were “adding fuel to an economic recovery.” Amnesty International released a report saying the U.S.-led war on terror had made the world a more dangerous and repressive place, a finding dismissed by Washington as “without merit.” Actress Martha Scott died in Southern California at age 90.

Today’s Birthdays: Actress Carroll Baker is 73. Actor John Karlen is 71. Basketball Hall-of-Famer Jerry West is 66. Singer Gladys Knight is 60. Singer Billy Vera is 60. Singer John Fogerty is 59. Actress-director Sondra Locke is 57. Singer Roland Gift is 42. Actor Brandon Cruz (TV series “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father”) is 42. Country singer Phil Vassar is 42. Rapper Chubb Rock is 36. Singer Kylie Minogue is 36. Television personality Elisabeth Hasselbeck (“The View”) is 27. Actor Jesse Bradford is 25. Actress Monica Keena is 25. Actor Joseph Cross is 18.

Thought for Today: “Like other spurious things, fastidiousness is often inconsistent with itself, the coarsest things are done, and the cruelest things said by the most fastidious people.” – Caroline Matilda Stansbury Kirkland, American author (1801-1864).