
Today in History: April 27, deadly tornadoes strike the Southeast
In 1865, the steamer Sultana, carrying freed Union prisoners of war, exploded on the Mississippi River near Memphis, Tenn. As many as 1,800 were killed in the worst maritime disaster in US history.
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In 1994, former President Richard M. Nixon was interred, following a funeral service attended by all five of his successors, at the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, Calif.
In 2010, former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega arrived in France after being extradited from the United States. He was later convicted in a French court of laundering drug money and received a seven-year sentence.
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In 2011, during the four-day 2011 Super Outbreak, 112 tornadoes touched down across the southeastern United States, killing 319 in the deadliest day of tornadoes in the US since 1925.
In 2012, the space shuttle Enterprise, mounted atop a jumbo jet, sailed over the New York City skyline on its final flight before going on display as part of the USS Intrepid Museum.
In 2015, rioters plunged part of Baltimore into chaos, torching a pharmacy, setting police cars ablaze, and throwing bricks at officers hours after thousands attended a funeral service for Freddie Gray, a Black man who died from a severe spinal injury he hadsuffered in police custody.
In 2018, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made history by crossing over to South Korea to meet with President Moon Jae-in. It was the first time a member of the Kim dynasty had set foot on southern soil since the end of the Korean War in 1953.
In 2019, a gunman opened fire inside a synagogue near San Diego as worshippers celebrated the last day of Passover, killing a woman and wounding a rabbi and two others. (John Earnest, a white supremacist, was sentenced to both federal and state life prison terms for the shootings.)
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The Pull—And the Risks—Of Intensive Parenting
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Newsweek
4 hours ago
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Dog Who Endured Trauma and Tragedy Faces Biggest Test Yet: 'Never Give Up'
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Dog lovers are rallying around a brave rescue Dachshund after her owner shared her heartbreaking story on social media. In a post shared on Reddit, u/frasnet introduced the online pet community to his senior rescue dog, Slinky, alongside three simple words: "never give up." It's an apt statement to include, given everything Slinky has been through. Frasnet, a British national living abroad who requested his real name be omitted from this story, told Newsweek he adopted Slinky in 2022. Their vet estimates Slinky to be around 7 years old when they brought her home. From the moment he laid eyes on her, it was clear Slinky had endured a difficult life. Even so, Frasnet was shocked and saddened at just how difficult it had been. "She was surrendered from illegal breeders with severe gum disease and gave birth to a stillborn puppy," he said. "She had all but 5 teeth removed and suffered nerve damage that affected her tongue and possibly her vocal cords as she doesn't bark normally." Slinky had to undergo reconstructive surgery to plug a hole in her gums that had left her nasal cavity exposed and uncomfortable. Frasnet and his wife already had two dogs, Belle and Zeina, but there was something about Slinky, when they first came across her online adoption profile, that made them determined to adopt. "We both just knew we could help her," he said. "Nobody wanted her. We saw her, listened to her backstory and immediately made arrangements to adopt her." Slinky the rescue dachshund lying on the grass. Slinky the rescue dachshund lying on the grass. Reddit/u/Frasnet Slinky could so easily have fallen between the cracks and ended up being consigned to a future stuck waiting in the shelter for a family that never comes. A 2021 study published in the journal Animals saw researchers attempt to narrow the most commonly seen characteristics of a long-term, shelter dog—a dog living in a shelter for 12 months or more. The results concluded that long-term shelter dogs were more often older in age, male, of large size, and considered a "dangerous breed." Slinky may not have fit all of those criteria, but her age undoubtedly counted against her. Frasnet and his wife preferred to focus their mental energies on making this dog, who had suffered so much, smile again. "It took about 18 months of nurturing to bring her out of her shell; she looked defeated," Frasnet said. "My wife cuddled her constantly, we started to take her on walks and she really started to get a personality." 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Indianapolis Star
7 hours ago
- Indianapolis Star
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Family chatter about childhood memories was shared as an escorted vehicle drove to an Indianapolis International Airport gate. Military and public safety officials were preparing for the landing of an American Airlines flight, while the family of late U.S. Army Pvt. LeRoy B. Miller Jr., talked about the lives he couldn't watch grow up. The 31-year-old World War II soldier was reported missing in action in Germany in 1944. On Aug. 15, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency brought Miller's remains home. "The information they gave us explained he died from an explosion," his great-niece, Avila Moore, told IndyStar. "We didn't know what happened back then. Was he captured? Was he tortured? Now we know." The agency is a U.S. Department of Defence branch tasked with providing the fullest possible accounting of missing personnel from past U.S. conflicts. This involves searching for, locating, identifying and returning the remains of missing service members to their families. Moore's family had already buried who they thought was Miller back in the 1940s, when his tag was found in a mass grave site overseas, but after extensive DNA analysis and research, the family finally has the right soldier, and an extraction will need to be made for the original buried remains. "It's just hard to believe that it could happen," Miller's nephew, Lance Hamilton, told IndyStar. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced U.S. Army Pvt. LeRoy B. Miller Jr., 31, was accounted for on Aug. 13, 2024, after his death during World War II. Miller was assigned to Company A, 1st Battalion, 112th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division in November 1944. His battalion captured the town of Kommerscheidt, Germany, in the Hürtgen Forest. A series of heavy German counterattacks eventually forced his battalion to withdraw. Miller was reported killed in action on Nov. 8, 1944, while fighting enemy forces at Kommerscheidt. His remains could not be recovered after the attack, according to the agency. Following the end of the war, the American Graves Registration Command was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel in Europe. During that effort, a recovery team found a mass grave at Kommerscheidt that contained the remains of several American and German soldiers on Sept. 11, 1947. "Recovery effort was heroic in that it was very difficult to do because the locals didn't really want to help," Hamilton said. "They wanted to bury everybody and just let it go, but with pressing investigations, they're bringing everybody home. So they got his bones, and preserved them to a point where they could find out who he was." The exhumation team found Miller's identification tag on one set of remains. The remains were sent to the United States Military Cemetery in Neuville, Belgium, for processing. Based on the tag, officials identified the remains as Miller's and transferred them to his family for final burial in America. But 73 years later, in 2017, an agency historian analyzed documentation regarding three sets of unidentified remains while studying unresolved American losses in the Hürtgen area. Scientists considered the possibility that Miller's remains may have been commingled in the grave or misprocessed and misidentified in the 1940s. At the time, Miller was identified based on the presence of his identification tags, but an updated investigation determined that the original identification was made in error. So whoever Miller's family buried was not related to them. "I've always had kind of a close relationship with him, which may sound a bit strange," Hamilton, who has never met the soldier, said. "My grandmother always talked so fondly of him. He was a very accomplished musician who loved piano and composing." Hamilton said he's always carried Miller's accomplishments with him. He said Miller will always be remembered for his creativity. His family still has some of his records. Miller was one of the youngest composers to have his music played by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. "He just wanted to create music," Hamilton said. "That's all he ever really wanted to do, but he felt that he had to go to war. It wasn't a choice. He had to do it." He was a classical pianist, and Moore said they're going to be playing some of his music at his memorial. "We live in the home he was raised in, and I found some music in a piano bench," Moore said. Hamilton said identifying Miller's remains has been a long process, and he was skeptical of the findings at first. The family didn't believe anything like this could happen, and they didn't believe the remains that matched up with their DNA was Miller's. "But, out of our skepticism, we kept slowly proceeding to find the truth, and here we are," Hamilton said. An honorable transfer happened with his remains arriving at the Indianapolis International Airport aboard an American Airlines flight on Aug. 15, 2025. The ceremony included military honors, the family being escorted, and the remains being transported to Flanner Funeral Home. A graveside service with full military honors is scheduled for Aug. 22 at Crown Hill Cemetery.