Aug.
29: Hurricane Katrina hit landfall along the Gulf Coast near Waveland,
Miss., killing thousands of people and causing billions of dollars in property
damage
in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. In response to the storm, author
John Grisham announced he
and his wife were setting
up a relief fund and personally donating $5 million to aid in rebuilding
the devastated areas along the Mississippi coast.
June
27: Novelist
and historian Shelby
Foote died
in Memphis at the age of 88.