This day in history

[August 27, 2010]  (AP)  Today is Friday, Aug. 27, the 239th day of 2010. There are 126 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On Aug. 27, 1883, the island volcano Krakatoa blew up; the resulting tidal waves in Indonesia's Sunda Strait claimed some 36,000 lives in Java and Sumatra.

On this date:

In 1858, the second debate between senatorial candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas took place in Freeport, Ill.

In 1859, Edwin L. Drake drilled the first successful oil well in the United States, at Titusville, Pa.

In 1892, fire seriously damaged New York's original Metropolitan Opera House.

In 1908, Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th president of the United States, was born near Stonewall, Texas.

In 1928, the Kellogg-Briand Pact was signed in Paris, outlawing war and providing for the peaceful settlement of disputes.

In 1962, the United States launched the Mariner 2 space probe, which flew past Venus in December 1962.

In 1975, Haile Selassie (HY'-lee sehl-AH'-see), the last emperor of Ethiopia's 3,000-year-old monarchy, died in Addis Ababa at age 83 almost a year after being overthrown.

In 1979, British war hero Lord Louis Mountbatten and three other people, including his 14-year-old grandson Nicholas, were killed off the coast of Ireland in a boat explosion claimed by the Irish Republican Army.

In 1989, the first U.S. commercial satellite rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla. -- a Delta booster carrying a British communications satellite, the Marcopolo 1.

In 2006, a Comair CRJ-100 crashed after trying to take off from the wrong runway in Lexington, Ky., killing 49 people and leaving the co-pilot the sole survivor.

Ten years ago: During a visit to Nigeria, President Bill Clinton said Africans had to "break the silence" about AIDS or risk losing hard-fought democratic and economic gains. Fire broke out in Moscow's landmark Ostankino television tower, killing three people. A botched Israeli military raid on an Islamic militant hide-out in the West Bank ended with three Israeli soldiers being accidentally killed by their comrades.

Five years ago: Coastal residents jammed freeways and gas stations as they rushed to get out of the way of Hurricane Katrina, which was headed toward New Orleans. President George W. Bush asked Americans in his weekly radio address to be patient with the U.S. military mission in Iraq as thousands of pro-Bush and anti-war demonstrators competed for attention in his tiny hometown of Crawford, Texas.

One year ago: Mourners filed past the closed casket of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. Jaycee Lee Dugard, kidnapped when she was 11, was reunited with her mother 18 years after her abduction in South Lake Tahoe, Calif. Alex Grass, 82, founder of the Rite Aid drugstore chain, died in Harrisburg, Pa.

Today's birthdays: Cajun-country singer Jimmy C. Newman is 83. Author Antonia Fraser is 78. Actor Tommy Sands is 73. Bluegrass singer-musician J.D. Crowe is 73. Musician Daryl Dragon is 68. Actress Tuesday Weld is 67. Rock singer-musician Tim Bogert is 66. Actress Marianne Sagebrecht is 65. Actress Barbara Bach is 63. Ex-porn star Harry Reems is 63. Country musician Jeff Cook is 61. Actor Paul Reubens is 58. Rock musician Alex Lifeson (Rush) is 57. Actress Diana Scarwid is 55. Rock musician Glen Matlock (The Sex Pistols) is 54. Pro golfer Bernhard Langer is 53. Actor Peter Stormare is 52. Country singer Jeffrey Steele is 49. Gospel singer Yolanda Adams is 48. Country musician Matthew Basford (Yankee Grey) is 48. Writer-producer Dean Devlin is 48. Rock musician Mike Johnson is 45. Rap musician Bobo (Cypress Hill) is 42. Country singer Colt Ford is 41. Actress Chandra Wilson is 41. Rock musician Tony Kanal (No Doubt) is 40. Actress Sarah Chalke is 34. Actor RonReaco (correct) Lee is 34. Rapper Mase is 33. Actor Aaron Paul is 31. Rock musician Jon Siebels (Eve 6) is 31. Contemporary Christian musician Megan Garrett (Casting Crowns) is 30. Singer Mario is 24. Actress Alexa Vega ("Spy Kids") is 22.

Thought for today: "What is everybody's business is nobody's business -- except the journalist's." -- Joseph Pulitzer, Hungarian-born American newspaper publisher (1847-1911)

[Associated Press]

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