This day in history

[August 27, 2008]  (AP)  Today is Wednesday, Aug. 27, the 240th day of 2008. There are 126 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

One hundred years ago, on Aug. 27, 1908, Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president of the United States, was born near Stonewall, Texas.

On this date:

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

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

In 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.

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

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

In 1948, former U.S. Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes died in Osterville, Mass., at age 86.

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

In 1975, Haile Selassie, 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 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: Two suspects in the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Kenya were brought to the United States to face charges. Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-'Owhali and Mohammed Saddiq Odeh were convicted in 2001 of conspiring to carry out the bombing; both were sentenced to life in prison.)

Five years ago: A granite monument of the Ten Commandments that became a lightning rod in a legal storm over church and state was wheeled from the rotunda of the Alabama Supreme Court building as protesters knelt, prayed and chanted, "Put it back!" In Chicago, a man who had been fired from an auto parts warehouse six months earlier came back with a gun and killed six employees before being shot dead by police. Thirty-nine people died in a stampede at an Indian religious festival. A multinational summit on North Korea's nuclear program opened in Beijing.

One year ago: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced his resignation after a controversy over the firings of nine U.S. attorneys. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, said in a statement he was not involved in any inappropriate conduct when he was arrested at the Minneapolis airport and should have not pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. (The Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call reported that Craig was arrested June 11 by a plainclothes officer investigating complaints of lewd conduct in an airport restroom.) Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick apologized for "using bad judgment and making bad decisions" and vowed to redeem himself after pleading guilty in Richmond, Va., to a federal dogfighting charge. Russia announced the arrest of 10 people in the killing of journalist and Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya.

Today's birthdays: Cajun-country singer Jimmy C. Newman is 81. Actor Tommy Sands is 71. Bluegrass singer-musician J.D. Crowe is 71. Musician Daryl Dragon is 66. Actress Tuesday Weld is 65. Rock singer-musician Tim Bogert is 64. Actress Marianne Sagebrecht is 63. Actress Barbara Bach is 61. Ex-porn star Harry Reems is 61. Country musician Jeff Cook (Alabama) is 59. Actor Paul Reubens is 56. Singer Willy DeVille is 55. Rock musician Alex Lifeson (Rush) is 55. Actress Diana Scarwid is 53. Rock musician Glen Matlock (The Sex Pistols) is 52. Actor Peter Stormare is 50. Country singer Jeffrey Steele is 47. Gospel singer Yolanda Adams is 46. Country musician Matthew Basford (Yankee Grey) is 46. Writer-producer Dean Devlin is 46. Rock musician Mike Johnson is 43. Rap musician Bobo (Cypress Hill) is 40. Actress Chandra Wilson is 39. Rock musician Tony Kanal (No Doubt) is 38. Actress Sarah Chalke is 32. Rapper Mase is 31. Rock musician Jon Siebels (Eve 6) is 29. Contemporary Christian musician Megan Garrett (Casting Crowns) is 28. Singer Mario is 22. Actress Alexa Vega ("Spy Kids") is 20.

Thought for today: "The presidency has made every man who occupied it, no matter how small, bigger than he was; and no matter how big, not big enough for its demands." -- Lyndon Baines Johnson, 36th president of the United States (1908-1973)

[Associated Press]

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