TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – AUG 27
1626 The Danes are crushed by the Catholic League in Germany, marking the end of Danish intervention in European wars.
1660 The books of John Milton were burned in London due to his attacks on King Charles II.
1789 French National Assembly issues “Declaration of Rights of Man & Citizen”
1813 The Allies defeat Napoleon at the Battle of Dresden.
1859 Edwin Drake drilled the first successful U.S. oil well near Titusville, Pa.
1881 New York state’s Pure Food Law goes into effect to prevent “the adulteration of food or drugs.”
1858 The first cabled news dispatch was sent and was published by “The New York Sun” newspaper. The story was about the peace demands of England and France being met by China.
1894 The United States congress passes an income tax law as part of a general tariff act, but it is found unconstitutional.
1910 Thomas Edison demonstrates the first “talking” pictures–using a phonograph–in his New Jersey laboratory.
1928 Fifteen nations sign the Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact, outlawing war and calling for the settlement of disputes through arbitration. Forty-seven other countries eventually sign the pact.
1962 Mariner 2 was launched by the United States. In December of the same year the spacecraft flew past Venus. It was the first space probe to reach the vicinity of another planet.
1979 Lord Mountbatten is killed by an Irish terrorist bomb in his sail boat in Sligo, Ireland.
1984 President Ronald Reagan announces NASA Teacher in Space project, intended to inspire students and honor teachers and spur interest in the fields of science, mathematics and space exploration.
1989 Rupert Murdoch who owns the Fox Television network in the United States has launched Sky TV which is received by paying subscribers via satellite dishes in England following on from his holdings in the UK newspaper market including The Times and The Sun.
1990 The U.S. State Department ordered the expulsion of 36 Iraqi diplomats.
1991 Moldavia declares independence from USSR.
2003 World’s Biggest Battery is Plugged in The battery, which takes up about 2,000 square metres of space and weighs about 1,300 tonnes is set up to provide emergency electricity to the residents of Fairbanks in Alaska, for about 7 minutes.
2007 After much investigation and fighting, United States Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced his resignation. The resignation came after accusations of abuse of power in the Bush administration over the firing of federal prosecutors that were believed to be for political reasons.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
