TODAY IN HISTORY

MONDAY, AUGUST 27, 2018 THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1859 – Petroleum is discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania leading to the world’s first commercially successful oil well.

1861 - Francis Gregory, lesser-known explorer in WA, discovers the De Grey River.

1883 – Eruption of Krakatoa: Four enormous explosions destroy the island of Krakatoa, kill 36,000 and cause years of climate change.

1893 – The Sea Islands hurricane strikes the US killing 2000.

1896 – Anglo-Zanzibar War: The shortest war in world history (09:00 to 09:45), between the United Kingdom and Zanzibar.

1914 – World War I: Battle of Etreux: A British rearguard action by the Royal Munster Fusiliers during the Great Retreat.

1916 – World War I: The Kingdom of Romania declares war on Austria-Hungary, entering the war as one of the Allied nations.

1927 – Five Canadian women file a petition to the Supreme Court of Canada, asking, “Does the word ‘Persons’ in Section 24 of the British North America Act, 1867, include female persons?”

1939 – First flight of the turbojet-powered Heinkel He 178, the world’s first jet aircraft.

1943 – World War II: Aerial bombardment by the Luftwaffe razes Vorizia in Crete.

1943 – World War II: Japanese forces evacuate New Georgia Island in the Solomon Islands.

1956 – The nuclear power station at Calder Hall in the United Kingdom was connected to the national power grid becoming the world’s first commercial nuclear power station to generate electricity on an industrial scale.

1962 – NASA laucnches Mariner 2 space mission to Venus.

1970 - The Southern hairy-nosed wombat is adopted as the official faunal emblem of South Australia.

1975 – The Governor of Portuguese Timor abandons its capital, Dili, and flees to Atauro Island, leaving control to a rebel group.

1979 - Lord Louis Mountbatten, uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, is killed in a bomb blast in Ireland.