On this day ...

AUGUST 27

1859: The world’s first oil well was drilled in Titusville, Pennsylvania.

1883: Krakatoa, a volcanic island in the Sunda Strait between Sumatra and Java, erupted, with thousands killed by the resulting tidal waves.

1912: Tarzan Of The Apes, by Edgar Rice Burroughs, first went into print as a magazine serial.

1966: Francis Chichester left Plymouth in Gipsy Moth IV on his single-handed voyage around the world.

1967: The man who helped make The Beatles, Brian Epstein, died in his London home from an overdose of sleeping pills.

1975: The last descendant of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, died, aged 83.

1979: Earl Mountbatten, above, the Queen’s cousin, was killed when the IRA exploded a remote-controlled 50lb bomb on his boat Shadow V off the coast of County Sligo, Ireland.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: An owl caused serious problems for a police force’s computer and phone systems after it flew into power cables. BIRTHDAYS: Tuesday Weld, actress, 75; Barbara Bach, actress, 71; John Lloyd, former tennis player, 64; Glen Matlock, rock musician, 62; Bernhard Langer, golfer, 61; Gerhard Berger, former motor racing driver, 59; Siobhan Redmond, actress, above, 60; Jeanette Winterson, writer, 59; Denise Lewis, Olympic heptathlon gold medallist, 46; Dietmar Hamann, footballer 45; Aaron Paul, actor, 39.