TODAY IN HISTORY

On Aug 27, 1859, Edwin L. Drake drilled the first successful oil well in the United States, at Titusville, Pennsylvania.

In 1883, the island volcano Krakatoa erupted with

a series of cataclysmic explosions.

In 1949, a violent white mob prevented an outdoor concert headlined by

Paul Robeson a Black performer, from taking place near Peekskill, New York. (The concert was held eight days later.)

In 1979, British war hero Lord Louis Mountbatten and three other people

were killed in a boat explosion claimed by the Irish Republican Army.

In 2008, Barack Obama was nominated for president by the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

In 2009, Jaycee Lee Dugard, kidnapped at 11, was reunited with her mother 18 years after her abduction in California.