Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

August 27

1958
First animals in space which were returned safely to Earth: Two Soviet dogs.

1955
First copy of the Guinness Book of Records is bound. (source: Guinness Book of World Records)

1889
First celluloid roll film is produced, by the Eastman Dry Plate Co. of New York.

1859
First successful oil well is drilled, near Titusville, Pennsylvania.

1832
Indian chief Black Hawk surrenders ending the Black Hawk War.

1783
First hydrogen-balloon flight (unmanned) by Jacques C. Charles.

1665
First play in America: The Bare and Ye Cubb is performed by three local residents of Virginia. They were fined for performing in public.

413 B.C.
Peloponnesian War: An eclipse of the Moon frightened the Athenians into delaying moving their forces from Syracuse for twenty-seven days. This delay gave an advantage to their enemies, the Syracusans, who then defeated the entire Athenian fleet and army.

1947
Barbara Bach, actress, wife of Ringo Starr. Film: The Spy Who Loved Me (1977, KGB agent Major Anya Amasova).

1943
Tuesday Weld (Susan Weld), American actress. TV: The Many Lives of Dobie Gillis (Thalia Menninger, Dobie's unattainable desire).

1942
Daryl Dragon, American musician, the Captain of Captain and Tennille. Music: Love Will Keep Us Together (1975, #1) and Muskrat Love (1976).

1937
Tommy Sands, American singer, actor, teen idol. He was married to Nancy Sinatra (1960-65). Music: Teen-Age Crush. Film: Babes in Toyland (1960).

1916     d. 1994
Martha Raye (Margaret Reed), American actress, denture wearer. Film: Monsieur Verdoux (1947).

1910     d. 1997
Mother Teresa of Calcutta (Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu), Yugoslavian-born Nobel Peace Prize-winning missionary. Called "The Living Saint," she dedicated her life to the poor and sick of India.

1908     d. 1973
Lyndon Baines Johnson, 36th U.S. President (1963-69) and 37th U.S. Vice-President (1961-63). He was the first president to use the Hot Line.

1899     d. 1966
C.S. Forester (Cecil Scott Forester), novelist, created Horatio Hornblower.

1882     d. 1974
Samuel Goldwyn (Samuel Goldfish), Polish-born film maker, once said "An oral agreement isn't worth the paper it's written on."

1865     d. 1951
Charles Gates Dawes, 30th U.S. Vice-President (1925-29).

1809     d. 1891
Hannibal Hamlin, 15th U.S. Vice-President (1861-65).

1978     b. 1927
Robert Shaw, British actor, author. Film: From Russia with Love (1963, SPECTRE agent Red Grant). He wrote The Man in the Glass Booth (1967), which described the trial of Nazi Adolf Eichmann.

1974     b. 1902
Charles Augustus Lindbergh, American aviator, "Lucky Lindy." He was the first person to fly non-stop across the Atlantic (1927).

1971     b. 1898
Bennett Alfred Cerf, American publisher. He was the founder, president, and chairman of Random House publishers. He was also a panelist on the TV show What's My Line? for 16 years.

1967     b. 1934
Brian Epstein, British impresario, discoverer and first manager of The Beatles.

1964     b. 1902
Gracie Allen (Grace Ethel Cecile Rosalie Allen), comic, wife and partner of George Burns.

1963     b. 1868
William Edward Burghardt DuBois, American educator, co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP, 1909). He was the first black to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard (1895).

1963     b. 1877
Garrett Morgan, African-American businessman. He invented a gas-mask that was popular with American fire fighters. He was also, reportedly, the first African-American to own an automobile.  This led to another successful invention: An improved traffic light (1922).

1958     b. 1914
Priscilla Lawson (Priscilla Shortridge), American actress. Film: Flash Gordon movie serials (1936, Princess Aura the daughter of Ming the Merciless). She was Miss Miami Beach (1935).

1958     b. 1901
Ernest Orlando Lawrence, American Nobel-winning physicist. He developed the atom smasher which produced the fuel for the first atomic bombs.

1937     b. 1857
Frederick Burr Opper, American cartoonist. He created Happy Hooligan (1902) and illustrated works for Mark Twain.

1898     b. 1850
Mary Downing Barnes, American educator, the first woman faculty member of Stanford University (1891).

1590     b. ????
Sixtus V, religious leader, 227th Pope (1585-90).

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