more events on August 27
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2012
First interplanetary human voice recording is broadcast from the Mars Rover Curiosity.
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2008
Democrats nominate Barack Obama for president, first African American nominated by a major political party for the office of President of the United States.
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2003
Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, passing within 34,646,418 miles (55,758,005 km).
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1993
The Rainbow Bridge, a 1,870-foot suspension bridge over Tokyo Bay, completed.
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1991
Moldavia declares independence from USSR.
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1989
Chuck Berry performs his tune Johnny B. Goode for NASA staff in celebration of Voyager II‘s encounter with the planet Neptune.
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1988
Alexa Vega, actress, singer (Spy Kids movies, Ruby in Ruby & the Rockits TV series).
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1986
Mario (Mario Dewar Barrett), singer / songwriter (“Let Me Love You”), actor (Freedom Writers), dancer, model; included on Billboard magazine’s Artist of the Decade list for the 2000s.
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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.
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1979
Lord Mountbatten is killed by an Irish terrorist bomb in his sail boat in Sligo, Ireland.
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1977
Sarah Chalke, actress (Roseanne TV series).
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1975
Jonny (Jonathan) Moseley, Olympic Gold Medal skier; first Puerto Rican on US Ski Team.
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Veronica & Colin Scargill of England complete tandem bicycle ride around the world, a record 18,020 miles (29,000.4 km).
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1963
Cambodia severs ties with South Vietnam.
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1954
Derek Warwick, Formula 1 race car driver.
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1952
Pee-Wee Herman (Paul Reubens), actor (Pee-Wee’s Playhouse children’s TV series, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure).
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1950
Charles Fleischer, actor, (Laverne and Shirley TV series) comedian, voice-over actor best known as the voice of Roger Rabbit (Who Framed Roger Rabbit?).
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1949
Jeff Cook, musician, singer with the band Alabama.
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1947
Barbara Bach, actress (The Spy Who Loved Me).
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1945
B-29 Superfortress bombers begin to drop supplies into Allied prisoner of war camps in China.
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1943
Tuesday Weld (Susan Ker Weld), actress; won Golden Globe for Most Promising Female Newcomer, 1960 (Looking for Mr. Goodbar).
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1941
The Prime Minister of Japan, Fumimaro Konoye, issues an invitation for a meeting with President Franklin Roosevelt.
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1931
Sri Chinmoy (Chinmoy Kumar Ghose), Indian spiritual leader whose teachings attracted a worldwide following; nominated for Nobel Peace Prize.
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1929
Ira Levin, author (Rosemary’s Baby, The Boys from Brazil).
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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.
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1916
Italy declares war on Germany.
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1915
Walter Heller, economist; chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors (1961-64); suggested a “War on Poverty” to Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson and tax cuts to stimulate the economy.
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1912
Edgar Rice Burrough‘s Tarzan of the Apes first appears in a magazine.
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1910
Thomas Edison demonstrates the first “talking” pictures–using a phonograph–in his New Jersey laboratory.
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1908
Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th president of the United States (1963-1969).
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1899
C.S. Forester, novelist and author of the Horatio Hornblower series.
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1894
The United States congress passes an income tax law as part of a general tariff act, but it is found unconstitutional.
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1881
New York state’s Pure Food Law goes into effect to prevent “the adulteration of food or drugs.”
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1871
Theodore Dreiser, novelist (Sister Carrie).
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1862
As the Second Battle of Bull Run rages, Confederate soldiers attack Loudoun County, Virginia.
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1861
Union troops make an amphibious landing at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
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1813
The Allies defeat Napoleon at the Battle of Dresden.
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1793
Maximilien Robespierre is elected to the Committee of Public Safety in Paris, France.
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1776
The Americans are defeated by the British at the Battle of Long Island, New York.
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1770
George William Hegel, German idealist philosopher.
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1626
The Danes are crushed by the Catholic League in Germany, marking the end of Danish intervention in European wars.