History for August 27

History for August 27 - On-This-Day.com
George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel 1770, Hannibal Hamlin 1809 - 15th Vice President of the United States under President Abraham Lincoln, first Republican Vice President, Charles Rolls 1877 - Motoring and aviation pioneer, co-founder of Rolls-Royce car manufacturing company


Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) 1908 - 36th President of the United States, Ira Levin 1929 - Writer ("Rosemary's Baby," "The Stepford Wives"), Paul "Pee-wee Herman" Reubens 1952 - Actor ("Pee Wee's Playhouse")


1660 - The books of John Milton were burned in London due to his attacks on King Charles II.


1859 - The first oil well was successfully drilled in the U.S. by Colonel Edwin L. Drake near Titusville, PA.


1889 - Boxer Jack "Nonpareil" Dempsey was defeated for the first time of his career by George LaBlanche.


1921 - The owner of Acme Packing Company bought a pro football team for Green Bay, WI. J.E. Clair paid tribute to those who worked in his plant by naming the team the Green Bay Packers. (NFL)


1938 - Robert Frost, in a fit of jealousy, set fire to some papers to disrupt a poetry recital by another poet, Archibald MacLeish.


1962 - Mariner 2 was launched by the United States. In December of the same year the spacecraft flew past Venus. It was the first space probe to reach the vicinity of another planet.


1984 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan announced that the first citizen to go into space would be a teacher. The teacher that was eventually chosen was Christa McAuliffe. She died in the Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986.


1996 - California Governor Pete Wilson signed an order that would halt state benefits to illegal immigrants.