27th of August

It is the 239th day of the year with 126 days remaining until the new year.

410 - The sacking and pillaging of Rome by the Visigoths ends, after nearly three days of death and destruction.

1637 - Charles Calvert, Governor of the Province of Maryland and 3rd Baron Baltimore is born.

1776 - British forces under General William Howe, defeat Americans under General George Washington at the Battle of Long Island.  This occurred on the grounds of what is now Brooklyn, New York.

1789 - The French National Assembly adopts the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, proclaiming that "men are born and remain free and equal in rights."

1809 - Hannibal Hamlin, 15th Vice President of the United States is born. 

1813 - French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte defeats a larger force of Austrians, Russians, and Prussians at the Battle of Dresden.

1828 - Uruguay is formally proclaimed independent at preliminary peace talks brokered by Great Britain between Brazil and Argentina.

1859 - Petroleum is discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania leading to the world's first commercially successful oil well.

1861 - Union forces attack Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

1896 - The shortest war in world history occurs between the United Kingdom and Zanzibar.  It last from 9:00 to 9:45.

1908 - Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th President of the United States is born.

1916 - Romania declares war against Austria-Hungary, entering World War I as one of the Allied nations.

1928 - The Kellogg-Briand Pact, outlawing war is signed by the first 15 nations to do so.  Ultimately, 61 nations will sign it.

1939 - The world's first jet aircraft, Heinkel He 178, takes flight.

1943 - Japanese forces decide to evacuate New Georgia Island in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II.

1952 - American actor Paul Ruebens, more commonly referred to as Pee-wee Herman, is born.

1963 - Intellectual leader and civil rights activist, W.E.B. Du Bois passes away at the age of 95.

1970 - American Major League Baseball player, Jim Thome is born.  He is the eighth player to hit 600 home runs in the major leagues.

1991 - The European community recognizes the independence of the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

1991 - Moldova declares independence from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

2003 - Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, passing 34,646,418 miles.

2007 - The skeletal remains of Alexei Nikolaevich and his sister Anastasia are found near Yekaterinburg, Russia.  The former was the heir apparent of the Imperial Russian throne and the son of Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.  

Stevie Ray Vaughan - the American electric blues guitarist and singer passes away at the age of 35.  At around 1:00 AM on this date in 1990, the musician was flying by helicopter from East Troy, Wisconsin to Chicago, Illinois with members of Eric Clapton's tour crew.  The helicopter crashed into the side of a 300-foot-high hill.  The influential blues figure and two others died.