August 27th, 1883:
One of the world's most devastating explosions as the island volcano Krakatoa erupted in the South Pacific.
Some 36,000 people met their demise on Java and Sumatra islands due to the resultant tidal waves in Indonesia's Sunda Strait.
1908:
"We have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great society."
Lyndon Johnson, the first American President from the South to be elected since the Civil War, was born near Stonewall, Texas.
Johnson's legacy encompassed landmark civil right laws, Medicare and Medicaid, anti-poverty programmes, and the tragic escalation of the Vietnam War.
1910:
Mother Teresa, the missionary who earned a Nobel Peace Prize for her work on behalf of the poor, was born in present-day Macedonia.
1859:
Colonel Edwin Drake drilled the first successful oil well in the United States, near Titusville, Pennsylvania.
1979:
Britain's Lord Louis Mountbatten was killed when his boat exploded off the coast of Ireland.
The Irish Republican Army subsequently claimed responsibility for that blast.
1967:
Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles, was found dead in his London apartment following an overdose of sleeping pills.
Epstein, who helped guide the Fab Four to rock and roll stardom, was 32 years old.
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