August 27

1665 Ye Bare and Ye Cubb was presented on August 27, 1665 at Fowkes Tavern in Accomack County on the eastern shore of Virginia. It was the earliest known performance of a play in the British North American colonies. The three actors were accused of frivolity, hauled before a local magistrate and charged with "performing a play." The judge demanded that the offending performers re-enact their show and were acquitted after performing much of the play to a delighted court.

1727 In 1722 Nikolaus Ludwig Count von Zinzendorf granted refuge on his estate in Herrnhut, Saxony to a group of persecuted protestants from northern Moravia. After the coming of the Holy Spirit in 1727 the Moravian refugees commenced a round the clock prayer watch. On August 27, 1727, 24 men and 24 women covenanted to spend one hour each day in scheduled prayer. They continued this non-stop for more than a century with at least one person in the community praying every minute of the day.

1765  In December 1762, Thomas Paine became an excise officer in Grantham, Lincolnshire; he was transferred one and a half years later to Alford also in Lincolnshire where his salary was £50 a year.

On August 27, 1765, Thomas Paine was discharged from his post as an excise officer for claiming to have inspected goods when in fact he had only seen the documentation. He spent the next 31 months as an English teacher before being appointed as an excise officer in Lewes in East Sussex

1776 Long Island was captured by the British early in the American Revolutionary War as a result of the Battle of Long Island on August 27, 1776. It was the beginning of a successful campaign that gave the British control of the strategically important city of New York. Long Island remained a British stronghold until the end of the war in 1783.

1776 The Maryland 400 were members of the 1st Maryland Regiment who repeatedly charged a numerically superior British force during the Battle of Long Island. Despite sustaining heavy casualties, their bravery enabled General Washington to successfully evacuate the bulk of his troops to Manhattan. Because of the long service of the high quality regiments, General Washington referred to the Maryland units as his "Old Line", and their action in the battle is commemorated in Maryland's nickname, the "Old Line State."

Battle of Long Island Painting by Alonzo Chappel, 1858

1829 Most beers couldn’t withstand the six month trip from Great Britain to the British colonies in India, where the climate was too hot to brew. In response, a brewer heavily hopped and aged their beers, making them pale, and able to survive the journey. The first known use of the expression "India pale ale" to describe these beers was in an advertisement in the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser on August 27, 1829.

1859 Petroleum was discovered just south of Titusville, Pennsylvania, near what is now Oil Creek State Park on August 27, 1859 leading to the world's first commercially successful oil well. The demand for petroleum as a fuel for lighting in North America and around the world quickly grew.

Historic reconstruction of oil derrick at Oil Creek State Park By Jason Pratt 

1896 The shortest war on record, between Britain and Zanzibar in 1896, lasted just 38 minutes. It was provoked by the death of the pro-British Sultan Hamad bin Thuwaini on August 25, 1896 and the succession of Sultan Khalid bin Barghash, whom the British did not approve of. At 09.02 on August 27, 1896 British ships started a bombardment of the sultan's palace. It ended 9.40 when. Zanzibar surrendered. 500 Zanzibaris were killed, but only one British sailor was injured.

1906 Serial killer and bodysnatcher Edward Gein was born on August 27, 1906. The crimes Ed Gein committed around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin, gathered widespread notoriety after authorities discovered that he had exhumed corpses from local graveyards and fashioned trophies and keepsakes from their bones and skin. The movie characters Norman Bates (Psycho), Leatherface (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre) and Buffalo Bill (The Silence of the Lambs) were all based on Gein

Ed Gein

1908 The cricketer Sir Donald Bradman was born on August 27, 1908 at Cootamundra, New South Wales. As a youth, he learned timing by hitting a ball against a corrugated metal tank. He hit his first century at the age of 12, playing for Bowral Public School against Mittagong High School. Bradman made his debut in first-class cricket aged 19 for New South Wales against South Australia in December 1927. Batting at No. 7, he secured the achievement of a hundred on debut with an innings of 188.

1908 Lyndon Baines Johnson was born August 27, 1908 in Stonewall, Texas, in a small farmhouse on the Pedernales River to politician Samuel Ealy Johnson Jr, and Rebekah Baines. In 1926, Johnson enrolled at SWTSTC (now Texas State University). The college years refined his skills of persuasion and political organization. He graduated in 1930. After teaching in Houston, Johnson entered politics. He became he 36th president of the United States after the assassination of  John F. Kennedy.

1912 On August 27, 1912 Salvation Army founder William Booth's funeral service was held at London’s Olympia. 40,000 people attended, including Queen Mary, who sat almost unrecognized far to the rear of the great hall. The following day Booth's funeral procession set out from International Headquarters. As it moved off 10,000 uniformed Salvationists fell in behind. Forty Salvation Army bands played the ‘Dead March’ from Handel’s Saul as the vast procession set off.

1939 24-year-old RAF fighter pilot Frank Whittle first patented a new kind of aircraft - the turbojet - in 1930. The German Hans von Ohain developed the concept independently. He wrote in February 1936 to aircraft designer Ernst Heinkel, telling him of the design and its possibilities. The Heinkel He 178 was the world's first aircraft to fly under turbojet power, and the first practical jet aircraft. It first flew on August 27, 1939 in Rostock, Germany. 

1950 With a program broadcast from Calais, the BBC transmitted the first live TV pictures across the English Channel on August 27, 1950. The Television Crosses the Channel program was a major success, and it helped to generate interest in the possibilities of international television broadcasting. 

1955 The Guinness Book of World Records book was conceived by Guinness boss Sir Hugh Beaver in 1961 after an argument whilst hunting over which was the fastest game bird, the golden plover or the grouse. He thought that there must be other questions debated nightly in pubs throughout Ireland. The first 198-page edition of The Guinness Book of World Records was published on August 27, 1955 and went to the top of the British best seller lists by Christmas. It launched in the US the following year.

1956 The world's first commercial nuclear power plant at Calder Hall, near Sellafield in Cumbria, England was first connected to the national power grid on August 27, 1956. It was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II six weeks later. In its early years, the main task of Calder Hall was to produce weapons-grade plutonium. Generating electricity was a secondary task. Calder Hall was closed in 2003 after 47 years in use.

1964 The original formula for the Mountain Dew carbonated soft drink was invented in 1940 by Tennessee beverage bottlers Moses and Ally Hartman. Early bottles were printed with the words: “Yahoo Mountain Dew…It’ll tickle your innards.” The bottles were green and had a cartoon drawing of a hillbilly moonshiner with a gun. This design lasted until the mid-1960s. The Mountain Dew brand and production rights were acquired on August 27, 1964 by the Pepsi-Cola company. 

1965 The Beatles and Elvis Presley only crossed paths once on August 27, 1965 at Presley 's home in Bel Air, California. The NME reported that Elvis, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison jammed together, but without The Beatles' drummer. "Too bad we left the drums in Memphis," Elvis told Ringo.

When the Beatles met Elvis they were amazed by the device he had that could change channels on the TV from across the room. The King owned an early version of the remote control.

1966 On August 27, 1966 65-year-old Francis Chichester set sail in his 16.5m/54ft ketch Gipsy Moth IV from Plymouth in England. He returned there after 226 days of sailing on May 28, 1967, having circumnavigated the globe, with one stop (in Sydney). By doing so, Chichester became the first person to achieve a true circumnavigation of the world solo from West to East via the great Capes.

1966 Joe Biden met Neilia Hunter in Nassau, Bahamas, while Biden was on spring break from college. Shortly after, Biden moved to Syracuse and attended law school. The couple married on August 27, 1966. They had three children, two sons (Beau and Robert) and a daughter (Naomi). Nelia Hunter died in a car crash in December 1972 with her infant daughter, Naomi; her two sons, Beau and Hunter, were severely injured but survived.

1971 The flag of Nicaragua was officially adopted on August 27, 1971. It is based on the flag of the Federal Republic of Central America and inspired by the Argentine flag. It consists of three horizontal stripes: two blue stripes on the top and bottom and a white stripe in the middle. The blue stripes represent the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which border Nicaragua. The white stripe symbolizes peace and purity.

The flag of Nicaragua.

2003 Mars made its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years on August 27, 2003, passing 34,646,418 miles (55,758,005 km) distant. During this close approach, Mars appeared exceptionally bright in the sky, reaching a magnitude of about -2.9. This brightness made Mars easily visible to the naked eye and created a lot of excitement among astronomy enthusiasts and the general public. 

2005 The current world record for rocking non-stop in a rocking chair is 75 hours and 3 minutes, set by Arulanantham Suresh Joachim (Canada, b. Sri Lanka) from 24-27 August 2005 at the Hilton Garden Inn, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. To stay awake, he played guitar, read about golf and had his family present in the room the entire time.

2012 Twins Amy and Katie Jones-Elliott of Glenmore, Co Kilkenny, Ireland were born 87 days apart setting a new world record. Maria Jones-Elliott went into labor four months early, giving birth to Amy on June 1, 2012, but Katie did not arrive until three months later on August 27, 2012. The previous record is 84 days.

2013 Gus was a 700-pound (320 kg) polar bear at the Central Park Zoo in New York City. He died at 27 on August 27, 2013 after being visited by over 20 million people during his lifetime. Gus came to public notice in the 1990s, when he began swimming obsessively in his pool for up to 12 hours a day. Reporters dubbed him "depressed"  turning him into a "symbol of the stress of living in New York City". As part of his therapy and treatment, Gus was the first ever zoo animal to be treated with Prozac.

2016 The world record for the most candles ever put on a birthday cake is 72, 585. It was achieved by spiritual leader Ashrita Furman and the Sri Chinmoy Center team at the Sri Chinmoy Center in New York City, on August 27, 2016.

2016 Cookie was a male Major Mitchell's cockatoo residing at Brookfield Zoo, near Chicago, who died on August 27, 2016. Born in June 1933, he was believed to be the oldest member of his species alive in captivity, dying at the age of 83, having significantly exceeded the average lifespan for his kind. Cookie was recognized by the Guinness World Records as the oldest living parrot in the world.