World News | Online edition of Daily News

August 27 is the 239th day of the year (240th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 126 days remaining until the end of the year.

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

1939 - First flight of the turbojet-powered Heinkel He 178, the world's first jet aircraft.

1950: The BBC transmits the first ever live television pictures across the Channel.

On Aug. 27, 1962, the United States launched the Mariner 2 space probe, which flew past Venus the following December.

1993: The Rainbow Bridge, connecting Tokyo's Shibaura and the island of Odaiba, is completed.

2003: Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, passing 34,646,418 miles (55,758,005 km) distant.


2000: 540-metre (1,772 ft)-tall Ostankino Tower in Moscow catches fire, three people are killed.	2006: Comair Flight 5191 crashes on takeoff from Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Kentucky bound for Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia. Of the passengers and crew, 49 of 50 are confirmed dead in the hours following the crash.	1967: The Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, was found dead from an overdose of sleeping pills.	1776: The Battle of Long Island: in what is now Brooklyn, New York, British forces under General William Howe defeat Americans under General George Washington.	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”.	1883: Krakatoa, an Indonesian volcano, enters the final stage of its eruption.