Issue date: 8/27/08 Section: News

Today is Wednesday, Aug. 27, the 240th day of 2008. There are 126 days left in the year.

On this date: In 1859, Col. Edwin L. Drake drilled the first successful oil well in the United States, near Titusville, Pa.

In 1883, the island volcano Krakatoa (pictured at right) blew up; the resulting tidal waves in Indonesia's Sunda Strait claimed some 36,000 lives.

In 1928, the Kellogg-Briand Pact was signed in Paris, outlawing war and providing for the peaceful settlement of disputes.

In 1962, the United States launched the Mariner 2 space probe, which flew past Venus in December 1962.

In 1975, Haile Selassie, the last emperor of Ethiopia's 3,000-year-old monarchy, died in Addis Ababa at age 83, almost a year after being overthrown.

In 2006, a Comair CRJ-100 crashed after trying to take off from the wrong runway in Lexington, Ky., killing 49 people and leaving the co-pilot the sole survivor.

In 2007, Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick apologized for "using bad judgment and making bad decisions" and vowed to redeem himself after pleading guilty in Richmond, Va., to a federal dogfighting charge.

- The Associated Press

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