27 AUGUST

479 BC Greco-Persian Wars: Battle of Plataea, Persian forces led by Mardonius routed by Greek army under Pausanias; together with Greek success at Battle of Mycale halts Persian invasion of Greece

663 Battle of Baekgang: Tang Chinese and Silla Korean forces defeat Korean Baekje forces and their Yamato Japanese allies on the Geum River in Korea; - no Japanese invasion of Korea for 900 years

1883 Krakatoa, west of Java, explodes with a force of 1,300 megatons and kills approximately 40,000 people

1979 Warrenpoint ambush: 18 British Army soldiers killed when Provisional IRA explode two roadside bombs as a British convoy passes Narrow Water Castle

2008 Barack Obama becomes the first African-American to be nominated by a major political party for President of the United States

Famous Birthday's

Donald Bradman
(1908 - 2001)

Lyndon B. Johnson
(1908 - 1973)

Barbara Bach
70th Birthday

Famous Deaths

W.E.B. Du Bois
(1868 - 1963)

Haile Selassie
(1892 - 1975)

Stevie Ray Vaughan
(1954 - 1990)

Famous Weddings

1930 Journalist H. L. Mencken (49) weds author Sara Haardt (32) at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church

1956 Socialite Gloria Vanderbilt (32) weds "12 Angry Men" director Sidney Lumet (32)

1966 American sportscaster Al Michaels (21) weds Linda Stamaton

1977 "Coral Reefer Band" singer Jimmy Buffett (30) weds Jane Slagsvol

1994 TV executive Anthony Radziwill (35) weds Emmy Award-winning journalist Carole Di Falco (31) in East Hampton, New York