August 27th

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

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

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

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick pleaded guilty in Richmond, Va., to a federal dogfighting charge.

Mars made its closest approach to earth in 60,000 years.

Moldova gains its Independence. The Eastern European country was part of the Soviet Union since August 2, 1940, from parts of Romania and parts of the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1991, after the dissolution of the USSR, the country gained its independence.

Military coup in Nigeria. General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida took over the government after overthrowing Muhammadu Buhari in a bloodless coup.

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

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

The Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein, was found dead from an overdose of sleeping pills.

The United States launched the Mariner 2 space probe, which flew past Venus the following December.

American troops began landing in Japan following the surrender of the Japanese government in World War II.

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

The island volcano Krakatoa erupted and the resulting tidal waves claimed some 36,000 lives on the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra.

Edwin L. Drake drilled the first successful U.S. oil well near Titusville, Pa.

German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was born in Stuttgart.