Historical Events  - August 27

1783  – Jacques Alexandre Cesar Charles made the first hydrogen balloon ascent, helped by the Montgolfier brothers, Jacques Etienne and Josef Michel.

1813  – Napoleon defeated the allied army at Dresden.

1859  – The World’s first oil well was drilled by Edwin Drake au Titusville, Pennsylvania.

1910  – Thomas Edison showed “talking pictures” for the first time at his New Jersey laboratory.

1928  – The Kellogg-Briand Pact, an international agreement to condemn all war as a means of settling disputes, was signed by representatives of 15 nations. Ultimately 61 nations will sign it.

1939  – The first flight of the Turbojet powered Heinkel He 178, the world’s first jet aircraft.

1957  – Malaysian constitution was executed.  

1976  – Major-General Gertrude Ali Ram, the first woman General in the Indian army, was appointed as the first Director of Military Nursing Services.

 

Famous Birthdays   – August 27  

1859 – Dorabji Tata, Indian businessman and a key figure in the history and the development of the Tata groups.

1969 – Narendra Prasad Sarbadhikari, Known as the father of Indian football.

1877 – Charles Rolls, English engineer, and businessman. Co-founder of Rolls Royce Limited.

1908 – Sir Donald Bradman, Australian cricketer. Created many records with the bat. Honored with the title ‘Sir’ in 1949. Widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time.

1908 – Lyndon B Johnson, American politician, and 36^th president of the United States.

1916 – Gordon Bashford, English engineer and co-founder of Range Rover. He played a significant part in the design of most post-war Rover cars, including Land Rover.  

1925 – Jaswant Singh Neki, Indian poet and academic. Former director of PGI Chandigarh and Head of Psychiatry Department at All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi.

1972 – The Great Khali, Indian wrestler, actor, and weightlifter.

1980 – Neha Dhupia, Indian actress. She won Miss India Pageant in 2002.

 

Death Anniversaries   – August 27

1875 – William Chapman Ralston, American businessman, and financier. Founder of the Bank of California.

1919 – Louis Botha, South African politician. First Prime Minister of South Africa.

1958 – Ernest Lawrence, American physicist. Won the Noble prize in physics in 1939 for inventing the Cyclotron. He also developed the electromagnetic isotope separation during World War II.

1963 – Garrett Morgan, African-American inventor. He invented the three-position traffic signal and one of the first gas mask, which he called a safety hood.

1976 – Mukesh, Indian playback singer. He is considered to be one of the most popular and acclaimed playback singers of the Hindi film industry.

1979 – Lord Luis Mountbatten. Last Viceroy and First Governor of India. He was murdered on this day by an IRA bomb as he and members of his family enjoyed an outing at fishing boat, Shadow V.

2006 – Hrishikesh Mukharji, Indian film director. Regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of Indian cinema, known for several films, including Anari, Chupke Chupke, Anand, Abhiman, Gol Maal, Bawarchi, and Namak Haram.