THURSDAY, AUGUST 27, 2009

Today is Thursday, August 27, the 239th day of 2009. There are 126 days left in the year.

26 B.C. _ Origin of Egyptian Era

1783 _ First hydrogen balloon flight (unmanned); reaches 900-meter altitude

1789 _ French National Assembly issues ``Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen"

1859 _ First successful oil well drilled, near Titusville, Penn.

1883 _ Krakatoa, west of Java, explodes with a force of 1,300 megatons

1896 _ Zanzibar loses to England in a 38-minute war (9:02 a.m. - 9:40 a.m.)

1939 _ Erich Warsitz makes first jet-propelled flight (in a Heinkel He-178)

1945 _ U.S. troops land in Japan after Japanese surrender

1962 _ Mariner 2 launched; first probe to fly by Venus

1966 _ Francis Chichester begins the first solo sail around the world