ED DANAHUE

August 27 is known in some circles as Oil and Gas Industry
Appreciation Day. This date, in 1859, is also when Edwin
Drake drilled the first successful oil well in the world.

(Col) Edwin L. Drake (
March 29, 1819 – November 9, 1880)
Wikimedia Commons

   
A  lithograph of 1883 eruption of Krakatoa.

One of the most powerful volcanic eruptions in recorded history occurred on Krakatoa (also called Krakatau), a small, uninhabited volcanic island east of Sumatra and west of Java, on August 27,
1883. Heard 3,000 miles away, the explosions threw five cubic
miles of earth 50 miles into the air, created 120-foot tsunamis
and killed 36,000 people.

Illustration of volcanic island of Krakatoa before it blew. 

ED DANAHUE

After fire destroyed his well two months after it found oil along
Oil Creek, Pennsylvania, Edwin L. Drake rebuilt at the original
site. Drake, right, stands with his friend Peter Wilson of Titusville.

On August 24, 79 AD after centuries of dormancy, Mount Vesuvius
erupted in southern Italy, devastating the prosperous Roman cities
of  Pompeii and Herculaneum and killing thousands. The cities,
buried under a thick layer of volcanic material and mud, were
never rebuilt and largely forgotten in the course of history.

In the 18th century, Pompeii and Herculaneum were rediscovered and
excavated, providing an  unprecedented archaeological record of
the everyday life of an ancient civilization, startlingly preserved in
in sudden death.

ED DANAHUE

One of the major disasters in 19^th century around the world was the eruption
of the volcano Krakatau in western Pacific Ocean, Indonesia.

The volcano erupted on this day in 1883 and killed thousand people on the
other islands near it. The volcanic dust was thrown into the atmosphere
and affected the weather around the world, and people as far away as Britain
and the United States began to see bizarre red sunsets caused by particles
in the atmosphere.

On this day in 1859, the first oil well was successfully drilled in the
U.S. by Colonel Edwin L. Drake (below) near Titusville, PA.

Drake Well Museum in Titusville, PA is on the site where Edwin L.
Drake drilled the world’s first oil well in 1859 and launched the
modern petroleum industry.

It was on this day in 1979.

Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten was born
Prince Louis of Battenberg
(June 25, 1900 – August 27, 1979)  

President John F. Kennedy (left) Meets with Lord Louis Mountbatten (center) in 1961.  Mountbatten was Chief of the Defense Staff of the British Armed Forces at the time.

Brian Epstein was found dead in his home from an overdose of
sleeping pills on this day in 1967. Epstein first discovered The
Beatles in November 1961.

Brian Samuel Epstein
(September 19, 1934 – August 27, 1967)

Brian Epstein (center) with The Beatles.