August 27
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1896: The Anglo-Zanzibar War starts…and ends
On this day in 1896, the shortest war in recorded history started—and ended. The Anglo-Zanzibar War erupted after Prince Khālid ibn Barghash seized the sultanate of Zanzibar without British approval. Britain ordered him to step down; he refused. At 9:00 am British warships opened fire on his palace, and 40 minutes later Khālid had fled and his forces were defeated.
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© The Picture Art Collection/Alamy; Photo Illustration Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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© Christophel Fine Art—Universal Images Group/Getty Images
Titian, the greatest Italian Renaissance painter of the Venetian school, who was once described as “the sun amidst small stars not only among the Italians but all the painters of the world,” died this day in 1576. [Explore five iconic paintings by Titian.]
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© Laurent Maous—Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images
Like Jesus we belong to the world living not for ourselves but for others. The joy of the Lord is our strength.
Baptized in Macedonia this day in 1910, Mother Teresa founded the Order of the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic congregation of women dedicated to helping the poor, and later received the 1979 Nobel Prize for Peace.
Famous Birthdays
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GOES Project/NOAA/NASA
2011
After causing extensive damage to several Caribbean islands, Hurricane Irene made landfall in the United States, striking North Carolina’s Outer Banks before moving along the Eastern Seaboard. [Find out where Irene ranks among the costliest hurricanes to hit the United States.]
Carol M. Highsmith/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
2008
Democratic politician Barack Obama became the first African American to be nominated for the presidency by either major party; he later defeated Republican John McCain to win the office. [Read our list of 10 Democrats who made history, including Barack Obama.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1979
Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, was assassinated by members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, who placed on a bomb on his boat, which was in Donegal Bay, Ireland. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about famous Europeans.]
© The Walt Disney Company
1964
The musical film Mary Poppins, an adaptation of P.L. Travers’s book, had its world premiere in Los Angeles. It became a Hollywood classic, especially noted for the performance of Julie Andrews, who was making her screen debut.
Air Force Research Laboratory
1939
German Ernst Heinrich Heinkel’s He 178, a turbojet-powered aircraft, made the first jet flight. [Take our quiz about early aviation.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1928
The Kellogg-Briand Pact was signed between France and the United States in a series of peacekeeping efforts after World War I.
BBC Hulton Picture Library
1921
Faisal ibn Hussein, a leader in advancing Arab nationalism during and after World War I, crowned as king of the newly created Kingdom of Iraq.
White House Collection
1908
Lyndon B. Johnson, who served as the 36th president of the United States (1963–69), was born in Texas. [Do you know the birthplaces of U.S. presidents?]
© Photos.com/Getty Images
1859
Edwin Laurentine Drake struck oil while drilling in Titusville, Pennsylvania, becoming the first driller of a productive oil well in the United States. [Sort fact from fiction in our oil and natural gas quiz.]
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (148-GW-l74)
1776
During the American Revolution, British forces under General William Howe defeated George Washington and the American Continental Army in the Battle of Long Island. [Test your knowledge of the American Revolution.]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
1232
Japan adopted its first formal military legal code, the Jōei Shikimokuan, which pledged just and impartial administration of law to its vassal subjects.