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479 BCE The Battle of Plataea ended the Persian invasion of Greece. Mardonius was routed by Pausanias, the Spartan commander of the Greek army.  

479 BCE Death of Confucius (b. 551 BCE – traditional dates), ethicist.

"Confucius (551-479 BC – Wade-Giles K'ung-fu-tzu or Pinyin Kongfuzi), or 'Master K'ung,' becomes, long after his death, the dominant Chinese philosopher both morally and politically. Mencius (Meng Tzu) (c. 390-305 BC) extends and systematizes Confucius's ideas; but, with Confucius's adoption in the Hàn Dynasty as the official moral and political doctrine of the State, the Confucian tradition became so broad that 'Scholar' or 'Literatus' became all but synonymous with 'Confucian,' and so Confucianism could simply be called the Ju Chia [Ru Jia], or School of the Literati. As one of the 'Three Ways,' together with Taoism and Buddhism, Confucianism also grew into one of the traditional religions of the Hàn Chinese …"   Source

Confucius.org

55 BCE Julius Caesar (100 BCE - 44 BCE) landed in Britain. Some sources, however, place this event on August 26.

I'm placing it on this date, Tuesday, August 27, because in his journal Caesar said that he proceeded on his expedition when the people were engaged in harvest, and he returned three weeks later before the Autumn Equinox. The full moon, under which the peasants would have harvested, occurred on August 31 that year, four days after his landing.

"Caesar did not leave Gaul until the August of 55 BC, sailing to near Dover (probably from Boulogne) with a force of two legions. However, storms prevented the arrival of further troops and Caesar decided to take his army back to Gaul. The following May, with a force of five legions and 2,000 supporting cavalry, Caesar returned and landed unopposed in Kent. The Romans marched towards London, defeating a British coalition under Cassivellaunus, King of Catuvellauni, in Hertfordshire.

"The Trinovantes tribe appealed to the Romans to stop molestation by the Catuvellauni, and assisted Caesar in the taking Cassivellaunus's stronghold. News of an impending rebellion in Gaul caused the Romans to withdraw once again, having fixed a suitable level of tribute and taken hostages for slaves. Following Julius Caesar's abortive expeditions, contact and trade between Britain and the Roman world increased."   Source

"The next year saw the Romans organize a much larger expedition to Britain, with a total of 800 ships used to transport five legions and 2000 cavalry troops, plus horses and a large baggage train. They sailed from Boulogne at night on July 6, and landed unopposed the next day on the beach between Deal and Sandwich."
Source

542 Death of St Caesarius of Arles.

1394 Death of Chokei (b. 1343), Emperor of Japan.

1450 Death of Reginald West, 6^th Baron De La Warr (b. 1395), English politician.

1521 Death of Josquin Des Prez, Flemish composer.

1545 Death of Piotr Gamrat (b. 1487), Polish Catholic archbishop.

1572 Death of Claude Goudimel, French composer.

1577 Death of Titian, artist.

1590 Death of Pope Sixtus V.

"Pope Sixtus V, the son of a pig-dealer ... He was rather an eccentric pope – he made adultery a capital crime for the adulterers and for the wronged husband if he did not complain. He took great pleasure in seeing his death penalties carried out, and often went to see hangings to give him an appetite. He excommunicated various protestant princes, while converting Henri IV of France to Catholicism and showing great respect for Queen Elizabeth of England. 'She is a big-head, that queen. Could I have espoused her, what a breed of great princes we might have had.'"   Source

1635 Death of Félix Lope de Vega (b. 1562), prolific Spanish dramatist estimated to have written between 1,500 and 2,500 fully fledged plays – of which some 425 have survived until the modern day.

1660 Following the restoration of England's monarchy, the London public hangman burned all available copies of two books by John Milton, Iconoclastes and Defensio, and one (The Obstructors of Justice) by John Goodwin, on the orders of King Charles II, whom the blind poet had attacked in his writings and had advocated an elder-ruled (presbyterian) church government over that of bishop-ruled (episcopal).

1667 The first recorded hurricane in the American colonies.

"The 'dreadful Hurry Cane,' as was reported by the Strange News From Virginia pamphlet, produced 'such violence that it overturned many houses, burying in the ruins much goods and many people, beating to the ground such as were any ways employed in the fields, blowing many cattle that were near the sea or rivers, into them, whereby unknown numbers have perished, to the great affliction of all people…The sea swelled twelve foot above the normal eight drowning the whole country before it, with many of the inhabitants, their cattle and goods.'"   Source

1776 The Battle of Long Island, in present day Brooklyn, New York, USA. British forces under General William Howe defeated the Americans under General George Washington.  

The Charles hydrogen balloon, which was launched on August 27, 1783, 
 on landing was ripped to shreds by the fearful townsfolk of Gonesse.

1791 European monarchs backed Louis XVI against the French Revolution.

1813 Napoleon defeated the Austrians, Russians and Prussians at the Battle of Dresden.

1828 The Russians defeated the Turks at Akhaltzikke.

1859 Oil: Edwin Drake sank the world's first oil well at Titusville, Pennsylvania, USA.

1861 Union forces attacked Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, USA.

1875 Death of William Chapman Ralston, entrepreneur.

1883 Indonesia: About 36,000 people died in the aftermath of the eruption of Krakatau (August 26).

1894 Australia: As reported in the Sydney Morning Herald on August 29, 1894: The Darling River paddle steamer, the PS Rodney, was carrying non-union shearers north to Tolarno Station and was burnt near Pooncarie (between the stations of Moorara and Polia) on the Darling River, New South Wales, by about 300 unionist shearers in protest at it being used as a strike breaker during an industrial dispute. The Pride of the Murray and the Trafalgar also carried non-union shearers. A re-enactment was conducted in 1994 when more than 700 people witnessed the burning of a replica. (Source of date of event: Green Left Weekly.)

"In early 1895 the steamer Nile was involved in salvaging material from the wreck. The boiler, and most of the machinery was removed and a quantity of tools and ironwork were also recovered. The hull was broken up and the debris was drawn out of the river." Source

More Australian 'terrorism'-related items in Wilson's Almanac 

Lies, spies and the Sydney Hilton bombing     Republican Riot, 1887, Sydney

The burning of Dagworth Station and the origins of 'Waltzing Matilda'

William 'Machine Gun' McMillan    Circular Quay Riot, 1890, Sydney

Eureka Stockade    Active Service Brigade    Maritime Strike of 1890

Shearers' Strike of 1891    Wobblies outlawed    Billy McLean shooting

Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson   Good article

 

1896 The world's shortest war (approximately 40 minutes) ended after the shelling of the palace of Khalid ibn Barghash, the Sultan of Zanzibar, by the British fleet.

1900 The British defeated Boer commandos at Bergendal.

1900 A hurricane and high tides destroyed the city of Galveston, Texas, USA, leaving more than 6000 dead.

1910 Thomas Edison showed the first talking pictures at his New Jersey laboratories.

1912 The first appearance of Tarzan. Author Edgar Rice Burroughs originally named his hero, King of the Apes, 'Zentar Bloomstoke', rather than 'Tarzan Greystoke'.

"So the story goes, Edgar Rice Burroughs was sitting in his rented office and waiting for his crack pencil sharpener salesmen to report in, supposedly their pockets bulging with orders. Besides waiting, one of Burroughs' duties was to verify the placement of advertisements for his sharpeners in various magazines. These were all-fiction 'pulp' magazines, a prime source of escapist reading material for the rapidly expanding middle class. Verifying the pencil sharpener ads didn't exactly take much time. The pencil sharpener salesmen never showed up, so Burroughs spent his idle time reading those pulp magazines. And an idea was born."   Source

1928 The Kellogg-Briand Pact, outlawing war, was signed by sixty nations.

1938 A jealous Robert Frost disrupted a poetry reading by Archibald MacLeish by setting fire to a stack of papers.

1939 The first jet airplane flight.

1951 US jets arrived at Greenham Common, England, to set up an air base.

1952 Reparation negotiations between West Germany and Israel ended in Luxembourg; West Germany was to pay 3 billion Deutschmarks.

1963 WEB DuBois (b. 1868), American civil rights leader, sociologist and writer, died in Accra, Ghana. He renounced his American citizenship and moved there. His best-known work is The Souls of Black Folk (1907).

1966 China's Cultural Revolution: "Guo Wenyu, the principal of Beijing Kuanjie Elementary School, died after being beaten and pushed face-down into dirty water. Her husband was tortured at the same time and died two days later."

Source: Student Attacks Against Teachers: The Revolution of 1966    Mao holocaust

1968 Democratic Party National Convention: About 4,000 gathered at a rally in the Chicago Coliseum to hear David Dellinger, Abbie Hoffman, folksinger Phil Ochs, novelist William S Burroughs and others. A planned march to the Amphitheatre, site of the Democratic National Convention, was discussed. Bobby Seale addressed a crowd of about 2,000 in Lincoln Park. Seale's address was observed by undercover police officer Robert Pierson. At 11:20 pm in Lincoln Park, police charged and beat demonstrators. Some enraged demonstrators smashed windows and streetlights. Violent encounters between police and demonstrators occurred in the streets near Grant Park.

Source: The Daily Bleed

"Tuesday: At 1 PM 200 members of the American Friends Service Committee and other pacifist groups leave a near-northside church to march to the Amphitheatre. Joined by others along their route, the marchers eventually number about 1,000. The police stop the march at 39th and Halstead, about half-a-mile north of the Amphitheatre. The marchers set up a picket line and remain in place until 10 AM the next morning. They are then ordered to disperse and 30 resisters are arrested. This is the only march of Convention Week that gets anywhere near the Amphitheatre – it also gets virtually no publicity.

"About 7 PM Black Panther Party Chairman Bobby Seale speaks in Lincoln Park. He urges people to defend themselves by any means necessary if attacked by the police.

An 'Unbirthday Party for LBJ' convenes at the Chicago Coliseum. Performers and speakers include Ed Sanders, Abbie Hoffman, David Dellinger, Terry Southern, Jean Genet, William Burroughs, Dick Gregory, Allen Ginsberg, Phil Ochs, and Rennie Davis. 2,000 later march from the Coliseum to Grant Park.

"In Lincoln Park, 200 clergy and lay church people, toting a 12-foot cross, join 2,000 protestors to remain in the park past curfew. Again, tear gas and club-swinging police clear the park. Many head south to the Loop and Grant Park.

"At Grant Park, in front of the Hilton, where the television cameras are, 4,000 demonstrators rally to speeches by Julian Bond, Davis, and Hayden. Mary Traverse [sic] and Peter Yarrow sing. The rally is peaceful. At 3 AM the National Guard relieve the police. The crowd is allowed to stay in Grant Park all night."  

Source

Pigasus    Wilson's Almanac Book of Days hip list

1968 "Blood and flesh fell on an area of about one-third of a square mile between the Brazilian towns of Cacapava and Sao Jose dos Campos. The fall was reported to have lasted about 5 to 7 minutes."   Source

1969 Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett, author of Mother and Son and Dolores, died in London, aged 77.

1979 Lord Louis Mountbatten (b. 1900) was killed by a Provisional IRA bomb which exploded on his fishing boat in the Republic of Ireland. Later in the morning the IRA killed 18 British soldiers at Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland.

1990 The British Broadcasting Corporation launched BBC Radio Five Live at 9am GMT with a mixture of sports, news, and children's programming.

1991 Moldova declared independence from the USSR.

1994 China: Dissident Wang Dan (b. 1969), was re-detained by Chinese secret police. Wang, a leader of Chinese democracy movement, was one of the most visible of the student leaders in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. He ultimately spent seven years in a Liaoning prison.

1997 About 945 people perished in India in torrential monsoonal rains.

1998 US: Pacifist, and former Chicago 7 defendant, David Dellinger, aged 83, was arrested while demonstrating at a nuclear reactor.

2005 Hurricane Katrina, the sixth deadly hurricane to hit Florida in a year, moved westwards toward the Gulf Coast at nearly 7mph (11kph). Forecasters said the hurricane, expected to make landfall on the following Monday, could hit anywhere from Florida to Louisiana. President George W Bush remained on the grounds of his ranch behind a security perimeter and made his case for the Iraq occupation in his Saturday radio address.

Hurricane Katrina timeline    http://del.icio.us/almanac/katrina    Sat. Aug. 27, Day 3 BBC

Tomorrow: Abraham Lincoln's night of the "moon riding low"

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Wikipedia and David Brown's prodigious Daily Bleed are both excellent resources that aid my research.
I frequently make use of their generously liberal 'fair use', 'copyleft' and 'anti-copyright' policies, with much gratitude.
© My own copyright policy is also liberal, but as this is my livelihood, conditions apply.

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