August 27

Today is Tarzan's birthday (1912). 413 B.C.: An eclipse of the moon caused panic on Athens fleet. 1850: Augusto Righi, who first showed that radio waves displayed characteristics of light wave behavior in the manner of reflection, refraction, polarization and interference, was born. 1858: The first cabled news dispatch was sent and was published by "The New York Sun" newspaper. 1958: Ernest Lawrence, inventor of the cyclotron, and after whom the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was named, died. 1859: The first oil well was successfully drilled in the U.S. by Colonel Edwin Drake near Titusville, PA. 1875: The element gallium (Ga, 31) was discovered by P.E. Lecoq de Boisbaudran. 1877: Charles Rolls, half of Rolls-Royce, was born. 1898: John Hopkinson, who developed Hopkinson's Law of magnetism and invented the 3-phase AC generator, died. 1950: The BBC transmitted the first ever live television pictures across the Channel. 1962: The Mariner 2 space probe was launched to fly to Venus. 1989: The first U.S. commercial satellite rocket was launched with a British communications satellite was onboard. 2003: The world's largest battery, made from 13,760 NiCad cells, was connected to provide emergency power to Fairbanks, AK.