August 27th

Today's Highlight in History:
On August 27th, 1975, Haile Selassie, the last emperor of Ethiopia's 3,000-year-old monarchy, died in Addis Ababa at age 83 almost a year after he was overthrown in a military coup.

On this date:
In 1770, German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was born in Stuttgart.

In 1883, the island volcano Krakatoa blew up; the resulting tidal waves in Indonesia's Sunda Strait claimed some 36,000 lives in Java and Sumatra.

In 1892, fire seriously damaged New York's original Metropolitan Opera House.

In 1894, Congress passed the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act, which contained a provision for a graduated income tax that was later struck down by the Supreme Court.

In 1908, Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president of the United States, was born near Stonewall, Texas.

In 1928, the Kellogg-Briand Pact was signed in Paris, outlawing war and providing for the peaceful settlement of disputes.

In 1945, American troops began landing in Japan following the surrender of the Japanese government in World War Two.

In 1962, the United States launched the "Mariner Two" space probe, which flew past Venus the following December.

In 1967, Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles, was found dead in his London flat from an overdose of sleeping pills.

In 1979, British war hero Lord Louis Mountbatten was killed off the coast of Ireland in a boat explosion claimed by the Irish Republican Army.

Ten years ago: Fifty-two Americans reached freedom in Turkey after they were allowed to leave Iraq; three young men originally in the group, however, were detained by the Iraqis. In Washington, the State Department ordered the expulsion of 36 Iraqi diplomats.

Five years ago: American and Chinese officials agreed to begin planning a fall summit between President Clinton and Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

One year ago: The Federal Communications Commission announced new government wiretapping rules intended to help law enforcement authorities keep pace with advances in phone technology. (However, a federal appeals court later threw out some of the new rules, citing privacy concerns.)

"If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction."

-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologian (1906-1945).