On Aug. 27, 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 1908, Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president of the United States, was born near Stonewall, Texas.
In 1945, American troops began landing in Japan following the surrender of the Japanese government in World War II.
In 1962, the United States launched the Mariner 2 space probe, which flew past Venus the following December.
In 1979, British war hero Lord Louis Mountbatten was killed off the coast of Ireland in a boat explosion.