On this day: August 27

POSTED: 02:55 PM PDT Aug 24, 2012    UPDATED: 11:00 PM PDT Aug 26, 2012 

Krakatoa blows its top, The Guinness Book of World Records debuts, "Mary Poppins" premieres, The Beatles meet The King and a guitar great dies, all on this day.

OTD August 27 - oil well
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Public domain

1859: Col. Edwin L. Drake strikes "rock oil" in Titusville, Pa., leading to the world's first commercially successful oil well. The resulting oil boom is the first in the United States.

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