On this day: August 27
POSTED: 03:55 PM MDT Aug 24, 2012
UPDATED: 12:00 AM MDT Aug 27, 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.
Public domain
1776: In what is now Brooklyn, N.Y., British forces under Gen. William Howe defeat Americans under Gen. George Washington in the Battle of Long Island. The battle is the first major battle of the American Revolutionary War following the United States Declaration of Independence and the first battle in which an army of the United States engaged, having declared itself a nation only the month before.
