YEARS AGO FOR AUG. 27

Today is Monday, Aug. 27, the 239th day of 2018. There are 126 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1776: The Battle of Long Island begins during the Revolutionary War as British troops attack American forces who ended up being forced to retreat two days later.

1859: Edwin L. Drake drills the first successful oil well in the United States, at Titusville, Pa.

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

1949: A violent white mob prevents an outdoor concert headlined by Paul Robeson from taking place near Peekskill, N.Y.

1964: The Walt Disney movie musical fantasy “Mary Poppins,” starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, premieres at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

2008: Barack Obama is nominated for president by the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

2013: Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist who’d fatally shot 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009, rests his case without presenting any evidence during his trial’s penalty phase. (Hasan ended up being sentenced to death.)

2017: Hurricane Harvey sends devastating floods into Houston, with rising water chasing thousands of people to rooftops or higher ground; streets became rivers navigable only by boat.

VINDICATOR FILES

1993: Despite weeks of moderate drought throughout the Mahoning Valley, the 10-billion-gallon Meander Reservoir is at 82 percent of capacity.

Architect Paul Westlake Jr., a 1970 graduate of Warren G. Harding High School, is a principal in the company tapped by Trumbull County commissioners to oversee the restoration of the Trumbull County Courthouse, which is expected to cost $6 million to $8 million.

Members of Warren City Council’s finance committee say it’s time that Packard Music Hall quits being the city’s white elephant and starts bringing in revenue.

1978: Youngstown State University approves a two-year contract for Dr. John J. Coffelt as president of the university at an annual salary of $54,000.

Youngstown State University will build a pedestrian bridge across Wick Avenue linking a parking garage with the main campus.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources launches a crackdown on alcohol and drug violations at Nelson Ledges State Park.

1968: Martin Reakes, 13, was killed by his father, John, 40, and his body buried in the wall of the family’s home at 321 Main St., New Middletown. The boy would have been an eighth-grader at Middletown Elementary. The father checked himself into Woodside Hospital in Youngstown before telling authorities what he had done.

Burglars ransack the home of Mr. and Mrs. Mike Lovrinoff, Rodgers Road, who are in critical condition at Frick Community Hospital, Mount Pleasant, Pa., after an accident on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Mrs. Irene Sulich, 48-year-old Warren mother of three, becomes Warren’s sixth traffic victim of the year. She was struck by a car while crossing Niles Road Southeast.

1943: Gas ration privileges for six cars and six of seven trucks for use exclusively in the ordnance plant of Buick Youngstown Co. are suspended for four months after an OPA hearing officers finds that company president Eugene D. Hopper took pleasure trips to Florida and Canada in one of the cars.

Staff Sgt. Henry R. Przelomski, serving as a tail gunner on a bomber with the U.S. Air Force in England, is awarded an air medal.

The pig-iron derby, always a popular feature at the Canfield Fair, will outrank all former shows, fair board director Venon E. Crouse predicts.