August 27: Kellogg-Briand Pact, Mountbatten killing and Mars close approach
Major events on August 27 include the signing of the Kellogg-Briand Pact, the killing of Earl Mountbatten and Mars’s closest approach to Earth since the Stone Age.
Paris, France. August 27 has marked major political, scientific and sporting events, as well as the deaths of prominent figures including Louis Botha, Haile Selassie and Dom Helder Camara.
1919 to 1979
In 1919, Louis Botha, Boer general, statesman and the first prime minister of the Union of South Africa, died aged 56.
In 1928, the Kellogg-Briand Pact was signed in Paris. Named after U.S. Secretary of State Frank Kellogg and French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand, it sought to outlaw war as an instrument of national policy.
In 1975, Haile Selassie, the deposed emperor of Ethiopia, died in exile aged 83.
In 1979, Earl Mountbatten of Burma was killed when a bomb planted by the Irish Republican Army destroyed his boat off Mullaghmore in Ireland’s County Sligo. He was 79.
1999 to 2003
In 1999, Dom Helder Camara, a former Roman Catholic archbishop and Brazilian human rights campaigner, died aged 90.
In 2000, a fire at Moscow’s Ostankino TV tower, Europe’s tallest structure, killed three people and disrupted television broadcasts across Russia.
In 2001, an Israeli missile attack killed Abu Ali Mustafa, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, in the West Bank.
In 2003, Mars passed 34.65 million miles, or 55.76 million kilometres, from Earth, its closest such encounter since the Stone Age.
Also in 2003, Poland’s Robert Korzeniowski won the 50km walk in world-record time.
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