Today is Tuesday, Aug. 27, the 239th day of 2019. There are 126 days left in the year.

Today’s highlight: On August 27, 2008, Barack Obama was nominated for president by the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

On this date:

In 1776, the Battle of Long Island began during the Revolutionary War as British troops attacked American forces who ended up being forced to retreat two days later.

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

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

In 1963, author, journalist and civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois died in Accra, Ghana, at age 95.

In 1979, British war hero Lord Louis Mountbatten and three other people, including his 14-year-old grandson Nicholas, were killed off the coast of Ireland in a boat explosion claimed by the Irish Republican Army.

In 1989, the first U.S. commercial satellite rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida — a Delta booster carrying a British communications satellite, the Marcopolo 1.

Today’s birthdays: Author Lady Antonia Fraser is 87. Actor Tommy Sands is 82. Bluegrass singer-musician J.D. Crowe is 82. Actress Tuesday Weld is 76. Actor G.W. Bailey is 75. Rock singer-musician Tim Bogert is 75. Actress Marianne Sagebrecht is 74. Country musician Jeff Cook is 70. Actor Paul Reubens is 67. Rock musician Alex Lifeson (Rush) is 66. Actor Peter Stormare is 66. Thought for today: “Reality can destroy the dream; why shouldn’t the dream destroy reality?” — G.E. Moore, British philosopher (1873-1958).

— Associated Press