This day in history - August 27

[seamusTX]

1859 - Edwin Drake drilled the first productive oil well in the world, near Titusville, Pennsylvania.

Drake never got rich. The company that had employed him fired him when they no longer needed him. He became ill, possibly with multiple sclerosis. Later, the state of Pennsylvania granted him a pension based on the tax revenue that his work had generated.

1940 - The Caproni-Campini experimental jet first flew in Italy.

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Back then, Italy still produced engineers.

1962 - Mariner 2 was launched. It was the first successful interplanetary probe, reaching Venus in December of that year.

This mission established the fact that the surface of Venus is about as hot as the center of a forest fire and could not harbor life.

- Jim