1859 ~ Petroleum was discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania on the 27th August 1959, leading to the world’s 1st commercially successful oil well.
1890 ~ Man Ray the American modernist artist and photographer was born Emmanuel Radnitzky on the 27th August 1890 (died 1976 aged 86). Man Ray was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealist art movements. Man Ray worked in a variety of artistic media but considered himself mainly a painter, although he was well known in the art world for his avant-garde, fashion and portrait photography. and he was a renowned fashion and portrait photographer. He was also known for his work with photograms aka rayographs.
- Salvador Dalí & Man Ray in Paris on 16 June 1934 making “wild eyes” for a portrait by photographer Carl Van Vechten (black & white photo source: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Van Vechten Collection)