From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
April 27 is the 117th day of the year (118th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 248 days remaining until the end of the year.
[edit] Events
- 1296 – Battle of Dunbar: The Scots are defeated by Edward I of England.
- 1509 – Pope Julius II places the Italian state of Venice under interdict.
- 1521 – Battle of Mactan: Explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines led by chief Lapu-Lapu.
- 1539 – Re-founding of the city of Bogotá, New Granada (now Colombia), by Nikolaus Federmann and Sebastián de Belalcázar.
- 1565 – Cebu is established becoming the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.
- 1578 – Duel of the Mignons claims the lives of two favourites of Henry III of France and two favorites of Henry I, Duke of Guise.
- 1650 – The Battle of Carbisdale: A Royalist army invades mainland Scotland from Orkney Island but is defeated by a Covenanter army.
- 1667 – The blind and impoverished John Milton sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10.
- 1749 – First performance of Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks in Green Park, London.
- 1773 – The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.
- 1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Ridgefield: A British invasion force engages and defeats Continental Army regulars and militia irregulars at Ridgefield, Connecticut.
- 1805 – First Barbary War: United States Marines and Berbers attack the Tripolitan city of Derna (The "shores of Tripoli" part of the Marines' hymn).
- 1810 – Beethoven composes his famous piano piece, Für Elise.
- 1813 – War of 1812: United States troops capture the capital of Upper Canada in the Battle of York (present day Toronto, Canada).
- 1840 – Foundation stone for new Palace of Westminster, London, is laid by wife of Sir Charles Barry.
- 1861 – President of the United States Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.
- 1865 – The New York State Senate creates Cornell University as the state's land grant institution.
- 1865 – The steamboat Sultana, carrying 2,400 passengers, explodes and sinks in the Mississippi River, killing 1,700, most of whom are Union survivors of the Andersonville and Cahaba Prisons.
- 1904 – The Australian Labor Party becomes the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson.
- 1909 – Sultan of Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II is overthrown, and is succeeded by his brother, Mehmed V.
- 1911 – Following the resignation and death of William P. Frye, a compromise is reached to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the United States Senate.
- 1914 – Honduras becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
- 1927 – Carabineros de Chile (Chilean national police force and gendarmery) are created.
- 1936 – The United Auto Workers (UAW) gains autonomy from the American Federation of Labor.
- 1941 – World War II: German troops enter Athens.
- 1941 – World War II: The Communist Party of Slovenia, the Slovene Christian Socialists, the left-wing Slovene Sokols (also known as "National Democrats") and a group of progressive intellectuals establish the Liberation Front of the Slovenian People.
- 1945 – World War II: German troops are finally expelled from Finnish Lapland.
- 1945 – World War II: Benito Mussolini is arrested by Italian partisans in Dongo, while attempting escape disguised as a German soldier.
- 1950 – Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed formally segregating races.
- 1953 – Operation Moolah is initiated by General Mark W. Clark against Communist pilots.
- 1959 – The last Canadian missionary leaves the People's Republic of China.
- 1960 – Togo gains independence from French-administered UN trusteeship.
- 1961 – Sierra Leone is granted its independence from the United Kingdom, with Milton Margai as the first Prime Minister.
- 1967 – Expo 67 officially opens in Montreal, Canada with a large opening ceremony broadcast around the world. It opens to the public the next day.
- 1974 – 10,000 march in Washington, D.C., calling for the impeachment of US President Richard Nixon
- 1977 – 28 people are killed in the Guatemala City air disaster.
- 1978 – Former United States President Nixon aide John D. Ehrlichman is released from an Arizona prison after serving 18 months for Watergate-related crimes.
- 1981 – Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse.
- 1987 – The U.S. Department of Justice bars the Austrian President Kurt Waldheim from entering the United States, saying he had aided in the deportation and execution of thousands of Jews and others as a German Army officer during World War II.
- 1992 – The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, is proclaimed.
- 1992 – Betty Boothroyd becomes the first woman to be elected Speaker of the British House of Commons in its 700-year history.
- 1992 – Russia and 12 other former Soviet republics become members of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
- 1993 – All members of the Zambia national football team lose their lives in a plane crash off Libreville, Gabon in route to Dakar, Senegal to play a 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Senegal.
- 1994 – South African general election, 1994: The first democratic general election in South Africa, in which black citizens could vote. The Interim Constitution comes into force.
- 1996 – The 1996 Lebanon war ends.
- 2002 – The last successful telemetry from the NASA space probe Pioneer 10.
- 2005 – The superjumbo jet aircraft Airbus A380 makes its first flight from Toulouse, France.
- 2006 – Construction begins on the Freedom Tower for the new World Trade Center in New York City.
- 2007 – Estonian authorities remove the Bronze Soldier, a Soviet Red Army war memorial in Tallinn, amid political controversy with Russia.
- 2011 – The deadliest day of the 2011 Super outbreak of tornadoes, the largest tornado outbreak, in United States history.
[edit] Births
- 1623 – Johann Adam Reinken, German organist (d. 1722)
- 1650 – Queen Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel (d. 1714)
- 1701 – King Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia (d. 1773)
- 1718 – Thomas Lewis, Irish-born Virginia settler (d. 1790)
- 1724 – Thomas Gardner, American politician and soldier (d. 1775)
- 1737 – Edward Gibbon, English historian (d. 1794)
- 1748 – Adamantios Korais, Greek humanist scholar (d. 1833)
- 1755 – Marc-Antoine Parseval, French mathematician (d. 1836)
- 1759 – Mary Wollstonecraft, English author and feminist (d. 1797)
- 1791 – Samuel F. B. Morse, American inventor (d. 1872)
- 1806 – Queen Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies (d. 1878)
- 1812 – Friedrich von Flotow, German composer (d. 1883)
- 1812 – William W. Snow, American politician (d. 1886)
- 1820 – Herbert Spencer, English philosopher (d. 1903)
- 1822 – Ulysses S. Grant, American Civil War general and 18th President of the United States (d. 1885)
- 1840 – Edward Whymper, English mountaineer (d. 1911)
- 1848 – King Otto I of Bavaria (d. 1916)
- 1850 – Hans Hartwig von Beseler, German general (d. 1921)
- 1853 – Jules Lemaître, French critic and dramatist (d. 1914)
- 1857 – Theodor Kittelsen, Norwegian artist (d. 1914)
- 1862 – Rudolph Schildkraut, Turkish-born American actor (d. 1930)
- 1878 – Frank Alvin Gotch, American professional wrestler (d. 1917)
- 1888 – Florence La Badie, Canadian actress (d. 1917)
- 1893 – Draža Mihailović, Serbian-born Yugoslav military commander (d. 1946)
- 1893 – Allen Sothoron, American baseball player (d. 1939)
- 1894 – George Petty, American pin-up artist (d. 1975)
- 1894 – Nicolas Slonimsky, Russian-born musicologist and composer (d. 1995)
- 1896 – Rogers Hornsby, American baseball player (d. 1963)
- 1896 – Sir William Hudson, New-Zealand-Australian head of construction for the Snowy Mountains Scheme (d. 1978)
- 1899 – Walter Lantz, American cartoonist (d. 1994)
- 1903 – Horace Stoneham, American baseball team owner (d. 1990)
- 1904 – Nikos Zachariadis, Greek politician (d. 1973)
- 1904 – Cecil Day-Lewis, Irish poet and writer (d. 1972)
- 1906 – Yórgos Theotokás, Greek novelist (d. 1966)
- 1910 – Chiang Ching-kuo, Chinese-born Taiwanese politician; son of Chiang Kai-shek (d. 1988)
- 1911 – Bruno Beger, German anthropologist (d. 2009)
- 1912 – Zohra Segal, Indian stage and film actress
- 1913 – Philip Hauge Abelson, American physicist (d. 2004)
- 1913 – Luz Long, German athlete (d. 1943)
- 1916 – Enos Slaughter, American baseball player (d. 2002)
- 1918 – Sten Rudholm, Swedish jurist (d. 2008)
- 1920 – Guido Cantelli, Italian conductor (d. 1956)
- 1920 – Edwin Morgan, Scottish poet (d. 2010)
- 1920 – Mark Krasnosel'skii, Ukrainian-born Soviet mathematician (d. 1997)
- 1920 – James R. Mann, American attorney and politician (d. 2010)
- 1921 – John Stott, British theologian and clergyman
- 1922 – Martin Gray, Polish-born American writer and Holocaust survivor
- 1922 – Jack Klugman, American actor
- 1927 – Coretta Scott King, American civil rights activist; widow of Martin Luther King, Jr. (d. 2006)
- 1927 – Joe Moakley, American politician (d. 2001)
- 1927 – Sheila Scott, English aviatrix (d. 1988)
- 1931 – Igor Oistrakh, Ukrainian violinist
- 1932 – Anouk Aimée, French actress
- 1932 – Pik Botha, South African politician
- 1932 – Casey Kasem, American actor and radio personality
- 1932 – Gian-Carlo Rota, Italian-born American mathematician and philosopher (d. 1999)
- 1935 – Theodoros Angelopoulos, Greek filmmaker and screenwriter
- 1936 – Geoffrey Shovelton, English opera singer
- 1937 – Sandy Dennis, American actress (d. 1992)
- 1937 – Robin Eames, Northern Irish clergyman
- 1938 – Earl Anthony, American bowler (d. 2001)
- 1938 – Alain Caron, French-Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1986)
- 1939 – Judy Carne, British actress and comedian
- 1939 – Jerry Mercer, Canadian musician
- 1939 – Stanislaw Dziwisz, Polish Cardinal
- 1941 – Jennings Michael Burch, American author
- 1941 – Lee Roy Jordan, American football player
- 1941 – Pat Choate, American economist
- 1942 – Jim Keltner, American drummer
- 1943 – Helmut Marko, Austrian racing driver
- 1944 – Michael Fish, British meteorologist
- 1944 – Cuba Gooding, Sr., American musician (The Main Ingredient)
- 1945 – August Wilson, American dramatist (d. 2005)
- 1945 – Helen Hodgman, Australian novelist
- 1947 – Ann Peebles, American singer
- 1947 – George Kenneth Butterfield, American politician
- 1947 – Pete Ham, Welsh singer and songwriter (Badfinger) (d. 1975)
- 1947 – Keith Magnuson, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2003)
- 1948 – Frank William Abagnale, Jr., American con artist
- 1948 – Kate Pierson, American singer (The B-52's)
- 1948 – Amrit Bohra, Nepalese politician
- 1949 – Grant Chapman, Australian politician
- 1951 – Ace Frehley, American musician (Kiss)
- 1952 – George Gervin, American basketball player
- 1952 – Ari Vatanen, Finnish rally driver
- 1952 – Larry Elder, American political commentator
- 1953 – Arielle Dombasle, French singer and actress
- 1954 – Herman Edwards, American pro football player and coach
- 1956 – Douglas P., English musician (Death in June, Crisis)
- 1956 – Bryan Harvey, American musician (d. 2006)
- 1957 – Eric Bristow, English darts player
- 1957 – Rosanna Scotto, American news anchor
- 1957 – Michel Barrette, Canadian actor and stand-up comedian
- 1957 – Adrian Utley, English musician (Portishead)
- 1959 – Sheena Easton, Scottish singer
- 1959 – Louis Lortie, French Canadian concert pianist
- 1959 – Neil Pearson, British actor
- 1960 – Mike Krushelnyski, Montreal ice hockey player
- 1961 – Andy Schlafly, American attorney, political activist and founder of Conservapedia
- 1962 – Ángel Comizzo, Argentine footballer
- 1962 – James LeGros, American actor
- 1962 – Im Sang-soo, South Korean film director and screenwriter
- 1963 – Cali Timmins, Canadian actress
- 1963 – Russell T Davies, Welsh television writer
- 1964 – Michael Mahonen, Canadian actor, director and screenwriter
- 1964 – Lisa Wilcox, American actress
- 1966 – Matt Reeves, American film writer, director and producer
- 1967 – Aki Avni, Israeli entertainer
- 1967 – Tommy Smith, Scottish jazz musician
- 1967 – Erik Thomson, Australian actor
- 1967 – Jason Whitlock, American sportswriter
- 1967 – Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, Dutch royal
- 1968 – Dana Milbank, American reporter and columnist
- 1969 – Cory Booker, American politician
- 1969 – Darcey Bussell, British ballerina
- 1969 – Grahame Cheney, Australian boxer
- 1969 – Mica Paris, British singer and presenter
- 1970 – Kylie Travis, English actress and model
- 1971 – Tess Daly, British television presenter
- 1972 – Nigel Barker, English fashion photographer
- 1972 – Mehmet Kurtuluş, German/Turkish actor
- 1972 – David Lascher, American actor
- 1972 – Maura West, American actress
- 1973 – Duško Adamović, Serbian footballer
- 1973 – Andre Gower, American actor
- 1973 – Sébastien Lareau, French/Canadian tennis player
- 1974 – Frank Catalanotto, American baseball player
- 1974 – Johnny Devine, Canadian professional wrestler
- 1974 – Richard Johnson, Australian footballer
- 1975 – Rabih Abdullah, American pro football player
- 1975 – Chris Carpenter, American baseball player
- 1975 – Pedro Feliz, Dominican baseball player
- 1976 – Isobel Campbell, Scottish singer and composer
- 1976 – Sally Hawkins, English film actress
- 1976 – Walter Pandiani, Uruguayan footballer
- 1976 – Faisal Saif, Indian filmmaker
- 1976 – Olaf Tufte, Norwegian rower
- 1977 – Khalid Zoubaa, French runner
- 1979 – Will Boyd, American musician
- 1979 – Natasha Chokljat, Australian netballer
- 1980 – Sybille Bammer, Austrian tennis player
- 1980 – Talitha Cummins, Australian journalist
- 1980 – Christian Lara, Ecuadorian footballer
- 1980 – Ananda Mikola, Indonesian racing driver
- 1981 – Fabrizio Faniello, Maltese singer
- 1981 – Joey Gathright, American baseball player
- 1981 – Patrik Gerrbrand, Swedish footballer
- 1982 – Katrina Johnson, American actress
- 1982 – Alexander Widiker, German rugby player
- 1983 – Ari Graynor, American actress
- 1984 – Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1984 – Daniel Holdsworth, Australian rugby player
- 1984 – Patrick Stump, American musician (Fall Out Boy)
- 1985 – José Antonio de Miranda da Silva Júnior, Brazilian footballer
- 1986 – Elena Risteska, Macedonian singer
- 1986 – Dinara Safina, Russian tennis player
- 1987 – Taylor Chorney, American ice hockey player
- 1987 – William Moseley, British actor
- 1987 – Elliott Shriane, Australian speed skater
- 1987 – Emma Taylor-Isherwood, Canadian actress
- 1988 – Kris Thackray, British footballer
- 1988 – Semyon Varlamov, Russian ice hockey player
- 1989 – Emily Rios, American actress
- 1991 – Jennifer Braun, German singer
- 1992 – Allison Iraheta, American singer
- 1994 – Elmo Magalona, Filipino singer and actor
[edit] Deaths
- 630 – King Ardashir III of Persia
- 1272 – Zita, Roman Catholic Saint (b.1212)
- 1404 – Philip II, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1342)
- 1521 – Ferdinand Magellan, Portuguese explorer (b. 1480)
- 1530 – Jacopo Sannazaro, Italian poet (b. 1458)
- 1599 – Maeda Toshiie, Japanese general (b. 1538)
- 1605 – Pope Leo XI (b. 1535)
- 1613 – Robert Abercromby, Scottish Jesuit (b. 1532)
- 1625 – Mori Terumoto, Japanese warrior (b. 1553)
- 1656 – Jan van Goyen, Dutch painter (b. 1596)
- 1694 – John George IV, Elector of Saxony (b. 1668)
- 1695 – John Trenchard, English statesman (b. 1640)
- 1702 – Jean Bart, French admiral (b. 1651)
- 1782 – William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, English politician (b. 1710)
- 1813 – Zebulon Pike, American frontiersman and explorer (b. 1779)
- 1873 – William Charles Macready, English actor (b. 1793)
- 1882 – Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist (b. 1803)
- 1896 – Henry Parkes, known as the Father of Federation (b. 1815)
- 1915 – Alexander Scriabin, Russian composer (b. 1872)
- 1921 – Arthur Mold, English cricketer (b. 1863)
- 1932 – Hart Crane, American writer (b. 1899)
- 1936 – Karl Pearson, English statistician (b. 1857)
- 1937 – Antonio Gramsci, Italian Communist writer and politician (b. 1891)
- 1941 – Penelope Delta, Greek author (b. 1874)
- 1952 – Guido Castelnuovo, Italian mathematician (b. 1865)
- 1961 – Roy Del Ruth, American film director (b. 1893)
- 1962 – A. K. Fazlul Huq, Bengali statesman (b. 1873)
- 1965 – Edward R. Murrow, American journalist (b. 1908)
- 1967 – William Douglas Cook, founder of Eastwoodhill Arboretum and Pukeiti, (New Zealand) (b. 1884)
- 1969 – René Barrientos, President of Bolivia (b. 1919)
- 1970 – Arthur Shields, Irish actor (b. 1896)
- 1972 – Kwame Nkrumah, leader of Ghana (b. 1909)
- 1973 – Carlos Menditeguy, Argentine racing driver (b. 1914)
- 1977 – Stanley Adams, American actor (b. 1915)
- 1988 – David Scarboro, British actor (b. 1968)
- 1988 – Fred Bear, American bow-hunter (b. 1902)
- 1989 – Konosuke Matsushita, Japanese industrialist (b. 1894)
- 1992 – Olivier Messiaen, French composer (b. 1908)
- 1992 – Gerard K. O'Neill, American physicist (b. 1927)
- 1995 – Willem Frederik Hermans, Dutch writer (b. 1921)
- 1996 – William Colby, American director of the Central Intelligence Agency (b. 1920)
- 1998 – Carlos Castaneda, Peruvian-born writer (b. 1925)
- 1998 – John Bassett, Canadian publisher and media baron (b. 1915)
- 1998 – Dominique Aury, French novelist (b. 1907)
- 1998 – H. Browning Ross, American long-distance running Olympian (b. 1924)
- 1999 – Al Hirt, American trumpeter (b. 1922)
- 1999 – Rolf Landauer, American physicist and electrical engineer (b. 1927)
- 2000 – Vicki Sue Robinson, American singer (b. 1954)
- 2002 – George Alec Effinger, American author (b. 1947)
- 2002 – Ruth Handler, American toy manufacturer (b. 1916)
- 2002 – Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, Swiss industrialist and art collector (b. 1921)
- 2006 – Julia Thorne, ex-wife of John Kerry (b. 1944)
- 2007 – Mstislav Rostropovich, Russian cellist and conductor (b. 1927)
- 2008 – Marios Tokas, Cypriot songwriter (b. 1954)
- 2009 – Frankie Manning, an American dancer, instructor, choreographer, and one of the founding fathers of Lindy Hop. (b. 1914)
- 2009 – Feroz Khan, Indian actor (b. 1939)
- 2009 – Woo Seung-yeon, South Korean actress and model (b. 1983)
- 2011 – Marian Mercer, American actress (b. 1935)
[edit] Holidays and observances
[edit] External links
