April 27

April 27 is the 117th day of the year (118th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 248 days remaining.

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Events

• 1124 – David I becomes King of Scotland.
• 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.
• 1565 – Cebu is established becoming the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.
• 1650 – The Battle of Carbisdale: A Royalist army invades mainland Scotland from the Orkney Islands but is defeated by a Covenanter army.
• 1667 – The blind, impoverished John Milton sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10.
• 1773 – The British Parliament passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.
• 1805 – First Barbary War: United States Marines and Berbers attack the Tripolitan city of Derna (The "shores of Tripoli" part of the Marines' hymn).
• 1813 – War of 1812: United States troops capture the capital of Ontario, York (present day Toronto, Ontario).
• 1840 – Foundation stone for new Palace of Westminster, London, laid by wife of Sir Charles Barry.
• 1861 – President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.
• 1865 – The steamboat Sultana, carrying 2,300 passengers, explodes and sinks in the Mississippi River, killing 1,700, most of whom were Union survivors of the Andersonville Prison.
• 1897 – Grant's Tomb is dedicated.
• 1904 – The Australian Labor Party becomes the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson.
• 1908 – The 1908 Summer Olympics open in London.
• 1909 – Sultan of Turkey Abdul Hamid II is overthrown, and is succeeded by his brother, Murat V.
• 1936 – The United Auto Workers (UAW) gains autonomy from the American Federation of Labor.
• 1941 – World War II: German troops enter Athens.
• 1945 – World War II: Last German troops are expelled from Finnish Lapland (the last day of World War II going on in Finland). The day is the national war veteran day in Finland.
• 1945 – The Völkischer Beobachter, the newspaper of the Nazi Party, ceases publication.
• 1947 – Babe Ruth Day is celebrated at Yankee Stadium.
• 1950 – Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed formally segregating races.
• 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 opens in Montreal, Quebec.
• 1972 – Constructive Vote of No Confidence against German Chancellor Willy Brandt fails under obscure circumstances.
• 1981 – Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse.
• 1986 – Captain Midnight (John R. MacDougall) hijacks HBO's satellite and transmits his own message to HBO viewers.
• 1992 – The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is proclaimed, comprising of Serbia and Montenegro.
• 1994 – South African general election, 1994: The first democratic general election in South Africa, in which black citizens vote.
• 1997 – Andrew Cunanan murders Jeffrey Trail, beginning a murder spree that will last until July and terminate with the murder of fashion designer Gianni Versace.
• 2005 – The Superjumbo jet aircraft Airbus 380 made its first flight from Toulouse, France.

Births

• 1737 – Edward Gibbon, historian (d. 1794)
• 1759 – Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, feminist, activist, and author (d. 1797)
• 1791 – Samuel F. B. Morse, American inventor (d. 1872)
• 1812 – Friedrich von Flotow, German composer (d. 1883)
• 1820 – Herbert Spencer, philosopher (d. 1903)
• 1822 – Ulysses S. Grant, 18th President of the United States (d. 1885)
• 1878 – Frank Alvin Gotch, American professional wrestler (d. 1917)
• 1888 – Florence La Badie, actress (d. 1917)
• 1894 – Nicolas Slonimsky, musicologist and composer (d.1995)
• 1896 – Rogers Hornsby, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1963)
• 1899 – Walter Lantz, American cartoonist (d. 1994)
• 1904 – Cecil Day-Lewis, poet and writer (d. 1972)
• 1913 – Philip Hauge Abelson, physicist (d. 2004)
• 1916 – Enos Slaughter, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 2002)
• 1920 – Guido Cantelli, conductor (d. 1956)
• 1920 – Edwin Morgan, Scottish poet
• 1922 – Jack Klugman, actor
• 1927 – Coretta Scott King, civil rights activist and wife of Martin Luther King
• 1931 – Igor Oistrakh, Ukrainian violinist
• 1931 – Robert Donner, American actor
• 1932 – Anouk Aimée, actress
• 1932  – Casey Kasem, American disc jockey
• 1932  – Gian-Carlo Rota, mathematician and philosopher (d. 1999)
• 1937 – Sandy Dennis, actress (d. 1992)
• 1938 – Earl Anthony, American professional bowler (d. 2001)
• 1939 – Judy Carne, British actress, comedienne
• 1940 – Judith Blegen, American opera soprano
• 1941 – Lee Roy Jordan, American football player
• 1944 – Cuba Gooding, Sr., American musician (The Main Ingredient)
• 1945 – August Wilson, playwright
• 1947 – Ann Peebles, American singer
• 1948 – Kate Pierson, American singer (The B-52's)
• 1951 – Ace Frehley, musician (KISS)
• 1952 – George Gervin, American basketball player
• 1959 – Sheena Easton, singer
• 1962 – James LeGros, American actor
• 1963 – Cali Timmins, actress
• 1967 – Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands
• 1969 – Darcey Bussell, British ballerina
• 1969 – Mica Paris, British singer and presenter
• 1970 – Kylie Travis, actress and model

Deaths

• 630 – King Ardashir III of Persia
• 1404 – Philip II, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1342)
• 1521 – Ferdinand Magellan, explorer (b. 1470)
• 1530 – Jacopo Sannazaro, Italian poet (b. 1458)
• 1605 – Pope Leo XI (b. 1535)
• 1613 – Robert Abercromby, Jesuit (b. 1532)
• 1813 – Zebulon Pike, American frontiersman and explorer (b. 1779)
• 1882 – Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist (b. 1803)
• 1915 – Alexander Scriabin, Russian composer (b. 1872)
• 1921 – Arthur Mold, English cricketer (b. 1863)
• 1932 – Hart Crane, American writer (suicide) (b. 1899)
• 1936 – Karl Pearson, statistician (b. 1857)
• 1965 – Edward R. Murrow, journalist (b. 1908)
• 1972 – Kwame Nkrumah, leader of Ghana (b. 1909)
• 1977 – Stanley Adams, American actor
• 1992 – Olivier Messiaen, composer (b. 1908)
• 1995 – Willem Frederik Hermans, Dutch writer (b. 1921)
• 1996 – William Colby, former American Director of Central Intelligence
• 1998 – Carlos Castaneda, Peruvian-American mystic writer
• 1999 – Al Hirt, American trumpeter (b. 1922)
• 2000 – Vicki Sue Robinson, American singer
• 2002 – George Alec Effinger, science fiction author (b. 1947)
• 2002 – Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, Swiss industrialist and art collector
• 2002 – Ruth Handler, inventor of the Barbie doll

Holidays and observances

• Slovenia: Day of Uprising Against Occupation
• South Africa: Freedom day
• Independence Day: Togo, 1960; Sierra Leone, 1961
• World Day of Design
• Feast day of the following saints in the Roman Catholic Church
  • Saint Zita
  • Theophilus of Brescia
  • Anthimus of Nicomedia
  • Petrus Canisius

External links

• BBC: On This Day

April 26 – April 28 – March 27 – May 27 – listing of all days