27 May

1199    John is crowned King of England.

1332   Ibn Khaldun (born), Tunisian historian (died 1406)

1564   John Calvin (died), French pastor and theologian (born 1509)

1610   François Ravaillac (died) French assassin of Henry IV of France (born 1578)

1703   Tsar Peter the Great founds the city of Saint Petersburg.

1794   Cornelius Vanderbilt (born), American businessman and philanthropist (died 1877)

1813   War of 1812: In Canada, American forces capture Fort George.

1818   Amelia Bloomer (born), American activist (died 1894)

1819   Julia Ward Howe (born), American poet (died 1910)

1831   Jedediah Smith (died), American hunter, explorer, and author (born 1799)

1836   Jay Gould (born), American businessman and financier (died 1892)

1837   Wild Bill Hickok (born), American lawman (died 1876)

1840   Niccolò Paganini (died), Italian violinist and composer (born 1782)

1849   The Great Hall of Euston station in London is opened.

1879   Karl Bühler (born), German-American linguist and psychologist (died 1963)

1883   Alexander III is crowned Tsar of Russia.

1894   Dashiell Hammett (born), American author (died 1961)

1907   Bubonic plague breaks out in San Francisco, California.

1907   Rachel Carson (born), American biologist and author (died 1964)

1910   Robert Koch (died), German physician, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1843)

1911    Hubert Humphrey (born), American politician, 38th Vice President of the United States (died 1978)

1911    Vincent Price (born), American actor (died 1993)

1912    Sam Snead (born), American golfer (died 2002)

1915    Herman Wouk (born), American author

1923   Henry Kissinger (born), German-American politician, 56th United States Secretary of State, Nobel Prize laureate

1925   Tony Hillerman (born), American author (died 2008)

1927   The Ford Motor Company ceases manufacture of the Ford Model T and begins to retool plants to make the Ford Model A.

1930   The 1,046 feet (319 m) Chrysler Building in New York City, the tallest man-made structure at the time, opens to the public.

1933   New Deal: The U.S. Federal Securities Act is signed into law requiring the registration of securities with the Federal Trade Commission.

1933   The Century of Progress World’s Fair opens in Chicago, Illinois.

1933   The Walt Disney Company releases the cartoon Three Little Pigs, with its hit song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?”

1935   Ramsey Lewis (born), American pianist and composer

1936   Louis Gossett, Jr. (born), American actor and producer

1937   In California, the Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrian traffic, creating a vital link between San Francisco and Marin County, California.

1941    World War II: The German battleship Bismarck is sunk in the North Atlantic killing almost 2,100 men.

1942   Piers Courage (born), English Grand Prix driver (died 1970)

1948   Pete Sears (born), English bass player (Jefferson Starship, Moonalice, and Hot Tuna)

1949   Robert Ripley (died), American cartoonist, publisher, and businessman, founded Ripley’s Believe It or Not! (born 1890)

1955    Richard Schiff (born), American actor

1956   Cynthia McFadden (born), American journalist

1964   Jawaharlal Nehru (died), Indian lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of India (born 1889)

1967   Australians vote in favor of a constitutional referendum granting the Australian government the power to make laws to benefit Indigenous Australians and to count them in the national census.

1967   The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy is launched by Jacqueline Kennedy and her daughter Caroline.

1968   Major League Baseball’s National League awards Montreal the first franchise in Canada and the first franchise outside the United States. (Montreal Expos)

1986   Dragon Quest, the game credited as setting the template for role-playing video games, is released in Japan.

1992   Uncle Charlie Osborne (died), American fiddler (born 1890)

1995   In Culpeper, Virginia, the actor Christopher Reeve is paralyzed from the neck down after falling from his horse in a riding competition.

1996   First Chechnya War: the Russian President Boris Yeltsin meets with Chechnyan rebels for the first time and negotiates a cease-fire.

1997   The U.S. Supreme Court rules that Paula Jones can pursue her sexual harassment lawsuit against President Bill Clinton while he is in office.

1998   Oklahoma City bombing: Michael Fortier is sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $200,000 for failing to warn authorities about the terrorist plot.

2001   Members of the Islamist separatist group Abu Sayyaf seize twenty hostages from an affluent island resort on Palawan in the Philippines; the hostage crisis would not be resolved until June 2002.

2007  Ed Yost (died), American inventor, invented the hot air balloon (born 1919)

2007  Gretchen Wyler (died), American actress (born 1932)

Follow me

EO Smith

Interests include biological anthropology, evolution, social behavior, and human behavior. Conducted field research in the Tana River National Primate Reserve, Kenya and on Angaur, Palau, Micronesia, as well as research with captive nonhuman primates at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and the Institute for Primate Research, National Museums of Kenya.
EO Smith
Follow me

Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)