Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift.

Historical Events on February 27

Events 1 - 200 of 219

  • 837 15th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet
  • 1454 Siege of Malbork, including its castle, seat of the Teutonic Order begun by Polish and Prussian forces - captured September 1454
  • 1526 Saxony and Hesse form League of Gotha (league of Protestant princes)
  • 1531 Evangelical German towns form Schmalkaldische Union
  • 1557 Osep Gregoriwich Napea, the 1st Russian ambassador to England, arrives in London
  • 1563 British composer William Byrd is appointed organist at Lincoln Cathedral, Lincoln, England

Coronation of Henry IV

1594 Henry IV crowned King of France at Chartres Cathedral, only French monarch to be crowned there (Reins and Paris occupied by the Catholic League)

  • 1626 Yuan Chonghuan is appointed Governor of Liaodong, after he led the Chinese into a great victory against the Manchurians under Nurhaci
  • 1665 Battle at Elmina, Gold Coast: Dutch Vice-admiral De Ruyter captures Fort Cormantin from the English
  • 1667 Abraham Crijnssen conquers Fort Willoughby (Zeelandia), Suriname
  • 1670 Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I orders all Jews expelled from Austria, given until August to comply
  • 1678 Earl of Shaftesbury freed from the Tower of London
  • 1693 The first women's magazine "Ladies' Mercury", is published in London
  • 1696 English/Welsh nobles lay down Oath of Association

New Britain

1700 English explorer William Dampier is the first British person to visit the Pacific Island of New Britain, which he names

  • 1713 French troops bomb Willemstad, Curacao
  • 1801 Washington, D.C. placed under Congressional jurisdiction
  • 1803 Great fire in Bombay, India

Argentine History

1812 The flag of Argentina, created by Manuel Belgrano, is first raised at Rosario

  • 1813 1st federal vaccination legislation enacted
  • 1813 US Congress authorizes use of steamboats to transport mail

Symphony No. 8

1814 Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 8 in F major premieres in Vienna

Dutch Retake Suriname

1816 Dutch regain Suriname from the French after the defeat of Napoleon

  • 1827 1st Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans
  • 1844 Dominican Republic gains independence from Haiti (National Day)

Music History

1854 German composer Robert Schumann saved from suicide attempt in Rhine River

Cooper Union Address

1860 Abraham Lincoln makes a speech at Cooper Union in the city of New York that is largely responsible for his election to the Presidency

  • 1861 Russians shoot at Poles protesting Russian rule of Poland in Castle Square, Warsaw
  • 1861 US Congress authorizes 1st stamped newspaper wrappers for mailing
  • 1864 6th and last day of battle at Dalton, Georgia (about 600 casualties)
  • 1864 Near Andersonville, Georgia, rebels open a new POW camp "Camp Sumpter"
  • 1865 Civil War skirmish near Sturgeon, Missouri
  • 1869 John Menard is 1st African American to make a speech in the US Congress
  • 1871 Meeting of Alabama claims commission
  • 1872 Charlotte Ray, 1st African American woman lawyer in USA, graduates from Howard University
  • 1873 Dutch socialist Samuel van Wooden demands law against child labor
  • 1874 Baseball 1st played in England at Lord's Cricket Ground
  • 1879 Russian-American chemist Constantin Fahlberg discovers an artificial sweetener (later named 'saccharin'), while working on coal tar analysis at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland [1]
  • 1881 Battle at Amajuba: South African Boers vs British army under General Colley
  • 1883 Oscar Hammerstein patents 1st cigar-rolling machine
  • 1890 D Needham and P Kerrigan box 100 rounds (6 h 39 m) in San Francisco; match is a draw
  • 1900 Battle of Paardeberg: Boer General Piet Cronjé surrenders to the British after a prolonged siege
  • 1900 The Trades Union Congress and the Independent Labour Party (formed in 1893) meet in London, resulting in a Labour Representative Committee and eventually the modern UK Labour Party in 1906
  • 1901 A General Committee of National Liberal Federation meets and adopts a resolution deploring the continuation of the war in South Africa and condemning the British Government's insistence on unconditional surrender by the Boers
  • 1901 National League Rules Committee for baseball decrees that all fouls are to count as strikes except after two strikes
  • 1906 France and Britain agree to joint control of New Hebrides

Meeting of Interest

1907 Psychiatrists Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud meet for the first time in Vienna

  • 1908 Sacrifice fly adopted (repealed in 1931, reinstated 1954)

Railroad History

1912 Lord Kitchener opens Khartoum-El Obeid (Nyala) railway

  • 1919 1st public performance of Holst's "Planets"
  • 1919 American Association for Hard of Hearing forms (NYC)
  • 1921 The Fascists incite a riot in Florence, Italy
  • 1921 The International Working Union of Socialist Parties is founded in Vienna
  • 1922 G B Shaw's "Back to Methusaleh I/II" premieres in NYC

Back to Methusaleh

1922 George Bernard Shaw's largest-scale play "Back to Methusaleh" premieres at Garrick Theatre in NYC

1st National Radio Conference

1922 US Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover convenes 1st National Radio Conference

  • 1922 US Supreme Court unanimously upholds 19th amendment to the US Constuituent - women's right to vote
  • 1924 Belgium's Theunis government falls

German History

1925 Adolf Hitler resurrects NSDAP political party in Munich

  • 1925 Test Cricket debut of Clarrie Grimmett, who took 5-45 & 6-37 v England
  • 1929 Turkey signs Litvinov-pact
  • 1930 Bouvet Island declared a Norwegian dependency
  • 1932 Explosion in coal mine Boissevain, Virginia, USA leaves 38 dead

Intermezzo

1933 Jean Genet's play "Intermezzo" premieres in Paris

Reichstag Fire

1933 Nazi Germany's parliament building, the Reichstag, is destroyed by fire; possibly set by the Nazis, who blame and execute Dutch Communist Marinus van der Lubbe

  • 1936 Dutch swimmer Willy den Ouden sets new women's world 100m freestyle record (1:04.6) in Amsterdam; lasts 22 years until broken in 1956 by Dawn Fraser of Australia

Cricket History

1937 Australian cricketer Don Bradman scores 169 in 5th Test match v England in 223 minutes, ensuring Australia wins the Ashes 3-2

  • 1939 Belgian government of Pierlot falls
  • 1939 Borley Rectory, "the most haunted house in England", destroyed in a fire

Spanish History

1939 Britain and France recognize Francisco Franco's government in Spain

  • 1939 Supreme Court outlaws sit-down strikes
  • 1940 Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discover carbon-14 (radiocarbon dating) at the University of California Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley, California
  • 1942 1st transport of French Jews to nazi-Germany
  • 1942 Battle of Java Sea began: 13 US warships sunk and 2 Japanese
  • 1942 Radio emissions from the Sun first detected by English physicist and radio astronomer James Stanley Hey, working on WWII radar anti-jamming methods
  • 1943 The Rosenstrasse protest starts in Berlin
  • 1943 The Smith Mine #3 in Bearcreek, Montana, explodes, killing 74 men
  • 1943 University of Munich professor Kurt Huber, advisor to student non-violent resistance group "White Rose", arrested by Nazis
  • 1945 Battle of US 94 Infantry
  • 1946 4th "Road" film "Road to Utopia" premieres (NYC)
  • 1947 French explorer Paul-Emile Victor founds French Polar Expeditions to oversee French scientific missions

First Israeli President

1949 Chaim Weizmann becomes 1st President of Israel

  • 1951 22nd amendment ratified, limiting US Presidents to 2 terms
  • 1956 Female suffrage granted in Egypt

Conference of Interest

1957 Mao Zedong's famous speech to the Supreme State Conference "On Correct Handling of Contradictions Among People" expounding Maoist ideals

  • 1957 Premiere of only prime-time network TV show beginning with an "X": "Xavier Cugat Show" on NBC (until X-Files)
  • 1958 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR

NBA Record

1959 Boston Celtic Bob Cousy sets NBA record with 28 assists Boston Celtics score 173 points against Minneapolis Lakers

  • 1960 Oil pipe line from Rotterdam to Ruhrgebied opens

Olympic Games

1960 US Olympic Ice Hockey Team beats USSR 3-2 en route to gold medal

  • 1960 Veikko Hakulinen of Finland wins his 3rd career Olympic cross country gold medal as part of Finland's 4 x 10k relay team at Squaw Valley, CA; winner: 50k (Oslo, 1952) and 30k (Cortina d’Ampezzo, 1956)
  • 1961 The first congress of the Spanish Trade Union Organisation is inaugurated

Assassination Attempt

1962 South Vietnam President Ngô Đình Diệm's palace bombed by dissident air pilots in a failed assassination attempt

Contract of Interest

1963 Mickey Mantle of NY Yankees sign a baseball contract worth $100,000

  • 1964 The government of Italy asks for help to keep the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over.
  • 1965 Dutch Marijnen government resigns
  • 1965 France performs Underground nuclear test at Ecker Algeria

Daytona 500

1966 8th Daytona 500: Polesitter Richard Petty comes from 2 laps down to win the event after 198 laps were completed because of rain

  • 1966 Ice Dance Championship at Davos won by Diane Towler and Bernard Ford of great Britain
  • 1966 Ice Pairs Championship at Davos won by Belousova and Protopopov of the Soviet Union
  • 1967 Antigua & St Christopher-Nevis become associated states of UK
  • 1967 Dominica gains independence from England
  • 1967 Rio de la Plata Treaty

Vietnam War

1968 CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite delivers a scathing editorial on America's chances of winning the Vietnam War

Coup d'état

1969 General Hafez al-Assad becomes head of Syria via military coup

  • 1969 President Nixon visits West Berlin
  • 1970 NY Times (falsely) reports US army has ended domestic surveillance
  • 1971 Doctors in the first Dutch abortion clinic (the Mildredhuis in Arnhem) start to perform aborti provocati

Shanghai Communique

1972 US President Richard Nixon and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai issue Shanghai Communique

  • 1973 American Indian Movement occupy Wounded Knee in South Dakota

Historic Publication

1973 Pope Paul VI publishes constitution motu proprio Quo aptius

  • 1973 White Sox slugger Dick Allen signs 3 year $750,000 contract
  • 1974 "People" magazine begins sales
  • 1974 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
  • 1975 CDU-politician Peter Lorentz kidnapped in West Berlin
  • 1975 US House of Representatives pass $21.3 billion anti-recession tax-cut bill
  • 1976 Final meeting between Mao Zedong and Richard Nixon

Music History

1977 Rolling Stones' guitarist Keith Richards gets suspended sentence for heroin possession in Canada

Music History

1977 Swedish pop group ABBA arrives in Australia for the first time, sparking "ABBA-mania"

  • 1978 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll

Grammy Awards

1980 22nd Grammy Awards: Song of the Year - Kenny Loggins' "What A Fool Believes"; Best Album - Billy Joel's "52nd Street"

  • 1980 Israel & Egypt exchange ambassadors
  • 1980 Terrorists occupies Dominican embassy in Bogota
  • 1981 Greatest passenger load on a commercial airliner-610 on Boeing 747

Music History

1981 Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder record the single "Ebony & Ivory"

  • 1982 Dan Issel (NBA-Nuggets), hits on 63rd consecutive free throw

Event of Interest

1982 Earl Anthony becomes 1st pro bowler to win more than $1 million

  • 1982 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll
  • 1982 Wayne Williams found guilty of murdering 2 of 28 blacks in Atlanta
  • 1983 Eamonn Coghlan of Ireland set indoor mile record of 3:49.78

World Record

1984 Carl Lewis jumps world record indoor (8.675 m)

  • 1984 Worker's union leader Billy Nair freed in South Africa
  • 1984 WRC-AM in Washington, D.C. changes call letters to WWRC
  • 1985 Farmers converge in Washington to demand economic relief
  • 1985 Mauritania's new constitutional charter published
  • 1985 US dollar is worth Ÿ3.9355 (Netherlands)
  • 1986 The United States Senate allows its debates to be televised on a trial basis
  • 1987 "Washington Week In Review" 20th anniversary on PBS
  • 1987 American Mike Conley sets world indoor triple jump record (17.76m) in New York
  • 1987 Donald Regan resigns as White House chief of staff
  • 1987 NCAA cancels SMU's entire 1987 football schedule for gross violations of NCAA rules regarding athletic corruption

Sports History

1988 Bonnie Blair (US) wins Olympic 500m speed skating in record 39.1

  • 1988 Gulfstream G-IV goes around the world 36:08:34
  • 1988 Katarina Witt (GDR) wins 2nd consecutive Olympic figure skating
  • 1989 German war criminals Aus der Funten and Fischer freed in Holland
  • 1989 Venezuela is rocked by the riots of Caracazo
  • 1990 "Hold On" single released by Wilson Phillips (Billboard Song of the Year 1990)
  • 1990 Exxon Corp and Exxon Shipping are indicted on 5 criminal counts (Valdez)

Black Tot Day

1990 Final day of the rum ration in the Royal New Zealand Navy

  • 1991 Ben Elton's "Silly Cow" premieres in London
  • 1991 Noureddine Morcelli set 1500m mark at 3:34:16

Music History

1991 Singer James Brown is paroled from prison after serving 2 years of 6 year sentence for weapon and drug related convictions

  • 1992 Larry Smith named 9th Commissioner of the CFL
  • 1993 PBA National Championship Won by Ron Palombi Jr
  • 1994 Maronite church near Beirut bombed, 10 killed
  • 1994 XVII Winter Olympic Games close in Lillehammer, Norway
  • 1995 Car bomb explodes in Zakho, North-Iraq (54-80 killed)

Film & TV History

1996 American film production company "Happy Madison Productions" is founded by Adam Sandler

  • 1996 First ever appearance of Pokémon in role-playing video game "Pocket Monsters Red and Green" for Game Boy in Japan
  • 1996 Mark Waugh scores 126 in World Cup against India
  • 1997 "Last Night of Ballyhoo" opens at Helen Hayes Theater NYC
  • 1997 British singer Sade arrested in Jamaica for disobeying a police officer
  • 1998 Apple discontinues development of the Newton computer
  • 1998 Britain's House of Lords agrees to end 1,000 years of male precedence by giving a monarch's first-born daughter the same claim to the throne as any first born son
  • 1998 FBI arrests 10 most wanted suspected serial killer Tony Ray Amati
  • 1998 NE Patriot David Meggett arrested in Toronto on sex assault charges
  • 1999 Aston Villa are the last Premier League team to play a match with an all-English starting XI in a 4-1 defeat by Coventry
  • 1999 Korea International School is founded by Soon-Il Chung
  • 1999 Olusegun Obasanjo becomes Nigeria's first elected president since mid-1983

Grammy Awards

2002 44th Grammy Awards: "Walk On"; Alicia Keys win

  • 2002 Godhra train burning, a Muslim mob kills 59 Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya
  • 2002 Ryanair Flight 296 catches fire in London Stansted Airport. Subsequent investigations criticize Ryanair's handling of the evacuation.

Music History

2002 Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell receives Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award

  • 2003 Former Bosnian Serb leader Biljana Plavsic is sentenced by the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, to 11 years in prison
  • 2003 Rowan Williams is enthroned as the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury.
  • 2004 A bombing of a Superferry by Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines worst terrorist attack kills 116
  • 2004 Former BPMC general secretary Ordrick Samuel launches a new party in Barbuda, Barbudans for a Better Barbuda

Oilers Retire Messier's #11

2007 Mark Messier's #11 jersey is retired by the Edmonton Oilers

  • 2007 The Chinese Correction: the Shanghai Stock Exchange falls 9%, the largest drop in 10 years
  • 2007 The general strike against Lansana Conté in Guinea ends
  • 2009 Statistics Finland informs that Finland's gross domestic product diminished by 1.3% in the last quarter of 2008 from the previous quarter
  • 2010 8.8 magnitude earthquake rattles central Chile; epicenter just off the coast also triggers a tsunami

Academy Awards

2011 83rd Academy Awards: Best Picture "The King's Speech", Colin Firth and Natalie Portman win best acting awards

Academy Awards

2011 83rd Academy Awards: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross win Best Original Score for 'The Social Network'

Event of Interest

2012 Wikileaks begins disclosing 5 million emails from private intelligence company Stratfor

  • 2013 17 Afghan militia are killed by Taliban insurgents in an attack in the Andar District
  • 2013 20 people are killed in a market fire in Calcutta, India

Event of Interest

2013 Pope Benedict XVI presents his farewell address to Vatican City

  • 2014 Arseniy Yatsenyuk appointed Prime Minister of Ukraine
  • 2014 Chaos erupts after the Swedish Public Employment Service mistakenly invites 61,000 people to a job interview in Stockholm
  • 2014 Republic of Crimea announces a referendum and ousts its regional government
  • 2014 Unmarked Russia special forces invade neighboring Crimea, Ukraine to assist pro-Russian nationalists, occupying government buildings in preparation for annexation
  • 2014 US Republican Governor Jan Brewer vetoes a "religious freedom" bill that would have allowed businesses to turn away gay customers

Music History

2015 70's glam rocker Gary Glitter (real name Paul Gadd) sentenced to 16 years in prison for various child sex convictions

  • 2015 Russian politician Boris Nemtsov is assassinated in Moscow

Music History

2018 Barbra Streisand reveals she has cloned her dog twice

Event of Interest

2018 Jared Kushner, son-in-law of President Trump, has his top-secret security clearance at the White House downgraded