April 27Birthdays & History

On this day: April 27 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 247Philip the Arab marks the millennium of Rome with a celebration of the ludi saeculares.Middle EastEurope
2. 395Emperor Arcadius marries Aelia Eudoxia, daughter of the Frankish general Flavius Bauto. She becomes one of the more powerful Roman empresses of Late Antiquity.Europe
3. 711Islamic conquest of Hispania: Moorish troops led by Tariq ibn Ziyad land at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus).Europe
4. 1296First War of Scottish Independence: John Balliol's Scottish army is defeated by an English army commanded by John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey at the Battle of Dunbar.Europe
5. 1509Pope Julius II places the Italian state of Venice under interdict.Europe
6. 1521Battle of Mactan: Explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines led by chief Lapulapu.Asia
7. 1522A Spanish-Imperial army defeats French-Venetian army in the battle of Bicocca. The battle marks the end of dominance of Swiss mercenaries on the battlefield and is one of the first where firearms play a decisive role.Europe
8. 1539Official founding of the city of Bogotá, New Granada (nowadays Colombia), by Nikolaus Federmann and Sebastián de Belalcázar.Latin America
9. 1565Cebu is established becoming the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.EuropeAsia
10. 1595The relics of Saint Sava are incinerated in Belgrade on the Vračar plateau by Ottoman Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha; the site of the incineration is now the location of the Church of Saint Sava, one of the largest Orthodox churches in the worldEuropeMiddle East
11. 1650The Battle of Carbisdale: A Royalist army from Orkney invades mainland Scotland but is defeated by a Covenanter army.Europe
12. 1667Blind and impoverished, John Milton sells Paradise Lost to a printer for £10, so that it could be entered into the Stationers' Register.Europe
13. 1805First Barbary War: United States Marines and Berbers attack the Tripolitan city of Derna (The "shores of Tripoli" in the Marines' Hymn).North AmericaAfrica
14. 1813War of 1812: American troops capture York, the capital of Upper Canada, in the Battle of York.North America
15. 1861American President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.North America
16. 1906The State Duma of the Russian Empire meets for the first time.Europe
17. 1909Sultan of Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II is overthrown, and is succeeded by his brother, Mehmed V.Middle East
18. 1911The Second Canton Uprising takes place in Guangzhou, Qing China, but is suppressed.Asia
19. 1927Carabineros de Chile (Chilean national police force and gendarmerie) are created.Latin America
20. 1936The United Auto Workers (UAW) gains autonomy from the American Federation of Labor.North America
21. 1941World War II: German troops enter Athens.Europe
22. 1945World War II: Benito Mussolini is arrested by Italian partisans in Dongo, while attempting escape disguised as a German soldier.Europe
23. 1945World War II: The last German formations withdraw from Finland to Norway. The Lapland War and thus, World War II in Finland, comes to an end and the Raising the Flag on the Three-Country Cairn photograph is taken.Europe
24. 1953Operation Moolah offers $50,000 to any pilot who defects with a fully mission-capable Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 to South Korea. The first pilot was to receive $100,000.Asia
25. 1967Expo 67 officially opens in Montreal, Quebec, Canada with a large opening ceremony broadcast around the world. It opens to the public the next day.North America
26. 1974One hundred nine people are killed in a plane crash near Pulkovo Airport.Europe
27. 1976Thirty-seven people are killed when American Airlines Flight 625 crashes at Cyril E. King Airport in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.North America
28. 1978John Ehrlichman, a former aide to U.S. President Richard Nixon, is released from the Federal Correctional Institution, Safford, Arizona, after serving 18 months for Watergate-related crimes.North America
29. 1978The Saur Revolution begins in Afghanistan, ending the following morning with the murder of Afghan President Mohammed Daoud Khan and the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.Asia
30. 1978Willow Island disaster: In the deadliest construction accident in United States history, 51 construction workers are killed when a cooling tower under construction collapses at the Pleasants Power Station in Willow Island, West Virginia.North America
31. 1986The city of Pripyat and surrounding areas are evacuated due to the Chernobyl disaster.Europe
32. 1987The U.S. Department of Justice bars Austrian President Kurt Waldheim (and his wife, Elisabeth, who had also been a Nazi) from entering the US, charging that he had aided in the deportations and executions of thousands of Jews and others as a German Army officer during World War II.North AmericaEurope
33. 1989The April 27 demonstrations, student-led protests responding to the April 26 Editorial, during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.Asia
34. 1992The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, is proclaimed.Europe
35. 1992The Russian Federation and 12 other former Soviet republics become members of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.Europe
36. 1992Betty Boothroyd becomes the first woman to be elected Speaker of the British House of Commons in its 700-year history.Europe
37. 1993Most of the Zambia national football team lose their lives in a plane crash off Libreville, Gabon en route to Dakar, Senegal to play a 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Senegal.Africa
38. 1994South African general election: The first democratic general election in South Africa, in which black citizens could vote. The Interim Constitution comes into force.This marked the end of Apartheid.Africa
39. 2005Airbus A380 aircraft has its maiden test flight.Europe
40. 2006Construction begins on the Freedom Tower (later renamed One World Trade Center) in New York City.North America
41. 2007Israeli archaeologists discover the tomb of Herod the Great south of Jerusalem.Middle East
42. 2007Estonian authorities remove the Bronze Soldier, a Soviet Red Army war memorial in Tallinn, amid political controversy with Russia.Europe
43. 2011The 2011 Super Outbreak devastates parts of the Southeastern United States, especially the states of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee. Two hundred five tornadoes touched down on April 27 alone, killing more than 300 and injuring hundreds more.North America
44. 2012At least four explosions hit the Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk with at least 27 people injured.Europe
45. 2018The Panmunjom Declaration is signed between North and South Korea, officially declaring their intentions to end the Korean conflict.Asia
46. 2026A train crash kills at least 15 people and injures 84 others near Jakarta, Indonesia.Asia

Source: Wikipedia "April 27" / CC BY-SA 4.0