October 27Birthdays & History

On this day: October 27 in history

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

1. 312Constantine the Great is said to have received his famous Vision of the Cross.Europe
2. 1275Traditional founding of the city of Amsterdam.Europe
3. 1524French troops lay siege to Pavia.Europe
4. 1553Condemned as a heretic, Michael Servetus is burned at the stake just outside Geneva.Europe
5. 1644Second Battle of Newbury in the English Civil War.Europe
6. 1674The French garrison in Grave surrenders the town to a Dutch army after a difficult siege.Europe
7. 1682Philadelphia is founded in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.North America
8. 1726J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, BWV 56, one of few works he called a cantata.Europe
9. 1775King George III expands on his Proclamation of Rebellion in the Thirteen Colonies in his speech from the throne at the opening of Parliament.EuropeNorth America
10. 1795The United States and Spain sign the Treaty of Madrid, which establishes the boundaries between Spanish colonies and the U.S.North AmericaEurope
11. 1806The French Army under Napoleon enters Berlin following the Prussian defeat at the Battle of Jena–Auerstedt.Europe
12. 1810United States annexes the former Spanish colony of West Florida.North AmericaEurope
13. 1838Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs issues the Extermination Order, which orders all Mormons to leave the state or be killed.North America
14. 1863American Civil War: Union forces led by General William F. Smith defeat Confederate forces in the Battle of Brown's Ferry, opening up a supply line to the besieged city of Chattanooga, Tennessee.North America
15. 1870Franco-Prussian War: Marshal Bazaine surrenders to Prussian forces at the conclusion of the Siege of Metz along with 140,000 French soldiers.Europe
16. 1907Fifteen people are killed in Hungary when gendarmes opened fire on a crowd gathered at a church consecration.Europe
17. 1913A rail workers' strike in Chile escalates into a general strike, organized by the Regional Workers' Federation of Chile.Latin America
18. 1914World War I: The new British battleship HMS Audacious is sunk by a minefield laid by the armed German merchant-cruiser Berlin.Europe
19. 1916Negus Mikael, marching on the Ethiopian capital in support of his son Emperor Iyasu V, is defeated by Fitawrari Habte Giyorgis, securing the throne for Empress Zewditu I.Africa
20. 1919The Fourth Regional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents is held by the Makhnovshchina at Oleksandrivsk.North America
21. 1922A referendum in Rhodesia rejects the country's annexation to the South African Union.Africa
22. 1924The Uzbek SSR is founded in the Soviet Union.AsiaEurope
23. 1930Ratifications are exchanged in London for the first London Naval Treaty go into effect immediately, further limiting the expensive naval arms race among its five signatories.Europe
24. 1936Abdication Crisis: Mrs. Wallis Simpson obtains her divorce, which would eventually allow her to marry King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, thus forcing his abdication from the throne.Europe
25. 1944World War II: German forces capture Banská Bystrica during Slovak National Uprising thus bringing it to an end.Europe
26. 1948A deadly smog event begins in Donora, Pennsylvania, eventually killing 20 and sickening thousands.North America
27. 1954Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. becomes the first African-American general in the United States Air Force.AfricaNorth America
28. 1958Iskander Mirza, the first President of Pakistan, is deposed by General Ayub Khan, who had been appointed the enforcer of martial law by Mirza 20 days earlier.Asia
29. 1961NASA tests the first Saturn I rocket in Mission Saturn-Apollo 1.North America
30. 1962Major Rudolf Anderson of the United States Air Force becomes the only direct human casualty of the Cuban Missile Crisis when his U-2 reconnaissance airplane is shot down over Cuba by a Soviet-supplied surface-to-air missile.North AmericaLatin AmericaEurope
31. 1962By refusing to agree to the firing of a nuclear torpedo at a US warship, Vasily Arkhipov averts nuclear war.North America
32. 1964Ronald Reagan delivers a speech on behalf of the Republican candidate for president, Barry Goldwater. The speech launches his political career and comes to be known as "A Time for Choosing".North America
33. 1971The Democratic Republic of the Congo is renamed Zaire.Africa
34. 1979Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gains its independence from the United Kingdom.Europe
35. 1980The Chun Doo-hwan government forcibly arrests and investigates monks and personnel of the Jogye Order.Asia
36. 1981Cold War: The Soviet submarine S-363 runs aground on the east coast of Sweden.Europe
37. 1986The British government suddenly deregulates financial markets, leading to a total restructuring of the way in which they operate in the country, in an event now referred to as the Big Bang.Europe
38. 1988Cold War: Ronald Reagan suspends construction of the new U.S. Embassy in Moscow due to Soviet listening devices in the building structure.North AmericaEurope
39. 1991Turkmenistan achieves independence from the Soviet Union.AsiaEurope
40. 1992United States Navy radioman Allen R. Schindler, Jr. is murdered by shipmate Terry M. Helvey for being gay, precipitating debate about gays in the military that results in the United States' "Don't ask, don't tell" military policy.North America
41. 1993Widerøe Flight 744 crashes in Overhalla Municipality, Norway, killing six people.Europe
42. 1994Gliese 229B is the first Substellar Mass Object to be unquestionably identified.North America
43. 1997The 1997 Asian financial crisis causes a crash in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.Asia
44. 1999Gunmen open fire in the Armenian Parliament, killing the Prime Minister and seven others.Europe
45. 2014Britain withdraws from Afghanistan at the end of Operation Herrick, after 12 years four months and seven days.EuropeAsia
46. 2017Catalonia declares independence from Spain.Europe
47. 2018A gunman opens fire on a Pittsburgh synagogue killing eleven and injuring six, including four police officers.North America
48. 2018Leicester City F.C. owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha dies in a helicopter crash along with four others after a Premier League match against West Ham United at the King Power Stadium in Leicester, England.Europe
49. 2019Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant founder and leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi kills himself and three children by detonating a suicide vest during the U.S. military Barisha raid in northwestern Syria.Middle EastNorth America

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