Historical Events on 27 Apr

Historical Events on 27 Apr

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.
1539 - Re-founding of the city of Bogotá, New Granada (nowadays Colombia), by Nikolaus Federmann and Sebastián de Belalcázar.
1565 - Cebu is established becoming the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.
1578 - Duel of the Mignons claims the lives of two favorites of Henry III of France and two favorites of Henry I, Duke of Guise.
1650 - The Battle of Carbisdale: A Royalist army invades mainland Scotland from Orkney Island but is defeated by a Covenanter army.
1667 - The blind and impoverished, John Milton sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10.
1749 - First performance of Handel's Fireworks Music in Green Park, London.
1773 - The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.
1777 - The Battle of Ridgefield: An British invasion force engaged and defeated Continental Army regulars and militia irregulars at Ridgefield, Connecticut during the American Revolutionary War.
1805 - First Barbary War: United States Marines and Berbers attack the Tripolitan city of Derna (The "shores of Tripoli" part of the Marines' hymn).
1810 - Beethoven composes his famous piano piece, Für Elise.
1813 - War of 1812: United States troops capture the capital of Ontario, York (present day Toronto, Canada).
1840 - Foundation stone for new Palace of Westminster, London, laid by wife of Sir Charles Barry.
1861 - President of the United States Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.
1865 - The New York State Senate creates Cornell University as the state's land grant institution.
1865 - The steamboat Sultana, carrying 2,400 passengers, explodes and sinks in the Mississippi River, killing 1,700, most of whom were Union survivors of the Andersonville and Cahaba Prisons.
1904 - The Australian Labor Party becomes the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson.
1909 - Sultan of Turkey Abdul Hamid II is overthrown, and is succeeded by his brother, Mehmed V.
1911 - Following the resignation and death of William P. Frye, a compromise is reached to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the United States Senate.
1914 - Honduras becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
1927 - Carabineros de Chile (Chilean national police force and gendarmery) are created.
1933 - Jessop & Son department store in Nottingham, England, acquired by John Lewis Partnership. The partnership's first shop outside London.
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).
1945 - World War II: The Völkischer Beobachter, the newspaper of the Nazi Party, ceases publication.
1950 - Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed formally segregating races.
1959 - The last Canadian missionary leaves the People's Republic of China.
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 officially opens in Montreal, Canada with a large opening ceremony broadcast around the world. It opens to the public the next day.
1972 - Constructive Vote of No Confidence against German Chancellor Willy Brandt fails under obscure circumstances.
1974 - 10,000 march in Washington, D.C., calling for impeachment of US President Richard Nixon
1977 - 28 people are killed in the Guatemala City air disaster.
1978 - Former United States President Nixon aide John D. Ehrlichman is released from an Arizona prison after serving 18 months for Watergate-related crimes.
1981 - Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse.
1987 - The U.S. Justice Department bars the Austrian President Kurt Waldheim from entering the United States, saying he had aided in the deportation and execution of thousands of Jews and others as a German Army officer during World War II.
1992 - The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, is proclaimed.
1992 - Betty Boothroyd becomes the first woman to be elected Speaker of the British House of Commons in its 700-year history.
1992 - Russia and 12 other former Soviet republics win entry into the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
1993 - All members of the Zambia national football team lose their lives in a plane crash off Libreville, Gabon in route to Dakar, Senegal to play a 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Senegal.
1994 - South African general election, 1994: The first democratic general election in South Africa, in which black citizens could vote.
1996 - The Israeli military operation in Lebanon, Operation Grapes of Wrath, ends after 16 days of heavy bombing.
2002 - The last successful telemetry from the NASA space probe Pioneer 10.
2005 - The Superjumbo jet aircraft Airbus A380 makes its first flight from Toulouse, France.
2006 - Construction begins on the Freedom Tower for the new World Trade Center in New York City.
2007 - Estonian authorities remove the Bronze Soldier, a Soviet Red Army war memorial in Tallinn, amid political controversy with Russia.