May 27

May 27 is the 147th day of the year (148th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 218 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

• 927 – Battle of the Bosnian Highlands: the Croatian army, led by King Tomislav, defeats the Bulgarian Army.
• 1120 – Richard III of Capua is anointed as Prince two weeks before his untimely death.
• 1153 – Malcolm IV becomes King of Scotland.
• 1703 – Tsar Peter the Great founds the city of Saint Petersburg.
• 1798 – The Battle of Oulart Hill takes place in Wexford, Ireland.
• 1799 – War of the Second Coalition: Austrian forces defeats the French at Winterthur, Switzerland, securing control of the northeastern Swiss Plateau because of the town's location at the junction of seven cross-roads.
• 1812 – Bolivian War of Independence: In Bolivia, the Battle of La Coronilla, in which the women from Cochabamba fight against the Spanish army.
• 1813 – War of 1812: In Canada, American forces capture Fort George.
• 1849 – The Great Hall of Euston station in London is opened.
• 1860 – Giuseppe Garibaldi begins his attack on Palermo, Sicily, as part of the Italian Unification.
• 1863 – American Civil War: First Assault on the Confederate works at the Siege of Port Hudson.
• 1883 – Alexander III is crowned Tsar of Russia.
• 1896 – The F4-strength St. Louis-East St. Louis Tornado hits in St. Louis, Missouri and East Saint Louis, Illinois, killing at least 255 people and causing $2.9 billion in damage (1997 USD).
• 1905 – Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of Tsushima begins.
• 1907 – Bubonic plague breaks out in San Francisco, California.
• 1919 – The NC-4 aircraft arrives in Lisbon after completing the first transatlantic flight.
• 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 Walt Disney Company releases the cartoon Three Little Pigs, with its hit song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?"
• 1933 – The Century of Progress World's Fair opens in Chicago, Illinois.
• 1935 – New Deal: The Supreme Court of the United States declares the National Industrial Recovery Act to be unconstitutional in A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, (295 U.S. 495).
• 1937 – In California, the Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrian traffic, creating a vital link between San Francisco and Marin County, California.
• 1940 – World War II: In the Le Paradis massacre, 99 soldiers from a Royal Norfolk Regiment unit are shot after surrendering to German troops. Two survive.
• 1941 – World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaims an "unlimited national emergency".
• 1941 – World War II: The German battleship Bismarck is sunk in the North Atlantic killing almost 2,100 men.
• 1942 – World War II: In Operation Anthropoid, Reinhard Heydrich is assassinated in Prague.
• 1957 – Toronto's CHUM-AM, (1050 kHz) becomes Canada's first radio station to broadcast only top 40 Rock n' Roll music format.
• 1958 – The F-4 Phantom II makes its first flight.
• 1960 – In Turkey, a military coup removes President Celal Bayar and the rest of the democratic government from office.
• 1962 – The Centralia, Pennsylvania mine fire starts.
• 1965 – Vietnam War: American warships begin the first bombardment of National Liberation Front targets within South Vietnam.
• 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 – The meeting of the Union Nationale des Étudiants de France (National Union of the Students of France) takes place. 30,000 to 50,000 people gather in the Stade Sebastien Charlety.
• 1971 – The Dahlerau train disaster, the worst railway accident in West Germany, kills 46 people and injures 25 near Wuppertal.
• 1975 – Dibbles Bridge Coach Crash near Grassington, North Yorkshire, England kills 33 – the highest ever death toll in a road accident in the United Kingdom.
• 1980 – The Gwangju Massacre: Airborne and army troops of South Korea retake the city of Gwangju from civil militias, killing at least 207 and possibly many more.
• 1995 – In Culpeper, Virginia, actor Christopher Reeve is paralyzed from the neck down after falling from his horse in a riding competition.
• 1996 – First Chechnya War: 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.
• 1999 – The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands indicts Slobodan Milošević and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo.
• 2001 – Members of Islamist separatist group Abu Sayyaf seize twenty hostages from an upscale island resort on Palawan in the Philippines; the hostage crisis would not be resolved until June 2002.
• 2005 – Australian Schapelle Corby is sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in Kerobokan Prison for drug smuggling by a court in Indonesia.
• 2005 – The first year of the Tunisian American Day, which became a yearly event
• 2006 – The May 2006 Java earthquake strikes at 5:53:58 am local time (22:53:58 UTC May 26) devastating Bantul and the city of Yogyakarta killing over 6,600 people.

Births

• 1332 – Ibn Khaldun, Arab polymath (d. 1406)
• 1519 – Girolamo Mei, Italian historian (d. 1594)
• 1576 – Caspar Schoppe, German scholar (d. 1649)
• 1601 – Antoine Daniel, French Jesuit missionary and martyr (d. 1648)
• 1623 – William Petty, English scientist and philosopher (d. 1687)
• 1626 – William II, Prince of Orange (d. 1650)
• 1651 – Louis-Antoine, Cardinal de Noailles, French cardinal (d. 1729)
• 1652 – Liselotte von der Pfalz, Duchess of Orléans (d. 1722)
• 1738 – Nathaniel Gorham, 8th President of the United States in Congress Assembled (d. 1796)
• 1756 – King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria (d. 1825)
• 1794 – Cornelius Vanderbilt, American entrepreneur (d. 1877)
• 1818 – Amelia Bloomer, American suffragette (d. 1894)
• 1819 – Julia Ward Howe, American poet (The Battle Hymn of the Republic) (d. 1910)
• 1820 – Mathilde Bonaparte, French princess and socialite (d. 1904)
• 1827 – Samuel F. Miller, New York representative to the U.S. House of Representatives (d. 1892)
• 1836 – Jay Gould, American financier (d. 1892)
• 1837 – Wild Bill Hickok, American gunfighter (d. 1876)
• 1837 – Ivan Kramskoi, Russian painter (d. 1887)
• 1860 – Manuel Teixeira Gomes, 7th President of Portugal (d. 1941)
• 1864 – Ante Trumbić, Croatian politician (d. 1938)
• 1867 – Arnold Bennett, British novelist (d. 1931)
• 1871 – Georges Rouault, French painter and graphic artist (d. 1958)
• 1876 – Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski, Polish writer (d. 1945)
• 1876 – Sir William Stanier, British railway engineer (d. 1965)
• 1879 – Karl Bühler, German linguist and psychologist (d. 1963)
• 1879 – Hans Lammers, German SS officer (d. 1962)
• 1884 – Max Brod, Czech-born writer, literary executor of Franz Kafka (d. 1968)
• 1888 – Louis Durey, French composer (d. 1979)
• 1891 – Claude Champagne, French-Canadian composer (d. 1965)
• 1893 – Hermann Dörnemann, German supercentenarian (d. 2005)
• 1894 – Louis-Ferdinand Céline, French writer (d. 1961)
• 1894 – Dashiell Hammett, American author (d. 1961)
• 1897 – John Cockcroft, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1967)
• 1900 – Uładzimir Zylka, Belarusian poet (d. 1933)
• 1904 – Chūhei Nambu, Japanese athlete (d. 1997)
• 1906 – Antonio Rosario Mennonna, Italian Catholic bishop (d. 2009)
• 1907 – Nicolas Calas, Greek-American poet and art critic (d. 1988)
• 1907 – Rachel Carson, American biologist and science writer (d. 1964)
• 1909 – Dolores Hope, American singer and philanthropist
• 1911 – Hubert H. Humphrey, 38th Vice President of the United States and Senator from Minnesota (d. 1978)
• 1911 – Teddy Kollek, Austrian-born Israeli politician (d. 2007)
• 1911 – Vincent Price, American actor (d. 1993)
• 1912 – John Cheever, American author (d. 1982)
• 1912 – Sam Snead, American golfer (d. 2002)
• 1912 – Terry Moore, American baseball player (d. 1995)
• 1913 – Wols, German painter (d. 1951)
• 1915 – Esther Soré, Chilean musician (d. 1996)
• 1915 – Herman Wouk, American writer
• 1918 – Yasuhiro Nakasone, Japanese politician
• 1921 – Caryl Chessman, American robber and rapist (d. 1960)
• 1922 – Christopher Lee, English actor
• 1923 – Henry Kissinger, 56th United States Secretary of State, Nobel Peace Prize laureate
• 1923 – Sumner Redstone, American entrepreneur
• 1924 – Ernest Ingenito, American mass murderer (d. 1995)
• 1925 – Tony Hillerman, American writer (d. 2008)
• 1930 – John Barth, American novelist
• 1930 – William S. Sessions, 8th Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
• 1932 – Faten Hamama, Egyptian actress
• 1933 – Manfred Sommer, Spanish comic artist (d. 2007)
• 1933 – Ted Rogers, Canadian entrepreneur (d. 2008)
• 1934 – Harlan Ellison, American author
• 1935 – Lee Meriwether, Miss America (1955) and actress
• 1935 – Ramsey Lewis, American pianist
• 1935 – Mal Evans, British road manager of The Beatles (d. 1976)
• 1936 – Louis Gossett Jr., American actor
• 1936 – Marcel Masse, Canadian politician
• 1937 – Allan Carr, American film producer and writer (d. 1999)
• 1939 – Socratis Kokkalis, Greek businessman
• 1939 – Don Williams, American country singer
• 1942 – Lee Baca, American law enforcement official
• 1943 – Cilla Black, English singer and presenter
• 1943 – Bruce Weitz, American actor
• 1944 – Christopher Dodd, American politician, senior Senator from Connecticut
• 1944 – Alain Souchon, French singer and songwriter
• 1945 – Bruce Cockburn, Canadian musician
• 1946 – Lewis Collins, English actor
• 1946 – Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Danish jazz bassist (d. 2005)
• 1947 – Branko Oblak, Slovenian footballer
• 1948 – Wubbo de Boer, Dutch civil servant
• 1951 – Ana Belén, Spanish singer and actress
• 1954 – Pauline Hanson, Australian politician
• 1954 – Jackie Slater, American football player
• 1955 – Richard Schiff, American actor
• 1955 – Eric Bischoff, American professional wrestling promoter
• 1956 – Cynthia McFadden, American television anchor
• 1957 – Siouxsie Sioux, English musician (Siouxsie and the Banshees)
• 1957 – Duncan Goodhew, English Olympic swimmer, 1980 gold medalist
• 1958 – Neil Finn, New Zealand singer and songwriter (Split Enz, Crowded House)
• 1958 – Linnea Quigley, American actress
• 1961 – Peri Gilpin, American actress
• 1962 – Ray Borner, Australian basketball player
• 1962 – Steven Brill, American film writer and director
• 1962 – Ravi Shastri, Indian cricketer
• 1964 – Adam Carolla, American comedian and television personality
• 1964 – Zheng Geping, Singaporean actor
• 1965 – Todd Bridges, American actor
• 1965 – Pat Cash, Australian tennis player
• 1966 – Heston Blumenthal, British chef and restaurateur
• 1967 – Paul Gascoigne, English footballer
• 1968 – Jeff Bagwell, American baseball player
• 1968 – Frank E. Thomas, American baseball player
• 1968 – Rebekah Brooks, English journalist and newspaper editor
• 1969 – Todd Hundley, American baseball player
• 1969 – Jeremy Mayfield, American race car driver
• 1969 – Dondre Whitfield, American actor
• 1970 – Michele Bartoli, Italian cyclist
• 1970 – Tim Farron, British politician
• 1970 – Joseph Fiennes, English actor
• 1970 – Cherry Pie Picache, Filipino actress
• 1971 – Mathew Batsiua, Nauruan politician
• 1971 – Paul Bettany, English actor
• 1971 – Wayne Carey, Australian rules footballer
• 1971 – Kaur Kender, Estonian author
• 1971 – Lisa Lopes, American singer (TLC) (d. 2002)
• 1971 – Glenn Ross, Northern Irish strongman
• 1971 – Monika Schnarre, Canadian model and actress
• 1971 – Lee Sharpe, English Footballer
• 1972 – Todd Demsey, American golfer
• 1972 – Ivete Sangalo, Brazilian singer
• 1973 – Jack McBrayer, American actor and comedian
• 1973 – Tana Umaga, New Zealand rugby union player
• 1974 – Jason Narvy, American actor
• 1974 – Derek Webb, American singer and songwriter (Caedmon's Call)
• 1974 – Danny Wuerffel, American football player
• 1975 – André 3000, American rapper (OutKast)
• 1975 – Michael Hussey, Australian cricketer
• 1975 – Jadakiss, American rapper (D-Block)
• 1975 – Jamie Oliver, English chef and television personality
• 1976 – RJD2, American hip-hop producer
• 1977 – Abderrahmane Hammad, Algerian athlete
• 1977 – Mahela Jayawardene, Sri Lankan cricketer
• 1977 – Tommie van der Leegte, Dutch footballer
• 1978 – Adin Brown, American footballer
• 1979 – Stuart Manning, British actor
• 1979 – Mile Sterjovski, Australian footballer
• 1980 – Craig Buntin, Canadian figure skater
• 1981 – Marcelo Bonan. Brazilian footballer
• 1981 – Özgür Çevik, Turkish singer and actor
• 1981 – Fivos Constantinou, Cypriot distance and cross country runner
• 1981 – Johan Elmander, Swedish footballer
• 1981 – Miloy, Angolan footballer
• 1982 – Michael de Grussa, Australian Singer/Songwriter
• 1982 – Nattie Neidhart, Canadian professional wrestler
• 1983 – Bobby Convey, American footballer
• 1984 – Blake Ahearn, American basketball player
• 1984 – Darin Brooks, American actor
• 1984 – Kalle Spjuth, Swedish bandy player
• 1985 – Chiang Chien-ming, Taiwanese baseball player
• 1985 – Roberto Soldado, Spanish footballer
• 1986 – Conor Cummins, Manx motorbike racer
• 1986 – Timo Descamps, Flemish actor and singer
• 1987 – Eric Kolelas, French actor
• 1987 – Gervinho, Ivorian footballer
• 1990 – Chris Colfer, American actor
• 1991 – Ksenia Pervak, Russian tennis player
• 1997 – Danny McKinnon, Canadian actor

Deaths

• 366 – Procopius, Roman usurper (b. 326)
• 866 – King Ordoño I of Asturias (b. 831)
• 927 – Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria (b. 864 or 865)
• 1039 – Dirk III, Count of Holland (b. between 981 and 989)
• 1444 – John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, English military leader (b. 1404)
• 1508 – Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan (b. 1452)
• 1525 – Thomas Müntzer, German rebel leader (b. c. 1488)
• 1541 – Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury (b. 1473)
• 1564 – John Calvin, French religious reformer (b. 1509)
• 1610 – François Ravaillac, French assassin of Henry IV of France (b. 1578)
• 1615 – Margaret of Valois, Queen of Henry IV of France (b. 1553)
• 1661 – Archibald Campbell, Scottish religious dissident (b. 1607)
• 1675 – Gaspard Dughet, French painter (b. 1613)
• 1690 – Giovanni Legrenzi, Italian composer (b. 1626)
• 1702 – Dominique Bouhours, French essayist and critic (b. 1628)
• 1707 – Françoise-Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan, French mistress of Louis XIV of France (b. 1640)
• 1781 – Giovanni Battista Beccaria, Italian physicist (b. 1716)
• 1797 – François-Noël Babeuf, French revolutionary (b. 1760)
• 1831 – Jedediah Strong Smith, American explorer (b. 1799)
• 1840 – Niccolò Paganini, Italian violinist and composer (b. 1782)
• 1896 – Aleksandr Grigorievich Stoletov, Russian physicist (b. 1839)
• 1910 – Robert Koch, German physician, Nobel laureate (b. 1843)
• 1918 – Ōzutsu Man'emon, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 18th Yokozuna (b. 1869)
• 1919 – Kandukuri Veeresalingam, Indian social activist (b. 1848)
• 1926 – Srečko Kosovel, Slovenian poet (b. 1904)
• 1941 – Gunther Lutjens, German admiral, died in sinking of the German battleship Bismarck (b. 1889)
• 1941 – Ernst Lindemann, German captain, died in sinking of the German battleship Bismarck (b. 1894)
• 1945 – Enno Lolling, German SS-Standartenführer died by suicide (b. 1888)
• 1947 – Ed Konetchy, American baseball player (b. 1885)
• 1949 – Robert Ripley, American cartoonist (Ripley's Believe It or Not!) (b. 1890)
• 1953 – Jesse Burkett, American baseball player (b. 1868)
• 1960 – James Montgomery Flagg, American illustrator (b. 1877)
• 1963 – Gregoris Lambrakis, Greek physician and politician (b. 1912)
• 1964 – Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian politician (b. 1889)
• 1967 – W. Otto Miessner, American composer and music educator (b. 1880)
• 1967 – Ernst Niekisch, German politician (b. 1889)
• 1969 – Jeffrey Hunter, American actor (b. 1926)
• 1973 – P.Ramlee, Malaysian actor, singer and songwriter (b. 1922)
• 1986 – Isma'il Raji al-Faruqi, Palestinian-born philosopher (b. 1921)
• 1986 – Giorgos Tzifos, Greek actor (b. 1918)
• 1987 – John Howard Northrop, American chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1891)
• 1989 – Arseny Tarkovsky, Russian poet (b. 1907)
• 1990 – Robert B. Meyner, 44th Governor of New Jersey (b. 1908)
• 1991 – Leopold Nowak, Austrian musicologist (b. 1904)
• 1992 – Uncle Charlie Osborne, American fiddler (b. 1890)
• 1993 – Mary Philbin, American actress (b. 1903)
• 1993 – Werner Stocker, German actor (b. 1955)
• 1994 – Charles Rodman Campbell, Executed American rapist and killer (b. 1954)
• 1997 – Matt Gunther, American pornographic actor (b. 1963)
• 2000 – Kazimierz Leski, Polish engineer, fighter pilot, intelligence and counter-intelligence officer (b. 1912)
• 2000 – Sir Crawford Murray MacLehose, Scottish statesman, 25th Governor of Hong Kong (b. 1917)
• 2000 – Maurice Richard, Canadian hockey player (b. 1921)
• 2001 – Ramon Bieri, American actor (b. 1929)
• 2003 – Luciano Berio, Italian composer (b. 1925)
• 2006 – Rob Borsellino, American columnist (b. 1949)
• 2006 – Paul Gleason, American actor (b. 1939)
• 2006 – Craig Heyward, American football player (b. 1966)
• 2006 – Alex Toth, American cartoonist (b. 1928)
• 2006 – Oduvil Unnikrishnan, Indian actor (b. 1944)
• 2007 – Izumi Sakai, Japanese singer (Zard) (b. 1967)
• 2007 – Gretchen Wyler, American actress (b. 1932)
• 2007 – Ed Yost, American inventor (b. 1919)
• 2008 – Franz Künstler, last remaining Austro-Hungarian Empire World War I veteran (b. 1900)
• 2009 – Thomas Franck, American lawyer (b. 1931)
• 2009 – Sir Clive Granger, British economist and Nobel Prize winner (b. 1934)
• 2009 – Abram Hoffer, Canadian Orthomolecular psychiatrist (b. 1917)
• 2009 – Gérard Jean-Juste, Roman Catholic priest and Haitian political activist (b. 1946)
• 2009 – Carol Anne O'Marie, American Roman Catholic nun and mystery novelist (b. 1933)
• 2009 – Sir William Refshauge, Australian public health administrator (b. 1913)
• 2009 – Paul Sharratt, British-born American television producer (b. 1933)
• 2010 – Payut Ngaokrachang, Thai animator (b. 1929)
• 2011 – Jeff Conaway, American actor (b. 1950)
• 2011 – Margo Dydek, Polish basketball player (b. 1974)
• 2011 – Gil Scott-Heron, American poet, musician and author (b. 1949)

Holidays and observances

• Armed Forces Day (Nicaragua)
• Children's Day (Nigeria)
• Christian Feast Day:
  • Augustine of Canterbury
  • Bruno of Würzburg
  • Eutropius of Orange
  • Hildebert
  • Julius the Veteran
  • May 27 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Mother's Day or Día de la Madre (Bolivia)
• Slavery Abolition Day (Guadeloupe, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin)

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada