1521 Ferdinand Magellan was killed by natives on April 27, 1521, having reached the Philippines sailing west. On landing in Cebu, Philippines, Magellan had persuaded the local king, Rajah Humabon, to convert to Christianity. Magellan agreed to fight Rajah Humabo’s enemy on the island of Mactan. Magellan attacked the islanders with a small force on April 27, 1521 but he was struck by a bamboo spear, surrounded and chopped to death by the natives with lances and scimitars.
1521 After Magellan was killed in battle on April 27, 1521, the command went to a merchant ship captain. Juan Sebastián Elcano, who had signed on as a subordinate officer for the voyage in order to gain the king's pardon for previous misdeeds. Elcano completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth arriving in Seville on September 6, 1522.
1667 John Milton published Paradise Lost, written in 12 books in 1667. Blind and impoverished, he sold his copyright for Paradise Lost on April 27, 1667 to Samuel Simmons, a London Bookseller, for a paltry £5, plus another £5 after three additions of 1500 copies had been sold. Paradise Lost was the first great poem written in blank verse. Milton wrote in the preface: "The troublesome and modern bondage of Rhyming."
1682 When Fyodor III the Tsar of Russia, died in spring 1682, a dispute arose over who should inherit the throne. On April 27, 1682, the Boyar Duma (a council of Russian nobles) decided to pass over the next boy, the retarded Ivan, in favor of Peter, who was an intelligent and boisterous lad of ten, with his mother as regent. As Peter the Great, he modernized his backward, feudal country and extended Russian territory to the west and southwest.
1737 The historian Edward Gibbon was born on April 27, 1737, the son of Edward and Judith Gibbon at Lime Grove, in the town of Putney, Surrey. Never a strong or active man, Gibbon was of diminutive stature, little more than 5 ft tall with a large head and uncommonly small bones. His most important work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, was published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788.
1749 Music for the Royal Fireworks was written by George Frideric Handel in 1749 to celebrate the peace of Aix-La-Chapelle, the treaty ending the war of the Austrian succession. Over 12,000 attended its first performance in London's Green Park on April 27, 1749 and London Bridge was jammed solidly for three hours. The premiere did not go well. The set was burnt by fireworks and in the ensuing panic, two people died.
1773 The UK Parliament passed the Tea Act on April 27, 1773, to try to save East India Co. from bankruptcy. The Act granted the British East India Company a monopoly on the North American tea trade. Because The Tea Act allowed the East India Company to sell tea to the colonists, who would have to pay the British duty on it, they rebelled with The 'Boston Tea Party,' the first in a series of events that set off the American Revolution.
1791 Samuel Morse was born on April 27, 1791. After establishing his reputation as a portrait painter,. Morse devoted his middle age to creating a fast way of sending messages. He was prompted to do this after being told his his wife was ill via a horse messenger; but the letter had taken so long to reach him that by the time he arrived home, she was not only dead, but had been buried. The system of dots and dashes he came up with by which telegraphic messages are conveyed is named after him.
1810 Ludwig Van Beethoven composed his "Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor", better known as "Für Elise" (English "For Elise") on April 27, 1810. "Für Elise" wasn't written for Elise at all. Beethoven's autographed manuscript reads: "For Therese on the 27th April in remembrance of L. V Bthvn," the Therese being Therese Malfatti (1792–1851), with whom Beethoven was in love. However the copyist misread Beethoven's untidy scrawl and gave his new piano piece the dedication "Für Elise."
1822 General Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th President of the United States was born Hiram Ulysses Grant in Point Pleasant, Ohio, on April 27, 1822, to Jesse Root Grant, a tanner and merchant, and Hannah Simpson Grant. President Grant’s real name was Hiram Ulysses Grant - the 'S' was a typo when he secured a nomination to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Grant changed his name at West Point to avoid having his military uniforms marked with initials "H.U.G."
1830 Simon Bolívar, the South American military and political leader who played a key role in the liberation of several Latin American countries from Spanish rule, resigned his presidency of Gran Colombia (now known as Colombia) on April 27, 1830. Bolívar had served as the president of Gran Colombia since 1819, but he resigned amid growing political turmoil and regional tensions within the country.
1862 David Livingstone married Mary Moffat in January 1845. They loved each other deeply and for much of their marriage she accompanied him in Africa. In 1858 Livingstone sailed to Cape Town with his wife and young son, he left them there and he attempted unsuccessfully to sail up the Zambezi. Tragically Mary died of malaria on April 27, 1862 in his arms only days after joining him at the mouth of the Zambezi.
1865 The worst maritime disaster in US history was on April 27, 1865 when 1192 people perished after the steamboat Sultana's boilers exploded on the River Mississippi just outside Memphis. Not very many people heard about it since news coverage focused on the killing of John Wilkes Booth the previous day.
1882 American philosopher, poet, and academic Ralph Waldo Emerson died on April 27, 1882 at his home in Concord, Massachusetts. Emerson had been in poor health for several years prior to his death, and he suffered from pneumonia and other respiratory ailments in the months leading up to his passing. Emerson is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Massachusetts
1904 On April 27 1904, the Australian Labor Party became the first such party to gain national government. It was a minority government and lasted only four months. The Labor leader, Chris Watson, was aged only 37, and is still the youngest Prime Minister in Australia's history.
1933 The 28-year-old John Lewis opened his first shop on Oxford Street, London in 1864 selling ribbons and haberdashery. In 1933, The John Lewis Partnership started acquiring other retail businesses, buying Jessop & Son of Nottingham on April 27, 1933, and Lance & Lance of Weston-super-Mare soon afterwards. Four years later, it bought Waitrose Limited, which operated ten counter-service grocery shops in London and the Home Counties.
1938 Geraldine Apponyi, an American woman of Hungarian descent, married King Zog I of Albania on April 27, 1938, in a ceremony that took place in the Albanian capital, Tirana. Apponyi's marriage to King Zog made her the first American woman to become a queen, and she was also the only American-born queen consort in European history.
1945 Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci were arrested in Dongo, Lake Como on the afternoon of April 27, 1945. Il Duce was caught by Italian communist partisans as he headed for Chiavenna to board a plane for escape to Switzerland. Mussolini and Clara were both executed the next day.
1953 Operation Moolah beginning April 27, 1953 offered $50,000 to any North Korean military pilot who defected with a fully mission-capable Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 to South Korea. The success of the operation is disputable since no Communist pilot defected before the armistice ending the Korean War was signed. However two months after the armistice, North Korean pilot Lieutenant No Kum-Sok flew his MiG-15 to the Kimpo Air Base, South Korea, unaware of Operation Moolah.
1961 Sierra Leone was granted its independence from the United Kingdom on April 27, 1961 with Milton Margai leader of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) as the first Prime Minister. Since independence to present, Sierra Leonean democratic politics has been dominated by two major political parties; the SLPP and the All People's Congress (APC).
1961 The national flag of Sierra Leone is a tricolor consisting of three horizontal green, white and blue bands. It was adopted on April 27, 1961, when Sierra Leone became independent, to replace the British Blue Ensign defaced with the arms of the Crown Colony of Sierra Leone.
1981 Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) introduced the Xerox 8010 Star Information System, which was the first commercial system to utilize a computer mouse, on April 27, 1981. The Xerox 8010 was a pioneering computer system that featured a graphical user interface, which made it easier and more intuitive to use than earlier computer systems that relied on text-based interfaces.
 |
| 19th century depiction of Magellan's death |
1521 After Magellan was killed in battle on April 27, 1521, the command went to a merchant ship captain. Juan Sebastián Elcano, who had signed on as a subordinate officer for the voyage in order to gain the king's pardon for previous misdeeds. Elcano completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth arriving in Seville on September 6, 1522.
1667 John Milton published Paradise Lost, written in 12 books in 1667. Blind and impoverished, he sold his copyright for Paradise Lost on April 27, 1667 to Samuel Simmons, a London Bookseller, for a paltry £5, plus another £5 after three additions of 1500 copies had been sold. Paradise Lost was the first great poem written in blank verse. Milton wrote in the preface: "The troublesome and modern bondage of Rhyming."
 |
| Title page of Paradise Lost, London: 1667, by John Milton |
1682 When Fyodor III the Tsar of Russia, died in spring 1682, a dispute arose over who should inherit the throne. On April 27, 1682, the Boyar Duma (a council of Russian nobles) decided to pass over the next boy, the retarded Ivan, in favor of Peter, who was an intelligent and boisterous lad of ten, with his mother as regent. As Peter the Great, he modernized his backward, feudal country and extended Russian territory to the west and southwest.
1737 The historian Edward Gibbon was born on April 27, 1737, the son of Edward and Judith Gibbon at Lime Grove, in the town of Putney, Surrey. Never a strong or active man, Gibbon was of diminutive stature, little more than 5 ft tall with a large head and uncommonly small bones. His most important work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, was published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788.
1749 Music for the Royal Fireworks was written by George Frideric Handel in 1749 to celebrate the peace of Aix-La-Chapelle, the treaty ending the war of the Austrian succession. Over 12,000 attended its first performance in London's Green Park on April 27, 1749 and London Bridge was jammed solidly for three hours. The premiere did not go well. The set was burnt by fireworks and in the ensuing panic, two people died.
 |
| Handel's Fireworks Music, A hand-colored etching. |
1773 The UK Parliament passed the Tea Act on April 27, 1773, to try to save East India Co. from bankruptcy. The Act granted the British East India Company a monopoly on the North American tea trade. Because The Tea Act allowed the East India Company to sell tea to the colonists, who would have to pay the British duty on it, they rebelled with The 'Boston Tea Party,' the first in a series of events that set off the American Revolution.
1791 Samuel Morse was born on April 27, 1791. After establishing his reputation as a portrait painter,. Morse devoted his middle age to creating a fast way of sending messages. He was prompted to do this after being told his his wife was ill via a horse messenger; but the letter had taken so long to reach him that by the time he arrived home, she was not only dead, but had been buried. The system of dots and dashes he came up with by which telegraphic messages are conveyed is named after him.
1810 Ludwig Van Beethoven composed his "Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor", better known as "Für Elise" (English "For Elise") on April 27, 1810. "Für Elise" wasn't written for Elise at all. Beethoven's autographed manuscript reads: "For Therese on the 27th April in remembrance of L. V Bthvn," the Therese being Therese Malfatti (1792–1851), with whom Beethoven was in love. However the copyist misread Beethoven's untidy scrawl and gave his new piano piece the dedication "Für Elise."
 |
| Therese Malfatti |
1822 General Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th President of the United States was born Hiram Ulysses Grant in Point Pleasant, Ohio, on April 27, 1822, to Jesse Root Grant, a tanner and merchant, and Hannah Simpson Grant. President Grant’s real name was Hiram Ulysses Grant - the 'S' was a typo when he secured a nomination to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Grant changed his name at West Point to avoid having his military uniforms marked with initials "H.U.G."
1830 Simon Bolívar, the South American military and political leader who played a key role in the liberation of several Latin American countries from Spanish rule, resigned his presidency of Gran Colombia (now known as Colombia) on April 27, 1830. Bolívar had served as the president of Gran Colombia since 1819, but he resigned amid growing political turmoil and regional tensions within the country.
1862 David Livingstone married Mary Moffat in January 1845. They loved each other deeply and for much of their marriage she accompanied him in Africa. In 1858 Livingstone sailed to Cape Town with his wife and young son, he left them there and he attempted unsuccessfully to sail up the Zambezi. Tragically Mary died of malaria on April 27, 1862 in his arms only days after joining him at the mouth of the Zambezi.
1865 The worst maritime disaster in US history was on April 27, 1865 when 1192 people perished after the steamboat Sultana's boilers exploded on the River Mississippi just outside Memphis. Not very many people heard about it since news coverage focused on the killing of John Wilkes Booth the previous day.
 |
| Sultana at Helena, Arkansas on April 26, 1865, a day before her destruction |
1882 American philosopher, poet, and academic Ralph Waldo Emerson died on April 27, 1882 at his home in Concord, Massachusetts. Emerson had been in poor health for several years prior to his death, and he suffered from pneumonia and other respiratory ailments in the months leading up to his passing. Emerson is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Massachusetts
1904 On April 27 1904, the Australian Labor Party became the first such party to gain national government. It was a minority government and lasted only four months. The Labor leader, Chris Watson, was aged only 37, and is still the youngest Prime Minister in Australia's history.
 |
| Chris Watson |
1933 The 28-year-old John Lewis opened his first shop on Oxford Street, London in 1864 selling ribbons and haberdashery. In 1933, The John Lewis Partnership started acquiring other retail businesses, buying Jessop & Son of Nottingham on April 27, 1933, and Lance & Lance of Weston-super-Mare soon afterwards. Four years later, it bought Waitrose Limited, which operated ten counter-service grocery shops in London and the Home Counties.
1938 Geraldine Apponyi, an American woman of Hungarian descent, married King Zog I of Albania on April 27, 1938, in a ceremony that took place in the Albanian capital, Tirana. Apponyi's marriage to King Zog made her the first American woman to become a queen, and she was also the only American-born queen consort in European history.
1945 Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci were arrested in Dongo, Lake Como on the afternoon of April 27, 1945. Il Duce was caught by Italian communist partisans as he headed for Chiavenna to board a plane for escape to Switzerland. Mussolini and Clara were both executed the next day.
1953 Operation Moolah beginning April 27, 1953 offered $50,000 to any North Korean military pilot who defected with a fully mission-capable Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 to South Korea. The success of the operation is disputable since no Communist pilot defected before the armistice ending the Korean War was signed. However two months after the armistice, North Korean pilot Lieutenant No Kum-Sok flew his MiG-15 to the Kimpo Air Base, South Korea, unaware of Operation Moolah.
1961 Sierra Leone was granted its independence from the United Kingdom on April 27, 1961 with Milton Margai leader of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) as the first Prime Minister. Since independence to present, Sierra Leonean democratic politics has been dominated by two major political parties; the SLPP and the All People's Congress (APC).
1961 The national flag of Sierra Leone is a tricolor consisting of three horizontal green, white and blue bands. It was adopted on April 27, 1961, when Sierra Leone became independent, to replace the British Blue Ensign defaced with the arms of the Crown Colony of Sierra Leone.
 |
| The national flag of Sierra Leone |
1981 Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) introduced the Xerox 8010 Star Information System, which was the first commercial system to utilize a computer mouse, on April 27, 1981. The Xerox 8010 was a pioneering computer system that featured a graphical user interface, which made it easier and more intuitive to use than earlier computer systems that relied on text-based interfaces.
1993 On April 27, 1993, a plane carrying the majority of the Zambia national football team crashed off the coast of Gabon, near the city of Libreville. All 30 people on board, including 18 players and the coaching staff, were killed in the crash. The team had been traveling to Senegal to play a 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifying match.
1994 The first multiracial elections in South Africa following apartheid were held on April 27, 1994. They went off peacefully throughout the country as 20 million South Africans cast their votes. The anniversary of the elections, 27th April, is celebrated as a public holiday known as Freedom Day. Nelson Mandela won the 1994 general election. Mandela was the first South African President elected in a completely democratic election and the first modern black president of his country.
1994 The flag of South Africa was adopted on April 27, 1994 to replace the flag that had been used since 1928. The new flag was designed to represent the unity of the country after the end of apartheid and the beginning of a democratic era in South Africa. The flag features six colors: black, yellow, green, white, red, and blue, and incorporates elements from both the previous national flag and the flags of the African National Congress and the Pan-African Congress.
1994 Richard Nixon's funeral took place on April 27, 1994 in Yorba Linda, California, the town where he was born and raised. The funeral was attended by many dignitaries and political figures, including President Bill Clinton and former Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush, all of whom were accompanied by their wives.
2011 A On April 27, 2011, a powerful storm system swept across the southeastern United States, spawning a massive outbreak of tornadoes in the south-eastern U.S. It claimed 317 lives on April 27, 2011 — the deadliest single day in U.S. tornado history since the "Tri-State" outbreak on March 18, 1925 (when at least 747 people were killed).
2014 John Paul II was beatified on May 1, 2011 after the Congregation for the Causes of Saints attributed one miracle to his intercession, the healing of a French nun from Parkinson's disease. A second miracle attributed to John Paul II's intercession was approved on July 2, 2013, and confirmed by Pope Francis two days later (two miracles must be attributed to a person's intercession to be declared a saint). John Paul II was declared a saint on April 27, 2014, together with Pope John XXIII.
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