April 27 historic events
1521 Battle of Mactan: Explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines led by chief Lapu-Lapu.
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.
1805 First Barbary War: United States Marines and Berbers attack the Tripolitan city of Derna (The “shores of Tripoli” part of the Marines’ hymn).
1813 War of 1812: United States troops capture the capital of Upper Canada, York (present day Toronto, Canada).
Britain returned the favor by capturing and burning Washington, DC.
1861 President of the United States Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.
Even the Great Emancipator recognized that in a time of war some freedoms may need to be suspended.
1865 The steamboat Sultana, carrying 2,400 passengers, explodes and sinks in the Mississippi River, killing 1,700, most of whom are Union survivors of the Andersonville and Cahaba Prisons.
This was the worst shipwreck in U.S. history. More people died in this sinking than in the sinking of the Titanic.
1945 World War II: Benito Mussolini is arrested by Italian partisans in Dongo, while attempting escape disguised as a German soldier.
1947 “Babe Ruth Day” at Yankee Stadium was held to honor the ailing baseball star.
He was dying of throat cancer at the time. He was barely able to speak, and told fans that he knew he didn’t look too good, and he didn’t feel too good either.
1950 Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed formally segregating races.
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.
The Montreal Expos (now the Washington Nationals) were named in commemoration of this event.
1972 Apollo 16 returned to Earth after a manned voyage to the moon.
1974 10,000 march in Washington, D.C., calling for the impeachment of US President Richard Nixon.
1981 Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse.
We haven’t seen “Squeak” around in a while. If you’re reading this, why not drop in and say hello?
1987 The U.S. Department of Justice 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.
Ed Koch declared that Kurt had “Waldheimers disease” – forgetting one’s nazi past.
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.
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 planned 1,776 foot Freedom Tower for the new World Trade Center in New York City.
2009 General Motors announced plans to cut 21,000 hourly jobs and scrap the Pontiac brand.
…leaving only Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC as GM’s surviving brands.