May 27
May 27 in recent years |
2010 (Thursday) |
2009 (Wednesday) |
2008 (Tuesday) |
2007 (Sunday) |
2006 (Saturday) |
2005 (Friday) |
2004 (Thursday) |
2003 (Tuesday) |
2002 (Monday) |
2001 (Sunday) |
2000 (Saturday) |
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
- 893 – Simeon I of Bulgaria is crowned Emperor of the first Bulgarian empire
- 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.
- 1328 – Philip VI is crowned King of France.
- 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 loaction 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.
- 1895 – Oscar Wilde is imprisoned for sodomy.
- 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 – The Dibble's Bridge coach crash near Grassington, North Yorkshire, England kills 32 – 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.
- 1987 St. Paul, Minnesota's mayor George Latimer names May 27 "August Wilson Day" in honor of him being the only person to win a Pulitzer hailing from the state.
- 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.
- 2005 – Australian Schapelle Corby is sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in Kerobokan Prison for drug smuggling by a court in Indonesia.
- 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 historian (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 – Chuhei 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
- 1925 – Tony Hillerman, American writer (d. 2008)
- 1930 – John Barth, American novelist
- 1930 – William S. Sessions, 8th Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
- 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
- 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
- 1964 – Adam Carolla, American comedian and television personality
- 1964 – Zheng Geping, Singaporean actor
- 1965 – Todd Bridges, American actor
- 1965 – Pat Cash, Australian tennis player
- 1967 – Paul Gascoigne, English footballer
- 1968 – Jeff Bagwell, American baseball player
- 1968 – Frank Thomas, American baseball player
- 1969 – Jeremy Mayfield, American race car driver
- 1969 – Dondre Whitfield, American actor
- 1969 – Todd Hundley, American baseball player
- 1970 – Tim Farron, British politician
- 1970 – Joseph Fiennes, English actor
- 1970 – Michele Bartoli, Italian cyclist
- 1970 – Cherry Pie Picache, Filipino actress
- 1971 – Paul Bettany, English actor
- 1971 – Monika Schnarre, Canadian model and actress
- 1971 – Mathew Batsiua, Nauruan politician
- 1971 – Wayne Carey, Australian rules footballer
- 1971 – Kaur Kender, Estonian author
- 1971 – Lee Sharpe, English Footballer
- 1971 – Glenn Ross, Northern Irish strongman
- 1971 – Lisa Lopes, American singer (TLC) (d. 2002)
- 1972 – Ivete Sangalo, Brazilian singer
- 1972 – Todd Demsey, American golfer
- 1973 – Jack McBrayer, American actor and comedian
- 1973 – Tana Umaga, New Zealand rugby union player
- 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 – Anita Blond, Hungarian pornographic actress
- 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 – Mile Sterjovski, Australian footballer
- 1979 – Stuart Manning, British actor
- 1980 – Craig Buntin, Canadian figure skater
- 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 – Nattie Neidhart, Canadian professional wrestler
- 1983 – Bobby Convey, American footballer
- 1984 – Blake Ahearn, American basketball player
- 1984 – Kalle Spjuth, Swedish bandy player
- 1985 – Chiang Chien-ming, Taiwanese baseball player
- 1986 – Conor Cummins, Manx motorbike racer
- 1986 – Timo Descamps, Flemish actor and singer
- 1987 – Eric Kolelas, French actor
- 1990 – Ekaterina Zaikina, Russian figure skater
- 1990 – Chris Colfer, American actor
- 1990 – Danny McKinnon, Canadian actor
Deaths
- 366 – Procopius, Roman usurper (b. 326)
- 735 – The Venerable Bede, English historian and theologian (b. 672 or 673)
- 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 – Marguerite de 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 – 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 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)
- 1984 – Vincent James McMahon, U.S. professional wrestling promoter. (b. 1914)
- 1986 – Isma'il Raji' al-Faruqi, Palestinian-born philosopher (b. 1921)
- 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 – Sir Crawford Murray MacLehose, Scottish statesman, 25th Governor of Hong Kong (b. 1917)
- 2000 – Maurice Richard, Canadian hockey player (b. 1921)
- 2000 – Kazimierz Leski, Polish engineer, fighter pilot, intelligence and counter-intelligence officer (b. 1912)
- 2001 – Ramon Bieri, American actor (b. 1929)
- 2003 – Luciano Berio, Italian composer (b. 1925)
- 2006 – Craig Heyward, American football player (b. 1966)
- 2006 – Paul Gleason, American actor (b. 1939)
- 2006 – Alex Toth, American cartoonist (b. 1928)
- 2006 – Rob Borsellino, American columnist (b. 1949)
- 2006 – Oduvil Unnikrishnan, Indian actor (b. 1944)
- 2007 – Izumi Sakai, Japanese singer (Zard) (b. 1967)
- 2007 – Ed Yost, American inventor (b. 1919)
- 2007 – Gretchen Wyler, American actress (b. 1932)
- 2008 – Franz Künstler, last remaining Austro-Hungarian Empire World War I veteran (b. 1900)
- 2009 – Thomas Franck, American lawyer (b. 1931)
- 2009 – Sir Clive Grainger, 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)
Holidays and observances
External links