May 27



Events

Up to 1930 
 1153 - Malcolm IV of Scotland becomes King.
 1199 - King John of England is crowned.
 1293 - A massive earthquake hits Kamakura, Japan.
 1328 – Philip VI is crowned King of France.
 1644 - Manchu regent Dorgon defeats rebel leader Li Zicheng of the Shun Dynasty at the Battle of Shanhai Pass, allowing the Manchus to enter and conquer Beijing.
 1703 – Tsar Peter the Great founds the city of Saint Petersburg.
 1799 - War of the Second Coalition: Austrian forces defeat the French at Winterthur, Switzerland, securing control of the Northeast Swiss plateau because of the town's location at the junction of the seven cross-roads.
 1813 – War of 1812: In Canada, American forces capture Fort George.
 1849 – The Great Hall of Euston station, London opened.
 1860 – Giuseppe Garibaldi begins his attack on Palermo, Sicily, as part of the Italian Unification.
 1883 – Alexander III is crowned Tsar of Russia.
 1895 – Oscar Wilde is sent to prison for sodomy.
 1896 – The F5-strength East St. Louis Tornado hits in East Saint Louis, Illinois, and St. Louis, Missouri, killing 255 people.
 1901 – In New Jersey, the Edison Storage Battery Company is founded.
 1905 – Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of Tsushima begins.
 1907 – A bubonic plague outbreak begins in San Francisco, California.
 1915 - Off Sheerness, minelayer Princess Irene runs over laid mines and explodes, killing 400 people.
 1919 – The NC-4 aircraft arrives in Lisbon after completing the first transatlantic flight.
 1923 – The first 24 hours of Le Mans race ends.
 1924 – The Music Corporation of America (MCA) is founded.
 1927 – The Ford Motor Company stops making the Ford Model T and gets ready to make Ford Model As.
 1930 – The 1,046 feet (319 meters) tall Chrysler Building in New York (tallest man-made structure at the time) opens to the public.

1931  2000 
 1932 – The Sydney Harbour Bridge opens.
 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 The 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.
 1934 - The 1934 FIFA World Cup in Italy begins, with a series of knock-out games.
 1935 – New Deal: The Supreme Court of the United States declares the National Industrial Recovery Act to be unconstitutional in the case A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, (295 U.S. 495).
 1936 – The RMS Queen Mary begins her first voyage.
 1937 – In California, the Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrian traffic, creating a vital link between San Francisco and Marin County.
 1939 – DC Comics prints its second superhero in Detective Comics #27; he is Batman, one of the most topical comic book superheroes of all time.
 1940 – World War II: 97 out of 99 members of a Royal Norfolk Regiment unit are massacred while trying to surrender at Dunkirk. The German commander, Captain Fritz Knochlein, is later hanged for war crimes.
 1941 – World War II: US President Franklin Roosevelt proclaims an "unlimited national emergency".
 1941 – World War II: The German battleship Bismarck is sunk in the North Atlantic killing 2,300 men.
 1942 - World War II: Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich is wounded in Prague and dies over a week later.
 1960 – In Turkey, General Cemal Gürsel leads a military coup d'état removing President Celal Bayar and the rest of the democratic government.
 1963 – Folk music singer Bob Dylan releases The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan album, which features "Blowin' in the Wind" and several other of his best-known songs.
 1964 – Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru dies in office.
 1965 – Vietnam War: United States warships begin bombing of National Liberation Front targets within South Vietnam for the first time.
 1967 – Australians vote to change the Constitution to give Indigenous Australians equal rights
 1968 – Future U.S. President George W. Bush joins the Texas Air National Guard.
 1971 - The Dahlerau train disaster near Wuppertal, then-West Germany, kills 46 people and injures 25.
 1974 – Jacques Chirac becomes Prime Minister of France.
 1975 - The Dibbles Bridge coach crash near Grassington, North Yorkshire, England, kills 33 people, in the United Kingdom's deadliest-ever road accident.
 1980 – The Gwangju Massacre: air force and army troops of South Korea retake the city of Gwangju from civil militias, killing at least 207 and possibly many more.
 1995 – In Charlottesville, Virginia, actor Christopher Reeve is paralyzed (not able to move) 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 agrees to a cease-fire in the war.
 1997 – The F5-strength Jarrell Tornado slams into the small town of Jarrell, Texas, killing 27 people.
 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 War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands charges Slobodan Milošević and 4 others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo.

From 2001 
 2005 – Schapelle Corby is sentenced to 20 years in jail for marijuana smuggling in Indonesia.
 2006 – An earthquake in Java kills over 6,600 people and destroys the cities of Bantul and Yogyakarta.
 2009 - A suicide bombing kills at least 35 people in Lahore, Pakistan.
 2015 - Football's world governing body FIFA is accused by US law enforcement officials of bribery totaling hundreds of dollars over more than 20 years, including a scheme involving the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Fourteen people are arrested, and President Sepp Blatter is under pressure over his position.
 2016 - Barack Obama becomes the first serving President of the United States to visit Hiroshima and meet victims of the atomic bomb.
 2017 - A computer failure at British Airways leads to the airline's flights around the world being cancelled.

Births

Up to 1900 
 742 - Emperor Dezong of Tang of China (d. 805)
 1332 – Ibn Khaldun, Arab polymath (d. 1406)
 1519 – Girolamo Mei, Italian historian (d. 1594)
 1623 – William Petty, English scientist and philosopher (d. 1687)
 1626 – William II, Prince of Orange (d. 1650)
 1651 - Louis Antoine de Noailles, French cardinal (d. 1729)
 1652 – Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate (Charlotte Elizabeth, Duchesse d'Orléans) (d. 1722)
 1738 – Nathaniel Gorham, American politician (d. 1796)
 1756 - King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria (d. 1825)
 1774 – Francis Beaufort, Irish scientist and admiral (d. 1857)
 1794 – Cornelius Vanderbilt, entrepreneur (d. 1877)
 1818 - Amelia Bloomer, American activist (d. 1894)
 1818 - Franciscus Donders, Dutch ophthalmologist (d. 1889) 
 1819 – Julia Ward Howe, composer ("The Battle Hymn of the Republic") (d. 1910)
 1819 – George V of Hanover (d. 1878)
 1820 – Mathilde Bonaparte, French princess and socialite (d. 1904)
 1822 - Joachim Raff, Swiss-German composer (d. 1882)
 1832 - Zenas Ferry Moody, American politician, 7th Governor of Oregon (d. 1917)
 1832 - Lizardo Montero Flores, President of Peru (d. 1905)
 1836 – Jay Gould, American financier (d. 1892)
 1837 – Wild Bill Hickok, American gunfighter (d. 1876)
 1860 – Manuel Teixeira Gomes, 7th President of Portugal (d. 1941)
 1864 – Ante Trumbić, Croat politician (d. 1938)
 1867 – Arnold Bennett, British novelist (d. 1931)
 1871 – Georges Rouault, painter and graphic artist (d. 1958)
 1876 - Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski, Polish journalist and author (d. 1945)
 1876 - William Stanier, English engineer (d. 1965)
 1877 – Isadora Duncan, American dancer (d. 1927)
 1879 – Karl Bühler, psychologist (d. 1963)
 1884 – Max Brod, writer (d. 1968)
 1888 – Louis Durey, French composer (d. 1979)
 1893 – Hermann Dörnemann, German supercentenarian, world's oldest man from November 19, 2004 (d. 2005)
 1894 – Louis-Ferdinand Céline, French writer (d. 1961)
 1894 – Dashiell Hammett, American writer (d. 1961)
 1895 - Douglas Lloyd Campbell, 13th Premier of Manitoba (d. 1995)
 1897 – John Cockcroft, British physicist (d. 1967)
 1900 - Ethel Lang, British supercentenarian (d. 2015)

1901  1925 
 1902 - Fanny Godin, Belgian supercentenarian (d. 2014)
 1904 – Chohei Nambu, Japanese athlete (d. 1997)
 1906 - Buddhadasa, Thai monk and philosopher (d. 1993)
 1907 - Carl Falck, Norwegian businessman and centenarian (d. 2016)
 1907 – Rachel Carson, American ecologist (d. 1964)
 1909 – Dolores Hope, American singer (d. 2011)
 1909 - Don Finlay, English hurdler and pilot (d. 1970)
 1911 – Hubert H. Humphrey, 38th Vice President of the United States (d. 1978)
 1911 – Teddy Kollek, Mayor of Jerusalem (d. 2007)
 1911 – Vincent Price, American actor (d. 1993)
 1912 – John Cheever, writer (d. 1982)
 1912 – Sam Snead, American golf champion (d. 2002)
 1913 – Wols, German painter (d. 1951)
 1915 – Herman Wouk, American writer (d. 2019)
 1917 – Yasuhiro Nakasone, former Prime Minister of Japan
 1920 - Gabrielle Wittkop, French writer, essayist, journalist and artist (d. 2002)
 1921 – Caryl Chessman, American, executed for murder (d. 1960)
 1921 - Bob Godfrey, English animator (d. 2013)
 1922 – Christopher Lee, English actor (d. 2015)
 1922 - Otto Carius, German World War II tank commander (d. 2015)
 1922 – John David Vanderhoof, 36th Governor of Colorado (d. 2013)
 1923 – Henry Kissinger, American politician, 37th United States Secretary of State, received the Nobel Peace Prize
 1923 - Inge Morath, Austrian-American photographer (d. 2002)
 1923 – Sumner Redstone, American entrepreneur
 1924 - Jaime Lusinchi, President of Venezuela (d. 2014)
 1925 – Tony Hillerman, American mystery writer (d. 2008)

1926  1950 
 1928 - Thea Musgrave, Scottish-American composer
 1930 – John Barth, American novelist
 1930 – Eino Tamberg, Estonian composer (d. 2010)
 1930 – William S. Sessions, FBI director
 1931 - Faten Hamama, Egyptian actress (d. 2015)
 1934 - Enzo Siciliano, Italian writer (d. 2006)
 1934 – Harlan Ellison, American science fiction writer (d. 2018)
 1934 - Uwe Friedrichsen, German actor (d. 2016)
 1935 – Lee Meriwether, American actress and former Miss America
 1935 - Luud Schimmelpennink, Dutch inventor, entrepreneur and politician
 1936 – Louis Gossett Jr., American actor
 1936 - Marcel Masse, Canadian politician (d. 2014)
 1937 – Allan Carr, producer, writer (d. 1999)
 1940 - Mike Gibson, Australian sports journalist (d. 2015)
 1942 - Piers Courage, English racing driver (d. 1970)
 1943 – Cilla Black, English singer (d. 2015)
 1943 - Robert Axelrod, American political scientist
 1944 - Alain Souchon, French singer-songwriter, guitarist and author
 1945 – Bruce Cockburn, Canadian musician
 1946 - Lewis Collins, English actor (d. 2013)
 1946 – Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Danish jazz musician (d. 2005)
 1947 - Henry McMaster, American politician, 117th Governor of South Carolina
 1947 – Branko Oblak, Slovenian footballer
 1949 - Terry Collins, American baseball manager

1951  1975 
 1951 – Ana Belén, Spanish singer and actress
 1955 – Eric Bischoff, American WWE performer
 1956 - Giuseppe Tornatore, Italian director and screenwriter
 1957 – Siouxsie Sioux, English musician ("Siouxsie and the Banshees")
 1957 – Duncan Goodhew, English swimmer
 1958 - Jesse Robredo, Filipino politician (d. 2012)
 1958 – Neil Finn, New Zealand singer and songwriter
 1958 – Linnea Quigley, American actress
 1958 – Wayne Williams, American child murderer
 1959 - Donna Strickland, Canadian physicist
 1960 - Ray Armstead, American athlete
 1961 – Peri Gilpin, American actress
 1962 - David Mundell, Scottish politician
 1962 - Steven Brill, American actor, director, producer and screenwriter
 1962 - Ravi Shastri, Indian cricketer and sportscaster
 1963 - Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Cuban pianist and composer
 1964 – Adam Carolla, American comedian, television host and actor
 1964 - Volker Abramczik, German footballer
 1965 – Todd Bridges, American actor
 1965 – Pat Cash, Australian tennis player
 1966 – Sean Kinney, American drummer (Alice in Chains)
 1966 – Heston Blumenthal, English chef
 1967 – Paul Gascoigne, English footballer
 1968 – Rebekah Brooks, English newspaper editor
 1968 – Jeff Bagwell, American baseball player
 1968 – Frank Thomas, American baseball player
 1970 – Joseph Fiennes, English actor
 1970 - Michele Bartoli, Italian cyclist
 1970 - Tim Farron, English politician
 1971 – Paul Bettany, English actor
 1971 – Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes, American singer (d. 2002)
 1971 - Sophie Walker, Scottish politician
 1971 - Lee Sharpe, English footballer
 1971 - Beatrix von Storch, German politician of the Alternative for Germany Party
 1974 – Derek Webb, singer-songwriter, former member of Caedmon's Call
 1974 – Danny Wuerffel, American football quarterback, Heisman Trophy winner
 1975 – Jamie Oliver, British celebrity chef and TV personality (The Naked Chef)
 1975 – Michael Hussey, Australian cricketer
 1975 - André 3000, American rapper, producer and actor

From 1976 
 1976 – Jiri Stajner, Czech footballer
 1977 – Mahela Jayawardene, Sri Lankan cricketer
 1979 – Mile Sterjovski, Australian footballer
 1981 – Johan Elmander, Swedish footballer
 1981 – Miloy, Angolan footballer
 1981 – Fivos Constantinou, Cypriot runner
 1983 – Bobby Convey, American soccer player
 1984 - Kalle Spjuth, Swedish bandy player
 1985 – Roberto Soldado, Spanish footballer
 1987 – Gervinho, Ivorian footballer
 1988 - Birkir Bjarnason, Icelandic footballer
 1988 - Mari Pokinen, Estonian actress and singer
 1989 - Igor Morozov, Estonian footballer
 1990 - Nadine Beiler, Austrian singer
 1990 – Chris Colfer, American actor
 1990 - Apinya Sakuljaroensuk, Thai actress
 1990 - Jonas Hector, German footballer
 1994 - Aymeric Laporte, French footballer
 1999 - Lily-Rose Depp, French-American actress
 1999 - Harambe, American-bred Western lowland gorilla (d. 2016)

Deaths

Up to 1950 
 366 – Procopius, Roman usurper (b. 326)
 866 – Ordoño I, king of Asturias
 927 – Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria
 1508 – Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan (b. 1452)
 1525 - Thomas Müntzer, German theologian and religious reformer (b. 1489) 
 1541 – Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury, daughter of George, Duke of Clarence (executed) (b. 1374)
 1564 – John Calvin, religious reformer (b. 1509)
 1610 – Ravaillac, assassin who killed Henry IV of France (b. 1578)
 1661 – Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll, Scottish Covenanter, was beheaded
 1707 – Marquise de Montespan, mistress of Louis XIV of France (b. 1641)
 1797 – François-Noël Babeuf, French revolutionary and early socialist (b. 1760)
 1831 – Jedediah Smith, American explorer (b. 1799)
 1840 – Niccolò Paganini, Italian violinist and composer (b. 1782)
 1885 - Charles Rogier, Belgian politician and journalist (b. 1800)
 1896 - Aleksandr Stoletov, Russian physicist (b. 1839)
 1910 – Robert Koch, German doctor, won the 1905 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1843)
 1918 - Ozutsu Man'emon, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1869)
 1926 – Srečko Kosovel, Slovenian poet
 1936 - H. P. Hanssen, Danish politician (b. 1862)
 1939 - Joseph Roth, Austrian writer (b. 1894)
 1941 - Ernst Lindemann, German captain (b. 1894)
 1941 - Günther Lütjens, German admiral (b. 1889)  
 1943 - Gordon Coates, 21st Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1878)

1951  2000 
 1960 – James Montgomery Flagg, illustrator (b. 1877)
 1962 - Egon Petri, German pianist (b. 1881)
 1963 - Grigoris Lambrakis, Greek physician and politician (b. 1912)
 1964 – Jawaharlal Nehru, 1st Prime Minister of India (b. 1889)
 1967 - W. Otto Miessner, American composer and educator (b. 1880)
 1971 - Armando Picchi, Italian footballer and coach (b. 1935)
 1985 – Kai Lindberg, Danish politician (b. 1899)
 1986 – Isma'il Raji' al-Faruqi, Palestinian-American Muslim thinker, philosopher, and comparative religion scholar (b. 1921)
 1986 - Ajoy Mukherjee, Indian politician, Chief Minister of West Bengal (b. 1901)
 1987 – John Howard Northrop, American chemist, Nobel Prize winner (b. 1891)
 1988 - Ernst Ruska, German physicist (b. 1906)
 1989 - Arseny Tarkovsky, Russian poet (b. 1907)
 1990 - Robert B. Meyner, 40th Governor of New Jersey (b. 1908)
 1991 – Leopold Nowak, musicologist (b. 1904)
 1993 – Werner Stocker, German actor (b. 1955)
 2000 – Crawford Murray MacLehose of Beoch, British Governor of Hong Kong (b. 1917)
 2000 – Maurice Richard, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1921)

From 2001 
 2003 – Luciano Berio, Italian composer (b. 1925)
 2004 – Umberto Agnelli, Italian entrepreneur (b. 1934)
 2007 – Zard, Japanese singer (b. 1967)
 2007 - Ed Yost, American inventor (b. 1919)
 2008 – Franz Künstler, last-surviving Austro-Hungarian World War I veteran (b. 1900)
 2009 – Clive Granger, British economist (b. 1934)
 2010 – John William Finn, American naval officer (b. 1909)
 2011 – Margo Dydek, Polish basketball player (b. 1974)
 2011 – Jeff Conaway, American actor (b. 1950)
 2011 – Gil Scott-Heron, American rapper and poet (b. 1949)
 2012 - Friedrich Hirzebruch, German mathematician (b. 1927)
 2012 - Johnny Tapia, American boxer (b. 1967)
 2013 - Bill Pertwee, British actor (b. 1926)
 2014 - Helma Sanders-Brahms, German movie director, screenwriter, producer and actress (b. 1940)
 2014 - Miodrag Radulovacki, Serbian medical research scientist (b. 1933)
 2014 - Massimo Vignelli, Italian graphic designer (b. 1931)
 2015 - Erik Carlsson, Swedish rally driver (b. 1929)
 2015 - Nils Christie, Norwegian sociologist and criminologist (b. 1928)
 2016 - Kai G. Henriksen, Norwegian businessman (b. 1956)
 2016 - Marshall Jones, American musician (b. 1941)
 2017 - Gregg Allman, American musician (b. 1947)
 2017 - Don Robinson, English rugby league player (b. 1932)
 2018 - Gardner Dozois, American science fiction writer (b. 1947)
 2018 - Aly Lotfy Mahmoud, Egyptian economist and politician, Prime minister of Egypt (b. 1935)
 2018 - Donald H. Peterson, American astronaut (b. 1933)
 2018 - John DiFronzo, American mobster (b. 1928)
 2019 - Bill Buckner, American baseball player (b. 1949)
 2019 - Veeru Devgan, Indian choreographer, actor and director (b. 1934)
 2019 - Gabriel Diniz, Brazilian singer and composer (b. 1990)
 2019 - Tony Horwitz, American journalist and author (b. 1958)
 2019 - Aharon Razin, Israeli biochemist (b. 1935)
 2020 - Tony Scannell, Irish actor (b. 1945)

Observances 
 Children's Day (Nigeria)
 Armed Forces Day (Nicaragua)
 Mother's Day (Bolivia)
 Navy Day (Japan)

Days of the year