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 Gursel leads a military coup d'etat 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 Milosevic 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'Orleans) (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 Trumbic, 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 Buhler, psychologist (d. 1963)
1884 - Max Brod, writer (d. 1968)
1888 - Louis Durey, French composer (d. 1979)
1893 - Hermann Dornemann, German supercentenarian, world's oldest man from November 19, 2004 (d. 2005)
1894 - Louis-Ferdinand Celine, 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 Orsted 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 Belen, 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 - Andre 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 - Ordono I, king of Asturias
927 - Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria
1508 - Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan (b. 1452)
1525 - Thomas Muntzer, 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 - Francois-Noel Babeuf, French revolutionary and early socialist (b. 1760)
1831 - Jedediah Smith, American explorer (b. 1799)
1840 - Niccolo 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 - Srecko 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 - Gunther Lutjens, 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 Kunstler, 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