Today In History From JJD

May 27th. Past Events

927 - Battle of the Bosnian Highlands: Simeon I of Bulgaria is defeated by King Tomislav of Croatia.
1120 - Richard III of Capua is anointed as prince two weeks before his untimely death.
1281 - Flemish Earl Gwijde Dampierre takes financial responsibility of Brugge
1328 - French King Philip VI Valois crowned
1529 - 30 Jews of Posing Hungary, charged with blood ritual, burned at stake
1660 - Denmark & Sweden sign ceasefire
1679 - Habeaus Corpus Act (strengthening person's right to challenge unlawful arrest & imprisonment) passes in England
1689 - Anthonie Heinsius succeeds G Fagel as Grand Pensionary of Holland
1692 - Court of Oyer and Terminer ("to hear and determine") established by Governor of Massachusetts to hear accussations of witchcraft
1703 - St Petersburg (Leningrad) founded by Russian Tsar Peter the Great
1738 - Turkish troops occupy Orsova & Ochakov

Russian Tsar Peter the Great 1796 - James S McLean patents his piano
1798 - The Battle of Oulart Hill takes place in Wexford, Ireland.
1813 - Americans capture Ft George, Canada
1849 - The Great Hall of Euston station in London is opened.
1850 - Mormon Temple in Nauvoo, Illinois, destroyed by tornado
1854 - Marine Telegraph from Ft Point to SF completed
1856 - Doctor William Palmer (s the Rugeley Poisoner ) found guilty of poisoning, Stafford, England
1862 - Battle of Hanover Court House, VA (Slash Church, Peake's Station)
1863 - CSS Chattahoochie explodes on Chattahoochie River GA, 18 die
1863 - Siege of Port Hudson LA
1864 - Skirmish at Salem Church (Haw's Shop), Virginia
1878 - 6th Preakness: C Holloway aboard Duke of Magenta wins in 2:41.75
1878 - Australians Cricket 41 & 12-1 defeat MCC 33 & 19
1881 - 9th Preakness: T Costello aboard Saunterer wins in 2:40.5
1882 - 10th Preakness: T Costello aboard Vanguard wins in 2:44.5
1883 - Tsar Alexander III crowned in Moscow
1893 - Audath Yisroel forms at Kattowitz (Katowice) Poland
1895 - British inventor Birt Acres patents film camera/projector
1896 - Bay District Race Track closes
1896 - Tornado hit St Louis, killing 255 & leaving thousands homeless
1898 - Arthur Pinero's "Trelawney of the Wells" premieres in London
1900 - Lord Roberts' army fights the Vaal in South Africa
1902 - 27th Preakness: L Jackson aboard Old England wins in 1:45.8
1903 - 37th Belmont: John Bullman aboard Africander wins in 2:21.75
1903 - Queen Wilhelmina opens Berlages Merchants bureau in Amsterdam
1904 - NL record of 5 stolen bases in a game (Dennis McGann, NY Giants)
1905 - 30th Preakness: W Davis aboard Cairngore wins in 1:45.8
1905 - Japanese fleet destroys Russian East Sea fleet in Straits of Tushima
1906 - 1st outlining of Gustav Mahler's 6th symphony, in Essen
1907 - Bubonic Plague breaks out in San Francisco
1908 - Maulana Hakeem Noor-ud-Din iss elected the first Khalifa of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.
1916 - Groundbreaking begins on Hugh Grant Circle in Bronx
1916 - President Wilson addresses the League to Enforce Peace, founded in 1915, and gives public support to the idea of a league of nations
1917 - Race riot in East St Louis Illinois, 1 black killed
1918 - Battle of Aisne
1919 - 1st transatlantic flight ends; US Navy flying boat takes 11 days
1920 - Tatar ASSR forms in Russian SFSR
1921 - After 84 years of British control, Afghanistan achieves sovereignty
1927 - Japanese military intervention in Chinese civil war
1927 - Thomas Masaryk elected Czechoslovakia president
1929 - 2nd Ryder Cup: Britain-Ireland, 7-5 at Moortown, England
1930 - Richard Drew invents masking tape
1930 - The 1,046-foot (319-meter) Chrysler Building in New York City, the tallest man-made structure at the time, opens to the public.
1931 - 1st full scale wind tunnel for testing airplanes, Langley Field Va
1931 - Piccard & Knipfer make 1st flight into stratosphere, by balloon
1933 - Austrian communist party banned
1933 - Century of Progress Exposition opens in Chicago
1933 - Federal Securities Act signed
1933 - Trailing 11-3, Yanks score 12 runs in 8th & beat White Sox 15-11
1933 - Walt Disney's "3 Little Pigs" released
32nd US President Franklin D. Roosevelt 1935 - Supreme Court declares FDR's Natl Recovery Act unconstitutional
1936 - RMS Queen Mary leaves Southampton for NY on maiden voyage
1937 - Carl Hubbell wins his 24th consecutive game (since July 17, 1936)
1937 - Golden Gate Bridge, SF, dedicated
1938 - Bradman scores his 1000th cricket run of English season, earliest to do so
1940 - British & French begin evacuation of Dunkirk (Operation Dynamo) during WWII
1940 - World War II: In the Le Paradis massacre, 97 soldiers from a Royal Norfolk Regiment unit are shot after surrendering to German troops.
1941 - Allied troops begin evacuating Crete
1941 - FDR declares state of emergency due to Germany's sinking of Robin Moor
1941 - German battleship Bismarck sunk by British naval force
1942 - Dorie Miller awarded navy cross for deeds at Pearl Harbor
Dictator of Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler 1942 - Hitler orders 10,000 Czechs murdered
1942 - Italian army begin siege of French western Fort Bir Hachim
1942 - Reinhard Heydrich, Nazi "Deputy Reich Protector of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia" is shot & mortally wounded in Prague in in Operation Anthropoid
1943 - French resistance under Jean Moulin meets secretly in Paris
1943 - US forbids racial discrimination in war industry
1944 - Allies land on Biak, Indonesia (operation Horlicks)
1944 - Japanese advance in Hangkhou China
1944 - Jean-Paul Sartres' "Huis Clos" premieres in Paris
1948 - Arabs blow up Jewish synagogue Hurvat Rabbi Yehudah he-Hasid
1948 - Hank Greenberg buys an interest in the Cleveland Indians
1949 - Indians start 12-17, owner Bill Veeck arranges a "Second Opening Day"
1949 - Martin Canine, cartoon character, spoofs Martin Kane
Baseball Player Hank Greenberg 1949 - Russian stop train traffic West-Berlin
1950 - "Arms & the Girl" closes at 46th St Theater NYC after 134 performances
1950 - Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Wallace Stevens
1951 - Chinese Communists force Dalai Lama to surrender his army to Beijing
1951 - Maritime Museum at Aquatic Park, SF opens
1952 - European Defense Community forms
1953 - Dutch social democratic/Dutch Liberal Party win municipal elections
1955 - Boston Red Sox Norm Zauchin gets 10 RBIs, beating Senators 16-0
1955 - Red Buttons Show, last airs on NBC-TV
1956 - French raid in Algiers
1956 - US performs nuclear test at Enwetak (atmospheric tests)
1957 - Toronto's CHUM-AM, (1050 kHz) becomes Canada's first radio station to broadcast only top 40 Rock n' Roll music format.
1958 - Ernest Green & 600 whites graduate from Little Rock's Central HS
1958 - Vanguard SLV-1 launched for Earth orbit (failed)
1958 - Maiden flight of the F-4 Phantom II
1960 - 1st use of oversized catching mitt (Balt Oriole Clint Courtney)

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Famous Birthdays

Birthdays 1 - 100 of 245
1332 - Ibn Khaldun, Tunis, Arab historian/sociologist (Muqaddimah)
1519 - Girolamo Mei, Italian historian (d. 1594)
1576 - Caspar Schoppe, German scholar (d. 1649)
1595 - Benedictus Carpzovius, [Benedikt Carpzov], German lawyer
1601 - Antoine Daniel, Jesuit missionary and martyr (d. 1648)
1623 - William Petty, English scientist and philosopher (d. 1687)
1626 - William II, prince of Orange/stadholder
1651 - Louis-Antoine, Cardinal de Noailles, French cardinal (d. 1729)
1652 - Elisabeth C "Liselotte" van de Palts, German/French duchess of Orleans
1738 - Bonaventura Furlanetto, composer
1738 - Nathaniel Gorham, American politician (d. 1796)
1756 - Maximilian I Jozef, King of Bavaria
1774 - Francis Beaufort, admiral/hydrographer (Beaufort wind force scale)
1794 - Cornelius Vanderbilt, millionaire (B & O railroad)
1799 - Jacques-Francois-Fromental-Elle Halevy, [Elie Levy], composer
1806 - Charles-Joseph Tolbecque, composer
1815 - Henry Parkes, British journalist/premier of Australia
1818 - Amelia Jenks Bloomer, suffragette known for her pantaloons
1819 - Julia Ward Howe, US, author/lecturer (Battle Hymn of the Republic)
1820 - Mathilde Bonaparte, French princess and socialite (d. 1904)
1822 - Henry Wylde, composer
1822 - Josef Joachim Raff, composer
1823 - John Gray Foster, Major General (Union volunteers), (d. 1874)
1827 - Samuel F. Miller, American politician (d. 1892)
1836 - Edwin Gray Lee, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1870)
1836 - Jay Gould, US railroad executive, financier
Folk Hero of the American Old West Wild Bill Hickok (1837) 1837 - "Wild Bill" Hickok, [James Butler], cowboy/scout
1837 - Robert Frederick Hoke, Major General (Confederate Army), (d. 1912)
1837 - Ivan Kramskoi, Russian painter (d. 1887)
1839 - Luigi Capuana, Sicilian author/critic (Roccaverdina)
1849 - "Blind" Tom Bethune, pianist/composer
1850 - Thomas Neill Cream, Glasgow, Scotland, serial killer (Lambeth poisoner), (d. 1892)
1852 - Billy Barnes, cricketer (England all-rounder 1880-90)
1854 - Georges Eekhoud, Belgian writer (Jeune Belgium)
1860 - Manuel Teixeira Gomes, 7th President of Portugal (d. 1941)
1861 - Victoria E Matthews, educator
1864 - Ante Trumbić, Croatian politician (d. 1938)
1867 - Arnold Bennett, Hanley Staffordshire, English novelist/playwright/critic (Great Babylon)
1870 - Lionel Palairet, cricketer (elegant England bat in the Golden Age)
1871 - Georges-Henri Rouault, Fr expressionist painter (Miserere et Guerre)
1874 - Dustin Farnum, US, actor (Squaw Man, Virginian) [or 1870]
1874 - Richard von Schaukal, Austria poet/writer (Eros Thanatos)
1876 - Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski, Polish writer (d. 1945)
1879 - Lucile Watson, actress (Great Lie, Watch on the Rhine, Let's Dance)
1879 - Hans Lammers, German SS officer (d. 1962)
1881 - Rudolf Pannwitz, German writer
1884 - Bax Brod, composer
1887 - Emiel van der Straeten, Flemish playwright (Sudanese legends)
1887 - Erich Kuttner, German journalist/historian (Vorwarts)
1887 - Frank Woolley, cricketer (long-running England left-arm all-rounder)
1888 - Louis Durey, composer
1891 - Claude Adonai Champagne, composer
1892 - Sara Heyblom, Dutch actress (Pygmalion, Fietsen naar de Maan)
1893 - Hermann Dörnemann, German supercentarian (d. 2005)
1894 - Dashiell Hammett, Maryland, detective novelist (Sam Spade, Maltese Falcon)
1894 - Louis-Ferdinand Céline, French writer (d. 1961)
1895 - Marij Kogoj, composer
1897 - John Douglas Cockroft, English physicist (Radar, Nobel 1951)
1900 - Uładzimir Zylka, Belarusian poet (d. 1933)
1901 - Conrad Elvehjem, McFarland, Wisconsin, USA, American biochemist and nutrition scientist (discovered niacin)
1902 - Celius Dougherty, composer
1904 - Chuhei Nambu, Japanese athlete (d. 1997)
1906 - Robert Shone, director-general (NEDC)
1907 - Felix de Nobel, Dutch orchestra leader
1907 - Rachel Louise Carson, biologist/ecologist/writer (Silent Spring)
1908 - Alex Brown, snooker player
1908 - Harold Rome, composer (Fanny, Pins & Needles)
1908 - Melle J Oldeboerrigter, [Melle], Dutch painter/cartoonist
1909 - Isador Goodman, composer
1910 - Daniel Greenway, CEO (Daniel Greenway & Sons)
1911 - Hubert Humphrey, (Sen-D-Minn) 38th VP (1965-69), 1968 Pres candidate
1911 - Torolf Elster, Norwegian journalist/writer (Frihet och demokrati)
1911 - Vincent Price, St Louis MO, actor (House on Haunted Hill, Fly, Laura)
1911 - Teddy Kollek, Austrian-born Israeli politician (d. 2007)
1912 - John Cheever, writer (Wapshot Chronicle)
Golfer Sam Snead (1912) 1912 - Sam Snead, Hot Springs VA, PGA golfer (PGA-1963, 65, 67, 70, 72, 73)
1912 - Terry Moore, American baseball player (d. 1995)
1913 - Arthur Mervyn Stockwood, bishop (Southwark England)
1913 - Wolfgang Schulze, [Wols], German cartoonist/painter
1914 - Hugh Le Caine, composer
1914 - Lord Erroll of Hale, British minister
1914 - Rose Stainton, CEO (British Airways)
1915 - Herman Wouk, novelist (Caine Mutiny, Winds of War), born in NYC, New York
1915 - Mario del Monaco, Italian opera singer (Verdi/Puccini)
1915 - Louise Annand-MacFarquhar, Lanarkshire, Scotland, painter and film-maker (At the Museum), (d. 2012)
1916 - Norman Griggs, VP (Building Society Association)
1918 - Yasuhiro Nakasone, premier of Japan (1982-87)
1919 - Kam Fong, Honolulu Hawaii, actor (Hawaii Five-0)
1920 - Michael Webster, CEO (DRG)
1920 - William Crawshay, Lord-Lt of Gwent
1921 - Caryl Chessman, kidnapper who got death penalty (1960)
1921 - Redd Stewart, Ashland City Tn, guitarist/pianist (Pee Wee King Show)
Actor Christopher Lee (1922) 1922 - Christopher Lee, Westminster, London, English actor (The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, The Hobbit film trilogy)
1922 - Sidney AK Keyes, English poet (Iron Laurel)
1923 - Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State (1973-77)/Nobel Peace Prize (1973)
1923 - Lord Freyberg, British Colonel of General Staff
1923 - Sumner Redstone, American entrepreneur
1923 - Ingeborg "Inge" Morath, Graz Austria, Magnum photographer and wife of Arthur Miller
1925 - John Moberly, diplomat
1925 - Tony Hillerman, American writer

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Famous Weddings

Weddings 1 - 8 of 8
Navy Commander Karl Dönitz (1916) 1916 - Naval commander Karl Donitz (24) weds nurse Ingeborg Weber
1929 - Aviator Charles Lindbergh (27) weds author Anne Morrow (22) in Englewood, New Jersey
1994 - Radio personality Rush Limbaugh weds wife #3, Marta Fitzgerald
1995 - "Friends" actress Lisa Kudrow (31) weds French advertising executive Michel Stern (37) in Malibu
1996 - "Crosby, Stills & Nash" Rock and Roll Hall of Famer guitarist Stephen Stills (51) weds recording-studio manager Kristen Hathaway (30) at the Ritz-Carlton in Palm Beach, Florida
2005 - "Amazing Race 6" winner Kendra Bentley (25) weds Freddy Holliday (34) in Bal Harbour, Florida
2006 - "The Lineup" anchor Kimberly Guilfoyle (37) weds "Idesign" host Eric Villency at the 5-star Sandy Lane Resort in St. James, Barbados
2012 - Actress Cynthia Nixon (46) weds education activist Christine Marinoni in New York City

Famous Divorces

Divorces 1 - 1 of 1
Actress Angelina Jolie (2003) 2003 - Actress Angelina Jolie (26) divorces actor Billy Bob Thornton (47) due to irreconcilable differences

Famous Deaths

Deaths 1 - 100 of 117
366 - Procopius, Roman usurper (b. 326)
866 - Ordono I, King of Asturia (850-66), dies
927 - Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria (b. 864 or 865)
1039 - Dirk III Hierosolymita, Count of Holland, dies
1178 - Godfried van Rhenen, bishop of Utrecht, dies
1444 - John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, English military leader (b. 1404)
Duke of Milan Ludovico Sforza (1508) 1508 - Ludovico Sforza [il Moro], Italian duke of Milan, dies at 55
1525 - Thomas Muentzer, German rebel leader
1541 - Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury (b. 1473) beheaded for treason in Tower of London by Henry VIII
1549 - Lijsbeth Dirksdr, Fries antabaptist, drowns
1564 - Jean Caulvin, [John Calvin], priest/church reformer, dies at 54
1569 - Francois de Coligny, French general (Jarnac), dies
1576 - Louis de Boisot, Dutch admiral, drowns at about 44
1580 - Jonker Barthold Entens van Mentheda until Middelstum, dies
1596 - Tibaldi II, Italian painter/sculptor/architect, dies
1610 - François Ravaillac, French assassin of Henry IV of France (b. 1578)
1615 - Marguerite de Valois, queen of Henry IV of France (b. 1553)
1627 - Everhardus van Bronchorst, lawyer, dies at 73
1638 - Nicolas Forme, composer, dies at 71
1652 - Jacques Huyn, composer, dies at 39
1661 - Archibald Campbell, Scottish politician, beheaded at about 53
1675 - Gaspard Dughet, French painter (b. 1613)
1690 - Giovanni Legrenzi, Italian composer, dies at 63
1702 - Dominique Bouhours, French critic (b. 1628)
1707 - Marquise de Montespan, French mistress of Louis XIV of France (b. 1640)
1708 - Jacques Danican Philidor, composer, dies at 51
1768 - Johann M Fleischmann, German/Dutch stamp/letter designer, dies
1781 - Giovanni Battista Beccaria, Italian physicist (b. 1716)
1790 - Jeremiah Carlton, laziest man in history, heir to a large fortune at 19 went to bed & stayed there for next 70 yrs, dies at 89
1797 - Francois-Noal "Gracchus" Babeuf, French utopian socialist, dies at 36
1831 - Jedediah Smith, American explorer (b. 1799)
1840 - Niccolo Paganini, Italian composer and violinist, dies at 57
1855 - Nikolaj A Bestoezjev, Russ writer/painter (Account of Holland), dies
1863 - Edward Payson Chapin, Union Brigadier General, dies at 31
1876 - Joseph Bosworth, lexicographer/scholar, dies
1878 - Carlo Marsili, composer, dies at 49
1887 - Coenraad J van Houten, Dutch cocoa manufacturer, dies at 86
1896 - Allard Pierson, theologist/philosopher/art historian/poet, dies
1896 - Aleksandr Grigorievich Stoletov, Russian physicist (b. 1839)
1902 - Jan van Droogenbroeck, Flemish poet, dies
Microbiologist Robert Koch (1910) 1910 - Robert Koch, German bacteriologist (TB, Cholera, Nobel), dies at 66
1914 - Joseph Wilson Swan, physicist/chemist, dies
1916 - Joseph S Gallieni, General/military governor of Paris, dies
1918 - Henry Adams, US literature historian (Esther), dies at 80
1919 - Kandukuri Veeresalingam, Indian social activist (b. 1848)
1925 - Ed McKeever, pres (Bkln Dodgers), dies of pneumonia
1926 - Srečko Kosovel, Slovenian poet (b. 1904)
1934 - Meijer Linnewiel, [Prof Kokadorus], Amsterdam street hawker, dies
1939 - Joseph Roth, Austria journalist (Fluctuate ohne Ende), dies at 44
1941 - AH Borgesius, tutor/experimentator/amateur astronomer, dies at 76
1947 - Ed Konetchy, American baseball player (b. 1885)
1949 - Ropert L Ripley, cartoonist (Believe It or Not), dies at 55 in NY
1951 - Thomas Blamey, soldier, dies
1953 - Jesse Burkett, American baseball player (b. 1868)
1954 - Herzmanovsky-Orlando, writer, dies
1958 - Ainslie Pryor, actor (Adventures of Hiram Holiday), dies at 46
1958 - Samuel Stritch, US cardinal/archbishop (Chicago), dies
1960 - Edward Brophy, actor (Champ, Dumbo, Great Guy), dies at 65
1960 - George Zucco, actor (Fog Island, Black Raven, Desire Me), dies at 74
1960 - James Montgomery Flagg, American illustrator (b. 1877)
1963 - Lambrakis, Greek EDA-parliament leader, murdered
1964 - Jawaharial Nehru, Independent India's 1st PM, dies at 74
1967 - Ernst Niekisch, German politician (b. 1889)
1968 - Little Willie John, rocker, dies at 30
1969 - Jeffrey Hunter, actor (Christopher Pike-Star Trek Cage), dies at 43
1970 - Emmy van Lokhorst, author, dies at 78
1971 - Chips Rafferty, actor (Kona Coast, Walk into Hell), dies at 62
Boxer and World Heavyweight Champion Ezzard Charles (1975) 1975 - Ezzard Charles, heavyweight boxing champion (1949-51), dies of ALS at 53
1976 - Ruth McDevitt, actress (Jo-All in the Family), dies at 80
1983 - Arnoldus Christian Vlok van Wyk, composer, dies at 67
1985 - Kay Campbell, actress (All My Children), dies at 80
1986 - Gaston Duribreux, Flemish writer (Sour Dove), dies at 82
1986 - Isma'il Raji' al-Faruqi, Palestinian-born philosopher (b. 1921)
1987 - John Howard Northrop, American chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1891)
1988 - Florida Friebus, actress (Bob Newhart Show), dies of a stroke at 79
1988 - Melvin J "Cy" Oliver, US jazz composer/orchestra leader, dies at 77
1988 - Renato Salvatori, actor (Burn, Luna, 2 Women), dies
1989 - Jack Starrett, director/actor (Chase, Nightwish, 1st Blood), dies
1989 - Arseny Tarkovsky, Russian poet (b. 1907)
1990 - Robert B. Meyner, American politician (b. 1908)
1991 - Ed Dodd, cartoonist (Mark Trail), dies at 88
1991 - Leopold Nowak, Austrian musicologist (b. 1904)
1992 - Daniel Robberechts, Belgian writer (Aankomen in Avignon), dies at 55
1992 - Glen White, dancer/actor (Graft, Camille), dies of AIDS at 42
1992 - John Myhers, director/actor (Billion Dollar Hobo), dies at 70
1992 - Tony "Big Tuna" Accardo, mobster (St Valentines Day), dies at 86
1992 - Uncle Charlie Osborne, American fiddler (b. 1890)
1993 - Jan Wiley, actress (Underdog, Brute Man, She Wolf of London), dies
1993 - Willem P G Assmann, Dutch MP, dies at 85
1994 - Norman Cook, British museum curator, dies at 87
1994 - Red Rodney, [Albino Red/The Red Arrow], bebop-trumpeter, dies at 66
1994 - Theo Swagemakers, portrait painter, dies at 95
1995 - C W Stubblefield, music promoter, dies at 64
1995 - Ulyses Simpson Kay, composer, dies at 78
1996 - Albert "Pud" Brown, clarinetist/saxophonist, dies at 79
1996 - Ivan Sutton, concert Promotoer, dies at 82
1996 - Jack Massey, groundsman, dies at 85
2000 - Crawford Murray MacLehose of Beoch, British statesman (b. 1917)
Ice Hockey Player Maurice Richard (2000) 2000 - Maurice Richard, Canadian hockey player (b. 1921)
2000 - Kazimierz Leski, Polish engineer, fighter pilot, intelligence and counter-intelligence officer (b. 1912)