Today in History
27th February
William Byrd
John Evelyn
Oscar Hammerstein
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27th February |
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| 280 This date is generally recognized as the birthdate of Constantine the Great. | ||
| 1526 Saxony & Hesse form League of Gotha (league of Protestant princes) | ||
| 1531 Evangelical German monarchy/towns form Schmalkaldische Union | ||
| 1557 1st Russian Embassy opens in London, Russia & US sign trade agreement |
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| 1563 William Byrd is appointed organist at Lincoln Cathedral | ||
| 1594 Henri IV crowned king of France | ||
| 1665 Battle at Elmina, Gold Coast: Vice-adm De Ruyter beats English | ||
| 1670 Jews expelled from Austria by order of Leopold I | ||
| 1678 Earl of Shaftesbury freed out of London Tower | ||
| 1696 English/Welsh nobles lay down Oath of Assn | ||
| 1700 Pacific Island of New Britain discovered | ||
| 1706 English writer John Evelyn died; he kept a diary throughout most of his life which is now considered an invaluable record of the period. | ||
| 1713 French troops bomb Willemstad Curacao | ||
| 1801 Washington DC placed under Congressional jurisdiction | ||
| 1803 Great fire in Bombay, India | ||
| 1813 1st federal vaccination legislation enacted | William Byrd |
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| 1813 Congress authorizes use of steamboats to transport mail | ||
| 1814 Ludwig von Beethovens 8th Symphony in F, premieres | ||
| 1816 Dutch regain Suriname | ||
| 1844 The Dominican Republic gained its independence from Haiti. | ||
| 1854 Composer Robert Schumann saved from suicide attempt in Rhine | ||
| 1861 Russians shoot at Poles protesting Russian rule of Poland | ||
| 1861 US Congress authorizes 1st stamped newspaper wrappers for mailing | ||
| 1861 The Warsaw Massacre occurred when Russian troops fired on a crowd demonstrating against Russian rule. | ||
| 1879 Constantine Fahlberg discovers saccharin (artificial sweetener) | ||
| 1881 The Boers defeated the British at the Battle of Majuba Hill, South Africa. On the same day in 1900, the Boers were defeated by Lord Kitchener's men at the Battle of Paardenberg. | ||
| 1883 Oscar Hammerstein patents 1st cigar-rolling machine | ||
| 1886 |
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| 1887 Alexander Borodin, Russian composer who was also a scientist, died. | ||
| 1900 Boer General Cronj‚ surrenders to English in Pardenberg, South-Africa | ||
| 1900 The British Labour Party was founded with Ramsay MacDonald as its secretary. | ||
| 1906 France & Britain agree to joint control of New Hebrides | ||
| 1924 Belgium's Theunis govt falls | ||
| 1925 Hitler's resurrects NSDAP political party in Munich | ||
| 1929 Turkey signs Litvinov-pact | ||
| 1930 Bouvet Island declared a Norwegian dependency | ||
| 1932 Explosion in coal mine Boissevain, Virginia, USA (38 dead) | ||
| 1933 The German parliament building, the Reichstag, was destroyed by fire. The Nazis claimed it was a Communist conspiracy and used it as an opportunity to clamp down on its opponents. A Dutchman, Marius van der Lubbe, was executed for starting the fire. | ||
| 1939 Britain and France recognized Francisco Franco's rebel government in Spain. | John Evelyn |
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| 1939 Belgian govt of Pierlot falls | ||
| 1939 English Spook house Borley Rectory destroyed in a fire | ||
| 1942 Battle of Java Sea began 13 US warships sunk-2 Japanese | ||
| 1942 In the first phase of the Battle of Java Sea, three Allied destroyers and a cruiser were sunk by the Japanese. | ||
| 1949 Chaim Weizmann becomes 1st Israeli president | ||
| 1950 General Chiang Kai-shek elected president of Nationalist China | ||
| 1951 The 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, limiting presidential terms of office. | ||
| 1952 The United Nations held its first meetings in its new permanent headquarters in New York. | ||
| 1960 Oil pipe line from Rotterdam to Ruhrgebied opens | ||
| 1963 Juan Bosch took office as president of the Dominican Republic. | ||
| 1967 Antigua and St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla changed their status with Britain from colony to associated state. | ||
| 1967 Dominica gains independence from England | ||
| 1972 President Nixon and Chinese Premier Chou En-lai issued the Shanghai Communique at the conclusion of Nixon's historic visit to China | ||
| 1973 Militant Indians began an occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in a siege that lasted until May. | ||
| 1974 A new constitution was approved in Sweden, which reduced the status of the king to a figurehead. | ||
| 1975 In West Germany, opposition leader Peter Lorenz was kidnapped by Baader-Meinhof guerrillas; he was released on March 4. | ||
| 1976 In the Western Sahara, the Polisario Front proclaimed the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic. |
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| 1980 Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF wins elections in Zimbabwe | ||
| 1980 Terrorists occupies Dominican embassy in Bogota | ||
| 1984 Worker's union leader Billy Nair freed in South Africa | ||
| 1985 Mauritania's new constitutional charter published | ||
| 1990 Nelson Mandela arrived in Zambia on his first foreign trip since his release from 27 years in South African jails. | ||
| 1991 President Bush declared that "Kuwait is liberated, Iraq's army is defeated," and announced that the allies would suspend combat operations at midnight | ||
| 1994 Two wired mortar bombs planted near the altar blew up during Mass at a Christian Maronite church in Lebanon, killing 10 worshippers and wounding 60. | ||
| 1995 Car bomb explodes in Zakho, North-Iraq (54-80 killed) | ||
| 1995 Mafia superboss Salvatore "Toto" Riina and 47 other suspected members of the crime organization went on trial on charges of complicity in 48 murders in Sicily. | ||
| 1996 Mark Waugh scores 126 in World Cup against India | ||
| 1996 U.N. sanctions against the Bosnian Serbs were suspended following their compliance with conditions laid down by the Security Council. | Oscar Hammerstein |
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| 1997 Divorce became legal in Ireland | ||
| 1998 With the approval of Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's House of Lords agreed to end 1,000 years of male preference by giving a monarch's first-born daughter the same claim to the throne as any first born son |
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