October 27

Historic Events

2019

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant founder and leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi kills himself and three children by detonating a suicide vest during the U.S. military Barisha raid in northwestern Syria. ›

2018

A gunman opens fire on a Pittsburgh synagogue killing eleven and injuring six, including four police officers. ›

2018

Leicester City F.C. owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha dies in a helicopter crash along with four others after a Premier League match against West Ham United at the King Power Stadium in Leicester, England. ›

2017

Catalonia declares independence from Spain. ›

2014

Britain withdraws from Afghanistan at the end of Operation Herrick, after 12 years four months and seven days. ›

1999

Gunmen open fire in the Armenian Parliament, killing the Prime Minister and seven others. ›

1997

The 1997 Asian financial crisis causes a crash in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. ›

1994

Gliese 229B is the first Substellar Mass Object to be unquestionably identified. ›

1993

Widerøe Flight 744 crashes in Overhalla Municipality, Norway, killing six people. ›

1992

United States Navy radioman Allen R. Schindler, Jr. is murdered by shipmate Terry M. Helvey for being gay, precipitating debate about gays in the military that results in the United States' "Don't ask, don't tell" military policy. ›

1991

Turkmenistan achieves independence from the Soviet Union. ›

1988

Cold War: Ronald Reagan suspends construction of the new U.S. Embassy in Moscow due to Soviet listening devices in the building structure. ›

1986

The British government suddenly deregulates financial markets, leading to a total restructuring of the way in which they operate in the country, in an event now referred to as the Big Bang. ›

1981

Cold War: The Soviet submarine S-363 runs aground on the east coast of Sweden. ›

1980

The Chun Doo-hwan government forcibly arrests and investigates monks and personnel of the Jogye Order. ›

1979

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gains its independence from the United Kingdom. ›

1971

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is renamed Zaire. ›

1964

Ronald Reagan delivers a speech on behalf of the Republican candidate for president, Barry Goldwater. The speech launches his political career and comes to be known as "A Time for Choosing". ›

1962

Major Rudolf Anderson of the United States Air Force becomes the only direct human casualty of the Cuban Missile Crisis when his U-2 reconnaissance airplane is shot down over Cuba by a Soviet-supplied surface-to-air missile. ›

1962

By refusing to agree to the firing of a nuclear torpedo at a US warship, Vasily Arkhipov averts nuclear war. ›

1961

NASA tests the first Saturn I rocket in Mission Saturn-Apollo 1. ›

1958

Iskander Mirza, the first President of Pakistan, is deposed by General Ayub Khan, who had been appointed the enforcer of martial law by Mirza 20 days earlier. ›

1954

Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. becomes the first African-American general in the United States Air Force. ›

1948

A deadly smog event begins in Donora, Pennsylvania, eventually killing 20 and sickening thousands. ›

1944

World War II: German forces capture Banská Bystrica during Slovak National Uprising thus bringing it to an end. ›

1936

Abdication Crisis: Mrs. Wallis Simpson obtains her divorce, which would eventually allow her to marry King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, thus forcing his abdication from the throne. ›

1930

Ratifications are exchanged in London for the first London Naval Treaty go into effect immediately, further limiting the expensive naval arms race among its five signatories. ›

1924

The Uzbek SSR is founded in the Soviet Union. ›

1922

A referendum in Rhodesia rejects the country's annexation to the South African Union. ›

1919

The Fourth Regional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents is held by the Makhnovshchina at Oleksandrivsk. ›

1916

Negus Mikael, marching on the Ethiopian capital in support of his son Emperor Iyasu V, is defeated by Fitawrari Habte Giyorgis, securing the throne for Empress Zewditu I. ›

1914

World War I: The new British battleship HMS Audacious is sunk by a minefield laid by the armed German merchant-cruiser Berlin. ›

1913

A rail workers' strike in Chile escalates into a general strike, organized by the Regional Workers' Federation of Chile. ›

1907

Fifteen people are killed in Hungary when gendarmes opened fire on a crowd gathered at a church consecration. ›

1870

Franco-Prussian War: Marshal Bazaine surrenders to Prussian forces at the conclusion of the Siege of Metz along with 140,000 French soldiers. ›

1864

American Civil War: Union General Benjamin Butler launches an attack during the Siege of Petersburg with the Battle of Fair Oaks & Darbytown Road, but is repulsed by the next day. ›

1863

American Civil War: Union forces led by General William F. Smith defeat Confederate forces in the Battle of Brown's Ferry, opening up a supply line to the besieged city of Chattanooga, Tennessee. ›

1838

Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs issues the Extermination Order, which orders all Mormons to leave the state or be killed. ›

1810

United States annexes the former Spanish colony of West Florida. ›

1806

The French Army under Napoleon enters Berlin following the Prussian defeat at the Battle of Jena–Auerstedt. ›

1795

The United States and Spain sign the Treaty of Madrid, which establishes the boundaries between Spanish colonies and the U.S. ›

1775

King George III expands on his Proclamation of Rebellion in the Thirteen Colonies in his speech from the throne at the opening of Parliament. ›

1726

J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, BWV 56, one of few works he called a cantata. ›

1682

Philadelphia is founded in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. ›

1674

The French garrison in Grave surrenders the town to a Dutch army after a difficult siege. ›

1644

Second Battle of Newbury in the English Civil War. ›

1553

Condemned as a heretic, Michael Servetus is burned at the stake just outside Geneva. ›

1524

French troops lay siege to Pavia. ›

1275

Traditional founding of the city of Amsterdam. ›

625

Election of Pope Honorius I following the death of Pope Boniface V two days prior. ›

312

Constantine the Great is said to have received his famous Vision of the Cross. ›