On This Day in History - April 27 Universe is Created, According to Kepler

Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

Apr 27, 4977 B.C.: Universe is created, according to Kepler

On this day in 4977 B.C., the universe is created, according to German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler, considered a founder of modern science. Kepler is best known for his theories explaining the motion of planets.

Kepler was born on December 27, 1571, in Weil der Stadt, Germany. As a university student, he studied the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus' theories of planetary ordering. Copernicus (1473-1543) believed that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the solar system, a theory that contradicted the prevailing view of the era that the sun revolved around the earth.

In 1600, Kepler went to Prague to work for Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, the imperial mathematician to Rudolf II, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Kepler's main project was to investigate the orbit of Mars. When Brahe died the following year, Kepler took over his job and inherited Brahe's extensive collection of astronomy data, which had been painstakingly observed by the naked eye. Over the next decade, Kepler learned about the work of Italian physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), who had invented a telescope with which he discovered lunar mountains and craters, the largest four satellites of Jupiter and the phases of Venus, among other things. Kepler corresponded with Galileo and eventually obtained a telescope of his own and improved upon the design. In 1609, Kepler published the first two of his three laws of planetary motion, which held that planets move around the sun in ellipses, not circles (as had been widely believed up to that time), and that planets speed up as they approach the sun and slow down as they move away. In 1619, he produced his third law, which used mathematic principles to relate the time a planet takes to orbit the sun to the average distance of the planet from the sun.

Kepler's research was slow to gain widespread traction during his lifetime, but it later served as a key influence on the English mathematician Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) and his law of gravitational force. Additionally, Kepler did important work in the fields of optics, including demonstrating how the human eye works, and math. He died on November 15, 1630, in Regensberg, Germany. As for Kepler's calculation about the universe's birthday, scientists in the 20th century developed the Big Bang theory, which showed that his calculations were off by about 13.7 billion years.










Apr 27, 1994: South Africa holds first multiracial elections

More than 22 million South Africans turn out to cast ballots in the country's first multiracial parliamentary elections. An overwhelming majority chose anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela to head a new coalition government that included his African National Congress Party, former President F.W. de Klerk's National Party, and Zulu leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi's Inkatha Freedom Party. In May, Mandela was inaugurated as president, becoming South Africa's first black head of state.  

In 1944, Mandela, a lawyer, joined the African National Congress (ANC), the oldest black political organization in South Africa, where he became a leader of Johannesburg's youth wing of the ANC. In 1952, he became deputy national president of the ANC, advocating nonviolent resistance to apartheid--South Africa's institutionalized system of white supremacy and racial segregation. However, after the massacre of peaceful black demonstrators at Sharpeville in 1960, Mandela helped organize a paramilitary branch of the ANC to engage in guerrilla warfare against the white minority government.  

In 1961, he was arrested for treason, and although acquitted he was arrested again in 1962 for illegally leaving the country. Convicted and sentenced to five years at Robben Island Prison, he was put on trial again in 1964 on charges of sabotage. In June 1964, he was convicted along with several other ANC leaders and sentenced to life in prison.  

Mandela spent the first 18 of his 27 years in jail at the brutal Robben Island Prison. Confined to a small cell without a bed or plumbing, he was forced to do hard labor in a quarry. He could write and receive a letter once every six months, and once a year he was allowed to meet with a visitor for 30 minutes. However, Mandela's resolve remained unbroken, and while remaining the symbolic leader of the anti-apartheid movement, he led a movement of civil disobedience at the prison that coerced South African officials into drastically improving conditions on Robben Island. He was later moved to another location, where he lived under house arrest.  

In 1989, F.W. de Klerk became South Africa's president and set about dismantling apartheid. De Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC, suspended executions, and in February 1990 ordered the release of Nelson Mandela.  

Mandela subsequently led the ANC in its negotiations with the minority government for an end to apartheid and the establishment of a multiracial government. In 1993, Mandela and de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. One year later, the ANC won an electoral majority in the country's first free elections, and Mandela was elected South Africa's president, a position he held until 1999.




















Apr 27, 1773: Parliament passes the Tea Act

On this day in 1773, the British Parliament passes the Tea Act, a bill designed to save the faltering East India Company from bankruptcy by greatly lowering the tea tax it paid to the British government and, thus, granting it a de facto monopoly on the American tea trade. Because all legal tea entered the colonies through England, allowing the East India Company to pay lower taxes in Britain also allowed it to sell tea more cheaply in the colonies. Even untaxed Dutch tea, which entered the colonies illegally through smuggling, was more expensive the East India tea, after the act took effect.  

British Prime Minister, Frederick, Lord North, who initiated the legislation, thought it impossible that the colonists would protest cheap tea; he was wrong. Many colonists viewed the act as yet another example of taxation tyranny, precisely because it left an earlier duty on tea entering the colonies in place, while removing the duty on tea entering England.  

When three tea ships carrying East India Company tea, the Dartmouth, the Eleanor and the Beaver, arrived in Boston Harbor, the colonists demanded that the tea be returned to England. After Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson refused to send back the cargo, Patriot leader Samuel Adams organized the so-called Boston Tea Party with about 60 members of the radically anti-British Sons of Liberty. On December 16, 1773, the Patriots boarded the British ships disguised as Mohawk Indians and dumped the tea chests, valued then at £18,000 (nearly $1 million in today's money), into the water.  

Parliament, outraged by the Boston Tea Party and other blatant acts of destruction of British property, enacted the Coercive Acts, known to colonists as the Intolerable Acts, the following year. The Coercive Acts closed Boston to merchant shipping, established formal British military rule in Massachusetts, made British officials immune to criminal prosecution in America and required colonists to quarter British troops. The colonists subsequently called the first Continental Congress to consider a united American resistance to what they saw as British oppression.











Apr 27, 1521: Magellan killed in the Philippines

After traveling three-quarters of the way around the globe, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan is killed during a tribal skirmish on Mactan Island in the Philippines. Earlier in the month, his ships had dropped anchor at the Philippine island of Cebu, and Magellan met with the local chief, who after converting to Christianity persuaded the Europeans to assist him in conquering a rival tribe on the neighboring island of Mactan. In the subsequent fighting, Magellan was hit by a poisoned arrow and left to die by his retreating comrades.  

Magellan, a Portuguese noble, fought for his country against the Muslim domination of the Indian Ocean and Morocco. He participated in a number of key battles and in 1514 asked Portugal's King Manuel for an increase in his pension. The king refused, having heard unfounded rumors of improper conduct on Magellan's part after a siege in Morocco. In 1516, Magellan again made the request and the king again refused, so Magellan went to Spain in 1517 to offer his services to King Charles I, later Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.  

In 1494, Portugal and Spain, at the prompting of Pope Alexander VI, settled disputes over newly discovered lands in America and elsewhere by dividing the world into two spheres of influence. A line of demarcation was agreed to in the Atlantic Ocean--all new discoveries west of the line were to be Spanish, and all to the east Portuguese. Thus, South and Central America became dominated by the Spanish, with the exception of Brazil, which was discovered by the Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral in 1500 and was somewhat east of the demarcation line. Other Portuguese discoveries in the early 16th century, such as the Moluccas Islands--the Spice Islands of Indonesia--made the Spanish jealous.  

To King Charles, Magellan proposed sailing west, finding a strait through the Americas, and then continuing west to the Moluccas, which would prove that the Spice Islands lay west of the demarcation line and thus in the Spanish sphere. Magellan knew that the world was round but underestimated its size, thinking that the Moluccas must be situated just west of the American continent, not on the other side of a great uncharted ocean. The king accepted the plan, and on September 20, 1519, Magellan set sail from Spain in command of five ships and 270 men.  

Magellan sailed to West Africa and then to Brazil, where he searched the South American coast for a strait that would take him to the Pacific. He searched the Rio de la Plata, a large estuary south of Brazil, for a way through; failing, he continued south along the coast of Patagonia. At the end of March 1520, the expedition set up winter quarter at Port St. Julian. On Easter day at midnight, the Spanish captains mutinied against their Portuguese captain, but Magellan crushed the revolt, executing one of the captains and leaving another ashore when his ship left St. Julian in August.  

On October 21, he finally discovered the strait he had been seeking. The Strait of Magellan, as it became known, is located near the tip of South America, separating Tierra del Fuego and the continental mainland. Only three ships entered the passage; one had been wrecked and another deserted. It took 38 days to navigate the treacherous strait, and when ocean was sighted at the other end Magellan wept with joy. He was the first European explorer to reach the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic. His fleet accomplished the westward crossing of the ocean in 99 days, crossing waters so strangely calm that the ocean was named "Pacific," from the Latin word pacificus, meaning "tranquil." By the end, the men were out of food and chewed the leather parts of their gear to keep themselves alive. On March 6, 1521, the expedition landed at the island of Guam. Ten days later, they reached the Philippines--they were only about 400 miles from the Spice Islands.  

After Magellan's death, the survivors, in two ships, sailed on to the Moluccas and loaded the hulls with spice. One ship attempted, unsuccessfully, to return across the Pacific. The other ship, the Victoria, continued west under the command of the Basque navigator Juan Sebastian de Elcano. The vessel sailed across the Indian Ocean, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and arrived at Seville on September 9, 1522, becoming the first ship to circumnavigate the globe.


















Apr 27, 1941: German forces enter Athens

On this day in 1941, the German army enters the Greek capital, signaling the end of Greek resistance. All mainland Greece and all the Greek Aegean islands except Crete are under German occupation by May 11. In fending off the Axis invaders, the Greeks suffer the loss of 15,700 men. Greece will not be liberated until 1944, by British troops from the Mediterranean theater.


Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:

1124 - David I becomes King of Scots.

1296 - Battle of Dunbar: The Scots are defeated by Edward I of England.

1509 - Pope Julius II excommunicates Italian state of Venice

1518 - Treaty of St Truiden: anti-French Trapdoors/Bourgondisch covenant

1522 - Battle at Bicacca: Charles I & Pope Adrianus VI beat France

1526 - Mogol King Babur beats sultan of Delhi

1539 - Re-founding of the city of Bogotá, New Granada (nowadays Colombia), by Nikolaus Federmann and Sebastián de Belalcázar.

1565 - 1st Spanish settlement in Philippines, Cebu City, forms

1576 - Peace of Beaulieu & Paix de Monsieur

1578 - Duel of the Mignons claims the lives of two favorites of Henry III of France and two favorites of Henry I, Duke of Guise.

1643 - Tirso de Molina's "Bellaco Sois, Gomez," premieres in Madrid

1646 - King Charles I flees Oxford

1650 - The Battle of Carbisdale: Royalist army under Marquess of Montrose invades mainland Scotland from Orkney; defeated by a Covenanter army.

1662 - Netherlands & France sign military covenant

1667 - The blind and impoverished, John Milton sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10.

1694 - Frederik August I "the Strong" becomes monarch of Saksen

1749 - First performance of Handel's Fireworks Music in Green Park, London.

1773 - British Parliament passes Tea Act (Boston won't like this)

1805 - US Marines attack shores of Tripoli

Composer George Friedrich HandelComposer George Friedrich Handel 1810 - Beethoven composes his famous piano piece, Für Elise.

1813 - Americans under Gen Pike capture Toronto; Pike is killed

1828 - Zoological Gardens at Regent's Park London, opens

1838 - Fire destroys half of Charleston

1840 - Foundation stone for new Palace of Westminster, London, laid by wife of Sir Charles Barry.

1841 - Imakita Kosen, 1st Zen teacher of D.T. Suzuki, found the awakening

1857 - Establishment of Jewish congregations in Lower Austria prohibited

1859 - "Pomona" sinks in North Atlantic drowning all 400 aboard

1860 - Thomas Jackson is assigned to command Harpers Ferry

1861 - President Abe Lincoln suspends writ of habeas corpus

1861 - West Virginia secedes from Virginia after Virginia secedes from US

1863 - Battle of Streight's raid: Tuscumbia to Cedar Bluff, AL

1865 - Cornell University (Ithaca NY) is chartered

1865 - Steamboat "SS Sultana" explodes in the Mississippi River, killing up to 1,800 of the 2,427 passengers in the greatest maritime disaster in United States history. Most were paroled Union POWs on their way home.

1867 - Opera "Romeo et Juliette" is produced (Paris)

Confederate General Thomas JacksonConfederate General Thomas Jackson 1870 - Heinrich Schliemann discovers Troi

1874 - White League, Paramilitary white supremacist organization, forms

1877 - Opera "Le Roi de Lahore" is produced (Paris)

1877 - President Hayes removes Federal troops from LA, Reconstruction ends

1881 - Pogroms against Russian Jews start in Elisabethgrad

1890 - French troops under Capt Archinard occupy Oussebougou West Sudan

1897 - Grant's Tomb (famed of song & legend) dedicated

1903 - 1st Highlander (Yankee) shut-out, Phila A's win 6-0

1903 - Long Island's Jamaica Race Track opens

1904 - The Australian Labor Party becomes the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson.

1905 - World Exposition opens in Luik

1908 - 4th modern Olympic games opens in London

1909 - Sultan of Turkey Abdul Hamid II is overthrown

1910 - Belgian parliament rejects socialist motion for general voting rights

1911 - Following the resignation and death of William P. Frye, a compromise is reached to rotate the office of President pro tempore (for the time being) of the United States Senate.

1912 - Relief laws replaces those of 1854, in Netherlands

1914 - Honduras becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.

1918 - Giants' 9-0 winning start & Dodgers' 0-9 losing streak are stopped

1920 - Pogrom leader Petljoera declares Ukraine Independence

1921 - Hadjememaar, [Corn de Gelder] elected in Amsterdam

1922 - Fritz Langs "Dr Mabuse, der Spieler" premieres in Berlin

1922 - Yakut ASSR formed in Russian SFSR

1924 - Antwerp soccer tie Belgium-Netherlands 1-1

1926 - In the Giants' 9-8 win over Phillies, Mel Ott, 17, 1st appearance

1927 - Carabineros de Chile (Chilean national police force and gendarmery) are created.

1931 - 100°F (38°C), Pahala, Hawaii (state record)

1933 - Karl Jansky reports reception of cosmic radio signal in Wash DC

1933 - Jessop & Son department store in Nottingham, England, acquired by John Lewis Partnership. The partnership's first shop outside London.

1935 - Brussel's World Expo opens

1935 - Yanks pull a 1st inning triple-play & beat Phila A's 9-8

1937 - 1st US social security payment made

1940 - Himmler orders establishment of Auschwitz Concentration Camp

1941 - German troops occupy Athens Greece

1942 - Belgium Jews are forced to wear stars

1942 - Tornado destroys Pryor Oklahoma killing 100, injuring 300

1943 - Lou Jansen & Jan Dieters arrested, lead illegal CPN party in Holland

1943 - Soviet Union breaks contact with Polish government exiled in London

1944 - Boston Brave Jim Tobin no-hits Bkln Dodgers, 2-0

1945 - 2nd Republic of Austria forms

Italian Dictator Benito MussoliniItalian Dictator Benito Mussolini 1945 - Italian partisans capture Benito Mussolini prisoner

1945 - US 5th army enters Genua

1945 - World War II: The Völkischer Beobachter, the newspaper of the Nazi Party, ceases publication.

1946 - 1st radar installation aboard a coml ship installed

1947 - Babe Ruth Day celebrated at Yankee Stadium & through out US

1948 - Arab legion attacks Gesher bridge on Jordan River

1950 - "Tickets, Please" opens at Coronet Theater NYC for 245 performances

1950 - South Africa passes Group Areas Act segregating races

1951 - Mohammed Mossadeq chosen premier of Persia

1952 - "4 Saints in 3 Acts" closes at Broadway Theater NYC after 15 perfs

1953 - 1st general elections in British Guyana, won by Jagans PPP

1953 - Wrestler Freddie Blassie coins term "Pencil neck geek"

1956 - Burma Premier U Nu's Volksliga voor Vrijheid loses election

1956 - Heavyweight champ, Rocky Marciano, retires undefeated from boxing

1959 - "Today" show goes abroard 1st time (Paris France)

Heavyweight Boxing Champion Rocky MarcianoHeavyweight Boxing Champion Rocky Marciano 1959 - Liu Sjau-chi elected president of China PR

1959 - The last Canadian missionary leaves the People's Republic of China.

1960 - 1st atomic powered electric-drive submarine launched (Tullibee)

1960 - South Korean President Syngman Rhee resigns

1960 - Togo (formerly French Togo) declares independence from French adm

1961 - NASA launches Explorer 11 into Earth orbit to study gamma rays

1961 - NFL officially recognizes Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio

1961 - Sierra Leone declares independence from UK

1962 - Arnold Wesker's "Chips with Everything" premieres in London

1962 - US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Christmas Island

1963 - "Jopie" Pengel forms government in Suriname

1963 - Cuban premier Fidel Castro arrives in Moscow

1964 - John Lennon's "In His Own Write" is published in US

1965 - "I'm Solomon" closes at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC after 7 perfs

1965 - RC Duncan patents "Pampers" disposable diaper

Musician and Beatle John LennonMusician and Beatle John Lennon 1966 - Dmitri Shostakovitch completes his 2nd cello concert

1967 - Expo '67 opens in Montreal

1967 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1968 - "Education of Hyman Kaplan" closes at Alvin NYC after 28 perfs

1968 - Balt Oriole Tom Phoebus no-hits Boston, 6-0

1968 - Congress of Political Party Radicals (PPR) forms in Netherlands

1969 - Carol Mann wins LPGA Raleigh Ladies Golf Invitational

1971 - Curt Flood resigns Senators after 13 games & departs for Denmark

1972 - Apollo 16 returns to Earth

1972 - NYC Mayor John Lindsey appeals that John Lennon not be deported

1973 - KC Royal Steve Busby no-hits Detroit Tigers, 3-0

1974 - Pan Am 707 crashes into mountains of Bali, killing 107

1975 - Sandra Haynie wins LPGA Charity Golf Classic

1975 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR

1976 - "So Long 174th St" opens at Harkness Theater NYC for 16 performances

1976 - Arabic Monetary Fund established in Abu Dhabi

1977 - Bloody riots in Soweto South Africa

1977 - HCC, Hobby Computer Club, forms in Netherlands

1977 - 28 people are killed in the Guatemala City air disaster.

1978 - 14th Mayor's Trophy Game, Yanks beat Mets 4-3 in 11

1978 - Accident at nuclear reactor Willow Island, W Virginia, kills 51

1978 - Afghanistan revolution (National Day), pro-Russian military coup

1979 - George Harrison releases "Love Comes to Everyone"

1980 - Barbara Barrow wins LPGA Birmingham Golf Classic

1981 - 1st female soccer official is hired by NASL

1981 - Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse.

1982 - Nordiques 1-Isles 4-Semifinals-Isles hold 1-0 lead

US President & Actor Ronald ReaganUS President & Actor Ronald Reagan 1982 - Trial of John W Hinckley Jr attempted assassin of Reagan, begins

1983 - Nolan Ryan becomes strikeout king (3,509), passing Walter Johnson

1984 - Cleve Indians beat Detroit Tigers, 8-4, in 19 innings

1984 - Over 70 inches of snow falls on Red Lake Montana

1986 - "Sweet Charity" opens at Minskoff Theater NYC for 368 performances

1986 - Captain Midnight (John R MacDougall) interrupts HBO

1986 - Pat Bradley wins LPGA S&H Golf Classic

1987 - US Justice Dept bars Austrian Chancellor Kurt Waldheim from entering US, due to his aid of Nazi Germany during WW II

1989 - "Starmites" opens at Criter Ctr SR Theater NYC for 60 performances

1989 - Beijing students take over Tiananmen Square in China

1989 - Hurricane in Bangladesh, kills 500

1989 - Mandatory seatbelt law goes into effect in Italy

1990 - 50th annual barbershop quartet singing convention held (Mich)

1990 - Dodger Orel Hershiser undergoes career-threatening shoulder surgery

1990 - Villanova's women set a 6,000 m relay world record of 17:18:10

1991 - "Lucifer's Child" closes at Music Box Theater NYC after 28 perfs

1991 - Firestone World Bowling Tournament of Champions won by David Ozio

1992 - "Small Family Business" opens at Music Box Theater NYC for 48 perfs

1992 - NY Mets trade David Cone to Toronto Blue Jays for Jeff Kent

1992 - The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, is proclaimed.

1992 - Betty Boothroyd becomes the first woman to be elected Speaker of the British House of Commons in its 700-year history.

1993 - Afghan Antonov AN-32 crashes at Tashqurgan, kills 76

1994 - "Inspector Calls" opens at Royale Theater NYC for 454 performances

1994 - 29.0°C in Genevad, Sweden (Swedish April high temperature record)

1994 - 7th longest NHL game: NJ Devils beat Buffalo Sabres (125 min 43 sec)

1994 - Graeme Obree bicycles world record time (52,713 km)

1994 - President Nixon buried in Nixon Library in Calif

1994 - Twins righty Scott Erickson no-hits Brewers 6-0

1995 - "Indiscretions" opens at Ethel Barrymore Theater NYC for 221 perfs

1995 - Coors Field in Colo opens - Denver Rockies beats Mets 11-9 in 14

1996 - Brunswick World Tournament of Champions won by Dave D'Entremont

1997 - "Little Foxes" opens at Vivian Beaumont NYC for 56 performances

1997 - "Stanley" closes at Circle in Sq Theater NYC

1997 - Frank Nobilo wins Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic at Forest Oaks

1997 - Las Vegas Senior Golf Classic by TruGreen-ChemLawn

1997 - Nancy Lopez wins LPGA Chick-fil-A Charity Championship

2002 - The last successful telemetry from the NASA space probe Pioneer 10.

2005 - The Superjumbo jet aircraft Airbus A380 makes its first flight from Toulouse, France.

2006 - Construction begins on the Freedom Tower for the new World Trade Center in New York City.

2007 - Estonian authorities remove the Bronze Soldier, a Soviet Red Army war memorial in Tallinn, amid political controversy with Russia.

2011 - The deadliest day of the 2011 Super outbreak of tornadoes, the largest tornado outbreak, in United States history.

2012 - Four explosions in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, kill 27 people

2013 - 10 people are killed and 25 are injured after a bomb attack in Karachi, Pakistan

1296 - The Scots were defeated by Edward I at the Battle of Dunbar.   1509 - Pope Julius II excommunicated the Italian state of Venice.   1521 - Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed by natives in the Philippines.   1565 - The first Spanish settlement in Philippines was established in Cebu City.   1805 - A force led by U.S. Marines captured the city of Derna, on the shores of Tripoli.   1813 - Americans under Gen. Pike capture York (present day Toronto) the seat of government in Ontario.   1861 - U.S. President Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus.   1861 - West Virginia seceded from Virginia after Virginia seceded from the Union during the American Civil War.   1863 - The Army of the Potomac began marching on Chancellorsville.   1865 - In the U.S. the Sultana exploded while carrying 2,300 Union POWs. Between 1,400 - 2,000 were killed.   1880 - Francis Clarke and M.G. Foster patented the electrical hearing aid.   1897 - Grant's Tomb was dedicated.   1899 - The Western Golf Association was founded in Chicago, IL.   1903 - Jamaica Race Track opened in Long Island, NY.   1909 - The sultan of Turkey, Abdul Hamid II, was overthrown.   1937 - German bombers devastated Guernica, Spain.   1938 - Geraldine Apponyi married King Zog of Albania. She was the first American woman to become a queen.   1938 - A colored baseball was used for the first time in any baseball game. The ball was yellow and was used between Columbia and Fordham Universities in New York City.   1945 - The Second Republic was founded in Austria.   1946 - The SS African Star was placed in service. It was the first commercial ship to be equipped with radar.   1947 - "Babe Ruth Day" was celebrated at Yankee Stadium.   1950 - South Africa passed the Group Areas Act, which formally segregated races.   1953 - The U.S. offered $50,000 and political asylum to any Communist pilot that delivered a MIG jet.   1953 - Five people were killed and 60 injured when Mt. Aso erupted on the island of Kyushu.   1960 - The submarine Tullibee was launched from Groton, CT. It was the first sub to be equipped with closed-circuit television.   1961 - The United Kingdom granted Sierra Leone independence.   1965 - "Pampers" were patented by R.C. Duncan.   1967 - In Montreal, Prime Minister Lester Pearson lighted a flame to open Expo 67.   1975 - Saigon was encircled by North Vietnamese troops.   1978 - Pro-Soviet Marxists seized control of Afghanistan.   1982 - The trial of John W. Hinckley Jr. began in Washington. Hinckley was later acquitted by reason of insanity for the shooting of U.S. President Reagan and three others.   1982 - China proposed a new constitution that would radically alter the structure of the national government.   1983 - Nolan Ryan (Houston Astros) broke a 55-year-old major league baseball record when he struck out his 3,509th batter of his career.   1984 - In London, Libyan gunmen left the Libyan Embassy 11 days after killing a policewoman and wounding 10 others.   1986 - Captain Midnight (John R. MacDougall) interrupted HBO.   1989 - Student protestors took over Tiananmen Square in Beijing.   1987 - The U.S. Justice Department barred Austrian President Kurt Waldheim from entering the U.S. He claimed that he had aided in the deportation and execution of thousands of Jews and others as a German Army officer during World War II.   1992 - The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was proclaimed in Belgrade by the Republic of Serbia and its ally Montenegro.   1992 - Russia and 12 other former Soviet republics won entry into the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.   2005 - The A380, the world's largest jetliner, completed its maiden flight. The passenger capability was 840.   2005 - Russian President Vladimir Putin became the first Kremlin leader to visit Israel.   2006 - In New York, NY, construction began on the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower on the site of former World Trade Center. 

1521 Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed in a fight with natives of the Philippines. 1805 The U.S. Marines captured Derna, on the shores of Tripoli. 1865 The worst steamship disaster in the history of the United States occurred when there was an explosion aboard the Sultana; more than 1,400 people were killed. 1956 Rocky Marciano retired as undefeated world heavyweight boxing champion. 1961 Sierra Leone gained independence from Great Britain. 1983 Pitcher Nolan Ryan surpassed Walter Johnson’s strikeout record—one that had held since 1927. 1987 Austrian president Kurt Waldheim was barred from entering the United States. He was accused of aiding in the execution of thousands of Jews in World War II. 1993 Eritrea declared itself independent.

The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:

http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php

http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/apr27.htm

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory







Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!

The single most important event to have taken place on this date (at least, if you believe it) was that the universe began. Here, according to www.history.com, is the story:

On this day in 4977 B.C., the universe is created, according to German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler, considered a founder of modern science. Kepler is best known for his theories explaining the motion of planets.

Kepler was born on December 27, 1571, in Weil der Stadt, Germany. As a university student, he studied the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus' theories of planetary ordering. Copernicus (1473-1543) believed that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the solar system, a theory that contradicted the prevailing view of the era that the sun revolved around the earth.

In 1600, Kepler went to Prague to work for Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, the imperial mathematician to Rudolf II, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Kepler's main project was to investigate the orbit of Mars. When Brahe died the following year, Kepler took over his job and inherited Brahe's extensive collection of astronomy data, which had been painstakingly observed by the naked eye. Over the next decade, Kepler learned about the work of Italian physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), who had invented a telescope with which he discovered lunar mountains and craters, the largest four satellites of Jupiter and the phases of Venus, among other things. Kepler corresponded with Galileo and eventually obtained a telescope of his own and improved upon the design. In 1609, Kepler published the first two of his three laws of planetary motion, which held that planets move around the sun in ellipses, not circles (as had been widely believed up to that time), and that planets speed up as they approach the sun and slow down as they move away. In 1619, he produced his third law, which used mathematic principles to relate the time a planet takes to orbit the sun to the average distance of the planet from the sun.

Kepler's research was slow to gain widespread traction during his lifetime, but it later served as a key influence on the English mathematician Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) and his law of gravitational force. Additionally, Kepler did important work in the fields of optics, including demonstrating how the human eye works, and math. He died on November 15, 1630, in Regensberg, Germany. As for Kepler's calculation about the universe's birthday, scientists in the 20th century developed the Big Bang theory, which showed that his calculations were off by about 13.7 billion years.

1124 - David I becomes King of Scots.
1296 - The Scots were defeated by Edward I of England at the Battle of Dunbar.
1509 - Pope Julius II excommunicated the Italian state of Venice
1518 - Treaty of St Truiden: anti-French Trapdoors/Bourgondisch covenant
1521 - Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed by natives in the Philippines.
1522 - France is defeated by Charles I and Pope Adrianus VI at the Battle of Bicacca
1526 - Mogol King Babur beats sultan of Delhi
1539 - Re-founding of the city of Bogotá, New Granada (presently known as Colombia), by Nikolaus Federmann and Sebastián de Belalcázar.
1565 - First Spanish settlement in Philippines was formed at Cebu City
1576 - Peace of Beaulieu & Paix de Monsieur
1578 - Duel of the Mignons claims the lives of two favorites of Henry III of France and two favorites of Henry I, Duke of Guise.
1643 - Tirso de Molina's "Bellaco Sois, Gomez," premieres in Madrid
1646 - King Charles I flees Oxford
1650 - The Battle of Carbisdale: Royalist army under Marquess of Montrose invades mainland Scotland from Orkney; defeated by a Covenanter army.
1662 - Netherlands & France sign military covenant
1667 - The blind and impoverished, John Milton sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10.
1694 - Frederik August I "the Strong" becomes monarch of Saksen
1749 - First performance of Handel's Fireworks Music in Green Park, London.
1773 - British Parliament passes Tea Act (Boston won't like this)
1805 - American forces led by the US Marines captured the city of Derna, on the shores of Tripoli
1810 - Beethoven composes his famous piano piece, Für Elise.
1813 - Americans under General Pike capture Toronto (then known as York); Pike is killed
1828 - Zoological Gardens at Regent's Park London, opens
1838 - Fire destroys half of Charleston
1840 - Foundation stone for new Palace of Westminster, London, laid by wife of Sir Charles Barry.
1841 - Imakita Kosen, 1st Zen teacher of D.T. Suzuki, found the awakening
1857 - Establishment of Jewish congregations in Lower Austria prohibited
1859 - "Pomona" sinks in North Atlantic drowning all 400 aboard
1860 - Thomas Jackson is assigned to command Harpers Ferry
1861 - President Abraham Lincoln suspends writ of habeas corpus
1861 - West Virginia secedes from Virginia after Virginia secedes from US
1863 - Battle of Streight's raid: Tuscumbia to Cedar Bluff, Alabama
1863 - The Army of the Potomac began their march on Chancellorsville
1865 - Cornell University (Ithaca NY) is chartered
1865 - Steamboat "Sultana" explodes in Mississippi River, killed up to 1,547. 1450 of 2000 paroled Union POWs on their way home are killed when river steamer "Sultana" blown up
1867 - Opera "Romeo et Juliette" was produced (Paris)
1870 - Heinrich Schliemann discovered Troy
1874 - White League, Paramilitary white supremacist organization, formed
1877 - Opera "Le Roi de Lahore" was produced (Paris)
1877 - President Hayes removes Federal troops from LA, Reconstruction ends
1880 - Francis Clarke and M.G. Foster patented the electrical hearing aid.
1881 - Pogroms against Russian Jews start in Elisabethgrad
1890 - French troops under Capt Archinard occupy Oussebougou West Sudan
1897 - Grant's Tomb (famed of song & legend) dedicated
1899 - The Western Golf Association was founded in Chicago, Illinois
1903 - First Highlander (Yankee) shut-out, Philadelphia A's win 6-0
1903 - Long Island's Jamaica Race Track opens
1904 - The Australian Labor Party becomes the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson.
1905 - World Exposition opens in Luik
1908 - Fourth modern Olympic games opens in London
1909 - Sultan of Turkey Abdul Hamid II is overthrown
1910 - Belgian parliament rejects socialist motion for general voting rights
1911 - Following the resignation and death of William P. Frye, a compromise is reached to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the United States Senate.
1912 - Relief laws replaces those of 1854, in Netherlands
1914 - Honduras becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
1918 - Giants' 9-0 winning start & Dodgers' 0-9 losing streak are stopped
1920 - Pogrom leader Petljoera declares Ukraine Independence
1921 - Hadjememaar, [Corn de Gelder] elected in Amsterdam
1922 - Fritz Langs "Dr Mabuse, der Spieler" premieres in Berlin
1922 - Yakut ASSR formed in Russian SFSR
1923 - Benito Mussolini government italian place in South Tirol/Alto Adige
1924 - Antwerp soccer tie Belgium-Netherlands 1-1
1926 - In the Giants' 9-8 win over Phillies, Mel Ott, 17, 1st appearance
1927 - Carabineros de Chile (Chilean national police force and gendarmery) are created.
1931 - 100°F (38°C), Pahala, Hawaii (state record)
1933 - Karl Jansky reports reception of cosmic radio signal in Wash DC
1933 - Jessop & Son department store in Nottingham, England, acquired by John Lewis Partnership. The partnership's first shop outside London.
1935 - Brussel's World Expo opens
1935 - Yanks pull a 1st inning triple-play & beat Phila A's 9-8
1937 - 1st US social security payment made
1937 - German bombers devastated Guernica, Spain.
1938 - Geraldine Apponyi married King Zog of Albania. She was the first American woman to become a queen.
1940 - Himmler orders establishment of Auschwitz Concentration Camp
1941 - German troops occupy Athens Greece
1942 - Belgium Jews are forced to wear stars
1942 - Tornado destroys Pryor Oklahoma killing 100, injuring 300
1943 - Lou Jansen & Jan Dieters arrested, lead illegal CPN party in Holland
1943 - Soviet Union breaks contact with Polish government exiled in London
1944 - Boston Brave Jim Tobin no-hits Bkln Dodgers, 2-0
1945 - Second Republic of Austria formed
1945 - Italian partisans capture Benito Mussolini prisoner
1945 - US 5th army enters Genua
1945 - World War II: The Völkischer Beobachter, the newspaper of the Nazi Party, ceases publication.
1946 - The SS African Star was placed in service. It was the first commercial ship to be equipped with radar.
1947 - Babe Ruth Day celebrated at Yankee Stadium & through out US
1948 - Arab legion attacks Gesher bridge on Jordan River
1950 - "Tickets, Please" opens at Coronet Theater NYC for 245 performances
1950 - South Africa passes Group Areas Act, formally segregating the races
1951 - Mohammed Mossadeq chosen premier of Persia
1952 - "4 Saints in 3 Acts" closes at Broadway Theater NYC after 15 performances
1953 - The U.S. offered $50,000 and political asylum to any Communist pilot that delivered a MIG jet.
1953 - First general elections in British Guyana, won by Jagans PPP
1953 - Wrestler Freddie Blassie coins term "Pencil neck geek"
1956 - Burma Premier U Nu's Volksliga voor Vrijheid loses election
1956 - Heavyweight champ, Rocky Marciano, retires undefeated from boxing
1959 - "Today" show goes abroard 1st time (Paris France)
1959 - Liu Sjau-chi elected president of China PR
1959 - The last Canadian missionary leaves the People's Republic of China.
1960 - 1st atomic powered electric-drive submarine launched (Tullibee)
1960 - South Korean pres Syngman Rhee resigns
1960 - Togo (formerly French Togo) declares independence from French adm
1961 - NASA launches Explorer 11 into Earth orbit to study gamma rays
1961 - NFL officially recognizes Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio
1961 - Sierra Leone declares independence from the United Kingdom
1962 - Arnold Wesker's "Chips with Everything," premieres in London
1962 - US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Christmas Island
1963 - "Jopie" Pengel forms government in Suriname
1963 - Cuban premier Fidel Castro arrives in Moscow
1964 - John Lennon's "In His Own Write" is published in US
1965 - "I'm Solomon" closes at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC after 7 perfs
1965 - RC Duncan patents "Pampers" disposable diaper
1966 - Dmitri Shostakovitch completes his 2nd cello concert
1967 - In Montreal, Prime Minister Lester Pearson lighted a flame to open Expo 67.
1967 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1968 - "Education of Hyman Kaplan" closes at Alvin NYC after 28 perf
1968 - Balt Oriole Tom Phoebus no-hits Boston, 6-0
1968 - Congress of Political Party Radicals (PPR) forms in Netherlands
1969 - Carol Mann wins LPGA Raleigh Ladies Golf Invitational
1971 - Curt Flood resigns Senators after 13 games & departs for Denmark
1972 - Apollo 16 returns to Earth
1972 - NYC Mayor John Lindsey appeals that John Lennon not be deported
1973 - KC Royal Steve Busby no-hits Detroit Tigers, 3-0
1974 - Pan Am 707 crashes into mountains of Bali, killing 107
1975 - Saigon was encircled by North Vietnamese troops.
1975 - Sandra Haynie wins LPGA Charity Golf Classic
1975 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1976 - "So Long 174th St" opens at Harkness Theater NYC for 16 performances
1976 - Arabic Monetary Fund established in Abu Dhabi
1977 - Bloody riots in Soweto South Africa
1977 - HCC, Hobby Computer Club, forms in Netherlands
1977 - 28 people are killed in the Guatemala City air disaster.
1978 - 14th Mayor's Trophy Game, Yanks beat Mets 4-3 in 11
1978 - Accident at nuclear reactor Willow Island, W Virginia, kills 51
1978 - Afghanistan revolution (National Day), pro-Russian military coup
1979 - George Harrison releases "Love Comes to Everyone"
1980 - Barbara Barrow wins LPGA Birmingham Golf Classic
1981 - 1st female soccer official is hired by NASL
1981 - Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse.
1982 - Nordiques 1-Isles 4-Semifinals-Isles hold 1-0 lead
1982 - Trial of John W Hinckley Jr attempted assassin of Reagan, begins - he was later acquitted for reasons of insanity
1983 - Nolan Ryan becomes strikeout king (3,509), passing Walter Johnson
1984 - Cleve Indians beat Detroit Tigers, 8-4, in 19 innings
1984 - Over 70 inches of snow falls on Red Lake, Montana
1986 - "Sweet Charity" opens at Minskoff Theater NYC for 368 performances
1986 - Captain Midnight (John R MacDougall) interrupts HBO
1986 - Pat Bradley wins LPGA S&H Golf Classic
1987 - The U.S. Justice Department barred Austrian President Kurt Waldheim from entering the U.S. He claimed that he had aided in the deportation and execution of thousands of Jews and others as a German Army officer during World War II.
1989 - "Starmites" opens at Criter Ctr SR Theater NYC for 60 performances
1989 - Beijing students take over Tiananmen Square in China
1989 - Hurricane in Bangladesh, kills 500
1989 - Mandatory seatbelt law goes into effect in Italy
1990 - 50th annual barbershop quartet singing convention held (Mich)
1990 - Dodger Orel Hershiser undergoes career-threatening shoulder surgery
1990 - Villanova's women set a 6,000 m relay world record of 17:18:10
1991 - "Lucifer's Child" closes at Music Box Theater NYC after 28 perfs
1991 - Firestone World Bowling Tournament of Champions won by David Ozio
1992 - "Small Family Business" opens at Music Box Theater NYC for 48 perfs
1992 - NY Mets trade David Cone to Toronto Blue Jays for Jeff Kent
1992 - The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, is proclaimed.
1992 - Betty Boothroyd becomes the first woman to be elected Speaker of the British House of Commons in its 700-year history.
1992 - Russia and 12 other former Soviet republics won entry into the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
1993 - Afghan Antonov AN-32 crashes at Tashqurgan, kills 76
1994 - "Inspector Calls" opens at Royale Theater NYC for 454 performances
1994 - 29.0°C in Genevad, Sweden (Swedish April high temperature record)
1994 - The seventh longest NHL game: New Jersey Devils beat Buffalo Sabres (125 min 43 sec)
1994 - Graeme Obree bicycles world record time (52,713 km)
1994 - President Nixon buried in Nixon Library in Calif
1994 - Twins righty Scott Erickson no-hits Brewers 6-0
1995 - "Indiscretions" opens at Ethel Barrymore Theater NYC for 221 perfs
1995 - Coors Field in Colo opens - Denver Rockies beats Mets 11-9 in 14
1996 - Brunswick World Tournament of Champions won by Dave D'Entremont
1997 - "Little Foxes," opens at Vivian Beaumont NYC for 56 performances
1997 - "Stanley," closes at Circle in Sq Theater NYC
1997 - Frank Nobilo wins Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic at Forest Oaks
1997 - Las Vegas Senior Golf Classic by TruGreen-ChemLawn
1997 - Nancy Lopez wins LPGA Chick-fil-A Charity Championship
2002 - The last successful telemetry from the NASA space probe Pioneer 10.
2005 - The Superjumbo jet aircraft Airbus A380 makes its first flight from Toulouse, France.
2005 - Russian President Vladimir Putin became the first Kremlin leader to visit Israel.
2006 - Construction begins on the Freedom Tower for the new World Trade Center in New York City.
2007 - Estonian authorities remove the Bronze Soldier, a Soviet Red Army war memorial in Tallinn, amid political controversy with Russia.
2011 - The deadliest day of the 2011 Super outbreak of tornadoes, the largest tornado outbreak, in United States history.
2012 - Four explosions in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, kill 27 people


I got most of the information used for this blog from the following pages:

http://www.historyorb.com/events/april/27
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/apr27.htm
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory/April-27
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history