27 January

Events

• 1606 - Gunpowder Plot: The trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators begin and later ends in their execution on January 31.
• 1785 - The University of Georgia Founded
• 1870 - First college sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta, is formed at DePauw University.
• 1880 - Thomas Edison files a patent for his electric incandescent lamp.
• 1888 - In Washington, DC the National Geographic Society is founded.
• 1900 - Boxer Rebellion: Foreign diplomats in Peking, China demand that the Boxer rebels be disciplined.
• 1915 - United States Marines occupy Haiti.
• 1926 - John Logie Baird demonstrates the first television broadcast.
• 1943 - World War II: 50 bombers mount the first all American air raid against Germany (Wilhlemshaven was the target).
• 1944 - World War II: The two year Siege of Leningrad is lifted.
• 1945 - World War II: The Red Army arrives at Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland and find the Nazi concentration camp where 1.1-1.5 million people were murdered.
• 1951 - Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site begins with a one-kiloton bomb dropped on Frenchman Flats.
• 1967 - Astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee are killed in a fire during a test of the Apollo 1 spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center.
• 1967 - More than 60 nations sign the Outer Space Treaty banning nuclear weapons in space.
• 1973 - Paris Peace Accords officially end the Vietnam War.
• 1978 - Lt Marilyn R. Koon, 161st Aerial Refueling Squadron, Arizona Air National Guard, becomes first female Air National Guard Pilot.
• 1984 - Carl Lewis beats his own indoor world jumping record by 9-1/4 inches with a 28 feet, 10-1/4 inches jump.
• 1991 - Muhammad Siyad Barre flees his compound in Mogadishu.
• 1991 - Super Bowl XXV: The New York Giants defeat the Buffalo Bills, 20-19
• 1992 - Mike Tyson goes on trial charged with raping a 1991 Miss Black America contestant.
• 1996 - Colonel Ibrahim Bare Mainassara deposes the first democratically elected president of Niger, Mahamane Ousmane, in a military coup.
• 1997 - It is revealed that French museums had nearly 2,000 pieces of art that were stolen by Nazis.
• 1998 - American First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton appears on the Today Show calling the attacks against her husband part of a "vast right-wing conspiracy."
• 2001 - A chartered Beechcraft King Air 200 crashes after takeoff from Boulder, Colorado killing 10.
• 2002 - Several explosions at a military dump in Lagos, Nigeria kill more than 1,000.

Births

• 1585 - Hendrick Avercamp, Dutch painter, (d. 1634)
• 1720 - Samuel Foote, dramatist and actor, (d. 1777)
• 1741 - Hester Thrale, diarist, (d. 1821)
• 1756 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composer, (d. 1791)
• 1814 - Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, architect, (d. 1879)
• 1832 - Lewis Carroll, author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, (d. 1898)
• 1836 - Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, writer, (d. 1895)
• 1850 - Samuel Gompers, labor union leader, (d. 1924)
• 1859 - Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, last German Emperor and Prussian king, (d. 1941)
• 1885 - Eduard Künneke, composer, (d. 1953)
• 1885 - Jerome Kern, composer, (d. 1945)
• 1885 - Harry Ruby, musician, composer, writer, (d. 1974)
• 1900 - Admiral Hyman Rickover, American admiral, proponent of the "nuclear Navy", (d. 1986)
• 1901 - Willy Fritsch, actor, (d. 1973)
• 1903 - John Carew Eccles, neuropsychologist, winner of Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1963, (d. 1997)
• 1908 - Oran "Hot Lips" Page, jazz trumpet, (d. 1954)
• 1918 - Skitch Henderson, musician, band leader
• 1919 - Ross Bagdasarian, musician, actor, (d. 1972)
• 1920 - Frankie Albert, American football star, (d. 2002)
• 1921 - Donna Reed, actress, (d. 1986)
• 1924 - Sabu, actor, (d. 1963)
• 1926 - Fritz Spiegl, journalist, (d. 2003)
• 1931 - Mordecai Richler, author, (d. 2001)
• 1936 - Troy Donahue, actor, (d. 2001)
• 1945 - Nick Mason, musician of Pink Floyd
• 1948 - Mikhail Baryshnikov, dancer
• 1956 - Mimi Rogers, actress
• 1957 - Janick Gers, musician (Iron Maiden)
• 1964 - Bridget Fonda, actress
• 1965 - Alan Cumming, actor
• 1968 - Mike Patton, lead singer of several bands in USA
• 1974 - Chaminda Vaas, cricketer, Sri Lanka

Deaths

• 98 - Nerva, Roman Emperor, (b. 35)
• 1880 - Edward Middleton Barry, architect, (b. 1830)
• 1901 - Giuseppe Verdi, composer, (b. 1813)
• 1910 - Thomas Crapper, inventor, (b. 1836)
• 1967 - Edward White (b. 1930), Virgil "Gus" Grissom (b. 1926), and Roger Chaffee (b. 1935), in capsule AS-204, which was later designated Apollo 1
• 1975 - Bill Walsh, producer, writer, (b. 1913)
• 1986 - Lilli Palmer, actress
• 1993 - André the Giant, wrestler, actor, (b. 1946)
• 1994 - Claude Akins, actor
• 1996 - Ralph Yarborough, U.S. Senator and Texas politician, (b. 1903)
• 2004 - Jack Paar, television show host, (b. 1918)

Holidays and observances

• Catholicism - Catholic Schools Week.

January 26 - January 28 - December 27 - February 27 -- listing of all days

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

Referenced By