May 27

Events

• 1328 - Philip VI is crowned King of France
• 1703 - Tsar Peter the Great founds the city of Saint Petersburg
• 1813 - War of 1812: In Canada, United States forces capture Fort George[?]
• 1883 - Alexander III becomes Tsar of Russia
• 1895 - Oscar Wilde is sent to prison for "somdomy"
• 1901 - In New Jersey, the Edison Storage Battery Company[?] is founded.
• 1905 - Russo-Japanese War: Battle of Tsushima - Start of the naval climax of the war.
• 1907 - A Bubonic plague outbreak begins in San Francisco, California
• 1921 - Afghanistan becomes independent of the United Kingdom
• 1924 - The Music Corporation of America (MCA) is founded
• 1923 - The first 24 hours of Le Mans race ends
• 1927 - Ford Motor Company ceases manufacturing the Ford Model T and begins to retool plants to make Ford Model As.
• 1933 - New Deal: The Federal Securities Act[?] is signed into law requiring the registration of securities with the Federal Trade Commission
• 1933 - Disney releases the cartoon The Three Little Pigs[?], with its hit song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?"
• 1935 - New Deal: The Supreme Court of the United States declares the National Industrial Recovery Act to be unconstitutional.
• 1936 - The RMS Queen Mary begins her maiden voyage
• 1937 - In California, the Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrian traffic creating a vital link between San Francisco and Marin County.
• 1940 - World War II: 97 out of 99 members of a Royal Norfolk Regiment[?] unit are massacred while trying to surrender at Dunkirk. The German commander, Captain Fritz Knochlein[?], is eventually hanged for war crimes.
• 1941 - World War II: President Roosevelt proclaims an "unlimited national emergency."
• 1941 - World War II: German pocket battleship Bismarck is sunk in the North Atlantic killing 2,300.
• 1960 - In Turkey, General Cemal Gürsel[?] leads a military coup d'etat removing President Celal Bayar[?] and the rest of the democratic government
• 1965 - Vietnam War: United States warships begin bombardments of Viet Cong targest within South Vietnam for the first time
• 1972 - President of the Soviet Union[?] Leonid Brezhnev and President of the United States Richard Nixon sing the SALT I agreements
• 1995 - In Charlottesville, Virginia, actor Christopher Reeve is paralyzed from the neck down after falling from his horse in a riding competition.
• 1996 - First Chechnya War: Russian President Boris Yeltsin meets with Chechnyan rebels for the first time and negotiates a cease-fire in the war.
• 1998 - Oklahoma City bombing: Michael Fortier[?] is sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $200,000 for failing to warn authorities about the terrorist plot.
• 1999 - The International War Crimes Tribunal[?] in The Hague, Netherlands indicts Slobodan Milosevic and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo.

Births

• 1738 - Nathaniel Gorham, American politican (+1796)
• 1794 - Cornelius Vanderbilt, entrepreneur (+ 1877)
• 1819 - Julia Ward Howe, composer ("The Battle Hymn of the Republic[?]") (+ 1910)
• 1836 - Jay Gould, American financier (+ 1892)
• 1837 - Wild Bill Hickock[?], gunfighter (+ 1876)
• 1871 - Georges Rouault[?], painter and graphic artist (+ 1958)
• 1877 or 1878- Isadora Duncan, free form and interpretative dancer (+ 1927)
• 1879 - Karl Bühler[?], psychologist (+ 1963)
• 1884 - Max Brod, author (+ 1968)
• 1888 - Louis Durey, composer, member of Les Six (+ 1979)
• 1894 - Dashiell Hammett, author of detective novels (+1961)
• 1907 - Rachel Carson, ecologist (+ 1964)
• 1911 - Teddy Kollek[?], mayor of Jerusalem
• 1911 - Vincent Price, actor (+ 1993)
• 1911 - Hubert H. Humphrey, former Vice President of the United States (+1978)
• 1912 - Sam Snead, golf champion (+ 2002)
• 1912 - John Cheever[?], author (+ 1982)
• 1915 - Herman Wouk[?] writer
• 1917 - Yasuhiro Nakasone, former Prime Minister of Japan
• 1921 - Caryl Chessman[?], murderer (+ 1960)
• 1922 - Christopher Lee, actor
• 1923 - Henry Kissinger, American diplomat and recipient of the Nobel Prize in peace 1973
• 1923 - Sumner Redstone, entrepreneur
• 1925 - Tony Hillerman[?], mystery writer
• 1934 - Harlan Ellison, science fiction author
• 1936 - Louis Gossett Jr.[?], actor
• 1937 - Allan Carr[?], producer, writer (+ 1999)
• 1943 - Cilla Black, singer
• 1945 - Bruce Cockburn, musician
• 1957 - Siouxsie Sioux[?], musician ("Siouxsie and the Banshees ")
• 1958 - Neil Finn, New Zealand singer and songwriter
• 1958 - Wayne Williams, Atlanta, Georgia child murderer
• 1970 - Joseph Fiennes, actor
• 1971 - Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes, singer (+ 2002)
• 1975 - Jamie Oliver, chef (the "Naked Chef[?]")

Deaths

• 927 - Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria[?]
• 1564 - John Calvin, religious reformer
• 1661 - Archibald Campbell[?], Marquess of Argyll, Scottish Covenanter
• 1707 - Marquise de Montespan[?], mistress of the French King Louis XIV
• 1831 - Jedediah Smith, explorer
• 1840 - Niccolò Paganini, violinist, composer
• 1910 - Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch, German bacteriologist
• 1942 - Reinhard Heydrich, Nazi official
• 1960 - James Montgomery Flagg, illustrator
• 1964 - Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian politician
• 2000 - Maurice Richard, ice hockey player
• 2003 - Luciano Berio, composer

Holidays and Observances

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