TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – APRIL 27
1296 Edward I defeats the Scots at the Battle of Dunbar.
1509 Pope Julius II excommunicates the Italian state of Venice.
1521 Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed in a fight with natives of the Philippines.
1773 British Parliament passes the Tea Act.
1746 King George II wins the Battle of Culloden.
1813 American forces capture York (present-day Toronto), the seat of government in Ontario.
1861 U.S. President Lincoln issued an order to General Winfield Scott that authorized him to suspend the writ of habeas corpus between Philadelphia and Washington at or near any military line.
1861 West Virginia secedes from Virginia after Virginia secedes from the Union.
1865 The Sultana, a steam-powered riverboat, catches fire and burns after one of its boilers explodes. At least 1,238 of the 2,031 passengers–mostly former Union POWs–are killed.
1909 The Sultan of Turkey, Abdul Hamid II, is overthrown.
1938 Geraldine Apponyi married King Zog of Albania. She was the first American woman to become a queen.
1948 A Major Rail Strike country wide is due to start at midnight with much of the rail network closed down across the US.
1950 South Africa passes the Group Areas Act, formally segregating races.
1953 President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10450: Hiring and Firing rules for Government Employment. Homosexuality, moral perversion, and communism were categorized as national security threats and could be used as a condition for firing a federal employee and for denying employment to potential applicants.
1953 The U.S. offered $50,000 and political asylum to any Communist pilot that delivered a MIG jet.
1965 “Pampers” were patented by R.C. Duncan.
1978 Military rebels in Afghanistan murdered both the president and his brother during the coup and have taken over all news TV and radio stations in the capital Kabul and have sealed off the countries airports and roads.
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.
1984 In London, Libyan gunmen left the Libyan Embassy 11 days after killing a policewoman and wounding 10 others.
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.
1989 Protesting students take over Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China.
1992 For the first time in its 700-year history, the British House of Commons is presided over by a female Speaker
Betty Boothroyd served as Speaker of the House of Commons from 1992 to 2000.
1994 South African citizens of all races are allowed to vote in a general election for the first time
2005 Russian President Vladimir Putin became the first Kremlin leader to visit Israel.
2011 President Obama released his long-form birth certificate from the US state of Hawaii in an effort to quell “birther” conspiracy theorists.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
