TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – APRIL 27
4977 -BC- Johannes Kepler’s date for creation of universe
1296 Edward I defeats the Scots at the Battle of Dunbar
1509 Pope Julius II excommunicates the Italian state of Venice.
1591 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.
1813 American forces capture York (present-day Toronto), the seat of government in Ontario.
1861 West Virginia secedes from Virginia after Virginia secedes from the Union.
1861 President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.
1877 President Rutherford Hayes removes Federal troops from Louisiana, Reconstruction ends
1937 US Social Security system makes its 1st benefit payment
1945 Italian partisans capture Benito Mussolini at Dongo (Lake Como)
1950 South Africa passes the Group Areas Act, formally segregating races.
1953 Wrestler Freddie Blassie coins the term “Pencil neck geek”
1978 Accident at nuclear reactor Willow Island, Charleston WV, kills 51
1978 The Afghanistan revolution begins.
1982 Trial of John W Hinckley Jr, attempted assassin of President Ronald Reagan, begins
1986 Captain Midnight (John R MacDougall) interrupts HBO
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 Beijing students take over Tiananmen Square in China
1992 For the first time in its 700-year history, the British House of Commons is presided over by a female Speaker
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
