History of 27 May
1901 – The Edison Storage Battery Company was organized.
1907 – The Bubonic Plague broke out in San Francisco.
1919 – A U.S. Navy seaplane completed the first transatlantic flight.
1926 – Bronze figures of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer were erected in Hannibal, MO.
1929 – Colonel Charles Lindbergh and Anne Spencer Murrow were married.
1931 – Piccard and Knipfer made the first flight into the stratosphere, by balloon.
1933 – Walt Disney’s “Three Little Pigs” was first released.
Disney movies, music, and books
1933 – In the U.S., the Federal Securities Act was signed. The act required the registration of securities with the Federal Trade Commission.
1935 – The U.S. Supreme Court declared that President Franklin Roosevelt’s National Industrial Recovery Act was unconstitutional.
1937 – In California, the Golden Gate Bridge was opened to pedestrian traffic. The bridge connected San Francisco and Marin County.
1941 – U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed an “unlimited national emergency” amid rising world tensions.
1941 – The German battleship Bismarck was sunk by British naval and air forces. 2,300 people were killed.
1942 – German General Erwin Rommel began a major offensive in Libya with his Afrika Korps.
1944 – U.S. General MacArthur landed on Biak Island in New Guinea.
1960 – A military coup overthrew the democratic government of Turkey.
1964 – Indian Prime Minister Jawaharla Nehru died.
1968 – After 48 years as coach of the Chicago Bears, George Halas retired.
1969 – Construction of Walt Disney World began in Florida.
1977 – George H. Willig was fined for scaling the World Trade Center in New York on May 26. He was fined $1.10.
1982 – Japan announced the elimination of tariffs on 96 industrial goods.
1985 – In Beijing, representatives of Britain and China exchanged instruments of ratification on the pact returning Hong Kong to the Chinese in 1997.
1986 – Mel Fisher recovered a jar that contained 2,300 emeralds from the Spanish ship Atocha. The ship sank in the 17th century.
1988 – The U.S. Senate ratified the INF treaty. The INF pact was the first arms-control agreement since the 1972 Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I) to receive Senate approval.
1994 – Nobel Prize-winning author Alexander Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia. He had been in exile for two decades.
1995 – In Charlottesville, VA, Christopher Reeve was paralyzed after being thrown from his horse during a jumping event.
1996 – Russian President Boris Yeltsin negotiated a cease-fire to the war in Chechnya in his first meeting with the leader of the rebels.
1997 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the sexual harassment suit filed by Paula Jones could continue while President Clinton was in office.
1998 – Charlie Sheen was admitted to a hospital in Los Angeles for a drug overdose.
1998 – Michael Fortier was sentenced to 12 years in prison for not warning anyone about the plot to bomb an Oklahoma City federal building.
1999 – In The Hague, Netherlands, a war crimes tribunal indicted Slobodan Milosevic and four others for atrocities in Kosovo. It was the first time that a sitting head of state had been charged with such a crime.
2010 – Universal Studios reopened its backlot. The area had been destroyed by a fire two years before.
2016 – Barack Obama is the first president of the United States to visit Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and meet Hibakusha.
2018 – Maryland Flood Event: A flood occurs throughout the Patapsco Valley causing one death and destroying the entire first floors of buildings on Main Street in Ellicott City and causing cars to overturn.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Alina Cojocaru, Romanian ballerina
- 1981 – Johan Elmander, Swedish footballer
- 1984 – Blake Ahearn, American basketball player
- 1984 – Miguel González, Mexican baseball pitcher
- 1985 – Chiang Chien-ming, Taiwanese baseball player
- 1985 – Roberto Soldado, Spanish footballer
- 1986 – Conor Cummins, Manx motorcycle racer
- 1986 – Bamba Fall, Senegalese basketball player
- 1986 – Lasse Schöne, Danish footballer
- 1987 – Gervinho, Ivorian footballer
- 1987 – Bella Heathcote, Australian actress
- 1987 – Eric Kolelas, French-English actor and director
- 1987 – Bora Paçun, Turkish basketball player
- 1987 – Matt Prior, Australian rugby league player
- 1987 – Martina Sablikova, Czech speed skater and cyclist
- 1988 – Vontae Davis, American football player
- 1988 – Irina Davydova, Russian hurdler
- 1988 – Garrett Richards, American baseball pitcher
- 1988 – Tyler Sash, American football player (d. 2015)
- 1989 – Igor Morozov, Estonian footballer
- 1990 – Yenew Alamirew, Ethiopian runner
- 1990 – Chris Colfer, American actor, and singer
- 1990 – Marcus Kruger, Swedish ice hockey player
- 1991 – Sebastien Dewaest, Belgian footballer
- 1991 – Tim Lafai, Samoan rugby league player
- 1991 – Ksenia Pervak, a Russian tennis player
- 1991 – Eneli Vals, Estonian footballer
- 1992 – Aaron Brown, Canadian sprinter