27 January - Definition and Overview

January 27 is the 27th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 338 days remaining (339 in leap years).

Events

• 98 Trajan becomes Roman Emperor after the death of Nerva.
• 1186 - Henry VI, the son and heir of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I, married Constance of Sicily.
• 1606 - Gunpowder Plot: The trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators begins and later

ends in their execution on January 31.

• 1695 - Mustafa II became the Ottoman sultan in Istanbul on the death of Amhed II. Mustafa ruled to 1703.
• 1785 - The University of Georgia is founded.
• 1825 - US Congress approved Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma), clearing the way for forced relocation of the Eastern Indians on the "Trail of Tears."
• 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.
• 1939 - The President of the United-States Franklin D. Roosevelt approves the sale of U.S. war planes to France.
• 1941 - World War II: Fighting at Derna, Libya, begins Following the capture of Tobruk 2 brigades of the 6th Australian Division under Major General Iven Mackay pursued the Italians westwards and encountered an Italian rear guard at Derna.
• 1943 - World War II: 50 bombers mount the first all American air raid against Germany (Wilhelmshaven 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."
• 2002 - Several explosions at a military dump in Lagos, Nigeria kill more than 1,000.
• 2005 - Greenhouse gas emissions could cause global temperatures to rise by up to 11 degrees Celsius (20 degrees Fahrenheit), according to first results from the world's largest climate modeling experiment.

Births

• 1585 - Hendrick Avercamp, Dutch painter (d. 1634)
• 1662 - Richard Bentley, English Classical scholar
• 1720 - Samuel Foote, dramatist and actor (d. 1777)
• 1741 - Hester Thrale, diarist (d. 1821)
• 1756 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composer (d. 1791)
• 1805 - Samuel Palmer, English artist (d. 1881)
• 1806 - Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga, composer
• 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 Künnecke, 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)
• 1901 - Art Rooney, American football team owner (d. 1988)
• 1903 - John Carew Eccles, neuropsychologist, winner of Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1963 (d. 1997)
• 1905 - Howard McNear, American actor (d. 1969)
• 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)
• 1920 - Helmut Zacharias, German violinist (d. 2002)
• 1920 - Tony Martinez, Puerto Rican actor (d. 2002)
• 1921 - Donna Reed, actress (d. 1986)
• 1924 - Sabu, actor (d. 1963)
• 1926 - Fritz Spiegl, journalist (d. 2003)
• 1929 - Mohamed Al-Fayed, retailer
• 1930 - Bobby Blue Bland, blues singer
• 1931 - Mordecai Richler, author (d. 2001)
• 1936 - Troy Donahue, actor (d. 2001)
• 1937 - John Ogdon, English pianist (d. 1989)
• 1940 - James Cromwell, American actor
• 1944 - Mairéad Corrigan, Northern Ireland peace activist
• 1944 - Nick Mason, English drummer Pink Floyd
• 1946 - Nedra Talley, singer, member of the Ronettes
• 1948 - Mikhail Baryshnikov, Russian dancer
• 1956 - Mimi Rogers, actress
• 1957 - Janick Gers, musician (Iron Maiden)
• 1959 - Keith Olbermann, news correspondent, sportscaster
• 1964 - Bridget Fonda, actress
• 1965 - Alan Cumming, actor
• 1968 - Mike Patton, lead singer of several bands in USA
• 1968 - Tricky, English rapper
• 1971 - Fann Wong, Chinese actress, singer, model (Shanghai Knights)
• 1972 - Josh Randall, American actor
• 1974 - Chaminda Vaas, cricketer, Sri Lanka
• 1980 - Marat Safin, Russian tennis player

Deaths

• 98 - Nerva, Roman Emperor (b. 35)
• 1490 - Ashikaga Yoshimasa, Ashikaga shogun (b. 1435)
• 1851 - John James Audubon, naturalist, ornithologist, painter (b. 1785)
• 1860 - János Bolyai, Hungarian mathematician
• 1880 - Edward Middleton Barry, architect (b. 1830)
• 1901 - Giuseppe Verdi, composer (b. 1813)
• 1910 - Thomas Crapper, inventor (b. 1836)
• 1940 - Isaac Babel, writer (b. 1894)
• 1956 - Erich Kleiber, German conductor (b. 1890)
• 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
• 1971 - Jacobo Arbenz, president of Guatemala (b. 1913)
• 1972 - Mahalia Jackson, American singer
• 1975 - Bill Walsh, producer, writer (b. 1913)
• 1986 - Lilli Palmer, actress
• 1989 - Thomas Sopwith, British aviation pioneer
• 1992 - Allan Jones, actor, singer (b. 1908)
• 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

• United Kingdom — Holocaust Memorial Day.
• Germany — Gedenktag für die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus (Anniversary for the Victims of National Socialism).
• Poland — Dzień Pamięci Ofiar Nazizmu (Anniversary for the Victims of Nazism).
• Italy — Giorno della Memoria (Memorial Day).
• Catholicism — Catholic Schools Week.

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