Events Pre-1600 247 – Philip the Arab marks the millennium of Rome with a celebration of the ludi saeculares. 395 – Emperor Arcadius marries Aelia Eudoxia, daughter of the Frankish general Flavius Bauto. She becomes one of the more powerful Roman empresses of Late Antiquity. 711 – Islamic conquest of Hispania: Moorish troops led by Tariq ibn Ziyad land at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus). 1296 – First War of Scottish Independence: John Balliol's Scottish army is defeated by an English army commanded by John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey at the Battle of Dunbar. 1509 – Pope Julius II places the Italian state of Venice under interdict. 1521 – Battle of Mactan: Explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines led by chief Lapulapu. 1522 – A Spanish-Imperial army defeats French-Venetian army in the battle of Bicocca. The battle marks the end of dominance of Swiss mercenaries on the battlefield and is one of the first where firearms play a decisive role. 1539 – Official founding of the city of Bogotá, New Granada (nowadays Colombia), by Nikolaus Federmann and Sebastián de Belalcázar. 1565 – Cebu is established becoming the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines. 1595 – The relics of Saint Sava are incinerated in Belgrade on the Vračar plateau by Ottoman Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha; the site of the incineration is now the location of the Church of Saint Sava, one of the largest Orthodox churches in the world
1601–1900 1650 – The Battle of Carbisdale: A Royalist army from Orkney invades mainland Scotland but is defeated by a Covenanter army. 1667 – Blind and impoverished, John Milton sells Paradise Lost to a printer for £10, so that it could be entered into the Stationers' Register. 1805 – First Barbary War: United States Marines and Berbers attack the Tripolitan city of Derna (The "shores of Tripoli" in the Marines' Hymn). 1813 – War of 1812: American troops capture York, the capital of Upper Canada, in the Battle of York. 1861 – American President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.
1901–present 1906 – The State Duma of the Russian Empire meets for the first time. 1909 – Sultan of Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II is overthrown, and is succeeded by his brother, Mehmed V. 1911 – The Second Canton Uprising takes place in Guangzhou, Qing China, but is suppressed. 1927 – Carabineros de Chile (Chilean national police force and gendarmerie) are created. 1936 – The United Auto Workers (UAW) gains autonomy from the American Federation of Labor. 1941 – World War II: German troops enter Athens. 1945 – World War II: The last German formations withdraw from Finland to Norway. The Lapland War and thus, World War II in Finland, comes to an end and the Raising the Flag on the Three-Country Cairn photograph is taken. 1945 – World War II: Benito Mussolini is arrested by Italian partisans in Dongo, while attempting escape disguised as a German soldier. 1953 – Operation Moolah offers $50,000 to any pilot who defects with a fully mission-capable Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 to South Korea. The first pilot was to receive $100,000. 1967 – Expo 67 officially opens in Montreal, Quebec, Canada with a large opening ceremony broadcast around the world. It opens to the public the next day. 1974 – One hundred nine people are killed in a plane crash near Pulkovo Airport. 1976 – Thirty-seven people are killed when American Airlines Flight 625 crashes at Cyril E. King Airport in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. 1978 – John Ehrlichman, a former aide to U.S. President Richard Nixon, is released from the Federal Correctional Institution, Safford, Arizona, after serving 18 months for Watergate-related crimes. 1978 – The Saur Revolution begins in Afghanistan, ending the following morning with the murder of Afghan President Mohammed Daoud Khan and the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. 1978 – Willow Island disaster: In the deadliest construction accident in United States history, 51 construction workers are killed when a cooling tower under construction collapses at the Pleasants Power Station in Willow Island, West Virginia. 1986 – The city of Pripyat and surrounding areas are evacuated due to the Chernobyl disaster. 1987 – The U.S. Department of Justice bars Austrian President Kurt Waldheim (and his wife, Elisabeth, who had also been a Nazi) from entering the US, charging that he had aided in the deportations and executions of thousands of Jews and others as a German Army officer during World War II. 1989 – The April 27 demonstrations, student-led protests responding to the April 26 Editorial, during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. 1992 – The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, is proclaimed. 1992 – Betty Boothroyd becomes the first woman to be elected Speaker of the British House of Commons in its 700-year history. 1992 – The Russian Federation and 12 other former Soviet republics become members of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. 1993 – Most of the Zambia national football team lose their lives in a plane crash off Libreville, Gabon en route to Dakar, Senegal to play a 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Senegal. 1994 – South African general election: The first democratic general election in South Africa, in which black citizens could vote. The Interim Constitution comes into force.This marked the end of Apartheid. 2005 – Airbus A380 aircraft has its maiden test flight. 2006 – Construction begins on the Freedom Tower (later renamed One World Trade Center) in New York City. 2007 – Estonian authorities remove the Bronze Soldier, a Soviet Red Army war memorial in Tallinn, amid political controversy with Russia. 2007 – Israeli archaeologists discover the tomb of Herod the Great south of Jerusalem. 2011 – The 2011 Super Outbreak devastates parts of the Southeastern United States, especially the states of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee. Two hundred five tornadoes touched down on April 27 alone, killing more than 300 and injuring hundreds more. 2012 – At least four explosions hit the Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk with at least 27 people injured. 2018 – The Panmunjom Declaration is signed between North and South Korea, officially declaring their intentions to end the Korean conflict. 2026 – A train crash kills at least 15 people and injures 84 others near Jakarta, Indonesia.
Births
Pre-1600 85 BC – Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus, Roman politician and general (died 43 BC) 1468 – Frederick Jagiellon, Primate of Poland (died 1503) 1564 – Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland (died 1632) 1556 – François Béroalde de Verville, French writer (died 1626) 1593 – Mumtaz Mahal, Mughal empress buried at the Taj Mahal (died 1631)
1601–1900 1650 – Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel, Queen Consort of Denmark (1670–1699) (died 1714) 1654 – Charles Blount, English deist and philosopher (died 1693) 1701 – Charles Emmanuel III, King of Sardinia (died 1773) 1718 – Thomas Lewis, Irish-born American surveyor and lawyer (died 1790) 1748 – Adamantios Korais, Greek-French philosopher and scholar (died 1833) 1755 – Marc-Antoine Parseval, French mathematician and theorist (died 1836) 1759 – Mary Wollstonecraft, English philosopher, historian, and novelist (died 1797) 1788 – Charles Robert Cockerell, English architect, archaeologist, and writer (died 1863) 1791 – Samuel Morse, American painter and inventor, co-invented the Morse code (died 1872) 1812 – William W. Snow, American lawyer and politician (died 1886) 1812 – Friedrich von Flotow, German composer (died 1883) 1820 – Herbert Spencer, English biologist, anthropologist, sociologist, and philosopher (died 1903) 1822 – Ulysses S. Grant, American general and politician, 18th President of the United States (died 1885) 1840 – Edward Whymper, English-French mountaineer, explorer, author, and illustrator (died 1911) 1848 – Otto, King of Bavaria (died 1916) 1850 – Hans Hartwig von Beseler, German general and politician (died 1921) 1853 – Jules Lemaître, French playwright and critic (died 1914) 1857 – Theodor Kittelsen, Norwegian painter and illustrator (died 1914) 1861 – William Arms Fisher, American composer and music historian (died 1948) 1866 – Maurice Raoul-Duval, French polo player (died 1916) 1875 – Frederick Fane, Irish-born, English cricketer (died 1960) 1880 – Mihkel Lüdig, Estonian organist, composer, and conductor (died 1958) 1882 – Jessie Redmon Fauset, American author and poet (died 1961) 1887 – Warren Wood, American golfer (died 1926) 1888 – Florence La Badie, Canadian actress (died 1917) 1891 – Sergei Prokofiev, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1953) 1893 – Draža Mihailović, Serbian general (died 1946) 1893 – Allen Sothoron, American baseball player, coach, and manager (died 1939) 1894 – George Petty, American painter and illustrator (died 1975) 1894 – Nicolas Slonimsky, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1995) 1896 – Rogers Hornsby, American baseball player, coach, and manager (died 1963) 1896 – William Hudson, New Zealand-Australian engineer (died 1978) 1896 – Wallace Carothers, American chemist and inventor of nylon (died 1937) 1898 – Ludwig Bemelmans, Italian-American author and illustrator (died 1962) 1899 – Walter Lantz, American animator, producer, screenwriter, and actor (died 1994) 1900 – August Koern, Estonian politician and diplomat, Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs in exile (died 1989)
1901–present 1902 – Tiemoko Garan Kouyaté, Malian educator and activist (died 1942) 1904 – Cecil Day-Lewis, Anglo-Irish poet and author (died 1972) 1904 – Nikos Zachariadis, Greek politician (died 1973) 1905 – John Kuck, American javelin thrower and shot putter (died 1986) 1906 – Yiorgos Theotokas, Greek author and playwright (died 1966) 1909 – Lim Bo Seng, Chinese businessman, resistance fighter of Force 136 and war hero of Singapore (died 1944) 1910 – Chiang Ching-kuo, Chinese politician, 3rd President of the Republic of China (died 1988) 1911 – Bruno Beger, German anthropologist and ethnologist (died 2009) 1911 – Chris Berger, Dutch sprinter and footballer (died 1965) 1912 – Jacques de Bourbon-Busset, French author and politician (died 2001) 1912 – Zohra Sehgal, Indian actress, dancer, and choreographer (died 2014) 1913 – Philip Abelson, American physicist and author (died 2004) 1913 – Irving Adler, American mathematician, author, and academic (died 2012) 1913 – Luz Long, German long jumper and soldier (died 1943) 1916 – Robert Hugh McWilliams, Jr., American sergeant, lawyer, and judge (died 2013) 1916 – Enos Slaughter, American baseball player and manager (died 2002) 1917 – Roman Matsov, Estonian violinist, pianist, and conductor (died 2001) 1918 – Sten Rudholm, Swedish lawyer and jurist (died 2008) 1920 – Guido Cantelli, Italian conductor (died 1956) 1920 – Mark Krasnosel'skii, Ukrainian mathematician and academic (died 1997) 1920 – James Robert Mann, American colonel, lawyer, and politician (died 2010) 1920 – Edwin Morgan, Scottish poet and translator (died 2010) 1921 – Robert Dhéry, French actor, director, and screenwriter (died 2004) 1922 – Jack Klugman, American actor (died 2012) 1922 – Sheila Scott, English nurse and pilot (died 1988) 1923 – Betty Mae Tiger Jumper, Seminole chief (died 2011) 1924 – Vernon B. Romney, American lawyer and politician, 14th Attorney General of Utah (died 2013) 1925 – Derek Chinnery, English broadcaster (died 2015) 1926 – Tim LaHaye, American minister, activist, and author (died 2016) 1926 – Basil A. Paterson, American lawyer and politician, 59th Secretary of State of New York (died 2014) 1926 – Alan Reynolds, English painter and educator (died 2014) 1927 – Coretta Scott King, African-American activist and author (died 2006) 1927 – Joe Moakley, American soldier, lawyer, and politician (died 2001) 1929 – Nina Ponomaryova, Russian discus thrower and coach (died 2016)