On This Day — 27 April

2026

A train crash kills at least 15 people and injures 84 others near Jakarta, Indonesia.

2026 Bekasi train collision

2018

The Panmunjom Declaration is signed between North and South Korea, officially declaring their intentions to end the Korean conflict.

Panmunjom Declaration

2012

At least four explosions hit the Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk with at least 27 people injured.

2012 Dnipropetrovsk explosions

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.

2011 Super Outbreak

2007

Estonian authorities remove the Bronze Soldier, a Soviet Red Army war memorial in Tallinn, amid political controversy with Russia.

Estonia

2007

Israeli archaeologists discover the tomb of Herod the Great south of Jerusalem.

Israel

2006

Construction begins on the Freedom Tower (later renamed One World Trade Center) in New York City.

One World Trade Center

2005

Airbus A380 aircraft has its maiden test flight.

Airbus A380

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.

1994 South African general election

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.

Zambia national football team

1992

The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, is proclaimed.

Serbia and Montenegro

1992

Betty Boothroyd becomes the first woman to be elected Speaker of the British House of Commons in its 700-year history.

Betty Boothroyd

1992

The Russian Federation and 12 other former Soviet republics become members of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Russia

1989

The April 27 demonstrations, student-led protests responding to the April 26 Editorial, during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

April 27 demonstrations

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.

United States Department of Justice

1986

The city of Pripyat and surrounding areas are evacuated due to the Chernobyl disaster.

Pripyat

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.

John Ehrlichman

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.

Saur Revolution

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.

Willow Island disaster

1976

Thirty-seven people are killed when American Airlines Flight 625 crashes at Cyril E. King Airport in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.

American Airlines Flight 625

1974

One hundred nine people are killed in a plane crash near Pulkovo Airport.

1974 Leningrad Ilyushin Il-18 crash

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.

Expo 67

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.

Operation Moolah

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.

Lapland War

1945

World War II: Benito Mussolini is arrested by Italian partisans in Dongo, while attempting escape disguised as a German soldier.

Benito Mussolini

1941

World War II: German troops enter Athens.

World War II

1936

The United Auto Workers (UAW) gains autonomy from the American Federation of Labor.

United Auto Workers

1927

Carabineros de Chile (Chilean national police force and gendarmerie) are created.

Carabineros de Chile

1911

The Second Canton Uprising takes place in Guangzhou, Qing China, but is suppressed.

Second Guangzhou Uprising

1909

Sultan of Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II is overthrown, and is succeeded by his brother, Mehmed V.

Sultan

1906

The State Duma of the Russian Empire meets for the first time.

State Duma (Russian Empire)

1861

American President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.

President of the United States

1805

First Barbary War: United States Marines and Berbers attack the Tripolitan city of Derna (The "shores of Tripoli" in the Marines' Hymn).

First Barbary War

1667

Blind and impoverished, John Milton sells Paradise Lost to a printer for £10, so that it could be entered into the Stationers' Register.

John Milton

1650

The Battle of Carbisdale: A Royalist army from Orkney invades mainland Scotland but is defeated by a Covenanter army.

Battle of Carbisdale

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

Saint Sava

1565

Cebu is established becoming the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.

Cebu City

1539

Official founding of the city of Bogotá, New Granada (nowadays Colombia), by Nikolaus Federmann and Sebastián de Belalcázar.

Bogotá

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.

Spanish Empire

1521

Battle of Mactan: Explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines led by chief Lapulapu.

Battle of Mactan

1509

Pope Julius II places the Italian state of Venice under interdict.

Pope Julius II

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.

First War of Scottish Independence

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).

AD 711

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.

Arcadius

247

Philip the Arab marks the millennium of Rome with a celebration of the ludi saeculares.

Philip the Arab