On This Day — 27 December

2025

An estimated €30 million were stolen from a Sparkasse bank in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

2025 Gelsenkirchen heist

2019

Bek Air Flight 2100 crashes during takeoff from Almaty International Airport in Almaty, Kazakhstan, killing 13.

Bek Air Flight 2100

2009

Iranian election protests: On the Day of Ashura in Tehran, Iran, government security forces fire upon demonstrators.

2009 Iranian presidential election protests

2008

Operation Cast Lead: Israel launches three-week operation on Gaza.

Gaza War (2008–2009)

2007

Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto is assassinated in a shooting incident.

Prime minister

2007

Riots erupt in Mombasa, Kenya, after Mwai Kibaki is declared the winner of the presidential election, triggering a political, economic, and humanitarian crisis.

Mombasa

2004

Radiation from an explosion on the magnetar SGR 1806-20 reaches Earth. It is the brightest extrasolar event known to have been witnessed on the planet.

Radiation

2002

Two truck bombs kill 72 and wound 200 at the pro-Moscow headquarters of the Chechen government in Grozny, Chechnya, Russia.

2002 Grozny truck bombing

1999

Burger King and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission order a recall of plastic Poké Ball containers after they are determined to be a choking hazard.

Burger King

1997

Protestant paramilitary leader Billy Wright is assassinated in Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.

Billy Wright (loyalist)

1996

Taliban forces retake the strategic Bagram Airfield which solidifies their buffer zone around Kabul, Afghanistan.

Taliban

1991

Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 751 crashes in Gottröra in the Norrtälje Municipality in Sweden, injuring 92.

Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 751

1989

The Romanian Revolution concludes, as the last minor street confrontations and stray shootings abruptly end in the country's capital, Bucharest.

Romanian revolution

1985

Palestinian guerrillas kill eighteen people inside the airports of Rome, Italy, and Vienna, Austria.

Palestinians

1983

Pope John Paul II visits Mehmet Ali Ağca in Rebibbia's prison and personally forgives him for the 1981 attack on him in St. Peter's Square.

Pope John Paul II

1978

Spain becomes a democracy after 40 years of fascist dictatorship.

Spanish transition to democracy

1968

Apollo program: Apollo 8 splashes down in the Pacific Ocean, ending the first orbital crewed mission to the Moon.

Apollo program

1968

North Central Airlines Flight 458 crashes at O'Hare International Airport, killing 28.

North Central Airlines Flight 458

1966

The Cave of Swallows, the largest known cave shaft in the world, is discovered in Aquismón, San Luis Potosí, Mexico.

Cave of Swallows

1949

Indonesian National Revolution: The Netherlands officially recognizes Indonesian independence. End of the Dutch East Indies.

Indonesian National Revolution

1945

The International Monetary Fund is created with the signing of an agreement by 29 nations.

International Monetary Fund

1939

The 7.8 Mw  Erzincan earthquake shakes eastern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). At least 32,700 people were killed.

1939 Erzincan earthquake

1939

Winter War: Finland holds off a Soviet attack in the Battle of Kelja.

Winter War

1935

Regina Jonas is ordained as the first female rabbi in the history of Judaism.

Regina Jonas

1932

Radio City Music Hall, "Showplace of the Nation", opens in New York City.

Radio City Music Hall

1929

Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin orders the "liquidation of the kulaks as a class".

General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

1927

Kern and Hammerstein's musical play Show Boat, considered to be the first true American musical play, opens at the Ziegfeld Theatre on Broadway.

Show Boat

1922

Japanese aircraft carrier Hōshō becomes the first purpose-built aircraft carrier to be commissioned in the world.

Japanese aircraft carrier Hōshō

1918

The Great Poland Uprising against the Germans begins.

Greater Poland uprising (1918–1919)

1918

Ukrainian War of Independence: The Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine occupies Yekaterinoslav and seizes seven airplanes from the UPRAF, establishing an Insurgent Air Fleet.

Ukrainian War of Independence

1911

"Jana Gana Mana", the national anthem of India, is first sung in the Calcutta Session of the Indian National Congress.

Jana Gana Mana

1845

Ether anesthetic is used for childbirth for the first time by Dr. Crawford Long in Jefferson, Georgia.

Diethyl ether

1845

Having coined the phrase "manifest destiny" the previous July, journalist John L. O'Sullivan argued in his newspaper New York Morning News that the United States had the right to claim the entire Oregon Country.

Manifest destiny

1836

The worst ever avalanche in England occurs at Lewes, Sussex, killing eight people.

Lewes avalanche

1831

Charles Darwin embarks on his journey aboard HMS Beagle, during which he will begin to formulate his theory of evolution.

Charles Darwin

1703

Portugal and England sign the Methuen Treaty which allows Portugal to export wines to England on favorable trade terms.

Methuen Treaty

1657

The Flushing Remonstrance articulates for the first time in North American history that freedom of religion is a fundamental right.

Flushing Remonstrance

1655

Second Northern War/the Deluge: Monks at the Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa are successful in fending off a month-long siege.

Northern War of 1655–1660

1521

The Zwickau prophets arrive in Wittenberg, disturbing the peace and preaching the Apocalypse.

Zwickau prophets

1512

The Spanish Crown issues the Laws of Burgos, governing the conduct of settlers with regard to native Indians in the New World.

Laws of Burgos

537

The second Hagia Sophia in Constantinople is consecrated.

Hagia Sophia