On This Day — 27 March

2023

Seven people, including the perpetrator, are killed in a mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee.

2023 Nashville school shooting

2023

Forty people are killed in a fire at a migrant detention facility in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.

Ciudad Juárez migrant center fire

2020

North Macedonia becomes the 30th member of NATO.

North Macedonia

2016

A suicide blast in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, Lahore claims over 70 lives and leaves almost 300 others injured. The target of the bombing are Christians celebrating Easter.

2016 Lahore suicide bombing

2015

Al-Shabab militants attack and temporarily occupy a Mogadishu hotel leaving at least 20 people dead.

Al-Shabaab (militant group)

2014

Philippines signs a peace accord with the largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, ending decades of conflict.

Government of the Philippines

2009

The dam forming Situ Gintung, an artificial lake in Indonesia, fails, killing at least 99 people.

Situ Gintung

2004

HMS Scylla, a decommissioned Leander-class frigate, is sunk as an artificial reef off Cornwall, the first of its kind in Europe.

HMS Scylla (F71)

2002

Passover massacre: A Palestinian suicide bomber kills 29 people at a Passover seder in Netanya, Israel.

Passover massacre

2002

Nanterre massacre: In Nanterre, France, a gunman opens fire at the end of a town council meeting, resulting in the deaths of eight councilors; 19 other people are injured.

Nanterre massacre

2000

A Phillips Petroleum plant explosion in Pasadena, Texas kills one person and injures 71 others.

2000 Phillips explosion

1999

Kosovo War: An American Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk is shot down by a Yugoslav Army SAM, the first and only Nighthawk to be lost in combat.

Kosovo War

1998

The Food and Drug Administration approves Viagra for use as a treatment for erectile dysfunction, the first pill to be approved for this condition in the United States.

Food and Drug Administration

1993

Jiang Zemin is appointed President of China.

Jiang Zemin

1993

Italian former minister and Christian Democracy leader Giulio Andreotti is accused of mafia allegiance by the tribunal of Palermo.

Christian Democracy (Italy)

1990

The United States begins broadcasting anti-Castro propaganda to Cuba on TV Martí.

Cuban dissident movement

1986

A car bomb explodes outside Russell Street Police HQ in Melbourne, Australia, killing one police officer and injuring 21 people.

Car bomb

1981

The Solidarity movement in Poland stages a warning strike, in which at least 12 million Poles walk off their jobs for four hours.

Solidarity (Polish trade union)

1980

The Norwegian oil platform Alexander L. Kielland collapses in the North Sea, killing 123 of its crew of 212.

Alexander L. Kielland (platform)

1977

Tenerife airport disaster: Two Boeing 747 airliners collide on a foggy runway on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, killing 583 (all 248 on KLM and 335 on Pan Am). Sixty-one survived on the Pan Am flight. This is the deadliest aviation accident in history.

Tenerife airport disaster

1976

The first section of the Washington Metro opens to the public.

Washington Metro

1975

Construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System begins.

Trans-Alaska Pipeline System

1964

The Good Friday earthquake, the most powerful earthquake recorded in North American history at a magnitude of 9.2 strikes Southcentral Alaska, killing 125 people and inflicting massive damage to the city of Anchorage.

1964 Alaska earthquake

1958

Nikita Khrushchev becomes Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union.

Nikita Khrushchev

1945

World War II: Operation Starvation, the aerial mining of Japan's ports and waterways begins. Argentina declares war on the Axis Powers.

Operation Starvation

1943

World War II: Battle of the Komandorski Islands: In the Aleutian Islands the battle begins when United States Navy forces intercept Japanese attempting to reinforce a garrison at Kiska.

Battle of the Komandorski Islands

1942

The Holocaust: Nazi Germany and Vichy France begin the deportation of 65,000 Jews from Drancy internment camp to German extermination camps.

The Holocaust

1941

World War II: Yugoslav Air Force officers topple the pro-Axis government in a bloodless coup.

World War II

1938

Second Sino-Japanese War: The Battle of Taierzhuang begins, resulting several weeks later in the war's first major Chinese victory over Japan.

Second Sino-Japanese War

1933

Japanese invasion of Manchuria: Japan leaves the League of Nations after it approves the Lytton Report that ruled in favour of China.

Japanese invasion of Manchuria

1918

The National Council of Bessarabia proclaims union with the Kingdom of Romania.

Bessarabia

1915

Typhoid Mary, the first healthy carrier of disease ever identified in the United States, is put in quarantine for the second time, where she would remain for the rest of her life.

Mary Mallon

1912

First Lady Helen Taft and the Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, plant two Yoshino cherry trees on the northern bank of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., the origin of the National Cherry Blossom Festival.

Helen Herron Taft

1901

Philippine–American War: Emilio Aguinaldo, leader of the First Philippine Republic, is captured by the Americans.

Philippine–American War

1899

Emilio Aguinaldo leads Filipino forces for the only time during the Philippine–American War at the Battle of Marilao River.

Emilio Aguinaldo

1886

Geronimo, Apache warrior, surrenders to the U.S. Army, ending the main phase of the Apache Wars.

Geronimo

1884

A mob in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States attacks members of a jury which had returned a verdict of manslaughter in what was seen as a clear case of murder; over the next few days the mob would riot and burn down the courthouse.

Cincinnati

1871

The first international rugby football match, when Scotland defeats England in Edinburgh at Raeburn Place.

1871 Scotland versus England rugby union match

1866

President of the United States of America Andrew Johnson vetoes the Civil Rights Act of 1866. His veto is overridden by Congress and the bill passes into law on April 9.

President of the United States

1836

Texas Revolution: On the orders of General Antonio López de Santa Anna, the Mexican Army massacres 342 Texian Army POWs at Goliad, Texas.

Texas Revolution

1809

Peninsular War: A combined Franco-Polish force defeats the Spanish in the Battle of Ciudad Real.

Peninsular War

1794

The United States Government establishes a permanent navy and authorizes the building of six frigates.

Federal government of the United States

1782

The Second Rockingham ministry assumes office in Great Britain and begins negotiations to end the American War of Independence.

Second Rockingham ministry

1638

The first of four destructive Calabrian earthquakes strikes southern Italy. Measuring magnitude 6.8 and assigned a Mercalli intensity of XI, it kills 10,000–30,000 people.

1638 Calabrian earthquakes

1625

Charles I becomes King of England, Scotland and Ireland as well as claiming the title King of France.

Charles I of England

1513

Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León reaches the northern end of The Bahamas on his first voyage to Florida.

Juan Ponce de León

1329

Pope John XXII issues his In Agro Dominico condemning some writings of Meister Eckhart as heretical.

Pope John XXII

1309

Pope Clement V imposes excommunication and interdiction on Venice, and a general prohibition of all commercial intercourse with Venice, which had seized Ferrara, a papal fiefdom.

Pope Clement V