On This Day — 27 October

2019

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant founder and leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi kills himself and three children by detonating a suicide vest during the U.S. military Barisha raid in northwestern Syria.

Islamic State

2018

A gunman opens fire on a Pittsburgh synagogue killing eleven and injuring six, including four police officers.

Pittsburgh synagogue shooting

2018

Leicester City F.C. owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha dies in a helicopter crash along with four others after a Premier League match against West Ham United at the King Power Stadium in Leicester, England.

Leicester City F.C.

2017

Catalonia declares independence from Spain.

Catalonia

2014

Britain withdraws from Afghanistan at the end of Operation Herrick, after 12 years four months and seven days.

Operation Herrick

1999

Gunmen open fire in the Armenian Parliament, killing the Prime Minister and seven others.

Armenian parliament shooting

1997

The 1997 Asian financial crisis causes a crash in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

1997 Asian financial crisis

1994

Gliese 229B is the first Substellar Mass Object to be unquestionably identified.

Gliese 229

1993

Widerøe Flight 744 crashes in Overhalla Municipality, Norway, killing six people.

Widerøe Flight 744

1992

United States Navy radioman Allen R. Schindler, Jr. is murdered by shipmate Terry M. Helvey for being gay, precipitating debate about gays in the military that results in the United States' "Don't ask, don't tell" military policy.

Murder of Allen R. Schindler Jr.

1991

Turkmenistan achieves independence from the Soviet Union.

Turkmenistan

1988

Cold War: Ronald Reagan suspends construction of the new U.S. Embassy in Moscow due to Soviet listening devices in the building structure.

Embassy of the United States, Moscow

1986

The British government suddenly deregulates financial markets, leading to a total restructuring of the way in which they operate in the country, in an event now referred to as the Big Bang.

Big Bang (financial markets)

1981

Cold War: The Soviet submarine S-363 runs aground on the east coast of Sweden.

Cold War

1979

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gains its independence from the United Kingdom.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

1971

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is renamed Zaire.

First Congolese Republic

1964

Ronald Reagan delivers a speech on behalf of the Republican candidate for president, Barry Goldwater. The speech launches his political career and comes to be known as "A Time for Choosing".

Ronald Reagan

1962

Major Rudolf Anderson of the United States Air Force becomes the only direct human casualty of the Cuban Missile Crisis when his U-2 reconnaissance airplane is shot down over Cuba by a Soviet-supplied surface-to-air missile.

Rudolf Anderson

1962

By refusing to agree to the firing of a nuclear torpedo at a US warship, Vasily Arkhipov averts nuclear war.

Vasily Arkhipov

1961

NASA tests the first Saturn I rocket in Mission Saturn-Apollo 1.

Saturn I SA-1

1958

Iskander Mirza, the first President of Pakistan, is deposed by General Ayub Khan, who had been appointed the enforcer of martial law by Mirza 20 days earlier.

Iskander Mirza

1954

Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. becomes the first African-American general in the United States Air Force.

Benjamin O. Davis Jr.

1948

A deadly smog event begins in Donora, Pennsylvania, eventually killing 20 and sickening thousands.

1948 Donora smog

1944

World War II: German forces capture Banská Bystrica during Slovak National Uprising thus bringing it to an end.

World War II

1936

Abdication Crisis: Mrs. Wallis Simpson obtains her divorce, which would eventually allow her to marry King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, thus forcing his abdication from the throne.

Abdication of Edward VIII

1930

Ratifications are exchanged in London for the first London Naval Treaty go into effect immediately, further limiting the expensive naval arms race among its five signatories.

London Naval Treaty

1924

The Uzbek SSR is founded in the Soviet Union.

Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic

1922

A referendum in Rhodesia rejects the country's annexation to the South African Union.

1922 Southern Rhodesian government referendum

1919

The Fourth Regional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents is held by the Makhnovshchina at Oleksandrivsk.

Regional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents

1916

Negus Mikael, marching on the Ethiopian capital in support of his son Emperor Iyasu V, is defeated by Fitawrari Habte Giyorgis, securing the throne for Empress Zewditu I.

Battle of Segale

1914

World War I: The new British battleship HMS Audacious is sunk by a minefield laid by the armed German merchant-cruiser Berlin.

World War I

1907

Fifteen people are killed in Hungary when gendarmes opened fire on a crowd gathered at a church consecration.

Černová massacre

1870

Franco-Prussian War: Marshal Bazaine surrenders to Prussian forces at the conclusion of the Siege of Metz along with 140,000 French soldiers.

Franco-Prussian War

1863

American Civil War: Union forces led by General William F. Smith defeat Confederate forces in the Battle of Brown's Ferry, opening up a supply line to the besieged city of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

American Civil War

1838

Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs issues the Extermination Order, which orders all Mormons to leave the state or be killed.

Lilburn Boggs

1810

United States annexes the former Spanish colony of West Florida.

West Florida

1806

The French Army under Napoleon enters Berlin following the Prussian defeat at the Battle of Jena–Auerstedt.

Fall of Berlin (1806)

1795

The United States and Spain sign the Treaty of Madrid, which establishes the boundaries between Spanish colonies and the U.S.

Pinckney's Treaty

1775

King George III expands on his Proclamation of Rebellion in the Thirteen Colonies in his speech from the throne at the opening of Parliament.

George III

1726

J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, BWV 56, one of few works he called a cantata.

Johann Sebastian Bach

1682

Philadelphia is founded in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Philadelphia

1674

The French garrison in Grave surrenders the town to a Dutch army after a difficult siege.

Grave, Netherlands

1644

Second Battle of Newbury in the English Civil War.

Second Battle of Newbury

1553

Condemned as a heretic, Michael Servetus is burned at the stake just outside Geneva.

Michael Servetus

1524

French troops lay siege to Pavia.

Italian campaign of 1524–1525

1275

Traditional founding of the city of Amsterdam.

Amsterdam

312

Constantine the Great is said to have received his famous Vision of the Cross.

Constantine the Great