Events on April 27 48
Year 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.
Year 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).
Year 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.
Year 1521
Battle of Mactan: Explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines led by chief Lapu-Lapu.
Year 1522
Combined forces of Spain and the Papal States defeat a French and Venetian army at the Battle of Bicocca.
Year 1539
Re-founding of the city of Bogotá, New Granada (now Colombia), by Nikolaus Federmann and Sebastián de Belalcázar.
Year 1578
Duel of the Mignons claims the lives of two favourites of Henry III of France and two favorites of Henry I, Duke of Guise.
Year 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.
Year 1650
The Battle of Carbisdale: A Royalist army from Orkney invades mainland Scotland but is defeated by a Covenanter army.
Year 1667
John Milton, blind and impoverished, sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10.
Year 1777
American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Ridgefield: A British invasion force engages and defeats Continental Army regulars and militia irregulars at Ridgefield, Connecticut.
Year 1805
First Barbary War: United States Marines and Berbers attack the Tripolitan city of Derna (The "shores of Tripoli" part of the Marines' Hymn).
Year 1813
War of 1812: American troops capture York, the capital of Upper Canada, in the Battle of York.
Year 1865
The New York State Senate creates Cornell University as the state's land grant institution.
Year 1909
Sultan of Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II is overthrown, and is succeeded by his brother, Mehmed V.
Year 1911
Following the resignation and death of William P. Frye, a compromise is reached to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the United States Senate.
Year 1927
Carabineros de Chile (Chilean national police force and gendarmerie) are created.
Year 1936
The United Auto Workers (UAW) gains autonomy from the American Federation of Labor.
Year 1941
World War II: The Communist Party of Slovenia, the Slovene Christian Socialists, the left-wing Slovene Sokols (also known as "National Democrats") and a group of progressive intellectuals establish the Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation.
Year 1945
World War II: Benito Mussolini is arrested by Italian partisans in Dongo, while attempting escape disguised as a German soldier.
Year 1953
Operation Moolah offers $50,000 to any pilot who defected with a fully mission-capable Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 to South Korea. The first pilot was to receive $100,000.
Year 1961
Sierra Leone is granted its independence from the United Kingdom, with Milton Margai as the first Prime Minister.
Year 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.
Year 1974
Ten thousand march in Washington, D.C., calling for the impeachment of U.S. President Richard Nixon.
Year 1978
Former United States President Nixon aide John D. Ehrlichman is released from an Arizona prison after serving 18 months for Watergate-related crimes.
Year 1986
The city of Pripyat as well as the surrounding areas are evacuated due to Chernobyl disaster.
Year 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 USA, 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.
Year 1989
The April 27 demonstrations, student-led protests responding to the April 26 Editorial, during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.
Year 1992
The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, is proclaimed.
Year 1992
Betty Boothroyd becomes the first woman to be elected Speaker of the British House of Commons in its 700-year history.
Year 1992
The Russian Federation and 12 other former Soviet republics become members of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
Year 1993
All members 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.
Year 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.
Year 2006
Construction begins on the Freedom Tower (later renamed One World Trade Center) in New York City.
Year 2007
Estonian authorities remove the Bronze Soldier, a Soviet Red Army war memorial in Tallinn, amid political controversy with Russia.
Year 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.
Year 2012
At least four explosions hit the Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk with at least 27 people injured.
Year ?
Lucius Marcius Philippus, step-brother to the future emperor Augustus, celebrates a triumph for his victories while serving as governor in one of the provinces of Hispania.