Events on February 27 50
Year 380
Edict of Thessalonica: Emperor Theodosius I and his co-emperors Gratian and Valentinian II, declare their wish that all Roman citizens convert to trinitarian Christianity.
Year 425
The University of Constantinople is founded by Emperor Theodosius II at the urging of his wife Aelia Eudocia.
Year 907
Abaoji, a Khitan chieftain, is enthroned as Emperor Taizu, establishing the Liao dynasty in northern China.
Year 1560
The Treaty of Berwick, which would expel the French from Scotland, is signed by England and the Lords of the Congregation of Scotland.
Year 1617
Sweden and Russia sign the Treaty of Stolbovo, ending the Ingrian War and shutting Russia out of the Baltic Sea.
Year 1626
Yuan Chonghuan is appointed Governor of Liaodong, after he led the Chinese into a great victory against the Manchurians under Nurhaci.
Year 1776
American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge in North Carolina breaks up a Loyalist militia.
Year 1782
American Revolutionary War: The House of Commons of Great Britain votes against further war in America.
Year 1801
Pursuant to the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801, Washington, D.C. is placed under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress.
Year 1812
Argentine War of Independence: Manuel Belgrano raises the Flag of Argentina in the city of Rosario for the first time.
Year 1812
Poet Lord Byron gives his first address as a member of the House of Lords, in defense of Luddite violence against Industrialism in his home county of Nottinghamshire.
Year 1860
Abraham Lincoln makes a speech at Cooper Union in the city of New York that is largely responsible for his election to the Presidency.
Year 1861
Russian troops fire on a crowd in Warsaw protesting against Russian rule over Poland, killing five protesters.
Year 1864
American Civil War: The first Northern prisoners arrive at the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia.
Year 1870
The current flag of Japan is first adopted as the national flag for Japanese merchant ships.
Year 1900
Second Boer War: In South Africa, British military leaders receive an unconditional notice of surrender from Boer General Piet Cronjé at the Battle of Paardeberg.
Year 1902
Second Boer War: Australian soldiers Harry "Breaker" Morant and Peter Handcock are executed in Pretoria after being convicted of war crimes.
Year 1922
A challenge to the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, allowing women the right to vote, is rebuffed by the Supreme Court of the United States in Leser v. Garnett.
Year 1933
Reichstag fire: Germany's parliament building in Berlin, the Reichstag, is set on fire; Marinus van der Lubbe, a young Dutch Communist claims responsibility. The Nazis used the fire to solidify their power and eliminate the communists as political rivals.
Year 1939
United States labor law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that sit-down strikes violate property owners' rights and are therefore illegal.
Year 1942
World War II: During the Battle of the Java Sea, an Allied strike force is defeated by a Japanese task force in the Java Sea in the Dutch East Indies.
Year 1943
In Berlin, the Gestapo arrest 1,800 Jewish men with German wives, leading to the Rosenstrasse protest.
Year 1951
The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting Presidents to two terms, is ratified.
Year 1962
Two dissident Republic of Vietnam Air Force pilots bomb the Independence Palace in Saigon in a failed attempt to assassinate South Vietnam President Ngô Đình Diệm.
Year 1963
The Dominican Republic receives its first democratically elected president, Juan Bosch, since the end of the dictatorship led by Rafael Trujillo.
Year 1964
The Government of Italy asks for help to keep the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over.
Year 1971
Doctors in the first Dutch abortion clinic (the Mildredhuis in Arnhem) start performing aborti provocati.
Year 1976
The formerly Spanish territory of Western Sahara, under the auspices of the Polisario Front declares independence as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
Year 1988
Sumgait pogrom: The Armenian community in Sumgait, Azerbaijan is targeted in a violent pogrom.
Year 1991
Gulf War: U.S. President George H. W. Bush announces that "Kuwait is liberated".
Year 2002
Ryanair Flight 296 catches fire at London Stansted Airport. Subsequent investigations criticize Ryanair's handling of the evacuation.
Year 2002
Godhra train burning: A Muslim mob torches a train returning from Ayodhya, killing 59 Hindu pilgrims.
Year 2004
A bombing of a Superferry by Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines' worst terrorist attack kills 116.
Year 2004
Shoko Asahara, the leader of the Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo, is sentenced to death for masterminding the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attack
Year 2007
The Chinese Correction: The Shanghai Stock Exchange falls 9%, the largest drop in ten years.
Year 2010
An earthquake measuring 8.8 on the moment magnitude scale strikes central parts of Chile leaving over 500 victims, and thousands injured. The quake triggered a tsunami which struck Hawaii shortly after.
Year 2013
Five people (including the perpetrator) are killed and five others injured in a shooting at a factory in Menznau, Switzerland.