Today In History [27th May, 2015]

A chronological timetable of historical events that occurred on this day in history. Historical facts of the day in the areas of military, politics, science, music, sports, arts, entertainment and more. Discover what happened today in history.

Today in History
May 27
1564           John Calvin, one of the dominant figures of the Protestant Reformation, dies in Geneva.
1647           Achsah Young becomes the first woman known to be executed as a witch in Massachusetts.
1668           Three colonists are expelled from Massachusetts for being Baptists.
1813           Americans capture Fort George, Canada.
1907           The Bubonic Plague breaks out in San Francisco.
1919           A U.S. Navy seaplane completes the first transatlantic flight.
1929           Colonel Charles Lindbergh marries Anne Spencer Murrow.
1935           The Supreme Court declares President Franklin Roosevelt's National Recovery Act unconstitutional.
1937           San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge opens.
1941           The German battleship Bismarck is sunk by British naval and air forces.
1942           German General Rommel begins a major offensive in Libya with his Afrika Korps.
1944           American General MacArthur lands on Biak Island in New Guinea.
1960           A military coup overthrows the democratic government of Turkey.
1969           Construction begins on Walt Disney World in Florida.
1972           President Richard M. Nixon and Soviet Communist Party chief Leonid Brezhnev sign an arms reduction agreement.
1999           The international war crimes tribunal indicts Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic for war atrocities.

Born on May 27
1332           Dante Alighieri, Italian writer.
1794           Cornelius Vanderbilt, American industrialist and philanthropist.
1819           Julia Ward Howe, writer of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic."
1837           Wild Bill [James Butler] Hickok, American frontiersman and lawman.
1878           Isadora Duncan, dancer and choreographer.
1894           (Samuel) Dashiell Hammett, detective writer (The Maltese Falcon).
1907           Rachel Carson, biologist and writer (Silent Spring, The Sea Around Us).
1911           Hubert Humphrey, U.S. politician.
1911           Vincent Price, actor and horror film icon.
1912           John Cheever, writer (The Wapshot Chronicles).
1915           Herman Wouk, author (Winds of War, The Caine Mutiny).
1923           Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State under President Nixon.
1925           Tony Hillerman, mystery novelist (The Blessing Way, Sacred Clowns).