Â
| YEAR | DAY | EVENT |
| 274 | Feb 27 | Constantine I was born. He became the great Roman emperor (324-337) who adopted Christianity. |
| 425 | Feb 27 | Theodosius effectively founded a university in Constantinople. |
| 1167 | Feb 27 | Robert of Melun, English philosopher, bishop of Hereford, died. |
| 1425 | Feb 27 | Moscow’s Grand Duke Vasilii died and his brother-in-law, Vytautas, became guardian of his son, Vasilii, and daughter, Sophia. |
| 1526 | Feb 27 | Saxony and Hesse formed the League of Gotha, a league of Protestant princes. |
| 1531 | Feb 27 | German Protestants formed the League of Schmalkalden to defend themselves against Charles V and the Roman Catholic states. |
| 1557 | Feb 27 | The 1st Russian Embassy opened in London. |
| 1563 | Feb 27 | William Byrd, English composer, was appointed organist at Lincoln Cathedral. |
| 1622 | Feb 27 | Rembrandt Carel Fabritius (d.1654), Dutch painter, was born. |
| 1649 | Feb 27 | Johann Philipp Krieger, composer, was born. |
| 1670 | Feb 27 | Jews were expelled from Austria by order of Leopold I. |
| 1700 | Feb 27 | The Pacific Island of New Britain was discovered. It is the largest of group of islands in the South Pacific, NE of New Guinea. |
| 1706 | Feb 27 | John Evelyn, diarist, died. |
| 1733 | Feb 27 | Johann Adam Birkenstock (46), composer and sandal designer, died. |
| 1735 | Feb 27 | Dr. John Arbuthnot (b.1667), English physician, satirist and polymath, died |
| 1746 | Feb 27 | Gian Francesco Fortunati, composer, was born. |
| 1801 | Feb 27 | The District of Columbia was placed under the jurisdiction of Congress. |
| 1807 | Feb 27 | Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (d.1882), was born in Portland, Maine. He was an American poet famous for “The Children’s Hour,” and “Evangeline.” “What is time? The shadow on the dial, the striking of the clock, the running of the sand, day and night, summer and winter, months, years, centuries””these are but arbitrary and outward signs, the measure of Time, not Time itself. Time is the Life of the soul.” |
| 1813 | Feb 27 | The 1st federal vaccination legislation was enacted. |
| 1814 | Feb 27 | Ludwig von Beethoven’s 8th Symphony in F, premiered. |
| 1814 | Feb 27 | Napoleon’s Marshal Nicholas Oudinot was pushed back at Barsur-Aube by the Emperor’s allied enemies shortly before his abdication. |
| 1823 | Feb 27 | William Buel Franklin (d.1903), Major General (Union volunteers), was born. |
| 1827 | Feb 27 | Richard W. Johnson (d.1897), Bvt Major General (Union Army), was born. |
| 1836 | Feb 27 | Mexican forces under General Jose de Urrea defeated Texan forces at the Battle of San Patricio. |
| 1841 | Feb 27 | [Eleanor] Agnes Lee, daughter of US general Robert E. Lee, was born. |
| 1844 | Feb 27 | Dominican Republic rebels, under the leadership of Francisco del Rosario Sanchez and Ramon Mella, launched their uprising and gained independence from Haiti (National Day). |
| 1848 | Feb 27 | Charles Hubert H. Parry, musicologist, composer (Jerusalem), was born in England. |
| 1850 | Feb 27 | Henry Edwards Huntington, US railroad exec, was born. |
| 1854 | Feb 27 | Composer Robert Schumann was saved from a suicide attempt in Rhine. |
| 1860 | Feb 27 | Abraham Lincoln spoke at the Great Hall of Cooper Union College in NYC: “Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.” |
| 1861 | Feb 27 | In the Warsaw massacre Russian troops fired on a crowd protesting Russian rule over Poland. Five marchers were killed. |
| 1864 | Feb 27 | The 6th and last day of battle at Dalton, Georgia, (about 600 casualties). |
| 1865 | Feb 27 | A Civil War skirmish took place near Sturgeon, Missouri. |
| 1873 | Feb 27 | Enrico Caruso (d.1921), was born. He was the Italian operatic lyric tenor who excelled in operas such as Pagliacci. |
| 1879 | Feb 27 | Constantine Fahlberg discovered saccharin, an artificial sweetener. |
| 1883 | Feb 27 | Oscar Hammerstein patented the 1st cigar-rolling machine. |
| 1886 | Feb 27 | Hugo L. Black (d.1971) was born in Alabama. He became the 78th Supreme Court Justice (1937-71) and wrote opinions forbidding prayer in schools (Sen-D-Ala). |
| 1887 | Feb 27 | Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin (53), Russian physician, composer (Prince Igor), died. |
| 1888 | Feb 27 | Lotte Lehmann, German opera singer, was born. |
| 1891 | Feb 27 | David Sarnoff, RCA Board Chairman and a pioneer of U.S. television, was born. |
| 1895 | Feb 27 | Rudolf von Eschwege, German fighter pilot with 20 victories in World War I, was born. He was the only German fighter pilot on the Macedonian Front. |
| 1897 | Feb 27 | Miriam Anderson, was born. She became a world renown opera singer and civil rights pioneer, and is best remembered for singing “My Country Tis of Thee” in front of the Lincoln Memorial. |
| 1899 | Feb 27 | Charles H. Best, physiologist, co-discoverer of Insulin, was born in Maine. |
| 1902 | Feb 27 | John Steinbeck (d.1968), American novelist (Nobel 1962), was born in Salinas, Ca. He authored “The Grapes of Wrath,” “Of Mice and Men” and “The Log from the Sea of Cortez.” “A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean question: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well””or ill?” |
| 1904 | Feb 27 | James T. Farrell (d.1979), author (Young Lonigan), was born. In 2004 Robert K. Landers authored “The Life and Times of James T. Farrell.” |
| 1905 | Feb 27 | Japanese pushed Russians back in Manchuria, and cross the Sha River. |
| 1908 | Feb 27 | Baseball’s sacrifice fly was adopted. It was repealed in 1931 and was reinstated in 1954. |
| 1908 | Feb 27 | The forty-sixth star was added to the U.S. flag, signifying Oklahoma’s admission to statehood. |
| 1910 | Feb 27 | Peter De Vries, writer, poetry editor (Reuben Reuben, Prick of Noon)(Poetry Magazine, The New Yorker), was born. |
| 1912 | Feb 27 | Lawrence Durrell, English novelist and poet, was born. His books included “The Alexandria Quartet.” In 1998 Ian MacNiven wrote the biography: “Lawrence Durrell.” |
| 1913 | Feb 27 | Irwin Shaw, US novelist (Rich Man Poor Man), was born. |
| 1917 | Feb 27 | John Connally, Texas Governor, wounded in the assassination of President John Kennedy, was born. |
| 1919 | Feb 27 | 1st public performance of Gustav Holst’s “Planets.” |
| 1920 | Feb 27 | The US rejected a Soviet peace offer as propaganda. |
| 1922 | Feb 27 | G.B. Shaw’s “Back to Methuselah I/II” premiered in NYC. |
| 1925 | Feb 27 | Glacier Bay National Monument was dedicated in Alaska. |
| 1927 | Feb 27 | For the 2nd Sunday in a row golfers in SC were arrested for violating Sabbath. |
| 1929 | Feb 27 | Briton Hadden (b.1898) co-founder of Time Magazine with his Yale classmate Henry Luce, died of a mysterious infection. In 2006 Isaiah Wilner authored “The Man Time Forgot,” a biography of Hadden. |
| 1930 | Feb 27 | Joanne Woodward, actress, was born. Her films included “Rachel, Rachel” and “The Three Faces of Eve.” |
| 1932 | Feb 27 | Elizabeth Taylor, actress, was born. Her films included “Cleopatra” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” |
| 1933 | Feb 27 | Jean Genet’s “Intermezzo,” premiered in Paris. |
| 1934 | Feb 27 | Ralph Nader, consumer advocate, was born. He was Connecticut lawyer who invented the automobile safety movement. His 1965 book “Unsafe at Any Speed” characterized the Chevrolet Corvair as unsafe and pushed for a congressional investigation. |
| 1935 | Feb 27 | Mirella Freni, lyric soprano (Madame Butterfly), was born in Modena, Italy. |
| 1936 | Feb 27 | Ivan P. Pavlov (86), Russian physiologist (reflexes, “drooling dog” Nobel 1904), died. |
| 1938 | Feb 27 | Britain and France recognized the Franco government in Spain. |
| 1939 | Feb 27 | Nadezjda K. Krupskaja (70), Russian revolutionary, wife of Lenin, died. |
| 1941 | Feb 27 | Jewish musicians came together in Berlin and performed Gustav Mahler’s Second Symphony. In 2001 Martin Goldsmith authored “The Inextinguishable Symphony: A True Story of Music and Love in Nazi Germany.” |
| 1942 | Feb 27 | The 1st transport of French Jews left to Nazi Germany. |
| 1947 | Feb 27 | Gidon Kremer, violinist (Tchaikovsky Prize 1970), was born in Riga, Latvia. |
| 1949 | Feb 27 | Chaim Weizmann became the 1st Israeli president. |
| 1951 | Feb 27 | The 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution, limiting a president to two terms of office, was ratified. |
| 1953 | Feb 27 | F-84 Thunderjets raided North Korean base on Yalu River. A year after leaving West Point, Lt. Joe Kingston was en route to Korea, where he, like a lot of others, found himself retreating and advancing in a single day. |
| 1956 | Feb 27 | Female suffrage was granted in Egypt. |
| 1957 | Feb 27 | Mao made his speech “On Correct Handling of Contradictions Among People.” |
| 1958 | Feb 27 | Harry Cohn, CEO of Columbia Pictures, died of a heart attack. |
| 1960 | Feb 27 | The U.S. Olympic hockey team defeated the Soviets, 3-2, at the Winter Games in Squaw Valley, Calif. The U.S. team went on to win the gold medal. |
| 1962 | Feb 27 | South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem was unharmed as two planes bombed the presidential palace in Saigon. The 1st US national was killed. Although Diem had shortcomings as a leader, he had led South Vietnam for eight years and at the time of his death was attempting to deal with Buddhist factionalism. |
| 1963 | Feb 27 | The USSR said that 10,000 troops would remain in Cuba. |
| 1964 | Feb 27 | “What Makes Sammy Run?” opened at 84th St Theater in NYC for 540 performances. |
| 1968 | Feb 27 | CBS News anchorman Walter Cronkite”˜s commentary on the progress of the Vietnam War solidified President Lyndon B. Johnson”˜s decision not to seek reelection in 1968. Cronkite, who had been at Hue in the midst of the Tet Offensive earlier in February, said: “Who won and who lost in the great Tet Offensive against the cities? I”˜m not sure.” He concluded: “It is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out…will be to negotiate, not as victors but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could.” Johnson called the commentary a “turning point,” saying that if he had “lost Cronkite,” he”˜d “lost Mr. Average Citizen.” On March 31, Johnson announced he would not seek reelection. |
| 1969 | Feb 27 | President Nixon arrived in Rome from West Berlin amid protests by thousands of students. |
| 1973 | Feb 27 | U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Virginia pool club could not bar residents because of color. |
| 1976 | Feb 27 | The final meeting between Mao tse Tung and Richard Nixon took place. |
| 1979 | Feb 27 | Jane M. Byrne confounded Chicago’s Democratic political machine as she upset Mayor Michael A. Bilandic to win their party’s mayoral primary. Byrne went on to win the election. |
| 1980 | Feb 27 | Chelsea Clinton, daughter of President Clinton (1993-2001), was born in Little Rock, Ark. |
| 1982 | Feb 27 | Wayne B. Williams was found guilty of murdering two of the 28 young blacks whose bodies were found in the Atlanta area over a 22-month period. |
| 1985 | Feb 27 | In San Francisco the Irwin Memorial Blood Bank said that 80 Bay Area residents have received blood since 1979 from donors who are know to have contracted AIDS. |
| 1986 | Feb 27 | The U.S. Senate approved telecasts of its debates on a trial basis. |
| 1987 | Feb 27 | “Washington Week In Review” celebrated its 20th anniversary on PBS. |
| 1988 | Feb 27 | Katarina Witt of East Germany won the gold medal in women’s figure skating at the Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada, with Elizabeth Manley of Canada placing second and Debi Thomas of the United States, third. Debi Thomas became the first African American to win a medal at the Winter Olympics. |
| 1989 | Feb 27 | President Bush warned of what he called the “fool’s gold” of trade protectionism as he addressed South Korea’s National Assembly before returning home. |
| 1990 | Feb 27 | The US Supreme Court ruled that prison officials could force inmates to take powerful anti-psychotic drugs without a judge’s consent. |
| 1991 | Feb 27 | In San Francisco wrecking balls began demolishing the Embarcadero Freeway. |
| 1992 | Feb 27 | Tiger Woods (16) became the youngest PGA golfer in 35 years. |
| 1993 | Feb 27 | Jose Duval (72), actor and singer, died. He played coffee pitchman Juan Valdez. |
| 1994 | Feb 27 | The Winter Olympic Games ended in Lillehammer, Norway. |
| 1995 | Feb 27 | Court-appointed salvagers swarmed into Britain’s oldest investment bank to evaluate the remaining assets of Barings PLC after Nick Leeson, a 28-year-old trader, ruined the firm by gambling on Tokyo stock prices. |
| 1996 | Feb 27 | Bob Dole won the North Dakota and South Dakota primaries, while Steve Forbes captured Arizona’s winner-take-all primary. |
| 1997 | Feb 27 | A jury in Fayetteville, N.C., convicted former Army paratrooper James N. Burmeister of murdering a black couple so he could get a skinhead tattoo. He was later sentenced to life in prison. |
| 1999 | Feb 27 | Western planes bombed targets in southern Iraq and Baghdad claimed that 23 people were wounded. |
| 2000 | Feb 27 | Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam ended 2 decades of bitter rivalry and embraced W. Deen Mohammad, son of the late Elijah Mohammad (d.1975), onetime leader of the black Muslims. |
| 2001 | Feb 27 | President Bush went before Congress with a $1.9 trillion spending plan that would sharply reduce growth in many government programs while leaving room to give Americans the biggest tax cut in two decades. |
| 2002 | Feb 27 | Alicia Keys won in 5 categories at the 44th annual Grammy Awards. Train won for best rock song: “Drops of Jupiter,” U2 won for best record of the year: “Walk On,” and Various Artists won the album of the year: “O Brother, Where Art Thou.” |
| 2003 | Feb 27 | The Bush administration lowered the terror alert threat to code yellow. |
| 2004 | Feb 27 | A federal judge in NY threw out 1 of 5 counts against Martha Stewart (62). She said prosecutors failed to prove that Stewart intended to commit securities fraud in her Dec 21, 2001, sale of ImClone Systems shares. 4 lesser charges remained. |
| 2005 | Feb 27 | Iran and Russia signed a deal that would deliver nuclear fuel to the Middle East country for the startup of its first reactor. |
| 2006 | Feb 27 | The US and Colombia reached a free trade agreement after nearly 2 years of negotiations. The pact needed approval by the legislatures of both countries. |
| 2007 | Feb 27 | The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 416.02 points, the worst drop since the 2001 terrorist attacks. |
| 2008 | Feb 27 | The euro finished above $1.50 for the first time after US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s testimony supported market expectations of another US rate cut. |
| 2009 | Feb 27 | President Barack Obama outlined his plan for withdrawing combat troops from Iraq by Aug. 31, 2010. |
| 2010 | Feb 27 | President Barack Obama signed a one-year extension of several provisions in the nation’s main counterterrorism law, the Patriot Act. |
| 2011 | Feb 27 | In Fremont, Ca., about 15 robbers with guns and rifles accosted 6 employees at Unigen and escaped with $37 million in computer components. In April 5 suspects were arrested and charged with the robbery. |
| 2012 | Feb 27 | Colorado’s sec. of state said enough signatures have bee collected to allow a measure for the legalization of marijuana for recreational use to go before voters in November. |
| 2013 | Feb 27 | The US Senate confirmed Jacob J. Lew (57) as treasury secretary. |
| 2014 | Feb 27 | The United Arab Emirates’ state news agency said two crew members have been killed in the crash of a military training aircraft. |
What is your reaction?
Excited
0
Happy
0
In Love
0
Not Sure
0
Silly
0
