April 27
1521 - Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed in a fight with natives of the Philippines.
1791 - The inventor of the telegraph, Samuel Morse, was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts.
1805 - The U.S. Marines captured Derna, on the shores of Tripoli.
1822 - Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the United States and commander of the Union armies during the Civil War, was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio.
1865 - The worst steamship disaster in U.S. history occurred when there was an explosion aboard the Sultana; more than 1,400 people were killed.
1941 - German forces occupied Athens, Greece during World War II.
1961 - Sierra Leone gained independence from Great Britain.
1965 - Broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow died at age 57.
1972 - Apollo 16 returned to Earth after a manned voyage to the moon.
1973 - Acting FBI Director L. Patrick Gray resigned after it was revealed that he’d destroyed files removed from the safe of Watergate conspirator E. Howard Hunt.
1978 - Fifty-one construction workers plunged to their deaths when a scaffold inside a cooling tower at the Pleasants Power Station site in West Virginia fell 168 feet to the ground.
1982 - John W. Hinckley Jr. went on trial in Washington, D.C. for the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan. (He was later acquitted by reason of insanity.)
1987 - Austrian president Kurt Waldheim was barred from entering the United States; he was accused of aiding in the execution of thousands of Jews during World War II.
1992 - The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was proclaimed in Belgrade by the Republic of Serbia and its lone ally, Montenegro.
1992 - Russia and 12 other former Soviet republics won entry into the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
1993 - Eritrea declared its independence.
1994 - Former President Richard M. Nixon was remembered at an outdoor funeral service attended by all five of his successors, presidents Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford, at the Nixon presidential library in Yorba Linda, California.
2006 - Construction began on a 1,776-foot building on the site of the World Trade Center in New York City.
2009 - A 23-month-old Mexico City toddler died at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, becoming the first swine-flu death on U.S. soil.
2010 - Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega was extradited from the United States to France, where he was later convicted of laundering drug money and received a seven-year sentence.
2011 - More than 120 tornadoes raked the South and Midwest, resulting in 316 deaths across parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia.
2011 - President Barack Obama produced a detailed Hawaii birth certificate in an extraordinary attempt to bury the issue of where he was born.
2015 - Rioters plunged part of Baltimore into chaos, torching a pharmacy, setting police cars ablaze and throwing bricks at officers hours after thousands attended a funeral for Freddie Gray, a Black man who died from a severe spinal injury he’d suffered in police custody; the Baltimore Orioles’ home game against the Chicago White Sox was postponed because of safety concerns.
2016 - Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert was sentenced in Chicago to more than a year in prison in a hush-money case that revealed accusations he’d sexually abused teenagers while coaching high school wrestling.
2020 - In a call with governors, President Donald Trump said states should “seriously consider” reopening public schools before the end of the academic year. Attorney General William Barr told federal prosecutors to “be on the lookout” for state and local coronavirus-related restrictions that could be unconstitutional. New York canceled its June Democratic presidential primary because of the pandemic.
2020 - The family of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman who was shot to death in her home by officers serving a narcotics warrant, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Louisville, Kentucky and its police department. (The suit would be settled in September.)
2020 - Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, sentenced to 10 years in prison in a corruption case in 2014, was released early because of the coronavirus.
Birthdays
29 - Allison Iraheta (singer)
32 - Emily Rios (actress)
33 - Lizzo (singer)
34 - William Moseley (actor)
35 - Jenna Coleman (actress)
36 - Sheila Vand (actress)
38 - Ari Graynor (actor)
38 - Francis Capra (actor)
45 - Sally Hawkins (actress)
49 - Maura West (actress)
49 - David Lascher (actor)
59 - James Le Gros (actor)
62 - Sheena Easton (singer)
72 - Douglas Sheehan (actor)
73 - Kate Pierson (singer)
73 - Si Robertson (reality star)
===========================================
Today in Sports History - April 27
1938 - A colored baseball was used for the first time in any baseball game. The ball was yellow and was used between Columbia and Fordham Universities in New York City.
1947 - "Babe Ruth Day" was held at Yankee Stadium to honor the ailing baseball legend.
1961 - The NFL officially recognizes the Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
1982 - The New England Patriots select Texas defensive end Kenneth Sims with the first pick in the NFL Draft.
1982 - The following Huskers were selected in the 1982 NFL Draft: LB - Jimmy Williams (1st round, 16th pick, St. Louis Cardinals); DB - Rodney Lewis (3rd round, New Orleans Saints); DT - Henry Waechter (7th round, Chicago Bears); RB - Phil Bates (7th round, Detroit Lions); and OG - Tom Carlstrom (12th round, New York Jets).
1983 - Pitcher Nolan Ryan of the Houston Astros surpassed Walter Johnson's career strikeout record of 3,508 -- one that he had held since 1927.
2017 - The Cleveland Browns select Texas A&M defensive end Myles Garrett with the first pick in the NFL Draft.
2017 - The following Huskers were selected in the 2017 NFL Draft: S - Nathan Gerry (5th round, Philadelphia Eagles).
1521 - Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed in a fight with natives of the Philippines.
1791 - The inventor of the telegraph, Samuel Morse, was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts.
1805 - The U.S. Marines captured Derna, on the shores of Tripoli.
1822 - Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the United States and commander of the Union armies during the Civil War, was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio.
1865 - The worst steamship disaster in U.S. history occurred when there was an explosion aboard the Sultana; more than 1,400 people were killed.
1941 - German forces occupied Athens, Greece during World War II.
1961 - Sierra Leone gained independence from Great Britain.
1965 - Broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow died at age 57.
1972 - Apollo 16 returned to Earth after a manned voyage to the moon.
1973 - Acting FBI Director L. Patrick Gray resigned after it was revealed that he’d destroyed files removed from the safe of Watergate conspirator E. Howard Hunt.
1978 - Fifty-one construction workers plunged to their deaths when a scaffold inside a cooling tower at the Pleasants Power Station site in West Virginia fell 168 feet to the ground.
1982 - John W. Hinckley Jr. went on trial in Washington, D.C. for the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan. (He was later acquitted by reason of insanity.)
1987 - Austrian president Kurt Waldheim was barred from entering the United States; he was accused of aiding in the execution of thousands of Jews during World War II.
1992 - The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was proclaimed in Belgrade by the Republic of Serbia and its lone ally, Montenegro.
1992 - Russia and 12 other former Soviet republics won entry into the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
1993 - Eritrea declared its independence.
1994 - Former President Richard M. Nixon was remembered at an outdoor funeral service attended by all five of his successors, presidents Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford, at the Nixon presidential library in Yorba Linda, California.
2006 - Construction began on a 1,776-foot building on the site of the World Trade Center in New York City.
2009 - A 23-month-old Mexico City toddler died at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, becoming the first swine-flu death on U.S. soil.
2010 - Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega was extradited from the United States to France, where he was later convicted of laundering drug money and received a seven-year sentence.
2011 - More than 120 tornadoes raked the South and Midwest, resulting in 316 deaths across parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia.
2011 - President Barack Obama produced a detailed Hawaii birth certificate in an extraordinary attempt to bury the issue of where he was born.
2015 - Rioters plunged part of Baltimore into chaos, torching a pharmacy, setting police cars ablaze and throwing bricks at officers hours after thousands attended a funeral for Freddie Gray, a Black man who died from a severe spinal injury he’d suffered in police custody; the Baltimore Orioles’ home game against the Chicago White Sox was postponed because of safety concerns.
2016 - Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert was sentenced in Chicago to more than a year in prison in a hush-money case that revealed accusations he’d sexually abused teenagers while coaching high school wrestling.
2020 - In a call with governors, President Donald Trump said states should “seriously consider” reopening public schools before the end of the academic year. Attorney General William Barr told federal prosecutors to “be on the lookout” for state and local coronavirus-related restrictions that could be unconstitutional. New York canceled its June Democratic presidential primary because of the pandemic.
2020 - The family of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman who was shot to death in her home by officers serving a narcotics warrant, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Louisville, Kentucky and its police department. (The suit would be settled in September.)
2020 - Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, sentenced to 10 years in prison in a corruption case in 2014, was released early because of the coronavirus.
Birthdays
29 - Allison Iraheta (singer)
32 - Emily Rios (actress)
33 - Lizzo (singer)
34 - William Moseley (actor)
35 - Jenna Coleman (actress)
36 - Sheila Vand (actress)
38 - Ari Graynor (actor)
38 - Francis Capra (actor)
45 - Sally Hawkins (actress)
49 - Maura West (actress)
49 - David Lascher (actor)
59 - James Le Gros (actor)
62 - Sheena Easton (singer)
72 - Douglas Sheehan (actor)
73 - Kate Pierson (singer)
73 - Si Robertson (reality star)
===========================================
Today in Sports History - April 27
1938 - A colored baseball was used for the first time in any baseball game. The ball was yellow and was used between Columbia and Fordham Universities in New York City.
1947 - "Babe Ruth Day" was held at Yankee Stadium to honor the ailing baseball legend.
1961 - The NFL officially recognizes the Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
1982 - The New England Patriots select Texas defensive end Kenneth Sims with the first pick in the NFL Draft.
1982 - The following Huskers were selected in the 1982 NFL Draft: LB - Jimmy Williams (1st round, 16th pick, St. Louis Cardinals); DB - Rodney Lewis (3rd round, New Orleans Saints); DT - Henry Waechter (7th round, Chicago Bears); RB - Phil Bates (7th round, Detroit Lions); and OG - Tom Carlstrom (12th round, New York Jets).
1983 - Pitcher Nolan Ryan of the Houston Astros surpassed Walter Johnson's career strikeout record of 3,508 -- one that he had held since 1927.
2017 - The Cleveland Browns select Texas A&M defensive end Myles Garrett with the first pick in the NFL Draft.
2017 - The following Huskers were selected in the 2017 NFL Draft: S - Nathan Gerry (5th round, Philadelphia Eagles).