July 27
1694 - The Bank of England received a royal charter as a commercial institution.
1789 - Congress established the Department of Foreign Affairs, the forerunner of the State Department.
1794 - French revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre was overthrown and placed under arrest; he was executed the next day.
1861 - Union Gen. George B. McClellan was put in command of the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War.
1866 - After two failures, Cyrus W. Field succeeded in laying the first underwater telegraph cable between North America and Europe.
1909 - During the first official test of the U.S. Army’s first airplane, Orville Wright flew himself and a passenger, Lt. Frank Lahm, above Fort Myer, Virginia, for one hour and 12 minutes.
1940 - Bugs Bunny made his debut in the Warner Bros. cartoon "A Wild Hare."
1940 - Billboard magazine published its first “music popularity chart” listing best-selling retail records (in first place was “I’ll Never Smile Again” recorded by Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra, with featured vocalist Frank Sinatra).
1953 - An armistice was signed ending the Korean War.
1960 - Vice President Richard Nixon was nominated for president at the Republican National Convention in Chicago.
1967 - In the wake of urban rioting, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed the Kerner Commission to assess the causes of the violence, the same day Black militant H. Rap Brown told a press conference in Washington that violence was “as American as cherry pie.”.
1974 - The House Judiciary Committee voted to impeach President Richard Nixon for obstructing justice in the Watergate case.
1980 - The deposed Shah of Iran died in Egypt at age 60.
1981 - Six-year-old Adam Walsh was abducted from a department store in Hollywood, Florida, and was later murdered. (His father, John Walsh, became a well-known crime victims' advocate.)
1995 - The Korean War Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C.
1996 - A pipe bomb exploded in an Atlanta park during the Olympic Games, killing one and injuring more than 100. (Anti-government extremist Eric Rudolph later pleaded guilty to the bombing, exonerating security guard Richard Jewell, who had been wrongly suspected.)
2003 - Comedian Bob Hope died at age 100.
2005 - Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian who'd plotted to bomb the Los Angeles airport on the eve of the millennium, was sentenced to 22 years in prison.
2015 - The Boy Scouts of America ended its blanket ban on gay adult leaders while allowing church-sponsored Scout units to maintain the exclusion for religious reasons.
2017 - New White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, in an interview published by The New Yorker, attacked chief of staff Reince Priebus and other White House officials in sometimes profane terms. (A day later, President Donald Trump announced that Priebus was being replaced by John Kelly. Scaramucci himself was ousted on July 31.)
2020 - The world’s biggest COVID-19 vaccine study began with the first of 30,000 planned volunteers helping to test shots created by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc.
Birthdays
28 - Winnie Harlow (model)
29 - Jordan Spieth (golfer)
32 - Cheyenne Kimball (singer)
32 - Kriti Sanon (actress)
32 - Indiana Evans (actress)
38 - Max Scherzer (baseball player)
38 - Taylor Schilling (actress)
39 - Blair Redford (actress)
39 - Heidi Gardner (actress/comedian)
42 - Dolph Ziggler (professional wrestler)
45 - Jonathan Rhys Meyers (actor)
45 - Martha Madison (actress)
46 - Seamus Dever (actor)
47 - Alex Rodriguez (baseball player)
48 - Pete Yorn (singer)
49 - Abe Cunningham (musician)
50 - Maya Rudolph (actress/comedian)
53 - Paul "Triple H" Levesque (professional wrestler)
54 - Julian McMahon (actor)
55 - Juliana Hatfield (singer)
55 - Stacy Dean Campbell (singer)
65 - Bill Engvall (comedian)
66 - Carol Leifer (actress/comedian)
68 - Roxanne Hart (actress)
73 - Maureen McGovern (singer)
74 - Peggy Fleming (figure skater)
75 - Betty Thomas (actress)
80 - John Pleshette (actor)
100 - Norman Lear (producer)
======================================
Today in Sports History - July 27
1918 - Brooklyn rookie Henry Heitman made his major league debut and his last major league appearance in the same day. He pitched four straight hits to the St. Louis Cardinals, left the game and never played again in the majors.
1921 - Baseball fan Reuben Berman sued the New York Giants, claiming he suffered mental and bodily distress after refusing to return a foul ball May 16th at the Polo Grounds. Berman was eventually rewarded $100.
1946 - Rudy York (Boston Red Sox) hit two grand slams and drove in 10 runs to lead the Red Sox over the St. Louis Browns, 13-6.
1983 - Gaylord Perry joins Nolan Ryan and Steve Carlton in the 3,500 career strikeout club.
1984 - Pete Rose passed Ty Cobb’s record for most singles in a career when he got his 3,503rd base hit.
1986 - Greg LeMond of the U.S. became the first non-European to capture the Tour de France cycling race.
1992 - Boston Celtics star Reggie Lewis died after collapsing on a Brandeis University basketball court during practice. He was 27 years old.
1992 - China's Fu Mingxia, only two weeks away from her 14th birthday, became the second youngest gold medalist in Olympic history when she won the women's 10-meter platform diving event.
1996 - Canadian Donovan Bailey ran the Men's 100 Meter Dash with a time of 9.84, setting a new world record. The previous record was 9.85 held by Leroy Burrell of the United States.
1997 - The Detroit Tigers retire Hal Newhouser's #16.
2001 - Deion Sanders announced his retirement from the NFL.
2003 - Lance Armstrong won his fifth consecutive Tour de France.
2021 - American gymnast Simone Biles pulled out of the gymnastics team competition at the Tokyo Olympics to focus on her mental well-being, saying she realized following a shaky vault that she wasn’t in the right headspace to compete; she was the latest high-profile athlete to discuss mental health struggles.
1694 - The Bank of England received a royal charter as a commercial institution.
1789 - Congress established the Department of Foreign Affairs, the forerunner of the State Department.
1794 - French revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre was overthrown and placed under arrest; he was executed the next day.
1861 - Union Gen. George B. McClellan was put in command of the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War.
1866 - After two failures, Cyrus W. Field succeeded in laying the first underwater telegraph cable between North America and Europe.
1909 - During the first official test of the U.S. Army’s first airplane, Orville Wright flew himself and a passenger, Lt. Frank Lahm, above Fort Myer, Virginia, for one hour and 12 minutes.
1940 - Bugs Bunny made his debut in the Warner Bros. cartoon "A Wild Hare."
1940 - Billboard magazine published its first “music popularity chart” listing best-selling retail records (in first place was “I’ll Never Smile Again” recorded by Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra, with featured vocalist Frank Sinatra).
1953 - An armistice was signed ending the Korean War.
1960 - Vice President Richard Nixon was nominated for president at the Republican National Convention in Chicago.
1967 - In the wake of urban rioting, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed the Kerner Commission to assess the causes of the violence, the same day Black militant H. Rap Brown told a press conference in Washington that violence was “as American as cherry pie.”.
1974 - The House Judiciary Committee voted to impeach President Richard Nixon for obstructing justice in the Watergate case.
1980 - The deposed Shah of Iran died in Egypt at age 60.
1981 - Six-year-old Adam Walsh was abducted from a department store in Hollywood, Florida, and was later murdered. (His father, John Walsh, became a well-known crime victims' advocate.)
1995 - The Korean War Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C.
1996 - A pipe bomb exploded in an Atlanta park during the Olympic Games, killing one and injuring more than 100. (Anti-government extremist Eric Rudolph later pleaded guilty to the bombing, exonerating security guard Richard Jewell, who had been wrongly suspected.)
2003 - Comedian Bob Hope died at age 100.
2005 - Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian who'd plotted to bomb the Los Angeles airport on the eve of the millennium, was sentenced to 22 years in prison.
2015 - The Boy Scouts of America ended its blanket ban on gay adult leaders while allowing church-sponsored Scout units to maintain the exclusion for religious reasons.
2017 - New White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, in an interview published by The New Yorker, attacked chief of staff Reince Priebus and other White House officials in sometimes profane terms. (A day later, President Donald Trump announced that Priebus was being replaced by John Kelly. Scaramucci himself was ousted on July 31.)
2020 - The world’s biggest COVID-19 vaccine study began with the first of 30,000 planned volunteers helping to test shots created by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc.
Birthdays
28 - Winnie Harlow (model)
29 - Jordan Spieth (golfer)
32 - Cheyenne Kimball (singer)
32 - Kriti Sanon (actress)
32 - Indiana Evans (actress)
38 - Max Scherzer (baseball player)
38 - Taylor Schilling (actress)
39 - Blair Redford (actress)
39 - Heidi Gardner (actress/comedian)
42 - Dolph Ziggler (professional wrestler)
45 - Jonathan Rhys Meyers (actor)
45 - Martha Madison (actress)
46 - Seamus Dever (actor)
47 - Alex Rodriguez (baseball player)
48 - Pete Yorn (singer)
49 - Abe Cunningham (musician)
50 - Maya Rudolph (actress/comedian)
53 - Paul "Triple H" Levesque (professional wrestler)
54 - Julian McMahon (actor)
55 - Juliana Hatfield (singer)
55 - Stacy Dean Campbell (singer)
65 - Bill Engvall (comedian)
66 - Carol Leifer (actress/comedian)
68 - Roxanne Hart (actress)
73 - Maureen McGovern (singer)
74 - Peggy Fleming (figure skater)
75 - Betty Thomas (actress)
80 - John Pleshette (actor)
100 - Norman Lear (producer)
======================================
Today in Sports History - July 27
1918 - Brooklyn rookie Henry Heitman made his major league debut and his last major league appearance in the same day. He pitched four straight hits to the St. Louis Cardinals, left the game and never played again in the majors.
1921 - Baseball fan Reuben Berman sued the New York Giants, claiming he suffered mental and bodily distress after refusing to return a foul ball May 16th at the Polo Grounds. Berman was eventually rewarded $100.
1946 - Rudy York (Boston Red Sox) hit two grand slams and drove in 10 runs to lead the Red Sox over the St. Louis Browns, 13-6.
1983 - Gaylord Perry joins Nolan Ryan and Steve Carlton in the 3,500 career strikeout club.
1984 - Pete Rose passed Ty Cobb’s record for most singles in a career when he got his 3,503rd base hit.
1986 - Greg LeMond of the U.S. became the first non-European to capture the Tour de France cycling race.
1992 - Boston Celtics star Reggie Lewis died after collapsing on a Brandeis University basketball court during practice. He was 27 years old.
1992 - China's Fu Mingxia, only two weeks away from her 14th birthday, became the second youngest gold medalist in Olympic history when she won the women's 10-meter platform diving event.
1996 - Canadian Donovan Bailey ran the Men's 100 Meter Dash with a time of 9.84, setting a new world record. The previous record was 9.85 held by Leroy Burrell of the United States.
1997 - The Detroit Tigers retire Hal Newhouser's #16.
2001 - Deion Sanders announced his retirement from the NFL.
2003 - Lance Armstrong won his fifth consecutive Tour de France.
2021 - American gymnast Simone Biles pulled out of the gymnastics team competition at the Tokyo Olympics to focus on her mental well-being, saying she realized following a shaky vault that she wasn’t in the right headspace to compete; she was the latest high-profile athlete to discuss mental health struggles.
