Major Events From This day in History May 27th

 

1936 England RMS Queen Mary

1936 : The Cunard liner RMS Queen Mary leaves Southampton on her maiden voyage to New York with more than 1800 passengers.

1941 World War II Bismarck

1941 : The German battleship Bismarck is sunk in the Atlantic by the Royal Naval ships Dorsetshire, King George V and Rodney after it had been damaged by torpedoes dropped by British aircraft from HMS Ark Royal.

1923 France First Le Mans 24 hour race

1923 : The first Le Mans 24-Hour race ends with a win for Andre Lagache and Renee Leonard covering 1,372.928 miles in a Chenard-Walker car. The latest race run in 2007 is won by Frank Biela, Emanuele Pirro and Marco Werner covering 3129.75 miles in an Audi R10.

1937 U.S.A. Golden Gate Bridge

1937 : Golden Gate Bridge connecting San Francisco and Marin County, California is opened to pedestrian traffic and more than 200,000 pedestrians walked across on opening day. The next day the Golden Gate Bridge is opened to vehicular traffic.

1922 U.S.A. Checks

1922 : The increasing use of checks has led to a larger number of arrests by the police for people issuing fraudulent checks and banks have decided to try and halt this problem by only issuing checks for customers who are upstanding citizens.

1943 U.S.A. The Ballpoint Pen

1943 : The Ballpoint pen, is patented in America by Hungarian Laszlo Biro.

1950 U.S.A. Frank Sinatra

1950 : Frank Sinatra made his TV debut on NBC's "Star-Spangled Review." He went on to be one of the most successful and recognizable figures in music history.

1955 British General Election

1955 : The British General Election is won by the Tories under Sir Anthony Eden.

1963 Kenya Jomo Kenyatta

1963 : The Kenya African Nation Union, wins the country's first general election and the leader of the party Jomo Kenyatta will become Kenya's first premier.

1964 India Jawaharlal Nehru Dies

1964 : Jawaharlal Nehru the founder of modern India and prime minister, dies at the age of 74.

1971 Sicily Mount Etna

1971 : Walls of Lava are threatening two towns in Sicily as they continue towards the towns of Sciara and Giarre. This is the 54th day Mount Etna has been erupting and many experts are predicting a further major eruption due to the increased lava flow and smoke.

1989 S&H Green Stamps

1989 : S&H Green stamps have been part of the retail landscape for over 50 years but the loss of it's largest customer Publix Supermarkets in Florida could well be the final nail in it's coffin this week. S&H Green Stamps has been in existence for 94 years and it's heyday in the 1960s when it was an important part of the retailing industry and very few people did not collect the Green Stamps to trade back for toasters and other gadgets is now passed due to many things ranging from the increase in discount coupons to the change in work patterns including more women working.

1994 Solzhenitsyn Returns To Russia

1994 : After 20 years of exile in the United States the dissident Nobel Prize-winning author Alexander Solzhenitsyn returns to his native Russia.

1995 U.S.A. Christopher Reeve

1995 : Actor Christopher Reeve best known for his Superman Movies is paralyzed when thrown from his horse during a jumping event in Charlottesville, Virginia.

1996 Rwanda Tutsis

1996 : 2 years after the large scale massacre of Tutsis in Rwanda the problems in Rwanda are flaring up again and this time with the Tutsis in power it is them who committing the slaughter on the Hutus. The peace in Rwanda is fragile and now with the minority Tutsis in power and exacting revenge this could again turn into a civil war where the innocents from both sides will be those losing their lives. The United Nations is hoping a larger force of peacekeepers will help but when a country is on a cycle of destruction of its own people this becomes a tall order.

1997 Tornado Jarrell, Texas

1997 : An F5 tornado (winds Greater Than 260 MPH) and almost 800 feet wide strikes Jarrell, Texas, destroying the town and killing 27 people.

1999 Netherland Slobodan Milosevic

1999 : The Hague war crimes tribunal indicted Slobodan Milosevic for crimes against humanity and genocide holding the Yugoslav president personally responsible for the horrors in Kosovo.

2000 Scotland GM Crops

2000 : Scottish farmers who accidentally planted Advanta genetically modified Rapeseed have been advised by MAFF to dig up the crop as under EU rules, the GM crops produced from the seed cannot be marketed within Europe. They are now seeking compensation from Advanta who have apologized for providing GM contaminated seed.

2005 Pakistan Suicide Bomber Attacks Shrine

2005 : A suicide bomber attacked the Bari Imam shrine created a blast that killed over eighteen people and injuring another fifty. There were hundreds of Shia Muslims at the shrine outside of Islamabad celebrating the end of a festival.

2006 Indonesia Earthquake

2006 : A 6.3-magnitude earthquake in the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta, killed at least 5,800 people, and leaves an estimated 1.5 million homeless.

2008 China Earthquake Aftershocks

2008 : Following the May 12th Earthquake a new series of aftershocks measured as high as magnitude 5.7 have struck the area once again destroying an additional 420,000 homes. The official death toll from the original quake in Sichuan province is 67,183 with a further 20,000 still missing. Even before these new aftershocks latest estimates are that more than five million people are homeless since the earthquake.

2008 United States Director Pollack Dies

2008 : Famous director and producer Sydney Pollack died at the age of seventy-three from cancer. The Oscar-winning director died surrounded by family only ten months after being diagnosed with cancer. He had directed such films as Out of Africa, Tootsie, and The Firm.

2009 Mike Tyson's Daughter Dies

2009 : Famous boxer Mike Tyson's four-year-old daughter died after an accident at home. His daughter, Exodus, had been found with a treadmill cable wrapped around her throat a few days prior to her death and was in the hospital on life support. Tyson was in Las Vegas when the accident happened but came home when he heard news of it.

2011 Actor Jeff Conway Dies

2011 : Sixty-year old actor, Jeff Conway, died after his family made the decision to take him off of life support after being in an induced coma for many days. Conway was famous for playing Kenickie in the movie musical Grease, as well as starring in the television show Taxi. Conway had struggled with alcohol and drug addiction throughout his life which he claimed began after he incurred a back injury while filming Grease.

2012 Anti-Government Protesters Gather in Casablanca

2012 : Tens of thousands of people gathered to protest the government in Casablanca, Morocco. The demonstrators were angry that Prime Minister Benkirane had failed to deliver reforms after a new government was put into office in January.

2013 Largest Flag Made in Romania

2013 : The town of Clinceni in Romania has claimed the Guinness World Record for largest flag ever made. The flag measured 1,145 feet by 744 feet and weighed five tons, taking up seven acres of field. It was estimated that forty-four miles of thread was needed to complete the project.

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