“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.”
— Marcus Garvey

 

April 27 is the 117th day of the year (118th in leap years). 248 days remain until the end of the year. This day also celebrates the independence of Sierra Leone from the United Kingdom (1961) and Togo from France (1960).

 

History is everything. If you want to wipe the memory of a people, get rid of their history first. That’s why having some knowledge of past occurrences is imperative. Find out some important events that happened today in history.

 

Historical events

1124 — David I becomes King of Scots.

1509 — The Warrior Pope Julius II excommunicates the Italian state of Venice.

1565 — The first Spanish settlement in Philippines forms at Cebu City.

1662 — The Netherlands and France sign a military covenant.

1667 — Blind and impoverished, poet John Milton sells the copyright of “Paradise Lost” for £10.

1810 — Ludwig van Beethoven composes his famous piano piece “Für Elise”.

1840 — Wife of Sir Charles Barry lays the foundation stone for new Palace of Westminster, London.

 

27th April in the 20th Century

1904 — The Australian Labour Party under Prime Minister Chris Watson becomes the first Labour government in the world.

1908 — The fourth modern Olympic games opens in London.

1909 — Sultan of Turkey, Abdul Hamid II, is overthrown.

1910 — The Belgian parliament rejects a socialist motion for general voting rights.

1941 — The Nazis take and occupy Athens in Greece.

1945 — World War II: The Völkischer Beobachter, the newspaper of the Nazi Party, ceases publication.

1946 — The first radar installed aboard a commercial ship.

1953 — Wrestler Freddie Blassie coins the term “Pencil neck geek”.

1956 — Heavyweight boxing champion Rocky Marciano retires undefeated from boxing.

1958 — Scientists around the world, including the Nobel Prize Winner Dr Albert Schweitzer, ask politicians to stop nuclear bomb tests.

1959 — The last Canadian missionary leaves the People’s Republic of China.

1960 — The first atomic powered electric-drive submarine, Tullibee, launches.

1960 — The first President of South Korea, Syngman Rhee, resigns.

 

More dates

1960 — Togo, formerly French Togo, declares independence from French administration.

1961 — NASA launches Explorer 11 into Earth orbit to study gamma rays.

1961 — Sierra Leone in West African gains independence, after more than 150 years of British colonial rule.

1964 — Musician and Beatle John Lennon’s “In His Own Write” is published in the US.

1971 — Eight members of the Welsh Language Society face the accusation of conspiring to damage, remove or destroy English language road signs in Wales. The Society wishes to preserve the Welsh Language, and part of that was to include all signs in Wales to be bilingual.

1972 — Apollo 16 returns to Earth.

1974 — The USA calls for the impeachment of President Nixon, with a march by thousands of protesters.

1982 — Trial of John W Hinckley Jr, the attempted assassin of US President Ronald Reagan, begins.

1992 — Betty Boothroyd becomes the first woman to be elected Speaker of the British House of Commons in its 700-year history.

1994 — Graeme Obree bicycles world record time (52,713 km).

1994 — South Africans vote in the country’s first multiracial parliamentary elections. Nelson Mandela of the ANC is voted by a landslide to be the next president of South Africa and head the new coalition government.

1994 — Former US President Richard Nixon buried in Nixon Library in California.

 

27th April in the 21st Century

2005 — The Airbus A380 makes its maiden test flight in Toulouse, France. The Superjumbo is the largest passenger airliner in the world.

2008 — A 73-year-old Austrian, Josef Fritzl, is arrested on suspicion of keeping his daughter locked in a cellar for 24 years, and fathering seven children with her.

2011 — US President Obama releases his long-form birth certificate from the US state of Hawaii to quell “birther” conspiracy theorists.

2012 — After only two months of being in office, Romania’s government falls due to a no-confidence vote. The president ousts Prime Minister Mihai Razvan Ungureanu and replaces him with Victor Ponta. The no-confidence vote came after the opposition seized on public anger over salary cuts and raised taxes.

2014 — The Vatican declares Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII as saints. This was the first time in history that two popes are canonised at the same time. A crowd of thousands gathered to hear the news.

2014 — Singer Ariana Grande’s releases first single from her second debut album. “Problem” features Iggy Azalea.

2014 — “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” late-night talk and news show fronted by comedian John Oliver premieres on HBO.

2018 — Historic Korean summit, Supreme Leader and Dictator of North Korea Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in of South Korea agree to officially end the Korean war and rid the peninsula of nuclear weapons.