today.nukz.net: Almanac April 27

Edward Gibbon (27 April 1737 – 16 January 1794) was an English historian and Member of Parliament. His most important work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, was published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788. The Decline and Fall is known for the quality and irony of its prose, its use of primary sources, and its open criticism of organized religion.

Events

395 – Emperor Arcadius marries Aelia Eudoxia, daughter of the Frankish general Flavius Bauto. She becomes one of the more powerful Roman empresses of Late Antiquity.
1296 – First War of Scottish Independence: John Balliol's Scots army is defeated by an English army commanded by John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey at the Battle of Dunbar.
1509 – Pope Julius II places the Italian state of Venice under interdict.
1521 – Battle of Mactan: Explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines led by chief Lapu-Lapu.
1522 – Combined forces of Spain and the Papal States defeat a French and Venetian army at the Battle of Bicocca.
1539 – Re-founding of the city of Bogotá, New Granada (now Colombia), by Nikolaus Federmann and Sebastián de Belalcázar.
1565 – Cebu is established becoming the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.
1578 – Duel of the Mignons claims the lives of two favourites of Henry III of France and two favorites of Henry I, Duke of Guise.
1650 – The Battle of Carbisdale: A Royalist army from Orkney invades mainland Scotland but is defeated by a Covenanter army.
1667 – The blind and impoverished John Milton sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10.
1749 – First performance of Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks in Green Park, London.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Ridgefield: A British invasion force engages and defeats Continental Army regulars and militia irregulars at Ridgefield, Connecticut.
1805 – First Barbary War: United States Marines and Berbers attack the Tripolitan city of Derna (The "shores of Tripoli" part of the Marines' hymn).
1810 – Beethoven composes Für Elise.
1813 – War of 1812: United States troops capture the capital of Upper Canada in the Battle of York (present day Toronto, Canada).
1840 – Foundation stone for new Palace of Westminster, London, is laid by wife of Sir Charles Barry.
1861 – President of the United States Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.
1865 – The New York State Senate creates Cornell University as the state's land grant institution.
1865 – The steamboat SS Sultana, carrying 2,400 passengers, explodes and sinks in the Mississippi River, killing 1,700, most of whom are Union survivors of the Andersonville and Cahaba Prisons.
1904 – The Australian Labor Party becomes the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson.
1909 – Sultan of Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II is overthrown, and is succeeded by his brother, Mehmed V.
1911 – Following the resignation and death of William P. Frye, a compromise is reached to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the United States Senate.
1914 – Honduras becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
1927 – Carabineros de Chile (Chilean national police force and gendarmery) are created.
1936 – The United Auto Workers (UAW) gains autonomy from the American Federation of Labor.
1941 – World War II: German troops enter Athens.
1941 – World War II: The Communist Party of Slovenia, the Slovene Christian Socialists, the left-wing Slovene Sokols (also known as "National Democrats") and a group of progressive intellectuals establish the Liberation Front of the Slovenian People.
1945 – World War II: German troops are finally expelled from Finnish Lapland.
1945 – World War II: Benito Mussolini is arrested by Italian partisans in Dongo, while attempting escape disguised as a German soldier.
1950 – Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed formally segregating races.
1953 – Operation Moolah is initiated by General Mark W. Clark against Communist pilots.
1960 – Togo gains independence from French-administered UN trusteeship.
1961 – Sierra Leone is granted its independence from the United Kingdom, with Milton Margai as the first Prime Minister.
1967 – Expo 67 officially opens in Montreal, Canada with a large opening ceremony broadcast around the world. It opens to the public the next day.
1974 – 10,000 march in Washington, D.C., calling for the impeachment of US President Richard Nixon
1977 – 28 people are killed in the Guatemala City air disaster.
1978 – Former United States President Nixon aide John D. Ehrlichman is released from an Arizona prison after serving 18 months for Watergate-related crimes.
1981 – Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse.
1987 – The U.S. Department of Justice bars the Austrian President Kurt Waldheim from entering the United States, saying he had aided in the deportation and execution of thousands of Jews and others as a German Army officer during World War II.
1992 – The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, is proclaimed.
1992 – Betty Boothroyd becomes the first woman to be elected Speaker of the British House of Commons in its 700-year history.
1992 – Russia and 12 other former Soviet republics become members of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
1993 – All members of the Zambia national football team lose their lives in a plane crash off Libreville, Gabon in route to Dakar, Senegal to play a 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Senegal.
1994 – South African general election, 1994: The first democratic general election in South Africa, in which black citizens could vote. The Interim Constitution comes into force.
1996 – The 1996 Lebanon war ends.
2002 – The last successful telemetry from the NASA space probe Pioneer 10.
2005 – The superjumbo jet aircraft Airbus A380 makes its first flight from Toulouse, France.
2006 – Construction begins on the Freedom Tower for the new World Trade Center in New York City.
2007 – Estonian authorities remove the Bronze Soldier, a Soviet Red Army war memorial in Tallinn, amid political controversy with Russia.
2011 – The 2011 Super Outbreak of tornadoes devastates parts of the southeastern United States, especially the State of Alabama, killing nearly 300.

Births

1623 – Johann Adam Reinken, German organist and composer (d. 1722)
1650 – Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel (d. 1714)
1701 – Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia (d. 1773)
1718 – Thomas Lewis, Irish-American surveyor and lawyer (d. 1790)
1724 – Thomas Gardner, American politician and soldier (d. 1775)
1737 – Edward Gibbon, English historian (d. 1794)
1748 – Adamantios Korais, Greek scholar (d. 1833)
1755 – Marc-Antoine Parseval, French mathematician (d. 1836)
1759 – Mary Wollstonecraft, English author and philosopher (d. 1797)
1791 – Samuel Morse, American inventor and painter, co-inventor of the Morse code (d. 1872)
1806 – Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies (d. 1878)
1812 – Friedrich von Flotow, German composer (d. 1883)
1812 – William W. Snow, American politician (d. 1886)
1820 – Herbert Spencer, English philosopher (d. 1903)
1822 – Ulysses S. Grant, American general and politician, 18th President of the United States (d. 1885)
1840 – Edward Whymper, English mountaineer (d. 1911)
1848 – Otto I of Bavaria (d. 1916)
1850 – Hans Hartwig von Beseler, German general (d. 1921)
1853 – Jules Lemaître, French critic and dramatist (d. 1914)
1857 – Theodor Kittelsen, Norwegian artist (d. 1914)
1862 – Rudolph Schildkraut, Turkish-American actor (d. 1930)
1878 – Frank Alvin Gotch, American wrestler (d. 1917)
1888 – Florence La Badie, Canadian actress (d. 1917)
1893 – Draža Mihailovic, Serbian-Yugoslav military commander (d. 1946)
1893 – Allen Sothoron, American baseball player (d. 1939)
1894 – George Petty, American artist (d. 1975)
1894 – Nicolas Slonimsky, Russian composer, conductor, musician, critic, and author (d. 1995)
1896 – Rogers Hornsby, American baseball player (d. 1963)
1896 – Sir William Hudson, Australian engineer, head of construction for the Snowy Mountains Scheme (d. 1978)
1899 – Walter Lantz, American cartoonist (d. 1994)
1902 – Tiemoko Garan Kouyaté, French communist (d. 1942)
1903 – Horace Stoneham, American baseball team owner (d. 1990)
1904 – Cecil Day-Lewis, Irish poet and writer (d. 1972)
1904 – Nikos Zachariadis, Greek politician (d. 1973)
1906 – Yórgos Theotokás, Greek novelist (d. 1966)
1910 – Chiang Ching-kuo, Chinese-Taiwanese politician, President of the Republic of China (d. 1988)
1911 – Bruno Beger, German anthropologist (d. 2009)
1912 – Jacques de Bourbon Busset, French novelist, essayist, and politician (d. 2001)
1912 – Zohra Segal, Indian actress and dancer
1913 – Philip Hauge Abelson, American physicist (d. 2004)
1913 – Luz Long, German athlete (d. 1943)
1916 – Enos Slaughter, American baseball player (d. 2002)
1918 – Sten Rudholm, Swedish jurist (d. 2008)
1920 – Guido Cantelli, Italian conductor (d. 1956)
1920 – Edwin Morgan, Scottish poet (d. 2010)
1920 – Mark Krasnosel'skii, Ukrainian-Soviet mathematician (d. 1997)
1920 – James R. Mann, American attorney and politician (d. 2010)
1921 – Robert Dhéry, French actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 2004)
1921 – John Stott, English theologian and clergyman (d. 2011)
1922 – Martin Gray, Polish Holocaust survivor and author
1922 – Jack Klugman, American actor
1927 – Coretta Scott King, American civil rights activist, wife of Martin Luther King, Jr. (d. 2006)
1927 – Joe Moakley, American politician (d. 2001)
1927 – Sheila Scott, English aviator (d. 1988)
1927 – Tato Bores, Argentinean comedian (d. 1996)
1931 – Igor Oistrakh, Ukrainian violinist
1932 – Anouk Aimée, French actress
1932 – Pik Botha, South African politician
1932 – Maxine Brown, American singer (The Browns)
1932 – Casey Kasem, American actor and radio personality
1932 – Gian-Carlo Rota, Italian-American mathematician and philosopher (d. 1999)
1935 – Theodoros Angelopoulos, Greek director and screenwriter (d. 2012)
1936 – Geoffrey Shovelton, English singer and illustrator
1937 – Sandy Dennis, American actress (d. 1992)
1937 – Robin Eames, Irish clergyman
1938 – Earl Anthony, American bowler (d. 2001)
1938 – Alain Caron, French-Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1986)
1939 – Judy Carne, English actress and comedian
1939 – Stanislaw Dziwisz, Polish Cardinal
1939 – Jerry Mercer, Canadian drummer (Mashmakhan and April Wine)
1941 – Jennings Michael Burch, American author
1941 – Lee Roy Jordan, American football player
1941 – Pat Choate, American economist
1942 – Jim Keltner, American drummer (Traveling Wilburys, Plastic Ono Band, and Delaney & Bonnie and Friends)
1943 – Helmut Marko, Austrian race car driver
1944 – Michael Fish, English meteorologist
1944 – Cuba Gooding, Sr., American singer (The Main Ingredient)
1944 – Herb Pedersen, American singer-songwriter and musician (The Desert Rose Band)
1945 – August Wilson, American playwright (d. 2005)
1945 – Helen Hodgman, Australian novelist
1947 – Ann Peebles, American singer-songwriter
1947 – George Kenneth Butterfield, American politician
1947 – Pete Ham, Welsh singer-songwriter and musician (Badfinger) (d. 1975)
1947 – Keith Magnuson, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2003)
1948 – Frank Abagnale, American security consultant
1948 – Kate Pierson, American singer-songwriter and musician (The B-52's and NiNa)
1948 – Amrit Kumar Bohara, Nepalese politician
1949 – Grant Chapman, Australian politician
1951 – Ace Frehley, American musician and songwriter (Kiss, Wicked Lester, and Frehley's Comet)
1952 – George Gervin, American basketball player
1952 – Ari Vatanen, Finnish race car driver
1952 – Larry Elder, American political commentator
1953 – Arielle Dombasle, French singer, actress, model, and director
1954 – Herman Edwards, American football player and coach
1955 – Gudrun Berend, German hurdler (d. 2011)
1956 – Douglas P., English musician, photographer, and actor (Death in June and Crisis)
1956 – Bryan Harvey, American singer-songwriter and musician (House of Freaks) (d. 2006)
1957 – Eric Bristow, English darts player
1957 – Rosanna Scotto, American news anchor
1957 – Michel Barrette, Canadian actor and comedian
1957 – Willie Upshaw, American baseball player
1957 – Adrian Utley, English musician (Portishead)
1959 – Sheena Easton, Scottish singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
1959 – Louis Lortie, French-Canadian pianist
1959 – Neil Pearson, English actor
1960 – Mike Krushelnyski, MCanadian ice hockey player
1961 – Andy Schlafly, American attorney and activist, founder of Conservapedia
1962 – Ángel Comizzo, Argentine footballer
1962 – James LeGros, American actor
1962 – Im Sang-soo, South Korean director and screenwriter
1963 – Cali Timmins, Canadian actress
1963 – Russell T Davies, Welsh producer and screenwriter
1963 – Ruth Glick American writer
1964 – Michael Mahonen, Canadian actor, director, and screenwriter
1964 – Lisa Wilcox, American actress
1966 – Matt Reeves, American writer, director and producer
1967 – Aki Avni, Israeli actor
1967 – Tommy Smith, Scottish jazz musician, composer, and educator
1967 – Erik Thomson, Australian actor
1967 – Jason Whitlock, American sportswriter
1967 – Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange
1968 – Dana Milbank, American reporter and columnist
1969 – Cory Booker, American politician
1969 – Darcey Bussell, British ballerina
1969 – Grahame Cheney, Australian boxer
1969 – Mica Paris, English singer and actress
1970 – Kylie Travis, English actress and model
1971 – Tess Daly, English television presenter
1972 – Nigel Barker, English photographer
1972 – Almedin Civa, Bosnian footballer
1972 – Mehmet Kurtulus, German actor
1972 – David Lascher, American actor
1972 – Maura West, American actress
1973 – Duško Adamovic, Serbian footballer
1973 – Andre Gower, American actor
1973 – Sébastien Lareau, French-Canadian tennis player
1974 – Frank Catalanotto, American baseball player
1974 – Johnny Devine, Canadian wrestler
1974 – Richard Johnson, Australian footballer
1975 – Rabih Abdullah, American football player
1975 – Chris Carpenter, American baseball player
1975 – Pedro Feliz, Dominican baseball player
1976 – Isobel Campbell, Scottish singer-songwriter, musician, and composer (Belle & Sebastian)
1976 – Sally Hawkins, English actress
1976 – Walter Pandiani, Uruguayan footballer
1976 – Faisal Saif, Indian director, critic, and writer
1976 – Olaf Tufte, Norwegian rower
1977 – Khalid Zoubaa, French runner
1979 – Will Boyd, American musician (Evanescence, American Princes, and The Visitors)
1979 – Natasha Chokljat, Australian netballer
1980 – Sybille Bammer, Austrian tennis player
1980 – Talitha Cummins, Australian journalist
1980 – Christian Lara, Ecuadorian footballer
1980 – Ananda Mikola, Indonesian race car driver
1981 – Fabrizio Faniello, Maltese singer-songwriter
1981 – Joey Gathright, American baseball player
1981 – Patrik Gerrbrand, Swedish footballer
1982 – Katrina Johnson, American actress
1982 – Alexander Widiker, German rugby player
1983 – Ari Graynor, American actress
1984 – Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Canadian ice hockey player
1984 – Daniel Holdsworth, Australian rugby player
1984 – Patrick Stump, American singer-songwriter, musician, and producer (Fall Out Boy and Arma Angelus)
1985 – José António de Miranda da Silva Júnior, Brazilian footballer
1986 – Elena Risteska, Macedonian singer-songwriter
1986 – Dinara Safina, Russian tennis player
1987 – Taylor Chorney, American ice hockey player
1987 – William Moseley, English actor
1987 – Elliott Shriane, Australian speed skater
1987 – Emma Taylor-Isherwood, Canadian actress
1988 – Kris Thackray, English footballer
1988 – Semyon Varlamov, Russian ice hockey player
1989 – Lars Bender, German footballer
1989 – Sven Bender, German footballer
1989 – Emily Rios, American actress
1990 – Martin Kelly, English footballer
1991 – Jennifer Braun, German singer
1991 – Isaac Cuenca, Spanish footballer
1992 – Allison Iraheta, American singer
1994 – Elmo Magalona, Filipino actor and singer

Deaths

630 – Ardashir III of Persia
1272 – Zita, Italian saint (b.1212)
1404 – Philip II, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1342)
1463 – Isidore of Kiev (b. 1385)
1521 – Ferdinand Magellan, Portuguese explorer (b. 1480)
1530 – Jacopo Sannazaro, Italian poet (b. 1458)
1599 – Maeda Toshiie, Japanese general (b. 1538)
1605 – Pope Leo XI (b. 1535)
1613 – Robert Abercromby, Scottish missionary (b. 1532)
1625 – Mori Terumoto, Japanese warrior (b. 1553)
1656 – Jan van Goyen, Dutch painter (b. 1596)
1694 – John George IV, Elector of Saxony (b. 1668)
1695 – John Trenchard, English statesman (b. 1640)
1702 – Jean Bart, French admiral (b. 1651)
1782 – William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, English politician (b. 1710)
1813 – Zebulon Pike, American frontiersman and explorer (b. 1779)
1873 – William Charles Macready, English actor (b. 1793)
1882 – Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist (b. 1803)
1896 – Henry Parkes, English statesman and politician (b. 1815)
1915 – John Labatt, Canadian businessman and brewer (b. 1838)
1915 – Alexander Scriabin, Russian composer (b. 1872)
1921 – Arthur Mold, English cricketer (b. 1863)
1932 – Hart Crane, American writer (b. 1899)
1936 – Karl Pearson, English mathematician (b. 1857)
1937 – Antonio Gramsci, Italian Communist, writer, and politician (b. 1891)
1941 – Penelope Delta, Greek author (b. 1874)
1952 – Guido Castelnuovo, Italian mathematician (b. 1865)
1961 – Roy Del Ruth, American director (b. 1893)
1962 – A. K. Fazlul Huq, Bengali statesman (b. 1873)
1965 – Edward R. Murrow, American journalist (b. 1908)
1967 – William Douglas Cook,New Zealand founder of Eastwoodhill Arboretum and Pukeiti (b. 1884)
1969 – René Barrientos, Bolivian politician, President of Bolivia (b. 1919)
1970 – Arthur Shields, Irish actor (b. 1896)
1972 – Kwame Nkrumah, Ghanaian leader, 1st President of Ghana (b. 1909)
1973 – Carlos Menditeguy, Argentine race car driver (b. 1914)
1977 – Stanley Adams, American actor (b. 1915)
1981 – Münir Nurettin Selçuk, Turkish tenor and musician (b. 1968)
1988 – David Scarboro, English actor (b. 1968)
1988 – Fred Bear, American bow-hunter (b. 1902)
1989 – Konosuke Matsushita, Japanese industrialist, founder of the Panasonic Corporation (b. 1894)
1992 – Olivier Messiaen, French composer (b. 1908)
1992 – Gerard K. O'Neill, American physicist (b. 1927)
1995 – Willem Frederik Hermans, Dutch writer (b. 1921)
1996 – William Colby, American director of the Central Intelligence Agency (b. 1920)
1996 – Gilles Grangier, French director and screenwriter (b. 1911)
1998 – Carlos Castaneda, Peruvian writer (b. 1925)
1998 – John Bassett, Canadian publisher (b. 1915)
1998 – Dominique Aury, French novelist (b. 1907)
1998 – Browning Ross, American runner (b. 1924)
1999 – Al Hirt, American trumpeter and bandleader (b. 1922)
1999 – Rolf Landauer, American physicist and electrical engineer (b. 1927)
1999 – Dale C. Thomson, Canadian professor and historian (b. 1923)
2000 – Vicki Sue Robinson, American actress and singer (b. 1954)
2002 – George Alec Effinger, American author (b. 1947)
2002 – Ruth Handler, American businesswoman, created the Barbie doll (b. 1916)
2002 – Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, Swiss industrialist and art collector (b. 1921)
2005 – Red Horner, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1909)
2006 – Julia Thorne, American writer, ex-wife of John Kerry (b. 1944)
2007 – Mstislav Rostropovich, Russian cellist and conductor (b. 1927)
2008 – Marios Tokas, Cypriot composer (b. 1954)
2009 – Frankie Manning, American dancer and choreographer (b. 1914)
2009 – Feroz Khan, Indian actor (b. 1939)
2009 – Woo Seung-yeon, South Korean actress and model (b. 1983)
2011 – Marian Mercer, American actress(b. 1935)
2012 – Bill Skowron, American baseball player (b.1930)