On September 27th...

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1540 The Society of Jesus (Jesuits) was founded by Ignatius Loyola.

1557 Emperor Go-Nara of Japan died.

1590 Pope Urban VII died 13 days after being chosen as the Pope, making his reign the shortest papacy in history.

1601 King Louis XIII of France was born.

1651 Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria, died.

1660 Vincent de Paul, minister to the poor, died.

1700 Pope Innocent XII died.

1722 Samuel Adams, signer of the American Declaration of Independence, was born.

1777 British General William Howe occupied Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1787 The U.S. Constitution was submitted to the states for ratification.

1792 Caricaturist George Cruikshank was born.

1821 The Mexican Empire declared its independence from Spain.

1822 Jean-François Champollion announced that he has deciphered the Rosetta stone.

1825 The first passenger train in the world was pulled by a locomotive built by George Stephenson.

1827 Hiram Revels, the first black to to be elected to the U.S. Senate, was born.

1840 Alfred T. Mahan, American naval officer and historian, was born.
1840 Cartoonist Thomas Nast was born.

1864 The Battle of Pilot Knob (Missouri) was fought.

1876 Confederate General Braxton Bragg died.

1885 Magician Harry Blackstone was born.

1892 Book matches were patented by the Diamond Match Company.

1894 Aqueduct race track opened.

1896 U.S. Senator Sam Ervin was born.

1905 The physics journal Annalen der Physik published Albert Einstein's paper introducing the equation E=mc².

1908 The first Ford Model T left the Piquette Plant in Detroit, Michigan.

1911 Geologist Auguste Michel-Lévy died.

1914 King Carol I of Romania, died.

1917 Painter Edgar Degas died.

1919 The Democratic National Committee voted to allow female members.

1920 Actor William Conrad was born.
1920 Actress Jayne Meadows was born.

1921 Opera composer Engelbert Humperdinck died.

1928 The Nationalist Republic of China was recognized by the United States.

1933 Actor Greg Morris was born.

1934 Actor Wilford Brimley was born.

1938 The ocean liner Queen Elizabeth was launched at Glasgow.

1940 Germany, Italy, and Japan signed a mutual military aid pact.

1943 Musician Randy Bachman was born.

1944 Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson died.

1947 Singer Marvin Lee Aday, aka Meat Loaf, was born.

1954 The "Tonight Show," hosted by Steve Allen, premiered.

1956 A record-setting Bell X-2 crashed at Edwards Air Force Base in California; the pilot was killed.
1956 Mildred "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias, the most prominent female athlete of the early 20th century, died.

1958 Six junior and senior high schools in Norfolk, Virginia, were closed by "massive resistance" against integration.
1958 Hurricane Helene struck the North Carolina coast with 135 mph winds, torrential rains, and high tides.
1958 The Portuguese coastal liner Arnel ran aground in the Azores and its lifeboat broke apart on rocks, taking the lives of 27 persons.
1958 Singer Shaun Cassidy was born.

1960 Europe's first "moving sidealk" opened at Bank Station on the London (England) Underground.

1961 The James A. Garfield Monument was dedicated in Elberon, New Jersey.
1961 Sierra Leone was admitted as the 100th member of the United Nations.

1964 The findings of the Warren Commission were released.

1965 Actress Clara Bow died.

1968 "Hair" opened in London, England.

1972 Actress Gwyneth Paltrow was born.

1973 Barbra Streisand released "The Way We Were."

1979 The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was divided by Congress into the departments of Education and of Health and Human Services.

1981 Actor Robert Montgomery died.

1985 Actor Lloyd Nolan died.

1986 Cliff Burton, bassist in the group Metallica, died in a bus crash.

1987 NFL players went on strike.

1988 The National League for Democracy was founded in Burma.

1989 Sony purchased Columbia Pictures for $3.4 billion cash.

1990 A gunman held 33 people hostage in Berkeley, California, and killed 1.

1991 Oona Chaplin, daughter of Eugene O'Neill, died.

1993 Aviator James Doolittle died.

1994 Actress Ruth Niehaus died.

1996 The tanker Julie N. crashed into the Million Dollar Bridge in Portland, Maine, spilling thousands of gallons of oil.

1998 Google was launched.

2002 Timor-Leste (East Timor) joined the United Nations.

2003 Actor Donald O'Connor died.

2008 Zhai Zhigang became the first Chinese astronaut to perform a spacewalk, while flying on Shenzhou 7.

2009 Columnist William Safire died.

2010 Football player George Blanda died.

2011 Singer Johnny Mathis died.

2013 Nineteen persons were killed and 45 injured in a bus bombing in Peshawar, Pakistan.
2013 A refugee ship casized off the island of Java, killing at least 22 persons.
2013 Sixty persons were killed when a building collapsed in Mumbai, India.

2014 Fifty-seven persons died when Mount Ontake erupted in Japan.

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This page was last updated on October 05, 2018.