April 27th in History

Michael Dobson | April 27

Walter Lantz, creator of Woody Woodpecker, was born April 27, 1899

Today in History

  • Blind and impoverished, poet John Milton sells the copyright to Paradise Lost for £10 (1667)
  • US Marines attack the shores of Tripoli (1805)
  • US President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus (1861)
  • Benito Mussolini is caught by Italian partisans while trying to flee the country (1945)
  • Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse (1981)
  • The last successful telemetry is received from Pioneer 10 (2002)

Birthdays

  • Edward Gibbon, historian (1737)
  • Mary Wollstonecraft, feminist and author (1759)
  • Samuel Morse, code developer (1791)
  • Ulysses S. Grant, general and president (1822)
  • George Petty, pin-up painter (1894)
  • Rogers Hornsby, baseball player, coach, and manager (1896)
  • Ludwig Bemelmans, author and illustrator (1898)
  • Walter Lantz, animator, creator of Woody Woodpecker (1899)
  • Enos Slaughter, baseball player (1916)
  • Jack Klugman, actor (1922)
  • Tim LaHaye, minister and author (1926)
  • Coretta Scott King, activist and author (1927)
  • Anouk Aimée, actress (1932)
  • Casey Kasem, radio host and voice artist (1932)
  • Sandy Dennis, actress (1937)
  • Judy Carne, actress (1939)
  • Lee Roy Jordan, football player (1941)
  • Cuba Gooding, Sr., lead singer of The Main Ingredient (1944)
  • August Wilson, playwright (1945)
  • Ace Frehley, KISS guitarist (1951)
  • Eric Schmidt, Google chairman (1955)
  • Sheena Easton, singer-songwriter (1959)
  • Dana Milbank, columnist (1968)
  • Cory Booker, US senator (1969)

Deaths

  • Ferdinand Magellan, explorer (1521)
  • Zebulon Pike, general and explorer (1813)
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson, poet (1882)
  • John Labatt, brewer (1915)
  • Hart Crane, poet (1932)
  • Edward R. Murrow, radio and television journalist (1965)
  • 松下 幸之助  (Konosuke Matsushita), founder of Panasonic (1989)
  • Gerard O’Neill, physicist (1992)
  • William Colby, CIA director (1996)
  • Carlos Castaneda, mystic and author (1998)
  • Al Hirt, trumpet player (1999)
  • George Alec Effinger, science fiction writer (2002)
  • Ruth Handler, creator of the Barbie® doll (2002)
  • Red Horner, hockey player (2005)
  • Мстисла́в Ростропо́вич (Mstislav Rostropovich), cellist and conductor (2007)

Holidays and Celebrations

  • Day of the Uprising Against the Occupying Forces (Slovenia)
  • Freedom Day (South Africa — UnFreedom Day is also celebrated informally)
  • Independence Day (Sierra Leone, Togo)
  • King’s Day (Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten — celebrated April 26 if April 27 falls on a Sunday)
  • National War Veterans’ Day (Finland)
Informal and made-up holidays include Babe Ruth Day, Mantanzas Mule Day, Morse Code Day, National Prime Rib Day, and Tell a Story Day.
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April 27 is the 117th day of the year (118th in leap years). There are 248 days remaining until the end of the year.