May 27
1703 Tsar Peter the Great founds the city of
Saint Petersburg.
1849 The Great Hall of
Euston station in London is opened.
1883
Alexander III is crowned Tsar of Russia.
1896 The F4-strength
1896 St. LouisEast St. Louis tornado hits in St. Louis, Missouri, and East St. Louis, Illinois, killing at least 255 people and causing $2.9 billion in damage (1997 US dollars ($38.70 in 1896 dollars)).
1907
Bubonic plague breaks out in San Francisco.
1919 The
NC-4 aircraft arrives in Lisbon after completing the first transatlantic flight.
1927 The Ford Motor Company ceases manufacture of the
Ford Model T and begins to retool plants to make the
Ford Model A.
1930 The 1,046 feet (319 m)
Chrysler Building in New York City, the tallest man-made structure at the time, opens to the public.
1933 The Walt Disney Company releases the cartoon
Three Little Pigs, with its hit song
"Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?"
1937 In California, the
Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrian traffic, creating a vital link between San Francisco and Marin County, California.
1940 World War II: In the
Le Paradis massacre, 99 soldiers from a Royal Norfolk Regiment unit are shot after surrendering to German troops; two survive.
1941 World War II: The German battleship
Bismarck is sunk in the North Atlantic killing almost 2,100 men.
1958 The
F-4 Phantom II makes its first flight.
1962 The
Centralia, Pennsylvania mine fire is ignited in the town's landfill above a coal mine. As of 2015, the fire continues to burn. It has burned for more than 53 years. At its current rate, it could burn for over 250 more years.
1965 Vietnam War: American warships begin the first bombardment of
National Liberation Front targets within South Vietnam.
1967 The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier
USS John F. Kennedy is launched by Jacqueline Kennedy and her daughter Caroline.
1975
Dibbles Bridge coach crash near Grassington, in North Yorkshire, England, kills 33 the highest ever death toll in a road accident in the United Kingdom.
1995 - In Culpeper, Virginia, the actor Christopher Reeve is
paralyzed from the neck down after falling from his horse in a riding competition.
1997 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that
Paula Jones can pursue her sexual harassment lawsuit against President Bill Clinton while he is in office.
1998 Oklahoma City bombing:
Michael Fortier is sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $200,000 for failing to warn authorities about the terrorist plot.
Births
1794 Cornelius Vanderbilt; 1819 Julia Ward Howe; 1837 Wild Bill Hickok; 1894 Dashiell Hammett; 1909 Dolores Hope (wife of Bob Hope); 1911 Hubert Humphrey; 1911 Vincent Price; 1912 John Cheever, Sam Snead; 1915 Herman Wouk; 1922 Christopher Lee; 1923 Henry Kissinger, Sumner Redstone; 1925 Tony Hillerman; 1935 Lee Meriwether; 1936 Louis Gossett, Jr.; 1939 Don Williams; 1945 Bruce Cockburn; 1948 Pete Sears; 1955 Richard Schiff; 1957 Siouxsie Sioux; 1961 Peri Gilpin; 1964 Adam Carolla; 1965 Todd Bridges )'Willis' on "Diff'rent Strokes"); 1968 Jeff Bagwell; 1970 Joseph Fiennes; 1971 Paul Bettany; 1971 Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes; 1975 Andrι 3000; 1975 Jamie Oliver
Deaths
1831 Jedediah Smith; 1840 Niccolς Paganini; 1949 Robert Ripley (Believe it, or not); 1960 James Montgomery Flagg; 1964 Jawaharlal Nehru; 1969
Jeffrey Hunter; 1992 Uncle Charlie Osborne; 2006 Paul Gleason; 2011 Jeff Conaway; 2011 Gil Scott-Heron; 2012 Johnny Tapia; 2013 Bill Pertwee