February 27

What happened that day?

• 2015: Assassination of Boris Nemtsov occurs.
• 2013: Five people (including the perpetrator) are killed and five others injured in a shooting at a factory in Menznau, Switzerland.
• 2010: An earthquake measuring 8.8 on the moment magnitude scale strikes central parts of Chile leaving over 500 victims, and thousands injured. The quake triggered a tsunami which struck Hawaii shortly after.
• 2007: The Chinese Correction: The Shanghai Stock Exchange falls 9%, the largest drop in ten years.
• 2004: Shoko Asahara, the leader of the Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo, is sentenced to death for masterminding the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attack
• 2004: A bombing of a Superferry by Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines' worst terrorist attack kills 116.
• 2002: Godhra train burning: A Muslim mob torches a train returning from Ayodhya, killing 59 Hindu pilgrims.
• 2002: [Ryanair](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryanair) Flight 296 catches fire at London Stansted Airport. Subsequent investigations criticize Ryanair's handling of the evacuation.
• 1991: Gulf War: U.S. President George H. W. Bush announces that "Kuwait is liberated".
• 1988: [Sumgait](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumgait) pogrom: The Armenian community in Sumgait, Azerbaijan is targeted in a violent pogrom.
• 1976: The formerly Spanish territory of Western Sahara, under the auspices of the Polisario Front declares independence as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
• 1971: Doctors in the first Dutch abortion clinic (the Mildredhuis in Arnhem) start performing aborti provocati.
• 1964: The Government of Italy asks for help to keep the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over.
• 1963: The Dominican Republic receives its first democratically elected president, Juan Bosch, since the end of the dictatorship led by Rafael Trujillo.
• 1962: Two dissident Republic of Vietnam Air Force pilots bomb the Independence Palace in Saigon in a failed attempt to assassinate South Vietnam President Ngô Đình Diệm.
• 1961: The first congress of the Spanish Trade Union Organisation is inaugurated.
• 1951: The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting Presidents to two terms, is ratified.
• 1943: In Berlin, the Gestapo arrest 1,800 Jewish men with German wives, leading to the Rosenstrasse protest.
• 1943: The Smith Mine #3 in Bearcreek, Montana, explodes, killing 74 men.
• 1942: World War II: During the Battle of the [Java Sea](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_Sea), an Allied strike force is defeated by a Japanese task force in the Java Sea in the Dutch East Indies.
• 1940: Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discover carbon-14.
• 1939: United States labor law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that sit-down strikes violate property owners' rights and are therefore illegal.
• 1933: Reichstag fire: Germany's parliament building in Berlin, the Reichstag, is set on fire; Marinus van der Lubbe, a young Dutch Communist claims responsibility. The Nazis used the fire to solidify their power and eliminate the communists as political rivals.
• 1922: A challenge to the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, allowing women the right to vote, is rebuffed by the Supreme Court of the United States in Leser v. Garnett.
• 1921: The International Working Union of Socialist Parties is founded in Vienna.
• 1902: Second Boer War: Australian soldiers Harry "Breaker" Morant and Peter Handcock are executed in Pretoria after being convicted of war crimes.
• 1900: Fußball-Club Bayern München is founded.
• 1900: The British Labour Party is founded.
• 1900: Second [Boer](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Boer) War: In South Africa, British military leaders receive an unconditional notice of surrender from Boer General Piet Cronjé at the Battle of Paardeberg.
• 1898: King George I of Greece survives an assassination attempt.
• 1881: First Boer War: The Battle of Majuba Hill takes place.
• 1870: The current flag of Japan is first adopted as the national flag for Japanese merchant ships.
• 1864: American Civil War: The first Northern prisoners arrive at the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia.
• 1861: Russian troops fire on a crowd in Warsaw protesting against Russian rule over Poland, killing five protesters.
• 1860: Abraham Lincoln makes a speech at Cooper Union in the city of New York that is largely responsible for his election to the Presidency.
• 1844: The Dominican Republic gains independence from Haiti.
• 1812: Poet Lord Byron gives his first address as a member of the House of Lords, in defense of Luddite violence against Industrialism in his home county of Nottinghamshire.
• 1812: Argentine War of Independence: Manuel Belgrano raises the Flag of Argentina in the city of Rosario for the first time.
• 1809: Action of 27 February 1809: Captain Bernard Dubourdieu captures HMS Proserpine
• 1801: Pursuant to the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801, Washington, D.C. is placed under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress.
• 1782: American Revolutionary War: The House of Commons of Great Britain votes against further war in America.
• 1776: American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge in North Carolina breaks up a Loyalist militia.
• 1700: The island of New Britain is discovered.
• 1626: Yuan Chonghuan is appointed Governor of Liaodong, after he led the Chinese into a great victory against the Manchurians under Nurhaci.
• 1617: Sweden and Russia sign the Treaty of Stolbovo, ending the Ingrian War and shutting Russia out of the Baltic Sea.
• 1594: Henry IV is crowned King of France.
• 1560: The Treaty of Berwick, which would expel the French from Scotland, is signed by England and the Lords of the Congregation of Scotland.
• 907: Abaoji, a Khitan chieftain, is enthroned as Emperor Taizu, establishing the Liao dynasty in northern China.
• 425: The University of Constantinople is founded by Emperor Theodosius II at the urging of his wife Aelia Eudocia.
• 380: Edict of Thessalonica: Emperor Theodosius I and his co-emperors Gratian and Valentinian II, declare their wish that all Roman citizens convert to trinitarian Christianity.