27 October History
- 97 - To placate the Praetorians of Germany, Nerva of Rome adopts Trajan, the Spanish-born governor of lower Germany.
- 1553 - Michael Servetus, who discovered the pulmonary circulation of the blood, is burned for heresy in Switzerland.
- 1612 - A Polish army that invaded Russia capitulates to Prince Dimitri Pojarski and his Cossacks.
- 1806 - Emperor Napoleon enters Berlin.
- 1809 - President James Madison orders the annexation of the western part of West Florida. Settlers there had rebelled against Spanish authority.
- 1862 - A Confederate force is routed at the Battle of Georgia Landing, near Bayou Lafourche in Louisiana.
- 1870 - The French fortress of Metz surrenders to the Prussian Army.
- 1873 - Farmer Joseph F. Glidden applies for a patent on barbed wire. Glidden eventually received five patents and is generally considered the inventor of barbed wire.
- 1891 - D. B. Downing, inventor, is awarded a patent for the street letter (mail) box.
- 1904 - The New York subway officially opens running from the Brooklyn Bridge uptown to Broadway at 145th Street.
- 1907 - The first trial in the Eulenberg Affair ends in Germany.
- 1917 - 20,000 women march in a suffrage parade in New York. As the largest state and the first on the East Coast to do so, New York has an important effect on the movement to grant all women the vote in all elections.
- 1922 - In Italy, liberal Luigi Facta's cabinet resigns after threats from Mussolini that "either the government will be given to us or we will seize it by marching on Rome." Mussolini calls for a general mobilization of all Fascists.
- 1927 - Fox Movie-tone news, the first sound news film, is released.
- 1941 - In a broadcast to the nation on Navy Day, President Franklin Roosevelt declares: "America has been attacked, the shooting has started." He does not ask for full-scale war yet, realizing that many Americans are not yet ready for such a step.
- 1962 - Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev offers to remove Soviet missile bases in Cuba if the U.S. removes its missile bases in Turkey.
27 October Birthdays
- 1728 - Captain James Cook, British explorer.
- 1811 - Isaac Singer, inventor of the sewing machine.
- 1858 - Theodore Roosevelt, 26th president of the United States (1901-1909).
- 1914 - Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet.
- 1923 - Roy Lichtenstein, 'pop art' painter.
- 1927 - Ruby Dee, actress and civil rights activist.
- 1932 - Sylvia Plath, poet and novelist.
- 1939 - John Cleese, actor-writer best known for comedy productions (Monty Python, Fawlty Towers).
- 1940 - Maxine Hong Kingston, writer (The Woman Warrior, China Men).
- 1946 - Peter Martins, Danish dancer and choreographer.
- 1950 - Fran Leibowitz, writer (Metropolitan Life, Social Studies).