What happened on December 27 ?

418 - Zosimus, Greek pope

1076 - Prince Svyatoslav II of Kiev (b. 1027)

1381 - Edmund de Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March, English politician

1548 - Francesco Spiera, Italian protestant jurist (b. 1502)

1603 - Thomas Cartwright, English Puritan clergyman

1707 - Jean Mabillon, French palaeograopher and diplomat (b. 1632)

1737 - William Bowyer, English printer (b. 1663)

1743 - Hyacinthe Rigaud, French painter (b. 1659)

1771 - Henri Pitot, French engineer (b. 1695)

1782 - Henry Home, Lord Kames, Scottish philosopher (b. 1697)

1800 - Hugh Blair, Scottish preacher and man of letters (b. 1718)

1812 - Shneur Zalman of Liadi, Lithuanian rabbi and founder of Chabad Hasidism (b. 1745)

1836 - Stephen F. Austin, American pioneer (b. 1793)

1858 - Alexandre Pierre François Boëly, French composer (b. 1785)

1896 - John Brown, British manufacturer (b. 1816)

1900 - William George Armstrong, English inventor, industrialist, and engineer (b. 1810)

1914 - Charles Martin Hall, American chemist and inventor (b. 1863)

1923 - Gustave Eiffel, French engineer and architect (b. 1832)

1925 - Sergei Yesenin, Russian poet (b. 1895)

1938 - Calvin Bridges, geneticist (b. 1889)

1938 - Osip Mandelstam, Russian poet (b. 1891)

1950 - Max Beckmann, German painter (b. 1884)

1953 - Julian Tuwim, Polish poet (b. 1894)

1955 - Alfred Francis Blakeney Carpenter, English soldier (b. 1881)

1956 - Lambert McKenna, Irish scholar, Editor and Lexicographer.

1966 - Guillermo Stábile, Argentine footballer (b. 1906)

1972 - Lester B. Pearson, fourteenth Prime Minister of Canada, recipient of the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1897)

1974 - Vladimir Aleksandrovich Fock, Russian physicist (b. 1898)

1978 - Houari Boumédienne, President of Algeria (b. 1932)

1981 - Hoagy Carmichael, American composer and singer (b. 1899)

1988 - Hal Ashby, American film director (b. 1929)

1992 - Kay Boyle, American writer (b. 1902)

1997 - Brendan Gill, American columnist and humorist (b. 1914)

1997 - Billy Wright, Irish Protestant paramilitary leader (b. 1960)

2002 - George Roy Hill, American film director (b. 1922)

2003 - Alan Bates, English actor (b. 1934)

2003 - Ivan Calderon, Puerto Rican Major League Baseball player (murdered) (b. 1962)

2004 - Hank Garland, Nashville studio musician (b. 1930)

2005 - William Doody, Canadian politician (b. 1931)