What happened on February 27 ?

1560 - The Treaty of Berwick, which would expel the French from Scotland, is signed by England and the Congregation of Scotland.

1594 - Henry IV is crowned King of France.

1617 - Sweden and Russia sign the Treaty of Stolbovo, ending the Ingrian War and shutting Russia out of the Baltic Sea.

1626 - Yuan Chonghuan is appointed Governor of Liaodong.

1700 - The island of New Britain is discovered.

1703 - The first Mardi Gras is celebrated in Mobile, Alabama.

1793 - The Giles resolutions are introduced to the United States House of Representatives asking the House to condemn Alexander Hamilton's handling of loans.

1801 - Washington, DC is placed under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress.

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.

1827 - The first Mardi Gras is celebrated in New Orleans, Louisiana.

1844 - The Dominican Republic gains independence from Haiti.

1860 - Abraham Lincoln makes a speech at Cooper Union in the city of New York that was largely responsible for his election to the Presidency.

1861 - Rudolf Steiner founder of Anthroposophy (a spiritual science) is born in Austria.

1861 - A crowd in Warsaw protesting Russian rule over Poland is fired upon by Russian troops, killing five protesters.

1864 - American Civil War: The first Northern prisoners arrive at the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia.

1879 - Announcement of the discovery of artificial sweetener saccharin.

1900 - Second Boer War: In South Africa, British military leaders receive an unconditional notice of surrender from Boer General Piet Cronje at the Battle of Paardeberg.

1900 - The British Labour Party is founded.

1900 - The FC Bayern München (Munich) is founded.

1921 - The International Working Union of Socialist Parties is founded in Vienna.

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.

1933 - Reichstag fire: Germany's parliament building in Berlin, the Reichstag, is set on fire.

1939 - American Civil Rights Movement: Sit-down strikes are outlawed by the Supreme Court of the United States.

1942 - World War II: the USS Langley, the first United States aircraft carrier, is sunk by Japanese warplanes.

1943 - The Smith Mine #3 in Bearcreek, Montana, United States explodes, killing 74 men.

1948 - The Communist Party takes control of government in Czechoslovakia.

1951 - The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting Presidents to two terms, is ratified.

1961 - The first congress of the Spanish Trade Union Organisation is inaugurated.

1963 - The Dominican Republic receives its first democratically elected president, Juan Bosch, since the end of the dictatorship led by Rafael Trujillo.

1964 - The government of Italy asks for help to keep the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over.

1967 - Dominica gains independence from the United Kingdom.

1971 - Doctors in the first Dutch abortion clinic (the Mildredhuis in Arnhem) start to perform abortus provocatus .

1973 - The American Indian Movement occupies Wounded Knee, South Dakota.

1974 - People magazine is published for the first time.

1976 - The formerly Spanish territory of Western Sahara, under the auspices of the Polisario Front declares independence as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

1986 - The United States Senate allows its debates to be televised on a trial basis.

1989 - Venezuela is rocked by the Caracazo.

1990 - Exxon Valdez oil spill: Exxon and its shipping company are indicted on five criminal counts.

1991 - Gulf War: U.S. President George H. W. Bush announces that "Kuwait is liberated."

1996 - Satoshi Tajiri creates the hit media franchise Pokémon.

1999 - While trying to circumnavigate the world in a hot air balloon, Colin Prescot and Andy Elson set a new endurance record after being in a hot air balloon for 233 hours and 55 minutes.

1999 - Olusegun Obasanjo becomes Nigeria's first elected president since mid-1983.

2002 - Ryanair Flight 296 catches fire in London Stansted Airport. Subsequent investigations criticize Ryanair's handling of the evacuation.

2002 - 2002 Gujarat violence: a train catches fire a few minutes after it leaves the Godhra railway station, killing an estimated 58 Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya and triggering riots that lead to the death of 1000 people, mostly Muslims.

2003 - Rowan Williams is enthroned as the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury in the Anglican church.

2004 - A bombing of a Superferry by Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines kills 116, its worst terrorist attack.

2004 - Former BPMC general secretary Ordrick Samuel launches a new party in Barbuda, Barbudans for a Better Barbuda.

2005 - Pre-pay price capping on the Transport for London Oyster card is introduced.