What happened on April 27 ?

1124 - David I becomes King of Scotland.

1296 - Battle of Dunbar: The Scots are defeated by Edward I of England.

1509 - Pope Julius II places the Italian state of Venice under interdict.

1521 - Battle of Mactan: Explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines led by chief Lapu-Lapu.

1565 - Cebu is established becoming the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.

1650 - The Battle of Carbisdale: A Royalist army invades mainland Scotland from the Orkney Islands but is defeated by a Covenanter army.

1667 - The blind, impoverished John Milton sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10.

1773 - The British Parliament passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.

1805 - First Barbary War: United States Marines and Berbers attack the Tripolitan city of Derna (The "shores of Tripoli" part of the Marines' hymn).

1810 - Beethoven composes his famous piano piece, Für Elise.

1813 - War of 1812: United States troops capture the capital of Ontario, York (present day Toronto, Ontario).

1840 - Foundation stone for new Palace of Westminster, London, laid by wife of Sir Charles Barry.

1861 - President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.

1865 - The New York State Senate creates Cornell University as the state's land grant institution.

1865 - The steamboat Sultana, carrying 2,300 passengers, explodes and sinks in the Mississippi River, killing 1,700, most of whom were Union survivors of the Andersonville Prison.

1897 - Grant's Tomb is dedicated.

1904 - The Australian Labor Party becomes the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson.

1906 - Salem, Ohio celebrates its Centennial.[1]

1908 - The 1908 Summer Olympics open in London.

1909 - Sultan of Turkey Abdul Hamid II is overthrown, and is succeeded by his brother, Mehmed V.

1911 - Following the resignation and death of William P. Frye, a compromise is reached to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the United States Senate.

1914 - Honduras becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.

1936 - The United Auto Workers (UAW) gains autonomy from the American Federation of Labor.

1941 - World War II: German troops enter Athens.

1945 - World War II: Last German troops are expelled from Finnish Lapland (the last day of World War II going on in Finland). The day is the national war veteran day in Finland.

1945 - World War II: The Völkischer Beobachter, the newspaper of the Nazi Party, ceases publication.

1950 - Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed formally segregating races.

1959 - The last Canadian missionary leaves China.

1960 - Togo gains independence from French-administered UN trusteeship.

1961 - Sierra Leone is granted its independence from the United Kingdom, with Milton Margai as the first Prime Minister.

1972 - Constructive Vote of No Confidence against German Chancellor Willy Brandt fails under obscure circumstances.

1974 - 10,000 march in Washington, D.C., calling for impeachment of US President Nixon

1978 - journalist and adventurer Lord Richard Cecil killed by insurgents in Rhodesia

1981 - Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse.

1992 - The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is proclaimed, comprising of Serbia and Montenegro.

1994 - South African general election, 1994: The first democratic general election in South Africa, in which black citizens vote.

1996 - The Israeli military operation in Lebanon, Operation Grapes of Wrath, ends after 16 days of heavy bombing.

2005 - The Superjumbo jet aircraft Airbus 380 makes its first flight from Toulouse, France.

2006 - Construction on the Freedom Tower for the new World Trade Center in New York City officially begins.