April 27 has seen numerous battles. Also on this date, a revered American president violated the U.S. Constitution (but his reputation hasn't suffered as a result).
4977 BC. The universe is created, according to German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler, considered a founder of modern science. Kepler is best known for his theories explaining the motion of planets. However, scientists in the 20th century developed the Big Bang theory, which showed that his calculations were off by about 13.7 billion years.
395. Eastern Roman Emperor Arcadius marries Aelia Eudoxia, daughter of the Frankish general Flavius Bauto. She becomes one of the more powerful Roman empresses of Late Antiquity. On 9 January 400, Eudoxia was officially given the title of an Augusta. She was then able to wear the purple paludamentum representing imperial rank and was depicted in Roman currency. Official images of her in the manner similar to a male Augustus also went in circulation.
1124. David I becomes King of Scotland. David spent most of his childhood in Scotland, but was exiled to England in 1093. There he became a hanger-on at the court of King Henry I and experienced long exposure to Norman and Anglo-French culture. When David's brother Alexander I of Scotland died in 1124, David chose, with the backing of Henry I, to take the Kingdom of Scotland for himself. He was forced to engage in warfare against his rival and nephew, Máel Coluim mac Alaxandair. The war dragged on for 10 years before David's reign was secure. The term "Davidian Revolution" is used by many scholars to summarize the changes which took place in the Kingdom of Scotland during his reign. These included his foundation of burghs, implementation of the ideals of Gregorian Reform, foundation of monasteries, Normanization of the Scottish government, and the introduction of feudalism through immigrant French and Anglo-French knights.
1296. The Scots are defeated by Edward I of England at the Battle of Dunbar. The Battle of Dunbar, also known as the Battle of Spottsmuir, was the first major battle in the First War of Scottish Independence. King Edward I of England had invaded Scotland in 1296 to punish John Balliol for his refusal to support English military action in France.
The battle of Dunbar effectively ended the war of 1296. The remainder of the campaign was little more than a grand mopping-up operation. James, the hereditary High Steward of Scotland, surrendered the important fortress at Roxburgh without attempting a defense, and others were quick to follow his example. Only Edinburgh Castle held out for a week against Edward's siege engines. Among the spoils of War Edward carried back to England was the Stone of Scone and other relics of Scottish nationhood. After hundreds of years, the Stone was eventually returned to Scotland.
1521. After traveling three-quarters of the way around the globe, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan is killed during a tribal skirmish on Mactan Island in the Philippines. Earlier in the month, his ships had dropped anchor at the Philippine island of Cebu, and Magellan met with the local chief, who after converting to Christianity persuaded the Europeans to assist him in conquering a rival tribe on the neighboring island of Mactan. In the subsequent fighting, Magellan was hit by a poisoned arrow and left to die by his retreating comrades.
1578. The Duel of the Mignons claims the lives of two favorites of Henry III of France and two favorites of Henry I, Duke of Guise. Les Mignons (from mignon, French for "the darlings" or "the dainty ones") was a term used by polemicists in the toxic atmosphere of the French Wars of Religion and taken up by the people of Paris, to designate the favorites of Henry III of France. According to the contemporary chronicler Pierre de l'Estoile, they made themselves "exceedingly odious, as much by their foolish and haughty demeanor, as by their effeminate and immodest dress, but above all by the immense gifts the king made to them." In April 1578, the rival court parties of Henry III and Duke of Guise decided to reenact the battle of the Horatii and the Curiatii. On 27 April, Jacques de Caylus, Louis de Maugiron and Jean d'Arcès (representing the party of the King) engaged in battle with Charles de Balzac, Ribérac, and Georges de Schomberg (representing the party of the Guises). Maugiron and Schomberg were killed in the battle, Ribérac died of wounds the following noon, d'Arcès was wounded in the head and convalesced in a hospital for six weeks, while Caylus sustained as many as 19 wounds and died after 33 days of agony. Only Balzac got off with a mere scratch on his arm. This meaningless loss of life impressed itself on the public imagination. Jean Passerat wrote an elegy, Plaintes de Cléophon, on the occasion. In the political treatise Le Theatre de France (1580) the duel was invoked as "the day of the pigs" who "killed each other in the precinct of Saint Paul, serving him in the Muscovite manner".[6] Michel Montaigne decried the event as "an image de cowardice", and Pierre Brantôme connected it with the deplorable spread of the Italian and Gascon manners at Henry's court. The incident accelerated the estrangement between the two Henrys.
1650. At the Battle of Carbisdale, a Royalist army invades mainland Scotland from Orkney Island but is defeated by a Covenanter army. The battle was fought by the Royalist Marquess of Montrose, against the Scottish Government of the time, dominated by the Marquess of Argyll and a grouping of radical Covenanters, known as the Kirk Party.
The Covenanters formed an important movement in the religion and politics of Scotland in the 17th century. In religion the movement is most associated with the promotion and development of Presbyterianism as a form of church government favored by the people, as opposed to Episcopacy, favored by the crown. In politics the movement saw important developments in the character and operation of the Scottish Parliament, which began a steady shift away from its medieval origins.
1667. The blind, impoverished John Milton sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10. The poem concerns the Judeo-Christian story of the Fall of Man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Milton's purpose, stated in Book I, is "justify the ways of God to men" and elucidate the conflict between God's eternal foresight and free will.
Milton presents Satan as an ambitious and proud being who defies his creator, omnipotent God, and who wages war on Heaven, only to be defeated and cast down. Indeed, William Blake, a great admirer of Milton and illustrator of the epic poem, said of Milton that "he was a true Poet, and of the Devil's party without knowing it."
Milton worked for Oliver Cromwell and the Parliament of England and thus wrote first-hand for the Commonwealth of England. Arguably, the failed rebellion and reinstallation of the monarchy left him to explore his losses within Paradise Lost. Some critics say that he sympathized with the Satan in this work, in that both he and Satan had experienced a failed cause.
Satan, Beelzebub, and the other rebel angels are described as lying on a lake of fire, from which Satan rises up to claim hell as his own domain and delivers a rousing speech to his followers -- "Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven."
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.
1777. In the Battle of Ridgefield, a British invasion force defeats Continental Army regulars and militia irregulars at Ridgefield, Connecticut, during the American Revolutionary War.
The Battle of Ridgefield was in fact multiple hostile engagements between American and British forces near the modern-day city of Danbury, Connecticut and town of Ridgefield, Connecticut on April 27, 1777.
American Continental Army Major General David Wooster, Brigadier General Gold S. Silliman, and Brigadier General Benedict Arnold commanded a combined force of roughly 700 Continental Army regular and irregular local militia forces. They engaged a British invasion force of 2,000 commanded by then Royal Governor of the Province of New York, Major General William Tryon. The battle was a tactical victory for the British forces, although it served as a strategic victory for American forces due to the resulting extraction of British troops from the area and increased Patriot support.
1813. In the War of 1812, United States troops capture the capital of Ontario, York (present day Toronto, Ontario).
1840. The foundation stone for new Palace of Westminster, London, is laid by the wife of architect Sir Charles Barry. The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, is the meeting place of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom -- the House of Lords and the House of Commons.
1861. U.S. President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus. In common law, habeas corpus is the name of a legal action or writ by means of which detainees can seek relief from unlawful imprisonment. The writ of habeas corpus has historically been an important instrument for the safeguarding of individual freedom against arbitrary state action. On April 27, 1861, habeas corpus was suspended by President Lincoln in Maryland and parts of Midwestern states, including southern Indiana during the American Civil War. Lincoln did so in response to riots, local militia actions, and the threat that the border slave state of Maryland would secede from the Union, leaving the nation's capital, Washington, D.C., surrounded by hostile territory. His action was challenged in court and overturned by the U.S. Circuit Court in Maryland (led by Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney). Lincoln ignored Taney's order. In 1866, the Supreme Court of the United States decided that the suspension of the writ was unconstitutional because the President was not empowered to try and convict citizens before military tribunals. The trial of civilians by military tribunals is allowed only if civilian courts are closed. This was one of the key Supreme Court Cases of the American Civil War that dealt with wartime civil liberties and martial law.
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, the Confederate Auschwitz whose commandant was hanged as a war criminal.
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.
The President pro tempore is the second-highest-ranking official of the United States Senate and the highest-ranking senator. The U.S. Constitution states the Vice President of the United States serves ex officio as President of the Senate, and is the highest-ranking official of the Senate even though he or she only votes in the case of a tie. During the Vice President's absence, the President pro tempore is the highest-ranking official in the Senate and may preside over its sessions. The President pro tempore is elected by the Senate; by custom, the President pro tempore is the most senior senator in the majority party.
The President pro tempore is third in the line of succession to the Presidency, after the Vice President of the United States and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
1927. Carabineros de Chile (Chilean national police force and gendarmery) are created.
1936. The United Auto Workers (UAW) gains autonomy from the American Federation of Labor.
1937. The U.S. Social Security system makes its first benefit payment.
1941. German troops enter Athens in World War II.
1942. A tornado destroys Pryor, Oklahoma, killing 100 people and injuring 300.
1945. Near the end of World War II, deposed Italian dictator Benito Mussolini is arrested by Italian partisans in Dongo, while attempting escape disguised as a German soldier. The next day, Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci were both summarily executed, along with most of the members of their 15-man train.
4977 BC. The universe is created, according to German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler, considered a founder of modern science. Kepler is best known for his theories explaining the motion of planets. However, scientists in the 20th century developed the Big Bang theory, which showed that his calculations were off by about 13.7 billion years.
395. Eastern Roman Emperor Arcadius marries Aelia Eudoxia, daughter of the Frankish general Flavius Bauto. She becomes one of the more powerful Roman empresses of Late Antiquity. On 9 January 400, Eudoxia was officially given the title of an Augusta. She was then able to wear the purple paludamentum representing imperial rank and was depicted in Roman currency. Official images of her in the manner similar to a male Augustus also went in circulation.
1124. David I becomes King of Scotland. David spent most of his childhood in Scotland, but was exiled to England in 1093. There he became a hanger-on at the court of King Henry I and experienced long exposure to Norman and Anglo-French culture. When David's brother Alexander I of Scotland died in 1124, David chose, with the backing of Henry I, to take the Kingdom of Scotland for himself. He was forced to engage in warfare against his rival and nephew, Máel Coluim mac Alaxandair. The war dragged on for 10 years before David's reign was secure. The term "Davidian Revolution" is used by many scholars to summarize the changes which took place in the Kingdom of Scotland during his reign. These included his foundation of burghs, implementation of the ideals of Gregorian Reform, foundation of monasteries, Normanization of the Scottish government, and the introduction of feudalism through immigrant French and Anglo-French knights.
1296. The Scots are defeated by Edward I of England at the Battle of Dunbar. The Battle of Dunbar, also known as the Battle of Spottsmuir, was the first major battle in the First War of Scottish Independence. King Edward I of England had invaded Scotland in 1296 to punish John Balliol for his refusal to support English military action in France.
The battle of Dunbar effectively ended the war of 1296. The remainder of the campaign was little more than a grand mopping-up operation. James, the hereditary High Steward of Scotland, surrendered the important fortress at Roxburgh without attempting a defense, and others were quick to follow his example. Only Edinburgh Castle held out for a week against Edward's siege engines. Among the spoils of War Edward carried back to England was the Stone of Scone and other relics of Scottish nationhood. After hundreds of years, the Stone was eventually returned to Scotland.
1521. After traveling three-quarters of the way around the globe, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan is killed during a tribal skirmish on Mactan Island in the Philippines. Earlier in the month, his ships had dropped anchor at the Philippine island of Cebu, and Magellan met with the local chief, who after converting to Christianity persuaded the Europeans to assist him in conquering a rival tribe on the neighboring island of Mactan. In the subsequent fighting, Magellan was hit by a poisoned arrow and left to die by his retreating comrades.
1578. The Duel of the Mignons claims the lives of two favorites of Henry III of France and two favorites of Henry I, Duke of Guise. Les Mignons (from mignon, French for "the darlings" or "the dainty ones") was a term used by polemicists in the toxic atmosphere of the French Wars of Religion and taken up by the people of Paris, to designate the favorites of Henry III of France. According to the contemporary chronicler Pierre de l'Estoile, they made themselves "exceedingly odious, as much by their foolish and haughty demeanor, as by their effeminate and immodest dress, but above all by the immense gifts the king made to them." In April 1578, the rival court parties of Henry III and Duke of Guise decided to reenact the battle of the Horatii and the Curiatii. On 27 April, Jacques de Caylus, Louis de Maugiron and Jean d'Arcès (representing the party of the King) engaged in battle with Charles de Balzac, Ribérac, and Georges de Schomberg (representing the party of the Guises). Maugiron and Schomberg were killed in the battle, Ribérac died of wounds the following noon, d'Arcès was wounded in the head and convalesced in a hospital for six weeks, while Caylus sustained as many as 19 wounds and died after 33 days of agony. Only Balzac got off with a mere scratch on his arm. This meaningless loss of life impressed itself on the public imagination. Jean Passerat wrote an elegy, Plaintes de Cléophon, on the occasion. In the political treatise Le Theatre de France (1580) the duel was invoked as "the day of the pigs" who "killed each other in the precinct of Saint Paul, serving him in the Muscovite manner".[6] Michel Montaigne decried the event as "an image de cowardice", and Pierre Brantôme connected it with the deplorable spread of the Italian and Gascon manners at Henry's court. The incident accelerated the estrangement between the two Henrys.
1650. At the Battle of Carbisdale, a Royalist army invades mainland Scotland from Orkney Island but is defeated by a Covenanter army. The battle was fought by the Royalist Marquess of Montrose, against the Scottish Government of the time, dominated by the Marquess of Argyll and a grouping of radical Covenanters, known as the Kirk Party.
The Covenanters formed an important movement in the religion and politics of Scotland in the 17th century. In religion the movement is most associated with the promotion and development of Presbyterianism as a form of church government favored by the people, as opposed to Episcopacy, favored by the crown. In politics the movement saw important developments in the character and operation of the Scottish Parliament, which began a steady shift away from its medieval origins.
1667. The blind, impoverished John Milton sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10. The poem concerns the Judeo-Christian story of the Fall of Man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Milton's purpose, stated in Book I, is "justify the ways of God to men" and elucidate the conflict between God's eternal foresight and free will.
Milton presents Satan as an ambitious and proud being who defies his creator, omnipotent God, and who wages war on Heaven, only to be defeated and cast down. Indeed, William Blake, a great admirer of Milton and illustrator of the epic poem, said of Milton that "he was a true Poet, and of the Devil's party without knowing it."
Milton worked for Oliver Cromwell and the Parliament of England and thus wrote first-hand for the Commonwealth of England. Arguably, the failed rebellion and reinstallation of the monarchy left him to explore his losses within Paradise Lost. Some critics say that he sympathized with the Satan in this work, in that both he and Satan had experienced a failed cause.
Satan, Beelzebub, and the other rebel angels are described as lying on a lake of fire, from which Satan rises up to claim hell as his own domain and delivers a rousing speech to his followers -- "Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven."
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.
1777. In the Battle of Ridgefield, a British invasion force defeats Continental Army regulars and militia irregulars at Ridgefield, Connecticut, during the American Revolutionary War.
The Battle of Ridgefield was in fact multiple hostile engagements between American and British forces near the modern-day city of Danbury, Connecticut and town of Ridgefield, Connecticut on April 27, 1777.
American Continental Army Major General David Wooster, Brigadier General Gold S. Silliman, and Brigadier General Benedict Arnold commanded a combined force of roughly 700 Continental Army regular and irregular local militia forces. They engaged a British invasion force of 2,000 commanded by then Royal Governor of the Province of New York, Major General William Tryon. The battle was a tactical victory for the British forces, although it served as a strategic victory for American forces due to the resulting extraction of British troops from the area and increased Patriot support.
1813. In the War of 1812, United States troops capture the capital of Ontario, York (present day Toronto, Ontario).
1840. The foundation stone for new Palace of Westminster, London, is laid by the wife of architect Sir Charles Barry. The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, is the meeting place of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom -- the House of Lords and the House of Commons.
1861. U.S. President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus. In common law, habeas corpus is the name of a legal action or writ by means of which detainees can seek relief from unlawful imprisonment. The writ of habeas corpus has historically been an important instrument for the safeguarding of individual freedom against arbitrary state action. On April 27, 1861, habeas corpus was suspended by President Lincoln in Maryland and parts of Midwestern states, including southern Indiana during the American Civil War. Lincoln did so in response to riots, local militia actions, and the threat that the border slave state of Maryland would secede from the Union, leaving the nation's capital, Washington, D.C., surrounded by hostile territory. His action was challenged in court and overturned by the U.S. Circuit Court in Maryland (led by Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney). Lincoln ignored Taney's order. In 1866, the Supreme Court of the United States decided that the suspension of the writ was unconstitutional because the President was not empowered to try and convict citizens before military tribunals. The trial of civilians by military tribunals is allowed only if civilian courts are closed. This was one of the key Supreme Court Cases of the American Civil War that dealt with wartime civil liberties and martial law.
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, the Confederate Auschwitz whose commandant was hanged as a war criminal.
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.
The President pro tempore is the second-highest-ranking official of the United States Senate and the highest-ranking senator. The U.S. Constitution states the Vice President of the United States serves ex officio as President of the Senate, and is the highest-ranking official of the Senate even though he or she only votes in the case of a tie. During the Vice President's absence, the President pro tempore is the highest-ranking official in the Senate and may preside over its sessions. The President pro tempore is elected by the Senate; by custom, the President pro tempore is the most senior senator in the majority party.
The President pro tempore is third in the line of succession to the Presidency, after the Vice President of the United States and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
1927. Carabineros de Chile (Chilean national police force and gendarmery) are created.
1936. The United Auto Workers (UAW) gains autonomy from the American Federation of Labor.
1937. The U.S. Social Security system makes its first benefit payment.
1941. German troops enter Athens in World War II.
1942. A tornado destroys Pryor, Oklahoma, killing 100 people and injuring 300.
1945. Near the end of World War II, deposed Italian dictator Benito Mussolini is arrested by Italian partisans in Dongo, while attempting escape disguised as a German soldier. The next day, Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci were both summarily executed, along with most of the members of their 15-man train.
Aye! And Scots fighting each other, with or without English help!
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