This is a list of selected April 27 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article or picture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
Staging area
Images
Use only ONE image at a time
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Airbus A380 in original Airbus livery -
Ludwig van Beethoven -
Für Elise
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John Milton -
John Milton (requires undeletion)
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Illustration of the Sultana disaster
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Dennis Taylor
Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| Freedom Day in South Africa (1994); | refimprove |
| Independence Day in Sierra Leone (1961) and Togo (1960) | Togo: multiple issues: Sierra Leone: needs more footnotes, outdated |
| 1296 – In the first battle of the First War of Scottish Independence, the English defeated the Scots near Dunbar, Scotland. | refimprove |
| 1565 – Conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi and 500 armed soldiers established the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines, Cebu. | López: refimprove; Cebu: refimprove section |
| 1667 – John Milton, blind and impoverished, sold the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10. | refimprove section |
| 1805 – First Barbary War: U.S. Marines engaged forces of the Barbary Coast at the Battle of Derna in Tripoli, marking the first recorded land battle by the United States on foreign soil. | refimprove section |
| 1865 – An explosion (depicted) destroyed the steamboat Sultana on the Mississippi River, killing an estimated 1,700 of her 2,400 passengers. | close paraphrasing section, unreliable sources (SPS and other questionable issues) |
| 1906 – The State Duma of the Russian Empire met for the first time. | refimprove section |
| 1911 – Following the resignation of William P. Frye, a compromise was reached in the United States Senate to rotate the office of the President pro tempore of the United States Senate. | date not mentioned or referenced, and apparently 27 April is the date of the resignation of Frye, not the compromise which was four months later |
| 1909 – After the government was restored following the 31 March Incident and the Adana massacre, Abdul Hamid II, the last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire to rule with absolute power, was overthrown by Mehmed V. | Abdul Hamid II: appears on August 31; Mehmed V: refimprove |
| 1992 – Betty Boothroyd became the first female Speaker of the British House of Commons. | date not cited |
| 1993 – Thirty people died, including players and staff of the Zambia football team and the crew, in a plane crash en route to play a World Cup qualifying match against Senegal. | accuracy disputed |
| 1994 – Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress won a landslide victory in the first non-racial elections in the history of South Africa. | expansion |
| 2011 – During the most active day of the 2011 Super Outbreak 218 tornadoes killed 317 people across 16 U.S. states. | missing information |
Eligible
- 395 – Aelia Eudoxia married Byzantine emperor Arcadius without the knowledge or consent of Rufinus, the Praetorian prefect who had intended for his own daughter to wed the emperor.
- 1521 – Filipino natives led by chieftain Lapulapu killed Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan at the Battle of Mactan.
- 1522 – Four Years' War: The combined forces of Spain and the Papal States defeated a French and Venetian army at the Battle of Bicocca.
- 1777 – American Revolutionary War: British Army regulars defeated Patriot militias in the Battle of Ridgefield, galvanizing resistance in the Connecticut Colony.
- 1810 – Ludwig van Beethoven composed his Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor, better known as "Für Elise", one of his most popular compositions.
- 1904 – Chris Watson became the first prime minister of Australia from the Australian Labor Party.
- 1949 – In response to the treatment of Lorenzo Gamboa under the White Australia policy, the Philippine House of Representatives passed a bill banning Australians from the country.
- 1961 – Prime Minister Milton Margai led the Sierra Leone Colony and Protectorate to independence from the United Kingdom.
- 1967 – The Expo 67 world's fair opened in Montreal, with 62 nations participating and more than 50 million visitors ultimately attending.
- 1985 – The black-ball final, one of the most famous snooker matches in history, began between Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor (pictured).
- 2012 – Unknown perpetrators carried out a series of four bombings in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine.
- Born/died: | Pope Leo XI |d|1605| Mary Wollstonecraft |b|1759| Margaret Macpherson Grant |b|1834| Ralph Waldo Emerson |d|1882| Sergei Prokofiev |b|1891| Draža Mihailović |b|1893| Rogers Hornsby |b|1896| Coretta Scott King |b|1927| Russell T Davies |b|1963| Cory Booker |b|1969| Vinod Khanna |d|2017 Per Holknekt |b|1960
Notes
- Century 21 Exposition appears on April 21, so Expo 67 should not appear in the same year
April 27: Koningsdag in the Netherlands
Raising the Flag on the Three-Country Cairn
- 630 – Shahrbaraz usurped the throne of the Sasanian Empire from Ardashir III, but was himself killed six weeks later.
- 1650 – Wars of the Three Kingdoms: Covenanter forces defeated the Royalists at the Battle of Carbisdale near the village of Culrain, Scotland.
- 1945 – World War II: The photograph Raising the Flag on the Three-Country Cairn (pictured) was taken after German troops withdrew to Norway at the end of the Lapland War.
- 1965 – Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation: British forces repelled a surprise Indonesian attack on a base at Plaman Mapu in Sarawak.
- 2005 – The Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger airliner, made its maiden flight from Toulouse, France.
- Ulysses S. Grant (b. 1822)
- Sheila Scott (b. 1922)
- Olivier Messiaen (d. 1992)