Starting today May 27, 2023

What happened today in Greece and the world.

1153: Malcolm IV is crowned king of Scotland.

1199: John is crowned king of England.

1679: Habeas Corpus has been established in England, which protects citizens against arbitrary power.

1703: Peter the Great founded Saint Petersburg and declared it the capital of Russia.

1799: Austrian forces defeat French forces at Winterthur, Switzerland, and gain control of an important city that was at the crossroads of seven major trade routes.

1821: Dimitrios Papanikolis sets fire to a Turkish ship with 74 guns and 1,000 men in the port of Eressos, in Lesvos. The Greeks, who until that day had been contemplating with fear an unequal confrontation with the Turkish Fleet, take courage and realize their strength.

1835 : Theodoros Kolokotronis is released from prison by Othonas.

1855: The first Greek-Turkish agreement, the Trade and Transport Agreement, has been signed in the Kanlintza neighborhood of Istanbul. In that way, confessional status is given to Greek citizens in the Ottoman Empire.

1860: Giuseppe Garibaldi captures Palermo, Sicily, as part of the struggle for the Italian Confederation.

1883: Alexander III is crowned king of Russia.

1895: Oscar Wilde is imprisoned for adultery.

1905: Russian ships were destroyed by the Japanese in the Battle of Tsushima.

1930: The 319-meter-tall Chrysler Tower opens its doors to the public.

1937: The Golden Gate Bridge opens in San Francisco.

1941: The German battleship “Bismarck” sinks in the North Atlantic Ocean.

1941: The Germans occupied Chania during the Battle of Crete.

1942: Czech and Slovak rebels launched an attack in central Prague and seriously wounded the Gestapo chief, Reinhardt Heydrich, who would die a few days later.

1958: The first supersonic flight of the F-4 Phantom II takes place.

1960: Turkish General Cemal Gursel overthrew the country’s elected president, Jelal Bayar, and prime minister, Adnan Menderes, in a coup, who was hanged. The country will return to democratic legitimacy one year later.

1960: The Communist Party of Greece presents a memorandum to the Greek Parliament, which requests its legalization.

1961: Fiorentina have won their first European Cup Winners’ Cup as they beat Rangers 2-1 in the final.

1961: American Anita Baker, the wife of a sergeant serving at the American base in Elliniko, strangles their three young children and tries to commit suicide when she discovers that her husband is cheating on her with a Greek operator at the base.

1963: Grigoris Lambrakis dies in Thessaloniki. Four days earlier, he had been seriously injured by public organizations while returning to the hotel after a peaceful incident and disarming. His death deepens the international outcry and sparks a political crisis.

1971: A train accident in the city of Wuppertal, Germany, has killed 46 people.

1995: American actor, Christopher Reeve, is paralyzed from the neck down after falling from his horse in a horse race.

2006: A 6.2 Richter earthquake occurs in Java, and 6,600 people have died.

2009: Barcelona beat Manchester United 2-0 in Rome and won the European Champions League title for the third time in their history.

2010: George Papandreou’s government’s bill for the reform of the country’s autonomy, also known as the “Kallikratis” Plan, is voted by a majority. 160 MPs are in favor (PASOK and three independents) and “against” 124 MPs (New Democracy, KKE, LAOS, SYRIZA).

Birth

1178 – Thomas I, Count of Savoy

1332 – Ibn Khaldun, Arab historian

1763 – Paolo Andreani, Italian inventor

1837 – Bill Hickok, American hero of the Wild West

1846 – James Templer, English aviator and soldier

1877 – Isidore Duncan, American dancer

1879 – Hans Lammers, German SS officer

1884 – Max Brod, Czech writer

1894 – Louis-Ferdinand Celine, French writer

1894 – Dashiell Hammett, American writer

1897 – John Douglas Cockroft, English physicist

1898 – Lee Garms, American filmmaker

1907 – Nikolas Kalas, Greek poet

1907 – Rachel Carson, American biologist and author

1911 – Theodore Kolek, Israeli politician

1911 – Vincent Price, American actor

1921 – Caryl Chessman, American writer and criminal

1922 – Christopher Lee, English actor

1923 – Henry Kissinger, American politician

1933 – Zozo Sapundzakis, Greek actor and singer

1934 – Harlan Ellison, American writer

1936 – John Osborne, politician from Montserrat

1950 – Makis Dendrinos, Greek basketball player and coach

1970 – Joseph Fiennes, English actor

1971 – Paul Bettany, English actor

1981 – Ozgur Cevik, Turkish actor

1985 – Roberto Soldado, Spanish soccer player

1987 – Mike Bramos, Greek-American basketball player

Deaths

366 – Procopius, Roman usurper

927 – Simeon I, Tsar of Bulgaria

1039 – Dirk III, Count of Holland

1272 – Eric I, Duke of Schleswig

1444 – John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset

1508 – Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan

1525 – Thomas Muncher, German theologian

1564 – John Calvin, French theologian

1606 – Demetrius II, Tsar of Russia

1797 – François-Noël Babeuf, French revolutionary

1806 – Evgenios Voulgaris, Greek priest and teacher

1840 – Niccolo Paganini, Italian violinist and composer

1867 – Thomas Bulfinch, American writer

1910 – Robert Koch, German physician

1921 – Dimitrios Kalapothakis, Greek journalist

1939 – Joseph Roth, Austrian writer

1941 – Ernst Lindemann, German soldier

1958 – Kostas Theos, Greek trade unionist and politician

1963 – Grigoris Lambrakis, Greek physician and politician

1963 – Stefanos Makropoulos, Greek politician

1964 – Panagiotis Lapatsanis, Greek politician

1964 – Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian politician

1969 – Angelos Georgatos, Greek politician

1986 – Giorgos Tzifos, Greek actor

1989 – Dimitrios Mantzaris, Greek politician

1995 – Zanninos (born Yiannis Papadopoulos), Greek actor

2006 – Giannis Degiannis, Greek Areopagite

2006 – Michel Rifater, French literary critic

2007 – Ed Yost, American inventor

2011 – Jill Scott-Hiron, American musician

2012 – Dimitrios Tsifodemos, Greek politician

2014 – Massimo Vignelli, Italian graphic designer.

See also: Kefalonia: A mother saw her 3-year-old son drowning – She didn’t know how to swim to help him