April 27 in history — What Happened Today in History

The Russian Federation and 12 other former Soviet republics become members of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

The April 27 demonstrations, student-led protests responding to the April 26 Editorial, during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

The U.S. Department of Justice bars Austrian President Kurt Waldheim (and his wife, Elisabeth, who had also been a Nazi) from entering the US, charging that he had aided in the deportations and executions of thousands of Jews and others as a German Army officer during World War II.

The city of Pripyat and surrounding areas are evacuated due to the Chernobyl disaster.

John Ehrlichman, a former aide to U.S. President Richard Nixon, is released from the Federal Correctional Institution, Safford, Arizona, after serving 18 months for Watergate-related crimes.

The Saur Revolution begins in Afghanistan, ending the following morning with the murder of Afghan President Mohammed Daoud Khan and the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.

Willow Island disaster: In the deadliest construction accident in United States history, 51 construction workers are killed when a cooling tower under construction collapses at the Pleasants Power Station in Willow Island, West Virginia.

Thirty-seven people are killed when American Airlines Flight 625 crashes at Cyril E. King Airport in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.

One hundred nine people are killed in a plane crash near Pulkovo Airport.

Expo 67 officially opens in Montreal, Quebec, Canada with a large opening ceremony broadcast around the world. It opens to the public the next day.

Operation Moolah offers $50,000 to any pilot who defects with a fully mission-capable Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 to South Korea. The first pilot was to receive $100,000.

World War II: The last German formations withdraw from Finland to Norway. The Lapland War and thus, World War II in Finland, comes to an end and the Raising the Flag on the Three-Country Cairn photograph is taken.

World War II: Benito Mussolini is arrested by Italian partisans in Dongo, while attempting escape disguised as a German soldier.

World War II: German troops enter Athens.

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

Carabineros de Chile (Chilean national police force and gendarmerie) are created.

The Second Canton Uprising takes place in Guangzhou, Qing China, but is suppressed.

Sultan of Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II is overthrown, and is succeeded by his brother, Mehmed V.

The State Duma of the Russian Empire meets for the first time.

American President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.

War of 1812: American troops capture York, the capital of Upper Canada, in the Battle of York.

First Barbary War: United States Marines and Berbers attack the Tripolitan city of Derna (The "shores of Tripoli" in the Marines' Hymn).

Blind and impoverished, John Milton sells Paradise Lost to a printer for £10, so that it could be entered into the Stationers' Register.

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

The relics of Saint Sava are incinerated in Belgrade on the Vračar plateau by Ottoman Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha; the site of the incineration is now the location of the Church of Saint Sava, one of the largest Orthodox churches in the world

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

Official founding of the city of Bogotá, New Granada (nowadays Colombia), by Nikolaus Federmann and Sebastián de Belalcázar.

A Spanish-Imperial army defeats French-Venetian army in the battle of Bicocca. The battle marks the end of dominance of Swiss mercenaries on the battlefield and is one of the first where firearms play a decisive role.

Lars Bender, German footballer

Sven Bender, German footballer

Lizzo, American singer and rapper

Semyon Varlamov, Russian ice hockey player

Taylor Chorney, American ice hockey player

William Moseley, English actor

Wang Feifei, Chinese singer and actress

Jenna Coleman, English actress

Dinara Safina, Russian tennis player

Meselech Melkamu, Ethiopian runner

Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Canadian ice hockey player

Daniel Holdsworth, Australian rugby league player

Patrick Stump, American musician, singer, and songwriter

Daniel Colchico, American football player and coach (born 1935)

Harry Firth, Australian race car driver and manager (born 1918)

Aída Bortnik, Argentinian screenwriter (born 1938)

Lorraine Copeland, Scottish archaeologist (born 1921)

Antonio Díaz Jurado, Spanish footballer (born 1969)

Jérôme Louis Heldring, Dutch journalist and author (born 1917)

Aloysius Jin Luxian, Chinese bishop (born 1916)

Mutula Kilonzo, Kenyan lawyer and politician, Kenyan Minister of Justice (born 1948)

Daniel E. Boatwright, American soldier and politician (born 1930)

Bill Skowron, American baseball player (born 1930)

Marian Mercer, American actress and singer (born 1935)

Frankie Manning, American dancer and choreographer (born 1914)

Woo Seung-yeon, South Korean model and actress (born 1983)