January 27 in history — What Happened Today in History

In a military coup, Colonel Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara deposes the first democratically elected president of Niger, Mahamane Ousmane.

Germany first observes the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The pilot shaft of the Seikan Tunnel, the world's longest sub-aqueous tunnel (53.85 km) between the Japanese islands of Honshū and Hokkaidō, breaks through.

Through cooperation between the U.S. and Canadian governments, six American diplomats secretly escape hostilities in Iran in the culmination of the Canadian Caper.

The Paris Peace Accords officially ends the Vietnam War. Colonel William Nolde is killed in action becoming the conflict's last recorded American combat casualty.

Apollo program: Astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee are killed in a fire during a test of their Apollo 1 spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

Cold War: The Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom sign the Outer Space Treaty in Washington, D.C., banning deployment of nuclear weapons in space, and limiting the usage of the Moon and other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes.

South Vietnamese Prime Minister Trần Văn Hương is removed by the military junta of Nguyễn Khánh.

The Soviet submarine S-80 sinks when its snorkel malfunctions, flooding the boat.

Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site begins with Operation Ranger.

World War II: The Soviet 322nd Rifle Division liberates the remaining inmates of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

World War II: The 872-day Siege of Leningrad is lifted.

World War II: The Eighth Air Force sorties ninety-one B-17s and B-24s to attack the U-boat construction yards at Wilhelmshaven, Germany. This was the first American bombing attack on Germany.

First flight of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning.

Bundaberg tragedy: a diphtheria vaccine is contaminated with Staph. aureus bacterium, resulting in the deaths of twelve children in the Australian town of Bundaberg.

Ibn Saud takes the title of King of Nejd.

Six days after his death, Vladimir Lenin's body is carried into a specially erected mausoleum.

Beginning of the Finnish Civil War.

World War I: The British government passes the Military Service Act that introduces conscription in the United Kingdom.

Thomas Edison receives a patent for his incandescent lamp.

Modest Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov premieres in Mariinsky Theatre in St.Petersburg.

Boshin War: Tokugawa rebels establish the Ezo Republic in Hokkaidō.

Boshin War: The Battle of Toba–Fushimi begins, between forces of the Tokugawa shogunate and pro-Imperial factions; it will end in defeat for the shogunate, and is a pivotal point in the Meiji Restoration.

The U.S. Congress approves Indian Territory (in what is present-day Oklahoma), clearing the way for forced relocation of the Eastern Indians on the "Trail of Tears".

A Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev discovers the Antarctic continent, approaching the Antarctic coast.

The University of Georgia is founded, the first state-chartered public university in the United States.

American Revolutionary War: Henry Knox's "noble train of artillery" arrives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Spanish forces clash with indigenous Huilliches of southern Chile in the battle of Río Bueno.

Alberto Botía, Spanish footballer

Kerlon, Brazilian footballer

Katy Rose, American singer-songwriter and producer

Anton Shunin, Russian footballer

Johan Petro, French basketball player

Ruben Amorim, Portuguese footballer and manager

Carlo Colaiacovo, Canadian ice hockey player

Paulo Colaiacovo, Canadian ice hockey player

Gavin Floyd, American baseball player

Lee Grant, English footballer

Eva Asderaki, Greek tennis umpire

Alicia Molik, Australian tennis player and sportscaster

Tony Woodcock, New Zealand rugby player

Joseph Rotman, Canadian businessman and philanthropist (born 1935)

Charles Hard Townes, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1915)

Larry Winters, American wrestler and trainer (born 1956)

Pete Seeger, American singer-songwriter, guitarist and activist (born 1919)

Epimaco Velasco, Filipino lawyer and politician, Governor of Cavite (born 1935)

Paul Zorner, German soldier and pilot (born 1920)

Ivan Bodiul, Ukrainian-Russian politician (born 1918)

Stanley Karnow, American journalist and historian (born 1925)

Greg Cook, American football player and sportscaster (born 1946)

Ted Dicks, English composer and screenwriter (born 1928)

Jeannette Hamby, American nurse and politician (born 1933)

Kevin White, American politician, 51st Mayor of Boston (born 1929)

Charlie Callas, American comedian and musician (born 1927)