Events of 1927

January

• January 1 – The Cristero War erupts in Mexico when pro-Church rebels attack the government, which had banned the Catholic faith.

• January 7 – The first transatlantic telephone call is made from New York City to London.

• January 9 – A military rebellion is crushed in Lisbon.

• January 15 – Teddy Wakelam gives the first sports commentary on BBC Radio.

• January 19 – Britain sends troops to China.

• January 30 – Right-wing veterans and the Republican Schutzbund clash in Schattendorf, Burgenland, Austria. One man and a child are killed by gunshots (see July 15).

February

• February 12 – The first British troops land in Shanghai.

• February 14 – An earthquake in Yugoslavia kills 700.

• February 19 – A general strike in Shanghai protests the presence of British troops.

• February 23 – The U.S. Federal Radio Commission (later renamed the Federal Communications Commission) begins to regulate the use of radio frequencies.

• February – Werner Heisenberg formulates his famous uncertainty principle while employed as a lecturer at Neils Bohr's Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of Copenhagen.

March

• March 4 – A diamond rush in South Africa includes trained athletes that have been hired by major companies to stake claims.

• March 7 – A Richter Scale 7.6 magnitude earthquake kills at least 2,925 at Toyooka and Mineyama area, western Honshu, Japan.

• March 10 – Albania mobilizes in case of an attack of Yugoslavia.

• March 11

• *In New York City, the Roxy Theater is opened by Samuel Roxy Rothafel.

• *The first armoured car robbery is committed by the Flatheads Gang near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

• March 13 – Fritz Lang's culturally influential Metropolis (film) debuts in Germany.

April

• April 1 – The first female police officers are hired in Dresden.

• April 5 – In Britain, the Trade Disputes Act forbids strikes of support.

• April 7 – Bell Telephone Co. transmits an image of Commerce Secretary Hoover which becomes the first successful long distance demonstration of television.

• April 12

• *The Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927 renames the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The change acknowledges that the Irish Free State is no longer part of the Kingdom.

• *Kuomintang troops kill number of communist-supporting workers in Shanghai. The incident is called the April 12 Incident, or Shanghai Massacre. The 1st United Front between the Nationalists and Communist ends, and the Civil War lasting until 1949 begins.

• April 16 – Pope Benedict XVI is born.

• April 18 – The Kuomintang sets up a government in Nanking, China.

• April 21 – A banking crisis hits Japan.

• April 22 – May 5 – The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 affects 700,000 people in the greatest national disaster in U.S. history at that time.

• April 23 – Cardiff City wins the FA Cup after beating Arsenal 1–0 at Wembley Stadium.

• April 27

• *The Carabineros de Chile (Chilean national police force and gendarmery) are created.

• *João Ribeiro de Barros becomes the first non-European to make a trans-Atlantic flight, from Genoa to Fernando de Noronha.

May

• May – Philo Farnsworth transmits first experimental electronic television pictures.

• May 5 – To The Lighthouse was finished by Virginia Woolf.

• May 7 – Civil war ends in Nicaragua.

• May 9 – The Australian Parliament first convenes in Canberra.

• May 11 – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the "Academy" in "Academy Awards," is founded.

• May 12 – The British police raid the office of the Soviet trade delegation.

• May 13 – George V proclaims the change of his title from King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to King of Great Britain and Ireland.

• May 14 – The ship Cap Arcona is launched at Blohm & Voss shipyard, in Hamburg.

• *In the U.S., the University of Chicago's local collegiate organization, Phi Sigma, becomes incorporated under the laws of the State of Illinois as Eta Sigma Phi, the National Honorary Classical Fraternity.

• May 17 – Army aviation pioneer Major Harold Geiger dies in the crash of his Airco DH.4 de Havilland plane, at Olmsted Field, Pennsylvania.

• May 18 – Bath School disaster: Bombings result in 45 deaths, mostly children, in Bath Township, Michigan.

• May 20 – Saudi Arabia becomes independent of the United Kingdom (Treaty of Jedda).

• May 20–21 – Charles Lindbergh makes the first solo non-stop trans-Atlantic flight, from New York to Paris in the single-seat, single-engine monoplane Spirit of St. Louis.

• May 22 – An 8.6 magnitude earthquake in Xining, China kills 200,000.

• May 23 – Nearly 600 members of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the Institute of Radio Engineers view the first live demonstration of television at the Bell Telephone Building in New York.

• May 24 – Britain severs diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union because of revelations of espionage and underground agitation.

May 20: Solo flight NYC to Paris.

June

• June 4 – Yugoslavia severs diplomatic relations with Albania.

• June 7 – Peter Voikov, Soviet ambassador to Warsaw, is assassinated.

• June 9 – The Soviet Union executes 20 British for alleged espionage.

• June 13

• *Leon Daudet, leader of the French monarchists, is arrested in France.

• *A ticker-tape parade is held for aviator Charles Lindbergh down 5th Avenue in New York City.

July

• July 10 – Kevin O'Higgins, vice president of the Irish Free State, is assassinated in Dublin.

• July 11 – An earthquake strikes Palestine, killing around 300. The effects are especially severe in Nablus, but damage and fatalities are also reported in many areas of Palestine and Trans-Jordan such as Amman, Salt and Lydda.

• July 15 – 85 protesters and 5 policemen are dead after left-wing protesters and the Austrian police clash in Vienna. More than 600 people are injured. See Massacre of July 15, 1927.

• July 22 – The Italian football club A.S. Roma is founded.

• July 24 – The Menin Gate war memorial is unveiled at Ypres, Belgium.

August

• August 1 – The Communist Chinese People's Liberation Army is formed during the Nanchang Uprising.

• August 2 – U.S. President Calvin Coolidge announces, "I do not choose to run for President in 1928."

• August 7 – The Peace Bridge opens between Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, New York.

• August 22 – In Hyde Park, London, 200 people demonstrate against the sentence of Italian immigrant anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti.

• August 23 – Sacco and Vanzetti are executed.

• August 24–25 – A hurricane hits the Atlantic shore of Canada, causing massive damage and at least 56 deaths.

• August 26 – Paul R. Redfern leaves Brunswick, Georgia, flying his Stinson Detroiter "Port of Brunswick" to attempt a solo non-stop flight to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He later crashes in the Venezuela jungle (the crash site is never located).

September

• September 7 – The University of Minas Gerais is founded in Brazil.

• September 14 – An underwater earthquake in Japan kills over 100 people.

• September 18 – The Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System (later known as CBS) is formed and goes on the air with 47 radio stations.

• September 27 – 79 are killed and 550 are injured in the East St. Louis Tornado, the 2nd costliest and at least 24th deadliest tornado in U.S. history.

• Autumn Harvest Uprising in China.

October

• October 6 – The Jazz Singer movie opens in the United States and becomes a huge success, marking the end of the silent film era.

• October 8 – Murderer's Row: The New York Yankees complete a 4-game sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the World Series.

• October 9 – The Mexican government crushes a rebellion in Vera Cruz.

• October 27 – The Italian steamer ship Principessa Mafalda capsizes off Porto Seguro, Brazil; at least 314 are killed.

• October 27 – Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands opens the Meuse-Waal Canal in Nijmegen.

• *At 5:50 a.m. a ground fault gives way, causing the mine and part of the town of Worthington to collapse into a large chasm located in Ontario, Canada. Nobody is injured in the incident, however, the area was evacuated the night before after a mine foreman noticed abnormal rock shifts in the mine.

• October 28 – Pan American Airways' first flight takes off from Key West, bound for Havana.

November

• 3–4 November – Floods devastating Vermont incur the "worst natural disaster in the state's history".

• November 4 – Frank Heath and his horse Gypsy Queen return to Washington, D.C., having completed a 2-year journey of 11,356 miles to all 48 states.

• November 10 – Unexplained explosions occur in Canton, Ohio.

• November 12

• *Mahatma Gandhi makes his first and last visit to Ceylon.

• *Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin with undisputed control of the Soviet Union.

• *The Holland Tunnel opens to traffic as the first Hudson River vehicular tunnel linking New Jersey to New York City.

• November 14 – The Pittsburgh Gasometer Explosion: Three Equitable Gas storage tanks in the North Side of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania explode, killing 26 people and causing damage estimated between contemporary totals of $4 million and $5 million.

• November 24 – A total solar eclipse occurs over Northern England and Wales.

December

• December – Communist Party congress condemns all deviation from the general party line in the USSR.

• December 2 – Following 19 years of Ford Model T production, the Ford Motor Company unveils the Ford Model A as its new automobile.

• December 12 – 1,600 people are hospitalized in London after hurting themselves on the icy streets.

• December 15 – Marion Parker, 12, is kidnapped in Los Angeles. Her dismembered body is found on December 19, prompting the largest manhunt to date on the West Coast for her killer, William Edward Hickman, who is arrested on December 22 in Oregon.

• December 17 – The U.S. submarine S-4 is accidentally rammed and sunk by the United States Coast Guard destroyer John Paulding off Provincetown, Massachusetts, killing everyone aboard after several unsuccessful attempts to raise the sub.

• December 27 – Kern and Hammerstein's musical play Show Boat, based on Edna Ferber's novel, opens on Broadway and goes on to become the first great classic of the American musical theatre.

• December 30 – The first Japanese metro line, the Ginza Line in Tokyo, opens.

Undated

• The British Broadcasting Corporation is granted a Royal Charter of Incorporation.

• Harold Stephen Black invents the feedback amplifier.

• The Voluntary Committee of Lawyers is founded to bring about the repeal of prohibition of alcohol in United States.

• World population reaches 2 billion.

• In Britain, 1,000 people a week die from an influenza epidemic.

Births

January–February

• January 1

• *Pat Heywood, Scottish actress

• *Vernon L. Smith, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate

• *Doak Walker, American football player (d. 1998)

• January 5 – Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, American-born Hindu guru (d. 2001)

• January 10

• *Gisele MacKenzie, Canadian-born singer (d. 2003)

• *Johnnie Ray, American singer (Cry) (d. 1990)

• *Otto Stich, member of the Swiss Federal Council

• January 13

• *Brock Adams, American politician (d. 2004)

• *Sydney Brenner, British biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

• January 17 – Eartha Kitt, American actress and singer (d. 2008)

• January 23 – Jack Quinlan, Chicago Cubs Radio Broadcaster (d. 1965)

• January 24 – Lasse Pöysti, Finnish writer and playwright

• January 25 – Antonio Carlos Jobim, Brazilian composer (d. 1994)

• January 26 – José Azcona del Hoyo, President of Honduras (d. 2005)

• January 28 – Hiroshi Teshigahara, Japanese director

• January 29

• *Edward Abbey, American environmentalist (d. 1989)

• *Lewis Urry, Canadian inventor (d. 2004)

• January 30 – Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden (d. 1986)

• January 30 – Bendapudi Venkata Satyanarayana, Indian dermatologist (d. 2005)

• February 1 – Galway Kinnell, American poet

• February 2 – Stan Getz, American musician (d. 1991)

• February 3

• *Val Doonican, Irish singer and entertainer

• *Blas Ople, Filipino politician (d. 2003)

• February 7

• *Juliette Greco, French singer and actress

• *Vladimir Kuts, Russian runner (d. 1975)

• February 10 – Leontyne Price, American soprano

• February 14 – Lois Maxwell, British actress (d. 2007)

• February 15 – Harvey Korman, American actor and comedian (d. 2008)

• February 16 – June Brown, British actress

• February 20

• *Roy Cohn, American lawyer and anti-Communist (d. 1986)

• *Sidney Poitier, American actor

• February 21

• *Erma Bombeck, American writer and humorist (d. 1996)

• *Hubert de Givenchy, French fashion designer

• February 23

• * Régine Crespin, French operatic soprano (d. 2007)

• * Ivan Hrušovský, Slovak composer (d. 2001)

• February 24 – Mark Lane, American conspiracy theorist

• February 26 – Tom Kennedy, American game show host

• February 27 – Lynn Cartwright, American actress (d. 2004)

March–April

• March 1

• *Harry Belafonte, African-American musician and actor (Day-O)

• *Robert Bork, American conservative law professor

• March 3 – Pierre Aubert, member of the Swiss Federal Council

• March 4

• *Philip Batt, 29th Governor of the U.S. state of Idaho

• *Thayer David, American actor (d. 1978)

• *Robert Orben, American magician

• *Dick Savitt, American tennis player

• March 6

• *Gabriel García Márquez, Colombian author

• *Gordon Cooper, American astronaut (d. 2004)

• *Wes Montgomery, American musician (d. 1968)

• *William J. Bell, American soap creator (d. 2005)

• March 11 – Ron Todd, British trade union leader (d. 2005)

• March 13

• *Robert Denning, American interior designer (d. 2005)

• *Raúl Alfonsín, Argentine politician (d. 2009)

• March 16

• *Vladimir Komarov, Russian cosmonaut (d. 1967)

• *Daniel Patrick Moynihan, U.S. Senator from New York (d. 2003)

• March 18 – George Plimpton, American writer and actor (d. 2003)

• March 20 – John Joubert, South African–born British composer

• March 21 – Hans-Dietrich Genscher, German politician

• March 24 – Martin Walser, German author

• March 25 – Bill Barilko, Canadian hockey player

• March 27 – Mstislav Rostropovich, Russian cellist and conductor (d. 2007)

• March 29 – John Robert Vane, British pharmacologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004)

• March 30 – Peter Marshall, American game-show host (Hollywood Squares)

• March 31

• *César Chávez, American labor activist, United Farm Workers founder (d. 1993)

• *William Daniels, American actor

• April 1 – Peter Cundall, Australian horticulturist and television presenter

• April 2

• *Ferenc Puskás, Hungarian footballer (d. 2006)

• *Kenneth Tynan, English theatre critic (d. 1980)

• April 6 – Gerry Mulligan, American musician (d. 1996)

• April 10 – Marshall Warren Nirenberg, American scientist, Nobel Prize laureate

• April 14 – Alan MacDiarmid, New Zealand chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

• April 15 – Robert Mills, American physicist (d. 1999)

• April 16

• *Pope Benedict XVI

• *Peter Mark Richman, American actor

• April 20

• *Phil Hill, American race car driver (d. 2008)

• *Karl Alexander Müller, Swiss physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

• April 27 – Coretta Scott King, American civil rights leader, wife of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (d. 2006)

May–June

• May 9 – Manfred Eigen, German biophysicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

• May 11

• *Mort Sahl, Canadian-born comedian, political commentator

• *Gene Savoy, American author, explorer, scholar and cleric (d. 2007)

• May 13 – Herbert Ross, American film director (d. 2001)

• May 20 – Bud Grant, Canadian and American football coach

• May 22 – George Andrew Olah, Hungarian-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

• May 25 – Robert Ludlum, American author (d. 2001)

• May 27 – Ralph Carmichael, American composer and arranger

• May 30 – Clint Walker, American actor

• June 3 – Boots Randolph, American saxophone player (d. 2007)

• June 8 – Jerry Stiller, American comedian and actor

• June 12 – Al Fairweather, Scottish jazz musician (d. 1993)

• June 18 – Paul Eddington, British actor (d. 1995)

• June 21 – Carl Stokes, American politician (d. 1996)

• June 23 – Bob Fosse, American choreographer and director (d. 1987)

• June 24 – Martin Lewis Perl, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

• June 27 – Bob Keeshan, American actor and children's television show host (d. 2004)

• June 28 – Frank Sherwood Rowland, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

July–August

• July 4

• *Gina Lollobrigida, Italian actress

• *Neil Simon, American playwright

• July 6

• *Alan Freeman, Australian-born broadcaster and disc jockey (d. 2006)

• *Janet Leigh, American actress (d. 2004)

• *Pat Paulsen, American comedian and political satirist (d. 1997)

• July 10 – David Norman Dinkins, African-American Mayor of New York City from 1989 through 1993

• July 18 – Kurt Masur, Silesian-born conductor

• July 26 – Danny La Rue, Irish drag queen (d. 2009)

• July 30 – Victor Wong, American actor (d. 2001)

• August 4 – Jess Thomas, American tenor (d. 1993)

• August 7 – Carl Switzer, American actor (The Little Rascals) (d. 1959)

• August 8 – Johnny Temple, American baseball player (d. 1994)

• August 12 – Porter Wagoner, American country singer (d. 2007)

• August 18 – Rosalynn Carter, wife of U.S. President Jimmy Carter

• August 20 – Peter Oakley, also known as geriatric1927, British vlogger

• August 23 – Dick Bruna, Dutch illustrator

• August 24 – Harry Markowitz, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate

• August 25 – Albert Uderzo, French cartoonist

• August 26 – Althea Gibson, African-American tennis player (d. 2003)

September–October

• September 3 – Br. John Hamman S.M. (d. 2000), close-up magician, inventor, Marianist brother

• September 11

• *Vernon Corea, Sri Lankan broadcaster

• *G. David Schine, American businessman (d. 1996)

• September 16 – Peter Falk, American actor (Columbo)

• September 22 – Gordon Astall, English footballer

• September 25 – Sir Colin Davis, English conductor

• September 27

• *Steve Stavro, Canadian businessman and sports team owner (d. 2006)

• *W. S. Merwin, American poet

• October 1 – Tom Bosley, American actor (Happy Days)

• October 8 – César Milstein, Argentine scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2002)

• October 14 – Roger Moore, English actor (The Saint)

• October 16 – Günter Grass, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate

• October 18 – George C. Scott, American actor (Patton) (d. 1999)

• October 23 – Leszek Kolakowski, Polish philosopher (d. 2009)

• October 31 – Lee Grant, American actress

November–December

• November 2 – Steve Ditko, influential American comic book writer and artist, co-creator of Spider-Man

• November 8 – Patti Page, American singer

• November 10 – Sabah (singer), Lebanese singer and actress

• November 14 – McLean Stevenson, American actor (M*A*S*H) (d. 1996)

• November 15 – Gregor Mackenzie, Labour Party (UK) politician (d. 1992)

• November 18 – Hank Ballard, American musician (d. 2003)

• November 21 – Georgia Frontiere, co-owner of the St. Louis Rams (d. 2008)

• November 23 – Guy Davenport, American author, artist, and scholar (d. 2005)

• November 24

• *Ahmadou Kourouma, Ivorian writer (d. 2003)

• *Alfredo Kraus, Spanish tenor (d. 1999)

• November 27 – Vin Scully, American baseball broadcaster

• November 28 – Chuck Mitchell, American actor (d. 1992)

• December 3 – Andy Williams, American singer (Moon River)

• December 5

• *HMK Bhumibol Adulyadej, King of Thailand

• *W.D. Amaradeva, Sri Lanka Maestro

• December 7 – Helen Watts, Welsh contralto

• December 8 – Vladimir Shatalov, Russian cosmonaut

• December 9 – Pierre Henry, French composer

• December 12 – Robert Noyce, Intel cofounder (d. 1990)

• December 13 – James Wright, American poet (d. 1980)

• December 18 – Roméo LeBlanc, 25th Governor General of Canada (d. 2009)

• December 24 – Mary Higgins Clark, famous American novelist

• December 25 – Nellie Fox, American baseball player (d. 1975)

• December 26

• *Alan King, American comedian (d. 2004)

• *Denis Quilley, British actor (d. 2003)

• December 29- Andy Stanfield, American athlete (d. 1985)

• December 29- Matt Murphy, Blues guitarist

Deaths

January–June

• January 19 – Empress Carlota of Mexico (b. 1840)

• February 13 – Brooks Adams, American historian (b. 1848)

• February 19 – Robert Fuchs, Austrian composer (b. 1847)

• March 4 – Ira Remsen, American chemist, discoverer of saccharin (b. 1846)

• March 14 – Jānis Čakste, Latvian politician, first president of Latvian Republic (b. 1859)

• March 17 – Charles Emmett Mack, American actor (b. 1900)

• March 23 – Paul César Helleu, French artist (b. 1859)

• March 27 – Joe Start, American baseball player (b. 1842)

• April 15 – Gaston Leroux, French journalist and author (b. 1868)

• April 25 – Earle Williams, American actor (b. 1880)

• May 2 – Ernest Starling, British physiologist (b. 1866)

• May 3 – Ernest Ball, American singer and songwriter (b. 1878)

• May 11 – Juan Gris, Spanish sculptor and painter (b. 1887)

• June 1

• *Lizzie Borden, American accused murderer (b. 1860)

• *J. B. Bury, Irish historian (b. 1861)

• June 4 – Robert McKim, American actor (b. 1886)

• June 9 – Victoria Woodhull, American feminist and spiritualist (b. 1838)

• June 11 – William Attewell, English cricketer (b. 1861)

• June 14 – Jerome K. Jerome, English writer (b. 1859)

July–December

• July 5 – Albrecht Kossel, German physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1853)

• July 9 – John Drew, Jr., American stage actor (b. 1853)

• July 20 – Ferdinand of Romania, King of Romania (b. 1865)

• July 24 – Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Japanese poet and writer (b. 1892)

• July 26 – June Mathis, American screenwriter (b. 1892)

• August 13 – James Oliver Curwood, America novelist and conservationist (b. 1878)

• August 23

• *Nicola Sacco, Italian anarchist (executed) (b. 1891)

• *Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Italian anarchist (executed) (b. 1888)

• August 24 – Manuel Díaz Rodríguez, Venezuelan writer (b. 1871)

• September 5 – Wayne Wheeler, American temperance movement leader (b. 1868)

• September 14

• *Isadora Duncan, American dancer (b. 1877)

• *Hugo Ball, German poet, founder of Dadaism (b. 1886)

• September 5 – Marcus Loew, Theater chain founder (b. 1870)

• September 19 – Michael Peter Ancher, Danish painter (b. 1849)

• September 29 – Willem Einthoven, Dutch inventor, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1860)

• October 2 – Svante Arrhenius, Swedish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1859)

• October 5 – Sam Warner, Hollywood studio executive (b. 1887)

• October 10 – Gustave Whitehead, German-born aviation pioneer (b. 1874)

• October 22 – Borisav "Bora" Stanković, Serbian writer (b. 1876)

• November 1 – Florence Mills, American cabaret singer (b. 1896)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics – Arthur Holly Compton, Charles Thomson Rees Wilson

• Chemistry – Heinrich Otto Wieland

• Physiology or Medicine – Julius Wagner-Jauregg

• Literature – Henri Bergson

• Peace – Ferdinand Buisson, Ludwig Quidde

See also

• 20th century