Radio City Music Hall

1932

Radio City Music Hall opens

Born on This Day

Marlene Dietrich

Marlene Dietrich

1901 - 1992

German actress and singer known for her magnetic, androgynous screen presence in films like "The Blue Angel" and "Morocco."

Portrait of Louis Pasteur

Louis Pasteur

1822 - 1895

French biologist known for developing the germ theory of disease and inventing the pasteurization process.

2022 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Radhika Jones - Arrivals

Timothée Chalamet

1995 -

Actor known for his roles in films like "Call Me by Your Name," "Dune" and "Lady Bird." Starred as Bob Dylan in "A Complete Unknown."

1935

DEC

27

Shattering an almost 2,000-year-old glass ceiling, Regina Jonas becomes the first woman ordained as a rabbi. Few male colleagues would grant her the pulpit, but as many fled Germany during WWII, she stepped into the void. She died at Auschwitz.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on December 27th

1831

Charles Darwin sets sail from England

British naturalist Charles Darwin sets out from Plymouth, England, aboard the HMS Beagle on a five-year surveying expedition of the southern Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Visiting such diverse places as the Galapagos Islands and New Zealand, Darwin acquired an intimate knowledge of the flora, fauna, and geology of many lands. This information proved invaluable in […]

1900

Prohibitionist Carry Nation smashes bar

Prohibitionist Carry Nation smashes up the bar at the Carey Hotel in Wichita, Kansas, causing several thousand dollars in damage and landing in jail. Nation, who was released shortly after the incident, became famous for carrying a hatchet and wrecking saloons as part of her anti-alcohol crusade. Carry Amelia Moore was born in Kentucky in […]

1904

J.M. Barrie’s play “Peter Pan” opens in London

On December 27, 1904, the play Peter Pan, by James Barrie, opens at the Duke of York’s Theater in London. Barrie was born in 1860 and studied at the University of Edinburgh. He worked as a reporter for the Nottingham Journal for two years after college. He moved to London in 1885 and became a […]

1918

Polish citizens take up arms against German troops in Poznan

In the wake of the German defeat, members of the People’s Guard, the Polish military organization, joined by a number of volunteers—many of them veterans of the Great War—take up arms against the occupying German army in the major industrial city of Poznan. At the beginning of World War I, close to three-quarters of Poland […]

1944

FDR seizes control of Montgomery Ward

On December 27, 1944, as World War II dragged on, President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders his secretary of war to seize properties belonging to the Montgomery Ward company because the company refused to comply with a labor agreement. In an effort to avert strikes in critical war-support industries, Roosevelt created the National War Labor Board […]

1968

Apollo 8 returns to Earth

Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, returns safely to Earth after an historic six-day journey. On December 21, Apollo 8 was launched by a three-stage Saturn 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell, Jr., and William Anders aboard. On Christmas Eve, the astronauts entered into orbit around […]

1979

Soviets take over in Afghanistan

In an attempt to stabilize the turbulent political situation in Afghanistan, the Soviet Union sends 75,000 troops to enforce the installation of Babrak Karmal as the new leader of the nation. The new government and the imposing Soviet presence, however, had little success in putting down antigovernment rebels. Thus began nearly 10 years of an […]

1985

World-renowned primatologist Dian Fossey is found murdered in Rwanda

On December 27, 1985, primatologist and conservationist Dr. Dian Fossey is found murdered in her cabin at Karisoke, a research site in the mountains of Rwanda. It is widely believed that she was killed in connection with her lifelong crusade against poaching. An animal lover from a young age, Fossey began her career as an […]

2007

Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto assassinated

On December 27, 2007, Benazir Bhutto, a former Pakistani prime minister and the first democratically elected female leader of a Muslim country, is assassinated at age 54 in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi. A polarizing figure at home and abroad, Bhutto had spent three decades struggling to stay afloat in Pakistani politics. To many of […]

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