Ship carrying hundreds of Jewish refugees, fleeing Nazi Germany, is turned away in Cuba

Born on This Day

Biologist and Author Rachel Carson

Rachel Carson

1907 - 1964

Biologist and conservation icon whose 1962 book "Silent Spring" raised worldwide awareness of environmental pollution.

Royal Caribbean Hosts Exclusive Brunch With Jamie Oliver Onboard Ovation Of The Seas

Jamie Oliver

1975 -

British chef who preached back-to-basics cooking on TV's "The Naked Chef" and advocated for improved eating habits.

2024 CFDA Awards - Winner's Walk

André 3000

1975 -

Rapper, songwriter and half of the hip-hop duo Outkast, best known for the infectious 2003 hit "Hey Ya!"

Rachel CarsonBettmann Archive

Jamie OliverGetty Images for Royal Caribbean

André 3000Getty Images

1930

MAY27

New York's Chrysler Building is completed, briefly becoming the world's tallest building. Its secretly assembled 185-foot spire ensures that it tops a rival skyscraper, but the Empire State Building claims the title the next year.

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 May 27th

St. Petersburg founded by Peter the Great

After winning access to the Baltic Sea through his victories in the Great Northern War, Czar Peter I founds the city of St. Petersburg as the new Russian capital on May 27, 1703. The reign of Peter, who became sole czar in 1696, was characterized by a series of sweeping military, political, economic, and cultural […]

0:58m read read

Thomas Jefferson writes to John Adams

On May 27, 1813, former President Thomas Jefferson writes former President John Adams to let him know that their mutual friend, Dr. Benjamin Rush, has died. Rush’s passing caused Jefferson to meditate upon the departure of the Revolutionary generation. He wrote, We too must go; and that ere long. I believe we are under half […]

1:24m read read

Comanche kill mountain man Jedediah Smith

Jedediah Smith, one of the nation’s most important trapper-explorers, is killed by Comanche tribesman on the Santa Fe Trail. Smith’s role in exploring the Far West was not fully realized until modern scholars examined the records of his far-ranging journeys. As with all of the mountain men, Smith ventured west as a practical businessman working […]

1:58m read read

Chinese gold miners are slaughtered in the Hells Canyon Massacre

In May 1887, around 30 Chinese laborers were mining gold in an isolated part of northeast Oregon, when the entire group was gunned down by a white gang of horse thieves. Initially referred to as the “Hells Canyon Massacre” or “Snake River Massacre” and the “Chinese Massacre at Deep Creek,” the event is considered one of the deadliest attacks against Chinese-Americans in U.S. history.

1:30m read read

“Dracula” goes on sale in London

The first copies of the classic vampire novel "Dracula," by Irish writer Bram Stoker, appear in London bookshops on May 26, 1897.

2:16m read read

The Battle of Tsushima

During the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian Baltic Fleet is nearly destroyed at the Battle of Tsushima. The decisive defeat, in which only 10 of 45 Russian warships escaped to safety, convinced Russian leaders that further resistance against Japan’s imperial designs for East Asia was hopeless. On February 8, 1904, following the Russian rejection of a […]

1:46m read read

Golden Gate Bridge opens

San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, a stunning technological and artistic achievement, opens to the public after five years of construction. On opening day—“Pedestrian Day”—some 200,000 bridge walkers marveled at the 4,200-foot-long suspension bridge, which spans the Golden Gate Strait at the entrance to San Francisco Bay and connects San Francisco and Marin County. The next […]

2:32m read read

British evacuation of Dunkirk turns savage as Germans commit atrocity

On May 27, 1940, units from Germany’s SS Death’s Head division battle British troops just 50 miles from the port at Dunkirk, in northern France, as Britain’s Expeditionary Force continues to fight to evacuate France. After holding off an SS company until their ammo was spent, 99 Royal Norfolk Regiment soldiers retreated to a farmhouse […]

1:46m read read

FDR proclaims an unlimited national emergency in response to Nazi threats

President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces a state of unlimited national emergency in response to Nazi Germany’s threats of world domination on May 27, 1941. In a speech on this day, he repeated his famous remark from a speech he made in 1933 during the Great Depression: the only thing we have to fear is fear […]

2:10m read read

British navy sinks the German battleship Bismarck

On May 27, 1941, the British navy sinks the German battleship Bismarck in the North Atlantic near France. The German death toll was more than 2,000.

U.S. Olympian Louis Zamperini’s plane goes down in the Pacific

On May 27, 1943, a B-24 carrying U.S. airman and former Olympic runner Louis Zamperini crashes into the Pacific Ocean. After surviving the crash, Zamperini floated on a raft in shark-infested waters for more than a month before being picked up by the Japanese and spending the next two years in a series of brutal […]

2:24m read read

Marilyn Monroe poses for “red velvet” nude photo session

On May 27, 1949, unemployed 22-year-old model-actress Marilyn Monroe receives $50 for posing nude for a Los Angeles photographer against a red velvet backdrop. The picture will go on to become the most famous calendar photo in history and the principal attraction in the first issue of Playboy magazine. It will also risk destroying Monroe’s […]

1:42m read read

Dylan’s breakthrough album, “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan,” is released

On May 27, 1963, Bob Dylan releases his second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, which goes on to transform him from a popular local act to a global phenomenon. “Of all the precipitously emergent singers of folk songs in the continuing renascence of that self-assertive tradition,” wrote journalist and critic Nat Hentoff, “none has equaled […]

1:48m read read

Sweden announces support to Viet Cong

In Sweden, Foreign Minister Torsten Nilsson reveals that Sweden has been providing assistance to the Viet Cong, including some $550,000 worth of medical supplies. Similar Swedish aid was to go to Cambodian and Laotian civilians affected by the Indochinese fighting. This support was primarily humanitarian in nature and included no military aid.

0:18m read read

African American inventor Lonnie Johnson patents the Super Soaker water gun

On May 27, 1986, the U.S. Patent Office grants a patent to African American inventor Lonnie Johnson for his toy design simply titled ”Squirt Gun.” After a few name changes and additional patents, Johnson’s invention—ultimately re-named the “Super Soaker®”—would become the best-selling water toy of all time, eventually earning its rightful place in the American […]

2:16m read read

Nobel laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn returns to Russia after exile

Two decades after being expelled from the USSR, Nobel laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn returns to Russia in an emotional homecoming. In 1945, Solzhenitsyn was sentenced to eight years of hard labor for criticizing Stalin in a letter to a friend. His prison experiences formed the basis for One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, his […]

0:48m read read

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