Pope Urban II orders first Crusade

On November 27, 1703, an unusual storm system finally dissipates over England after wreaking havoc on the country for nearly two weeks. Featuring hurricane strength winds, the storm killed somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000 people. Hundreds of Royal Navy ships were lost to the storm, the worst in Britain’s history. The unusual weather began on […]

Without bothering to identify the village or do any reconnaissance, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer leads an early morning attack on a band of peaceful Cheyenne living with Chief Black Kettle. After the government convicted Custer of desertion and mistreatment of soldiers earlier that year in a military court, it suspended him from rank and […]

On November 27, 1940, the actor and martial-arts expert Bruce Lee is born in San Francisco, California. In his all-too-brief career, Lee became a film star in Asia and, later, a pop-culture icon in America. Lee was born while his father, a Chinese opera star, was on tour in America. The Lee family moved back […]

In a star-making performance, ballerina Maria Tallchief debuts in the New York City Ballet’s production of Firebird on November 27, 1949. During her distinguished career, Tallchief collaborated with famed choreographer George Balanchine and became the first-ever American prima ballerina. Maria Tallchief was born in 1925 on the Osage Indian reservation in Oklahoma, to a Native […]

Former Board of Supervisors member Dan White murders Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk at City Hall in San Francisco, California on November 27, 1978. White, who stormed into San Francisco’s government offices with a .38 revolver, had reportedly been angry about Moscone’s decision not to reappoint him to the city board. Firing upon […]

It had a surprising mix of progressive and traditional sounds.