Abolition of Apartheid

The following is your daily snapshot of what happened on this day in history, April 27th. On this day in history, April 27, 1994, apartheid is abolished in South Africa and the country witnesses its first fully democratic, multi-racial elections. Apartheid was a system of legal racial segregation enforced by the National Party government of South Africa between 1948 and 1994, under which the rights of the majority ‘non-white’ inhabitants of South Africa were curtailed and minority rule by white people was maintained.

BORN APRIL 27TH:

April 27, 1623 – Johann Adam Reinken, German organist (d. 1722)
April 27, 1650 – Queen Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel (d. 1714)
April 27, 1701 – King Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia (d. 1773)
April 27, 1718 – Thomas Lewis, Irish-born Virginia settler (d. 1790)
April 27, 1724 – Thomas Gardner, American politician and soldier (d. 1775)
April 27, 1737 – Edward Gibbon, English historian (d. 1794)
April 27, 1748 – Adamantios Korais, Greek humanist scholar (d. 1833)
April 27, 1755 – Marc-Antoine Parseval, French mathematician (d. 1836)
April 27, 1759 – Mary Wollstonecraft, English author and feminist (d. 1797)
April 27, 1791 – Samuel F. B. Morse, American inventor (d. 1872)
April 27, 1806 – Queen Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies (d. 1878)
April 27, 1812 – Friedrich von Flotow, German composer (d. 1883)
April 27, 1812 – William W. Snow, American politician (d. 1886)
April 27, 1820 – Herbert Spencer, English philosopher (d. 1903)
April 27, 1822 – Ulysses S. Grant, American Civil War general and 18th President of the United States (d. 1885)
April 27, 1840 – Edward Whymper, English mountaineer (d. 1911)
April 27, 1848 – King Otto I of Bavaria (d. 1916)
April 27, 1850 – Hans Hartwig von Beseler, German general (d. 1921)
April 27, 1853 – Jules Lemaître, French critic and dramatist (d. 1914)
April 27, 1857 – Theodor Kittelsen, Norwegian artist (d. 1914)
April 27, 1862 – Rudolph Schildkraut, Turkish-born born American actor (d. 1930)
April 27, 1878 – Frank Alvin Gotch, American professional wrestler (d. 1917)
April 27, 1888 – Florence La Badie, Canadian actress (d. 1917)
April 27, 1891 – Sergei Prokofiev, Soviet composer (d. 1953)
April 27, 1893 – Draža Mihailović, Serbian-born Yugoslav military commander (d. 1946)
April 27, 1893 – Allen Sothoron, American baseball player (d. 1939)
April 27, 1894 – George Petty, American pin-up artist (d. 1975)
April 27, 1894 – Nicolas Slonimsky, Russian-born musicologist and composer (d. 1995)
April 27, 1896 – Rogers Hornsby, American baseball player (d. 1963)
April 27, 1899 – Walter Lantz, American cartoonist (d. 1994)
April 27, 1903 – Horace Stoneham, American baseball team owner (d. 1990)
April 27, 1904 – Nikos Zachariadis, Greek politician (d. 1973)
April 27, 1904 – Cecil Day-Lewis, Irish poet and writer (d. 1972)
April 27, 1906 – Yórgos Theotokás, Greek novelist (d. 1966)
April 27, 1910 – Chiang Ching-kuo, Chinese-born Taiwanese politician; son of Chiang Kai-shek (d. 1988)
April 27, 1912 – Zohra Segal, Indian stage and film actress

April 27, 1913 – Philip Hauge Abelson, American physicist (d. 2004)
April 27, 1913 – Luz Long, German athlete (d. 1943)
April 27, 1916 – Enos Slaughter, American baseball player (d. 2002)
April 27, 1918 – Sten Rudholm, Swedish jurist (d. 2008)
April 27, 1920 – Guido Cantelli, Italian conductor (d. 1956)
April 27, 1920 – Edwin Morgan, Scottish poet (d. 2010)
April 27, 1920 – Mark Krasnosel’skii, Ukrainian-born Soviet mathematician (d. 1997)
April 27, 1920 – James R. Mann, American attorney and politician (d. 2010)
April 27, 1921 – John Stott, British theologian and clergyman
April 27, 1922 – Martin Gray, Polish-born American writer and Holocaust survivor
April 27, 1922 – Jack Klugman, American actor
April 27, 1927 – Coretta Scott King, American civil rights activist; widow of Martin Luther King, Jr. (d. 2006)
April 27, 1927 – Joe Moakley, American politician (d. 2001)
April 27, 1927 – Sheila Scott, English aviatrix (d. 1988)
April 27, 1931 – Igor Oistrakh, Ukrainian violinist
April 27, 1932 – Anouk Aimée, French actress
April 27, 1932 – Pik Botha, South African politician
April 27, 1932 – Casey Kasem, American actor and radio personality
April 27, 1932 – Gian-Carlo Rota, Italian-born American mathematician and philosopher (d. 1999)
April 27, 1935 – Theodoros Angelopoulos, Greek filmmaker and screenwriter
April 27, 1936 – Geoffrey Shovelton, English opera singer
April 27, 1937 – Sandy Dennis, American actress (d. 1992)
April 27, 1937 – Robin Eames, Northern Irish clergyman
April 27, 1938 – Earl Anthony, American bowler (d. 2001)
April 27, 1938 – Alain Caron, French-Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1986)
April 27, 1939 – Judy Carne, British actress and comedian
April 27, 1939 – Jerry Mercer, Canadian musician
April 27, 1939 – Stanislaw Dziwisz, Polish Cardinal
April 27, 1941 – Jennings Michael Burch, American author
April 27, 1941 – Lee Roy Jordan, American football player
April 27, 1941 – Pat Choate, American economist
April 27, 1942 – Jim Keltner, American drummer
April 27, 1943 – Helmut Marko, Austrian racing driver
April 27, 1944 – Michael Fish, British meteorologist
April 27, 1944 – Cuba Gooding, Sr., American musician (The Main Ingredient)
April 27, 1945 – August Wilson, American dramatist (d. 2005)
April 27, 1945 – Helen Hodgman, Australian novelist
April 27, 1947 – Ann Peebles, American singer
April 27, 1947 – George Kenneth Butterfield, American politician
April 27, 1947 – Pete Ham, Welsh singer and songwriter (Badfinger) (d. 1975)
April 27, 1947 – Keith Magnuson, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2003)
April 27, 1948 – Frank William Abagnale, Jr., American con artist
April 27, 1948 – Kate Pierson, American singer (The B-52′s)
April 27, 1948 – Amrit Bohra, Nepalese politician
April 27, 1949 – Grant Chapman, Australian politician
April 27, 1951 – Ace Frehley, American musician (Kiss)
April 27, 1952 – George Gervin, American basketball player
April 27, 1952 – Ari Vatanen, Finnish rally driver
April 27, 1952 – Larry Elder, American political commentator
April 27, 1953 – Arielle Dombasle, French singer and actress
April 27, 1954 – Herman Edwards, American pro football player and coach
April 27, 1956 – Douglas P., English musician (Death in June, Crisis)
April 27, 1956 – Bryan Harvey, American musician (d. 2006)
April 27, 1957 – Eric Bristow, English darts player
April 27, 1957 – Rosanna Scotto, American news anchor
April 27, 1957 – Michel Barrette, Canadian actor and stand-up comedian
April 27, 1959 – Sheena Easton, Scottish singer
April 27, 1959 – Louis Lortie, French Canadian concert pianist
April 27, 1959 – Neil Pearson, British actor
April 27, 1960 – Mike Krushelnyski, Montreal ice hockey player
April 27, 1962 – Ángel Comizzo, Argentine footballer
April 27, 1962 – James LeGros, American actor
April 27, 1962 – Im Sang-soo, South Korean film director and screenwriter
April 27, 1963 – Cali Timmins, Canadian actress
April 27, 1963 – Russell T Davies, Welsh television writer
April 27, 1964 – Rajesh K. Mehta, Indian-American trumpeter, composer,visual artist,and engineer
April 27, 1964 – Michael Mahonen, Canadian actor, director and screenwriter
April 27, 1964 – Lisa Wilcox, American actress
April 27, 1966 – Matt Reeves, American film writer, director and producer
April 27, 1967 – Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, Dutch royal
April 27, 1967 – Aki Avni, Israeli entertainer
April 27, 1967 – Tommy Smith, Scottish jazz musician
April 27, 1967 – Erik Thomson, Australian actor
April 27, 1967 – Jason Whitlock, American sportswriter
April 27, 1968 – Dana Milbank, American reporter and columnist
April 27, 1969 – Cory Booker, American politician
April 27, 1969 – Darcey Bussell, British ballerina
April 27, 1969 – Grahame Cheney, Australian boxer
April 27, 1969 – Mica Paris, British singer and presenter
April 27, 1970 – Kylie Travis, English actress and model
April 27, 1971 – Tess Daly, British television presenter
April 27, 1972 – Mehmet Kurtuluş, German-Turkish actor
April 27, 1972 – David Lascher, American actor
April 27, 1972 – Nigel Barker, English fashion photographer
April 27, 1972 – Maura West, American actress
April 27, 1973 – Duško Adamović, Serbian footballer
April 27, 1973 – Andre Gower, American actor
April 27, 1973 – Sébastien Lareau, French-Canadian tennis player
April 27, 1974 – Johnny Devine, Canadian professional wrestler
April 27, 1974 – Richard Johnson, Australian footballer
April 27, 1974 – Frank Catalanotto, American baseball player
April 27, 1975 – Rabih Abdullah, American pro football player
April 27, 1975 – Chris Carpenter, American baseball player
April 27, 1975 – Pedro Feliz, Dominican baseball player
April 27, 1976 – Isobel Campbell, Scottish singer and composer
April 27, 1976 – Sally Hawkins, English film actress
April 27, 1976 – Walter Pandiani, Uruguayan footballer
April 27, 1976 – Olaf Tufte, Norwegian rower
April 27, 1976 – Faisal Saif, Indian filmmaker
April 27, 1977 – Khalid Zoubaa, French runner
April 27, 1979 – Will Boyd, American musician
April 27, 1979 – Natasha Chokljat, Australian netballer
April 27, 1980 – Christian Lara, Ecuadorian footballer
April 27, 1980 – Ananda Mikola, Indonesian racing driver
April 27, 1980 – Sybille Bammer, Austrian tennis player
April 27, 1980 – Talitha Cummins, Australian journalist
April 27, 1981 – Fabrizio Faniello, Maltese singer
April 27, 1981 – Joey Gathright, American baseball player
April 27, 1981 – Patrik Gerrbrand, Swedish footballer
April 27, 1982 – Katrina Johnson, American actress
April 27, 1982 – Alexander Widiker, German rugby player
April 27, 1983 – Ari Graynor, American actress
April 27, 1984 – Patrick Stump, American musician (Fall Out Boy)
April 27, 1984 – Pierre-Marc Bouchard, French-Canadian ice hockey player
April 27, 1984 – Daniel Holdsworth, Australian rugby player
April 27, 1985 – José Antonio de Miranda da Silva Júnior, Brazilian footballer
April 27, 1986 – Elena Risteska, Macedonian singer
April 27, 1986 – Dinara Safina, Russian tennis player
April 27, 1987 – William Moseley, British actor
April 27, 1987 – Emma Taylor-Isherwood, Canadian actress
April 27, 1987 – Elliott Shriane, Australian speed skater
April 27, 1987 – Taylor Chorney, American ice hockey player
April 27, 1988 – Kris Thackray, British footballer
April 27, 1988 – Semyon Varlamov, Russian ice hockey player
April 27, 1989 – Emily Rios, American actress
April 27, 1990 – Salvatore Papa, Italian footballer
April 27, 1991 – Jennifer Braun, German Singer
April 27, 1992 – Allison Iraheta, American singer

DIED APRIL 27TH:
April 27, 630 – King Ardashir III of Persia
April 27, 1272 – Zita, Roman Catholic Saint (b.1212)
April 27, 1404 – Philip II, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1342)
April 27, 1521 – Ferdinand Magellan, Portuguese explorer (b. 1480)
April 27, 1530 – Jacopo Sannazaro, Italian poet (b. 1458)
April 27, 1599 – Maeda Toshiie, Japanese general (b. 1538)
April 27, 1605 – Pope Leo XI (b. 1535)
April 27, 1613 – Robert Abercromby, Scottish Jesuit (b. 1532)
April 27, 1625 – Mori Terumoto, Japanese warrior (b. 1553)
April 27, 1656 – Jan van Goyen, Dutch painter (b. 1596)
April 27, 1694 – John George IV, Elector of Saxony (b. 1668)
April 27, 1695 – John Trenchard, English statesman (b. 1640)
April 27, 1702 – Jean Bart, French admiral (b. 1651)
April 27, 1782 – William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, English politician (b. 1710)
April 27, 1813 – Zebulon Pike, American frontiersman and explorer (b. 1779)
April 27, 1873 – William Charles Macready, English actor (b. 1793)
April 27, 1882 – Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist (b. 1803)
April 27, 1896 – Henry Parkes, known as the Father of Federation (b. 1815)
April 27, 1915 – Alexander Scriabin, Russian composer (b. 1872)
April 27, 1921 – Arthur Mold, English cricketer (b. 1863)
April 27, 1932 – Hart Crane, American writer (b. 1899)
April 27, 1936 – Karl Pearson, English statistician (b. 1857)
April 27, 1937 – Antonio Gramsci, Italian Communist writer and politician (b. 1891)
April 27, 1941 – Penelope Delta, Greek author (b. 1874)
April 27, 1952 – Guido Castelnuovo, Italian mathematician (b. 1865)
April 27, 1961 – Roy Del Ruth, American film director (b. 1893)
April 27, 1962 – A. K. Fazlul Huq, Bengali statesman (b. 1873)
April 27, 1965 – Edward R. Murrow, American journalist (b. 1908)
April 27, 1967 – William Douglas Cook, founder of Eastwoodhill Arboretum and Pukeiti, (New Zealand) (b. 1884)
April 27, 1969 – René Barrientos, President of Bolivia (b. 1919)
April 27, 1970 – Arthur Shields, Irish actor (b. 1896)
April 27, 1972 – Kwame Nkrumah, leader of Ghana (b. 1909)
April 27, 1973 – Carlos Menditeguy, Argentine racing driver (b. 1914)
April 27, 1977 – Stanley Adams, American actor (b. 1915)
April 27, 1988 – David Scarboro, British actor (b. 1968)
April 27, 1988 – Fred Bear, American bow-hunter (b. 1902)
April 27, 1989 – Konosuke Matsushita, Japanese industrialist (b. 1894)
April 27, 1992 – Olivier Messiaen, French composer (b. 1908)
April 27, 1992 – Gerard K. O’Neill, American physicist (b. 1927)
April 27, 1995 – Willem Frederik Hermans, Dutch writer (b. 1921)
April 27, 1996 – William Colby, American director of the Central Intelligence Agency (b. 1920)
April 27, 1998 – Carlos Castaneda, Peruvian-born writer (b. 1925)
April 27, 1998 – John Bassett, Canadian publisher and media baron (b. 1915)
April 27, 1998 – Dominique Aury, French novelist (b. 1907)
April 27, 1998 – H. Browning Ross, American long-distance running Olympian (b. 1924)
April 27, 1999 – Al Hirt, American trumpeter (b. 1922)
April 27, 1999 – Rolf Landauer, American physicist and electrical engineer (b. 1927)
April 27, 2000 – Vicki Sue Robinson, American singer (b. 1954)
April 27, 2002 – George Alec Effinger, American author (b. 1947)
April 27, 2002 – Ruth Handler, American toy manufacturer (b. 1916)
April 27, 2002 – Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, Swiss industrialist and art collector (b. 1921)
April 27, 2006 – Julia Thorne, ex-wife of John Kerry (b. 1944)
April 27, 2007 – Mstislav Rostropovich, Russian cellist and conductor (b. 1927)
April 27, 2008 – Marios Tokas, Cypriot songwriter (b. 1954)
April 27, 2009 – Frankie Manning, an American dancer, instructor, choreographer, and one of the founding fathers of Lindy Hop. (b. 1914)
April 27, 2009 – Feroz Khan, Indian actor (b. 1939)
April 27, 2009 – Woo Seung-yeon, South Korean actress and model (b. 1983)

APRIL 27TH MEMORABLE EVENTS:
April 27, 1296 – Battle of Dunbar: The Scots are defeated by Edward I of England.
April 27, 1509 – Pope Julius II places the Italian state of Venice under interdict.
April 27, 1521 – Battle of Mactan: Explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines led by chief Lapu-Lapu.
April 27, 1539 – Re-founding of the city of Bogotá, New Granada (now Colombia), by Nikolaus Federmann and Sebastián de Belalcázar.
April 27, 1565 – Cebu is established becoming the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.
April 27, 1578 – Duel of the Mignons claims the lives of two favourites of Henry III of France and two favorites of Henry I, Duke of Guise.
April 27, 1650 – The Battle of Carbisdale: A Royalist army invades mainland Scotland from Orkney Island but is defeated by a Covenanter army.
April 27, 1667 – The blind and impoverished John Milton sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10.
April 27, 1749 – First performance of Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks in Green Park, London.
April 27, 1773 – The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.
April 27, 1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Ridgefield: A British invasion force engages and defeats Continental Army regulars and militia irregulars at Ridgefield, Connecticut.
April 27, 1805 – First Barbary War: United States Marines and Berbers attack the Tripolitan city of Derna (The “shores of Tripoli” part of the Marines’ hymn).
April 27, 1810 – Beethoven composes his famous piano piece, Für Elise.
April 27, 1813 – War of 1812: United States troops capture the capital of Upper Canada, York (present day Toronto, Canada).
April 27, 1840 – Foundation stone for new Palace of Westminster, London, is laid by wife of Sir Charles Barry.
April 27, 1861 – President of the United States Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.
April 27, 1865 – The New York State Senate creates Cornell University as the state’s land grant institution.
April 27, 1865 – The steamboat Sultana, carrying 2,400 passengers, explodes and sinks in the Mississippi River, killing 1,700, most of whom are Union survivors of the Andersonville and Cahaba Prisons.
April 27, 1904 – The Australian Labor Party becomes the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson.
April 27, 1909 – Sultan of Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II is overthrown, and is succeeded by his brother, Mehmed V.
April 27, 1911 – Following the resignation and death of William P. Frye, a compromise is reached to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the United States Senate.
April 27, 1914 – Honduras becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
April 27, 1927 – Carabineros de Chile (Chilean national police force and gendarmery) are created.
April 27, 1936 – The United Auto Workers (UAW) gains autonomy from the American Federation of Labor.
April 27, 1941 – World War II: German troops enter Athens.
April 27, 1941 – World War II: The Communist Party of Slovenia, the Slovene Christian Socialists, the left-wing Slovene Sokols (also known as “National Democrats”) and a group of progressive intellectuals establish the Liberation Front of the Slovenian People.
April 27, 1945 – World War II: German troops are finally expelled from Finnish Lapland.
April 27, 1945 – World War II: Benito Mussolini is arrested by Italian partisans in Dongo, while attempting escape disguised as a German soldier.
April 27, 1950 – Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed formally segregating races.
April 27, 1959 – The last Canadian missionary leaves the People’s Republic of China.
April 27, 1960 – Togo gains independence from French-administered UN trusteeship.
April 27, 1961 – Sierra Leone is granted its independence from the United Kingdom, with Milton Margai as the first Prime Minister.
April 27, 1967 – Expo 67 officially opens in Montreal, Canada with a large opening ceremony broadcast around the world. It opens to the public the next day.
April 27, 1974 – 10,000 march in Washington, D.C., calling for the impeachment of US President Richard Nixon
April 27, 1977 – 28 people are killed in the Guatemala City air disaster.
April 27, 1978 – Former United States President Nixon aide John D. Ehrlichman is released from an Arizona prison after serving 18 months for Watergate-related crimes.
April 27, 1981 – Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse.
April 27, 1987 – The U.S. Department of Justice bars the Austrian President Kurt Waldheim from entering the United States, saying he had aided in the deportation and execution of thousands of Jews and others as a German Army officer during World War II.
April 27, 1992 – The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, is proclaimed.
April 27, 1992 – Betty Boothroyd becomes the first woman to be elected Speaker of the British House of Commons in its 700-year history.
April 27, 1992 – Russia and 12 other former Soviet republics become members of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
April 27, 1993 – All members of the Zambia national football team lose their lives in a plane crash off Libreville, Gabon in route to Dakar, Senegal to play a 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Senegal.
April 27, 1994 – South African general election, 1994: The first democratic general election in South Africa, in which black citizens could vote. The Interim Constitution comes into force.
April 27, 1996 – The 1996 Lebanon war ends.
April 27, 2002 – The last successful telemetry from the NASA space probe Pioneer 10.
April 27, 2005 – The superjumbo jet aircraft Airbus A380 makes its first flight from Toulouse, France.
April 27, 2006 – Construction begins on the Freedom Tower for the new World Trade Center in New York City.
April 27, 2007 – Estonian authorities remove the Bronze Soldier, a Soviet Red Army war memorial in Tallinn, amid political controversy with Russia.

MEMORABLE QUOTE:

“A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.” (Nelson Mandela)