October 27 birthdays & history

Famous people born on October 27

• 1858Theodore Roosevelt, American colonel and politician, 26th President of the United States, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1932Sylvia Plath, American poet, novelist, and short story writer
• 1782Niccolò Paganini, Italian violinist and composer
• 1952Roberto Benigni, Italian actor, director, and screenwriter
• 1952Francis Fukuyama, American political scientist, economist, and author
• 1914Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet and playwright
• 1939John Cleese, English actor, comedian, screenwriter and producer
• 1931Nawal El Saadawi, Egyptian physician, psychiatrist, and author
• 1992Stephan El Shaarawy, Italian footballer
• 1918Teresa Wright, American actress and singer

What happened on October 27

• 1275Traditional founding of the city of Amsterdam.
• 1726J. S. Bach led the first performance of Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, BWV 56, one of few works he called a cantata.
• 1904The first underground segment of the New York City Subway opened, connecting New York City Hall with Harlem.
• 1924The Uzbek SSR is founded in the Soviet Union.
• 1961NASA tests the first Saturn I rocket in Mission Saturn-Apollo 1.
• 1971The Democratic Republic of the Congo is renamed Zaire.
• 1979Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
• 1986The British government suddenly deregulates financial markets, leading to a total restructuring of the way in which they operate in the country, in an event now referred to as the Big Bang.
• 1991Turkmenistan achieves independence from the Soviet Union.
• 1994Gliese 229B is the first Substellar Mass Object to be unquestionably identified.
• 2017Catalonia declares independence from Spain.
• 2019The Mocking of Christ by Cimabue sold at auction in France for €19.5 million, a record for a pre-1500 artwork.

Also observed on October 27

• Flag Day (Greece)
• International Religious Freedom Day (United States)
• National Black Cat Day (United Kingdom)
• World Day for Audiovisual Heritage