What Happened On
Superman Paralyzed
May 27, 1995
Actor Christopher Reeve, known for playing Superman, is paralyzed from the neck down after being thrown from a horse. He had been scheduled to pose for an equestrian safety poster.
The horse he was riding refused a jump, making a sudden stop as it approached the jump. Reeve fell forward and landed on his head shattering his first and second vertebrae, leaving him paralyzed him from the neck down. He had to have surgery to reattach his skull to his spine.
Reeve continued to act and direct, but died in 2004 after he went into cardiac arrest after receiving an antibiotic for pressure sores.
Marijuana
May 27, 1975
The Alaskan Supreme Court legalizes the use of marijuana in the privacy of one's home. It was the first state or federal court to announce a constitutional privacy right that protects some level of marijuana use and possession, ruling: "…we conclude that no adequate justification for the state's intrusion into the citizen's right to privacy by its prohibition of possession of marijuana by an adult for personal consumption in the home has been shown. The privacy of the individual's home cannot be breached absent a persuasive showing of a close and substantial relationship of the intrusion to a legitimate governmental interest. Here, mere scientific doubts will not suffice. The state must demonstrate a need based on proof that the public health or welfare will in fact suffer if the controls are not applied."
From Russia with Love
May 27, 1964
From Russia with Love premieres in the U.S. Second in the James Bond series, it starred Sean Connery as 007.
Marilyn Monroe Poses Nude
May 27, 1949
The then 22-year-old struggling actress Marilyn Monroe poses nude for her famous calendar photographs. She was paid $50 for the photo shoot. The photos were used for a 1952 calendar and featured in the first issue of Playboy magazine in 1953.
Golden Gate Bridge
May 27, 1937
The Golden Gate Bridge connecting San Francisco, California to Marin County (the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula) opens. At that time, San Francisco was the largest American city still served primarily by ferry boats. Many experts believed that a bridge could not be built across the 6,700 ft (2,042 m) strait, because of strong swirling tides, heavy currents, high winds, and blinding fogs that would prevent construction.
New Catechism
May 27, 1994
The Roman Catholic Church releases the English-language version of its first revision to its catechism in 426 years. It was more tolerant toward gays and maintained the Church's position against birth control and abortion. Its release was delayed 18 months due to debates over gender-neutral language.
A French-language version of the new catechism had been released in 1992.
HMS Rodney firing on Bismarck, seen burning in the distance
HMS Rodney firing on Bismarck, seen burning in the distance
World War II - Sinking of the Bismarck
May 27, 1941
Germany's largest battleship of the war, the Bismarck, is sunk off the coast of France.
With the steering rendered inoperable from a battle the previous day during a battle with British forces, Bismarck was engaged by two British battleships and two heavy cruisers, and sustained incapacitating damage and heavy loss of life. The ship was scuttled to prevent her being boarded by the British.
Voyage of the Damned
May 27, 1939
More than 900 Jews fleeing from the Nazis arrive in Cuba aboard the German liner St. Louis. All but 28 passengers were turned away by the Cuban, U.S., and Canadian governments and returned to Europe where many died in the Holocaust. These events were the basis of the 1976 film Voyage of the Damned.
First Men in the Stratosphere
May 27, 1931
Swiss scientists Auguste Piccard and Charles Kipfer reach 51,775 feet in a sealed-gondola balloon flight in Germany.
Birthdays
Christopher Lee
Born May 27, 1922 d. 2015
English actor. Film: The monster in numerous horror movies - including Frankenstein and Dracula - and as James Bond's nemesis Francisco Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974). He was also James Bond creator Ian Fleming's cousin.
Vincent Price
Born May 27, 1911 d. 1993
American horror actor. Film: House of Wax (1953), The Fly (1958), and The Last Man on Earth (1964). TV: Batman (1966-67, Egghead) and Masterpiece Mystery (1981-89, host).
Hubert Horatio Humphrey
Born May 27, 1911 d. 1978
American politician. 38th U.S. Vice-President (1965-69).
Wild Bill Hickok (James Butler Hickok)
Born May 27, 1837 d. 1876
American frontiersman, U.S. marshal, and famous citizen of Deadwood, South Dakota. He was shot in the back of the head during a poker game while reportedly holding two pair (black aces and black eights), since known as a "dead man's hand." The man who shot him had lost heavily while playing poker with Hickok and others the previous day.
Hickok usually sat with his back to a wall so he could see the entrance, but when he joined the game the only seat available was facing away from the door. He had asked another man to change seats with him, but was refused.
Julia Ward Howe
Born May 27, 1819 d. 1910
American poet. She wrote the lyrics to The Battle Hymn of the Republic (1861).
Bloomers costume
Bloomers costume
Bloomers
Amelia Jenks Bloomer
Born May 27, 1818 d. 1894
American women's rights advocate. She advocated the wearing of bloomers in The Lily, the first major women's rights newspaper (1849), which she published and according to fashion legend, Bloomer introduces the new women's fashion in 1848 by wearing a pair to the first Women's Rights Convention in New York.
Bloomers are women's garments that are divided for the lower body. They were considered "not so harmful to women's health as the current fashion". They also represented unrestricted movement that allowed for greater freedom, both metaphorical and physical.
Todd Bridges as Willis in Diff'rent Strokes
Todd Bridges as Willis in Diff'rent Strokes
Todd Bridges
Born May 27, 1965
American actor. TV: Diff'rent Strokes (1978-86, Willis). He was acquitted of the attempted murder of a drug dealer at a crack house (1989). In a separate incident, he plead guilty to possession of drugs and a loaded gun (1993).
Louis Gossett, Jr.
Born May 27, 1936 d. 2024
American Oscar-Emmy-winning actor. Film: An Officer and a Gentleman (1982, Oscar). Stage: A Raisin in the Sun (1959). TV: Roots (1977, Emmy Award).
Lee Meriwether
Born May 27, 1935
American actress. She won Miss America (1955). TV: The Time Tunnel (1966-67, Dr. Ann MacGregor), The Munsters Today (1988-91, Lily), and All My Children (1996-2011, Ruth Martin). Film: Batman: The Movie (1966, Catwoman and Kitka).
Henry Kissinger (Heinz Alfred Kissinger)
Born May 27, 1923 d. 2023
American diplomat. U.S. Secretary of State (1973-77); winner of the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize.
Kissinger was born in Germany, fleeing to the United States in 1938 to avoid Nazi persecution of Jews. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II.
Herman Wouk
Born May 27, 1915 d. 2019
American Pulitzer-winning author. Writings: The Caine Mutiny (1951, Pulitzer) and The Winds of War (1971).
Sam Snead
Born May 27, 1912 d. 2002
American Hall of Fame golfer. 3-time Masters winner (1949, 52, 54), 3-timer winner of the PGA Championship (1942, 49, 51), and winner of the British Open (1946), 6-time winner of the Seniors Championship (1964-65, 67, 70, 72-73).
Rachel Louise Carson
Born May 27, 1907 d. 1964
American biologist, conservationist. Her 1962 book Silent Spring alerted the nation to the dangers of pesticides.
First to Split an Atom with a Particle Accelerator
Sir John Cockcroft
Born May 27, 1897 d. 1967
British nuclear physicist. He and Ernest Walton became the first to split an atom with a particle accelerator (1932), for which they were awarded the 1951 Nobel Prize.
Marion D. Story
Born May 27, 1894 d. 1965
American father. He and his wife Charlotte Story had 22 children and were interviewed on the radio show You Bet Your Life by Groucho Marx. Urban legend has it that Groucho made the following quip during the interview.
Groucho: "You have 17 children? Why do you have so many kids?"
Charlotte "Because I love my husband."
Groucho: "I love my cigar too, but I take it out of my mouth every once in a while."
However, even though often attributed to him, Groucho denied the exchange ever occurred.
Dashiell Hammett
Born May 27, 1894 d. 1961
American author. Writings: The Maltese Falcon (1930) and Adventures of Sam Spade (1944).
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Born May 27, 1794 d. 1877
American railroad magnate, and for whom Vanderbilt University is named.
Maximilian I
Born May 27, 1756 d. 1825
King of Bavaria (1806-25).
Nathaniel Gorham
Born May 27, 1738 d. 1796
14th president of the Continental Congress (1786-87).
Deaths
James Montgomery Flagg
Died May 27, 1960 b. 1877
American artist. Creator of the "I Want You" Uncle Sam recruiting poster (1917). He used his own face as the model for the poster.
Robert LeRoy Ripley
Died May 27, 1949 b. 1890
American cartoonist. Created Ripley's Believe It or Not! (1918) and "Odditoriums" to house his unusual collection of oddities.
Note: He claimed his birthday was December 25, even though it was actually December 26 - Believe It or Not!
Modern electric light based on Swan's patent
Modern electric light based on Swan's patent
Invented Incandescent Light Bulb 20 Years Before Edison
Joseph Wilson Swan
Died May 27, 1914 b. 1828
English inventor, chemist. Known for his development of dry photographic plates, he also invented a carbon element electric light (1860), which was the basis of Thomas Edison's light bulb 20 years later. Swan patented his incandescent light in 1879, a year before Edison patented his.
James G. Watt (James Gaius Watt)
Died May 27, 2023 b. 1938
U.S. Secretary of the Interior under Ronald Reagan (1981-83).
Described as "anti-environmentalist", he opened up nearly all of America's coastal waters to oil and gas drilling, widened access to coal on federal lands, and eased restrictions on strip-mining.
In 1983, he banned The Beach Boys from performing their annual Fourth of July concert on the National Mall on the grounds that rock concerts drew "an undesirable element." Later that year he resigned as a result of a controversial remark that a panel reviewing his coal-leasing policies had "every kind of mixture - I have a Black. I have a woman, two Jews and a cripple."
After resigning, Watt became a lobbyist for builders seeking contracts with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and in 1995 he was indicted on 18 counts of felony perjury and obstruction of justice for making false statements before a federal grand jury investigating influence peddling at HUD and was sentenced to five years' probation.
Gregg Allman
Died May 27, 2017 b. 1947
American singer, with the Allman Brothers Band. In 1969, he and his brother Duane Allman formed the Allman Brothers Band, with Gregg writing several of their biggest hits, including Whipping Post, Melissa, and Midnight Rider. After his brother Duane died in a motorcycle crash, the band continued.
Allman's third marriage was to singer Cher from 1975 to 1979.
Victor Kiam (Victor Kermit Kiam II)
Died May 27, 2001 b. 1926
American entrepreneur. President and TV spokesman for Remington Products Inc. He bought the NFL's New England Patriots for US$84 million (1988).
Quote: "I liked their shaver so much, I bought the company."
Edward Benton Dodd
Died May 27, 1991 b. 1902
American cartoonist. Created Mark Trail (1946).
Bubble Boy (Ted DeVita)
Died May 27, 1980 b. 1962
He spent most of his life inside a sterile hospital room due to aplastic anemia. The film The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976, starring John Travolta) was inspired by the lives of him and David Vetter, who lived in a plastic bubble.
Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Pike
Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Pike
First Commander of the Enterprise on Star Trek
Jeffrey Hunter (Henry H. McKinnies, Jr.)
Died May 27, 1969 b. 1926
American actor. Hunter played Christopher Pike, the first captain of the USS Enterprise, in the 1966 unaired pilot episode, The Cage, for the original Star Trek TV series. When the pilot was rejected, Hunter quit the show and was replaced by William Shatner as James T. Kirk. A later episode, The Menagerie, used footage from the pilot, but used actor Sean Kenney as the older, disabled Christopher Pike.
While filming Cry Chicago in Spain in November 1968, Hunter was injured when a car window, which had been rigged to explode outward, accidentally exploded inward, giving him a serious concussion. While he was flying back to the U.S. after filming, he went into shock on the plane and couldn't speak and could hardly move. After landing, the doctors could not find any serious injuries except for a displaced vertebra and a concussion. However the following May, Hunter suffered an intracranial hemorrhage causing him to fall, striking his head on a banister, and fracturing his skull. He was found unconscious by his wife and taken to the hospital where he underwent brain surgery. He died the following morning at the age of 42.
Film: King of Kings (1961, Christ) and The Searchers (1956). TV: Star Trek (1966, Capt. Christopher Pike).
Jawaharlal Nehru
Died May 27, 1964 b. 1889
Indian statesman, first prime minister of the Republic of India (1947-64).
George Zucco
Died May 27, 1960 b. 1886
British actor, noted for his villainous roles. Film: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939, Prof. Moriarty), The Mummy's Hand (1940), The Mummy's Ghost (1944), House of Frankenstein (1944).
Robert Koch and his drawing of tuberculosis bacilli
Robert Koch and his drawing of tuberculosis bacilli
Robert Koch
Died May 27, 1910 b. 1843
German Nobel Prize-winning physician. He was the first to prove that a bacterium could cause disease (1877, anthrax). He also discovered the bacterium that causes tuberculosis (1882) and the bacterium that causes cholera (1883).
Nicolo Paganini
Died May 27, 1840 b. 1782
Italian violin virtuoso, considered the greatest violinist of all time.