On this day: February 27

Events on February 27

• 1560 The Treaty of Berwick is signed by England and the Lords of the Congregation of Scotland, establishing the terms under which English armed forces were to be permitted in Scotland in order to expel occupying French troops. Wikipedia
• 1594 Henry IV is crowned King of France. Wikipedia
• 1617 Sweden and the Tsardom of Russia sign the Treaty of Stolbovo, ending the Ingrian War and shutting Russia out of the Baltic Sea. Wikipedia
• 1776 American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge in North Carolina breaks up a Loyalist militia. Wikipedia
• 1801 Pursuant to the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801, Washington, D.C. is placed under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress. Wikipedia
• 1812 Poet Lord Byron gives his first address as a member of the House of Lords, in defense of Luddite violence against Industrialism in his home county of Nottinghamshire. Wikipedia
• 1844 The Dominican Republic gains independence from Haiti. Wikipedia
• 1860 Abraham Lincoln makes a speech at Cooper Union in the city of New York that plays an important role in his election to the Presidency. Wikipedia
• 1864 American Civil War: The first Northern prisoners arrive at the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia. Wikipedia
• 1902 Second Boer War: Australian soldiers Harry "Breaker" Morant and Peter Handcock are executed in Pretoria after being convicted of war crimes. Wikipedia
• 1921 The International Working Union of Socialist Parties is founded in Vienna. Wikipedia
• 1942 World War II: Operation Biting launches its overnight raid on the German coastal radar station at Bruneval to retrieve a Würzburg installation. Wikipedia
• 1942 World War II: During the Battle of the Java Sea, an Allied strike force is defeated by a Japanese task force in the Java Sea in the Dutch East Indies. Wikipedia
• 1943 The Holocaust: In Berlin, the Gestapo arrest 1,800 Jewish men with German wives, leading to the Rosenstrasse protest. Wikipedia
• 1951 The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting Presidents to two terms, is ratified. Wikipedia
• 1962 Two dissident Republic of Vietnam Air Force pilots bombed the Independence Palace in Saigon in a failed attempt to assassinate President Ngo Dinh Diem. Wikipedia
• 1962 Vietnam War: Two dissident Republic of Vietnam Air Force pilots bomb the Independence Palace in Saigon in a failed attempt to assassinate South Vietnam President Ngô Đình Diệm. Wikipedia
• 1963 The Dominican Republic receives its first democratically elected president, Juan Bosch, since the end of the dictatorship led by Rafael Trujillo. Wikipedia
• 1976 The former Spanish territory of Western Sahara, under the auspices of the Polisario Front declares independence as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. Wikipedia
• 1991 Gulf War: U.S. President George H. W. Bush announces that "Kuwait is liberated". Wikipedia
• 1996 The multimedia franchise Pokémon was launched with the release of the video games Pocket Monsters Red and Green. Wikipedia
• 2001 Loganair Flight 670A crashes while attempting to make a water landing in the Firth of Forth in Scotland. Wikipedia
• 2002 Violent riots, perceived to have been instigated by a train fire that killed 59 Hindu pilgrims, broke out in the Indian state of Gujarat, killing at least 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, over three days. Wikipedia
• 2004 A bombing of a SuperFerry by Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines' worst terrorist attack kills more than 100 passengers. Wikipedia
• 2010 An earthquake measuring 8.8 on the moment magnitude scale strikes central parts of Chile leaving over 500 victims, and thousands injured. The quake triggers a tsunami which strikes Hawaii shortly after. Wikipedia
• 2015 Russian statesman and politician Boris Nemtsov, an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin, was assassinated in central Moscow. Wikipedia

Born on February 27

• 272 Constantine the Great, Roman emperor (died 337) Wikipedia
• 1767 Jacques-Charles Dupont de l'Eure, French lawyer and politician, 24th Prime Minister of France (died 1855) Wikipedia
• 1807 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet and educator (died 1882) Wikipedia
• 1881 Sveinn Björnsson, Danish-Icelandic lawyer and politician, 1st President of Iceland (died 1952) Wikipedia
• 1886 Hugo Black, American captain, lawyer, politician, and associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (died 1971) Wikipedia
• 1897 Marian Anderson, American singer (died 1993) Wikipedia
• 1899 Charles Best, American-Canadian physiologist and biochemist, co-discovered insulin (died 1978) Wikipedia
• 1902 John Steinbeck, American journalist and author, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1968) Wikipedia
• 1912 Lawrence Durrell, British author, poet, and playwright (died 1990) Wikipedia
• 1913 Paul Ricœur, French philosopher and academic (died 2005) Wikipedia
• 1926 David H. Hubel, Canadian-American neurophysiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2013) Wikipedia
• 1929 Djalma Santos, Brazilian footballer (died 2013) Wikipedia
• 1930 Joanne Woodward, American actress Wikipedia
• 1932 Elizabeth Taylor, English-American actress and humanitarian (died 2011) Wikipedia
• 1942 Robert H. Grubbs, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2021) Wikipedia
• 1944 Roger Scruton, English philosopher and writer (died 2020) Wikipedia
• 1953 Ian Khama, English-Botswanan lieutenant and politician, 4th President of Botswana Wikipedia
• 1957 Timothy Spall, English actor Wikipedia
• 1967 Jony Ive, English-American industrial designer, former chief design officer of Apple Wikipedia
• 1980 Chelsea Clinton, American journalist and academic Wikipedia
• 1981 Josh Groban, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor Wikipedia
• 1983 Kate Mara, American actress Wikipedia

Died on February 27

• 956 Theophylact, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople (born 917) Wikipedia
• 1641 Pau Claris, Catalan lawyer, clergyman and President of the Generalitat, founder of the Catalan Republic (born 1586) Wikipedia
• 1887 Alexander Borodin, Russian composer and chemist (born 1833) Wikipedia
• 1892 Louis Vuitton, French fashion designer and businessman, founded Louis Vuitton (born 1821) Wikipedia
• 1936 Ivan Pavlov, Russian physiologist and physician, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1849) Wikipedia
• 1937 Charles Donnelly (poet), Irish Republican, died in the Spanish Civil War (born 1914) Wikipedia
• 1989 Konrad Lorenz, Austrian zoologist, ethologist, and ornithologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1903) Wikipedia
• 1993 Lillian Gish, American actress (born 1893) Wikipedia
• 1998 George H. Hitchings, American pharmacologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1905) Wikipedia
• 2003 Fred Rogers, American minister and television host (born 1928) Wikipedia
• 2011 Necmettin Erbakan, Turkish engineer and politician, 32nd Prime Minister of Turkey (born 1926) Wikipedia
• 2015 Boris Nemtsov, Russian academic and politician, First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia (born 1959) Wikipedia
• 2015 Leonard Nimoy, American actor (born 1931) Wikipedia
• 2025 Boris Spassky, Russian chess grandmaster (born 1937) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Anne Line Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: George Herbert (Anglicanism) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Gregory of Narek Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Honorina Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Leander Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: February 27 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Doctors' Day (Vietnam) Wikipedia
• Independence Day (Dominican Republic), celebrates the first independence of Dominican Republic from Haiti in 1844. Wikipedia
• Majuba Day (some Afrikaners in South Africa) Wikipedia
• Marathi Language Day (Maharashtra, India) Wikipedia
• World NGO Day Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “February 27” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.