On this day: July 27

Events on July 27

• 678 Unable to penetrate the city's defences, the Sclaveni gave up their siege of the Byzantine city of Thessalonica. Wikipedia
• 1054 During his invasion of Scotland, Siward, Earl of Northumbria, defeated Macbeth, King of Scotland, in an engagement north of the Firth of Forth. Wikipedia
• 1214 Philip II of France decisively won the Battle of Bouvines, the conclusive battle of the 1213–1214 Anglo-French War. Wikipedia
• 1225 Saint Mary's Church on Gotland, later to become Visby Cathedral, was consecrated. Wikipedia
• 1302 Byzantine–Ottoman wars: The Ottoman sultanate gained its first major victory against the Byzantine Empire at the Battle of Bapheus in Bithynia. Wikipedia
• 1689 First Jacobite rising: Scottish and Irish Jacobites defeated Williamite forces at Killiecrankie, Scotland. Wikipedia
• 1778 The Battle of Ushant, the first encounter between the French and British fleets in the American Revolutionary War, ended indecisively and led to political disputes in both countries. Wikipedia
• 1890 Vincent van Gogh shoots himself and dies two days later. Wikipedia
• 1916 First World War: British mariner Charles Fryatt was executed in Bruges, Belgium, after a German court-martial found him guilty of being a franc-tireur. Wikipedia
• 1917 World War I: The Allies reach the Yser Canal at the Battle of Passchendaele. Wikipedia
• 1919 Red Summer: Race riots erupted in Chicago after a racial incident occurred on a South Side beach, leading to 38 fatalities and 537 injuries. Wikipedia
• 1921 Researchers at the University of Toronto, led by biochemist Frederick Banting, prove that the hormone insulin regulates blood sugar. Wikipedia
• 1942 Second World War: Allied forces halted the Axis invasion of Egypt at the First Battle of El Alamein. Wikipedia
• 1943 As the Surprise Hurricane struck Texas, a United States Army Air Forces pilot made the first reconnaissance flight into a hurricane. Wikipedia
• 1949 The world's first commercial jet airliner to reach production, the de Havilland Comet, had its maiden flight. Wikipedia
• 1953 An armistice was signed to end hostilities in the Korean War, officially making the division of Korea indefinite by creating a 4 km wide (2.5 mi) demilitarized zone across the Korean Peninsula. Wikipedia
• 1955 The Austrian State Treaty came into effect, ending the Allied occupation of Austria, although the country was not free of Allied troops until October. Wikipedia
• 1955 After straying into Bulgarian airspace, El Al Flight 402 was shot down by two MiG-15 fighter jets, resulting in the deaths of all 58 on board. Wikipedia
• 1964 Vietnam War: Five thousand more American military advisers are sent to South Vietnam bringing the total number of United States forces in Vietnam to 21,000. Wikipedia
• 1965 Mattachine Midwest, a gay rights organization in Chicago, held its first meeting. Wikipedia
• 1983 American musician Madonna released her self-titled debut album, which set the standard for the genre of dance-pop for decades. Wikipedia
• 1990 Jamaat al Muslimeen, a radical Islamic group, began a coup attempt against the government of Trinidad and Tobago by taking hostages, including Prime Minister A. N. R. Robinson, before surrendering five days later. Wikipedia
• 2007 While covering a police pursuit in Phoenix, Arizona, two news helicopters collided in mid-air, killing both crews. Wikipedia
• 2010 Police in Tokyo found the mummified remains of Sogen Kato, thought to have died in 1978, leading to widespread inquiries into the status of isolated elderly people in Japan. Wikipedia
• 2016 The last nine Aston Martin DB9 units rolled off the production line, marking the end of a twelve-year manufacturing period. Wikipedia
• 2020 A major oil spill from the Colonial Pipeline was discovered in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Wikipedia

Born on July 27

• 774 Kūkai, Japanese Buddhist monk, founder of Esoteric (Shingon) Buddhism (died 835) Wikipedia
• 1452 Ludovico Sforza, Italian son of Francesco I Sforza (died 1508) Wikipedia
• 1612 Murad IV, Ottoman Sultan (died 1640) Wikipedia
• 1768 Charlotte Corday, French assassin of Jean-Paul Marat (died 1793) Wikipedia
• 1801 George Biddell Airy, English mathematician and 7th Astronomer Royal (died 1892) Wikipedia
• 1824 Alexandre Dumas, fils, French novelist and playwright (died 1895) Wikipedia
• 1835 Giosuè Carducci, Italian poet and educator, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1907) Wikipedia
• 1853 Vladimir Korolenko, Ukrainian journalist, author, and activist (died 1921) Wikipedia
• 1870 Hilaire Belloc, French-born British writer and historian (died 1953) Wikipedia
• 1881 Hans Fischer, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1945) Wikipedia
• 1929 Jean Baudrillard, French sociologist and philosopher (died 2007) Wikipedia
• 1940 Pina Bausch, German dancer and choreographer (died 2009) Wikipedia
• 1963 Donnie Yen, Chinese-Hong Kong actor, director, producer, and martial artist Wikipedia
• 1965 José Luis Chilavert, Paraguayan footballer Wikipedia
• 1969 Triple H, American wrestler and actor Wikipedia
• 1970 Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Danish actor and producer Wikipedia
• 1976 Demis Hassabis, English computer scientist and academic Wikipedia
• 1977 Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Irish actor Wikipedia
• 1983 Goran Pandev, Macedonian footballer Wikipedia
• 1983 Lorik Cana, Albanian footballer Wikipedia
• 1987 Marek Hamšík, Slovak footballer Wikipedia
• 1990 Kriti Sanon, Indian actress Wikipedia

Died on July 27

• 1061 Nicholas II, pope of the Catholic Church Wikipedia
• 1276 James I of Aragon (born 1208) Wikipedia
• 1759 Pierre Louis Maupertuis, French mathematician and philosopher (born 1698) Wikipedia
• 1841 Mikhail Lermontov, Russian poet and painter (born 1814) Wikipedia
• 1844 John Dalton, English physicist, meteorologist, and chemist (born 1776) Wikipedia
• 1917 Emil Theodor Kocher, Swiss physician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1841) Wikipedia
• 1946 Gertrude Stein, American novelist, poet, and playwright (born 1874) Wikipedia
• 1970 António de Oliveira Salazar, Portuguese economist and politician, 100th Prime Minister of Portugal (born 1889) Wikipedia
• 1980 Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Iranian Shah (born 1919) Wikipedia
• 1981 William Wyler, American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1902) Wikipedia
• 1984 James Mason, English actor (born 1909) Wikipedia
• 2003 Bob Hope, English-American actor, comedian, television personality, and businessman (born 1903) Wikipedia
• 2015 A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Indian engineer, academic, and politician, 11th President of India (born 1931) Wikipedia
• 2017 Sam Shepard, American playwright, actor, author, screenwriter, and director (born 1943) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Anthusa of Mantinea Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Aurelius and Natalia and companions of the Martyrs of Córdoba. Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Maria Maddalena Martinengo Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Maurus, Pantalemon, and Sergius Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Pantaleon Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Seven Sleepers of Ephesus (Roman Martyrology) National Sleepy Head Day (Finland) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: July 27 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Day of Victory in the Great Fatherland Liberation War (North Korea) Wikipedia
• Iglesia ni Cristo Day (the Philippines) Wikipedia
• José Celso Barbosa Day (Puerto Rico) Wikipedia
• Medical Workers Day (Ukraine) Wikipedia
• Martyrs and Wounded Soldiers Day (Vietnam) Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “July 27” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/July 27” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “July 27” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for July 27 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.