On this day: March 27

Events on March 27

• 1329 Pope John XXII issues his In Agro Dominico condemning some writings of Meister Eckhart as heretical. Wikipedia
• 1625 Charles I became King of England, Scotland and Ireland. Wikipedia
• 1638 The first of four destructive earthquakes struck southern Italy, destroying an estimated 10,000 homes. Wikipedia
• 1836 At least 425 Texian prisoners of war were executed in the Goliad massacre, under orders from Mexican president Antonio López de Santa Anna. Wikipedia
• 1850 San Diego, the first European settlement in present-day California, was incorporated as a city. Wikipedia
• 1884 Outraged by a jury's decision to convict a man of manslaughter instead of murder, a mob in Cincinnati, Ohio, began three days of rioting. Wikipedia
• 1899 Philippine–American War: American forces defeated troops commanded by Philippine president Emilio Aguinaldo at the Battle of Marilao River. Wikipedia
• 1941 World War II: A group of Serbian-nationalist officers of the Royal Yugoslav Air Force carried out a coup d'état after Yugoslavia joined the Axis powers. Wikipedia
• 1945 World War II: The United States Army Air Forces began Operation Starvation, laying naval mines in many of Japan's vital water routes and ports to disrupt enemy shipping. Wikipedia
• 1958 Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, assumed the office of premier. Wikipedia
• 1964 The Good Friday earthquake, the most powerful earthquake recorded in North American history at a magnitude of 9.2 strikes Southcentral Alaska, killing 125 people and inflicting massive damage to the city of Anchorage. Wikipedia
• 1975 Construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, an oil pipeline spanning the length of Alaska, began. Wikipedia
• 1976 The Washington Metro, the second-busiest rapid transit system in the U.S., opened to commuters. Wikipedia
• 1977 Tenerife airport disaster: Two Boeing 747 airliners collide on a foggy runway on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, killing 583 (all 248 on KLM and 335 on Pan Am). Sixty-one survived on the Pan Am flight. This is the deadliest aviation accident in history. Wikipedia
• 1980 Brothers Nelson Bunker Hunt and William Herbert Hunt failed in their attempt to corner the world silver market, causing panic in commodity and futures exchanges. Wikipedia
• 1981 The Solidarity movement in Poland staged a warning strike, the largest in the history of the Eastern Bloc, in which at least 12 million Poles walked off their jobs for four hours. Wikipedia
• 1993 Jiang Zemin succeeded Yang Shangkun to become President of the People's Republic of China. Wikipedia
• 1998 The Food and Drug Administration approved the drug sildenafil, better known by the trade name Viagra, as the first treatment approved in the United States for erectile dysfunction. Wikipedia
• 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia: A U.S. Air Force F-117 stealth aircraft was shot down by a Yugoslav Army unit. Wikipedia
• 2002 Second Intifada: A suicide bomber killed around 30 Israeli civilians and injured about 140 others in Netanya, triggering Operation Defensive Shield, a large-scale counter-terrorist military incursion into the West Bank. Wikipedia
• 2009 A failure of the dam holding Situ Gintung, an artificial lake in Tangerang, Indonesia, caused floods that killed at least 100 people. Wikipedia
• 2015 Himeji Castle, the largest and most visited Japanese castle, re-opened after five years of restoration work. Wikipedia
• 2016 A suicide blast in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, Lahore claims over 70 lives and leaves almost 300 others injured. The target of the bombing are Christians celebrating Easter. Wikipedia
• 2020 North Macedonia became a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Wikipedia
• 2022 At the 94th Academy Awards, Will Smith slapped Chris Rock onstage resulting in Smith being expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and banned from its events for ten years. Wikipedia
• 2023 Forty people are killed in a fire at a migrant detention facility in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Wikipedia

Born on March 27

• 1785 Louis XVII of France (died 1795) Wikipedia
• 1797 Alfred de Vigny, French author, poet, and playwright (died 1863) Wikipedia
• 1845 Wilhelm Röntgen, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1923) Wikipedia
• 1847 Otto Wallach, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1931) Wikipedia
• 1871 Heinrich Mann, German author and poet (died 1950) Wikipedia
• 1886 Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, German-American architect, designed IBM Plaza and Seagram Building (died 1969) Wikipedia
• 1886 Sergey Kirov, Russian politician (died 1934) Wikipedia
• 1899 Gloria Swanson, American actress and producer (died 1983) Wikipedia
• 1901 Eisaku Satō, Japanese politician, Prime Minister of Japan, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1975) Wikipedia
• 1912 James Callaghan, English lieutenant and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 2005) Wikipedia
• 1927 Mstislav Rostropovich, Russian cellist and conductor (died 2007) Wikipedia
• 1941 Ivan Gašparovič, Slovak lawyer and politician, 3rd President of Slovakia Wikipedia
• 1955 Mariano Rajoy, Spanish lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of Spain Wikipedia
• 1963 Quentin Tarantino, American director, producer, screenwriter and actor Wikipedia
• 1969 Mariah Carey, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress Wikipedia
• 1975 Fergie, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress Wikipedia
• 1981 Cacau, Brazilian-German footballer Wikipedia
• 1986 Manuel Neuer, German footballer Wikipedia
• 1987 Polina Gagarina, Russian singer-songwriter Wikipedia
• 1988 Jessie J, English singer-songwriter Wikipedia
• 1988 Atsuto Uchida, Japanese footballer Wikipedia
• 1997 Lisa, Thai rapper and dancer Wikipedia

Died on March 27

• 1378 Pope Gregory XI (born 1336) Wikipedia
• 1615 Margaret of Valois (born 1553) Wikipedia
• 1625 James VI and I of the United Kingdom (born 1566) Wikipedia
• 1770 Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Italian painter (born 1696) Wikipedia
• 1898 Syed Ahmad Khan, Indian philosopher and activist (born 1817) Wikipedia
• 1918 Henry Adams, American journalist, historian, and author (born 1838) Wikipedia
• 1923 James Dewar, Scottish chemist and physicist (born 1842) Wikipedia
• 1967 Jaroslav Heyrovský, Czech chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1890) Wikipedia
• 1968 Yuri Gagarin, Russian colonel, pilot, and astronaut (born 1934) Wikipedia
• 2002 Billy Wilder, Austrian-born American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1906) Wikipedia
• 2006 Stanisław Lem, Ukrainian-Polish author (born 1921) Wikipedia
• 2007 Paul Lauterbur, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1929) Wikipedia
• 2012 Adrienne Rich, American poet, essayist and feminist (born 1929) Wikipedia
• 2024 Daniel Kahneman, Israeli-American author, psychologist and economist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1934) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Easter (Palmarian Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Alexander, a Pannonian soldier, martyred in 3rd century. Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Amador of Portugal Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Augusta of Treviso Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Charles Henry Brent (Episcopal Church (USA)) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Gelasius, Archbishop of Armagh Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: John of Egypt Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Panacea De' Muzzi Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Philetus Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Romulus of Nîmes, a Benedictine abbot, martyred c. 730. Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Rupert of Salzburg Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Zanitas and Lazarus of Persia Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: March 27 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Armed Forces Day (Myanmar) Wikipedia
• Day of the Union of Bessarabia with Romania (Romania) Wikipedia
• World Theatre Day (International) Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “March 27” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/March 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 “March 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 March 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.