History of the Day for:
February 27
- 1801: The District of Columbia was placed under the jurisdiction of Congress.
- 1807: American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ("The Song of Hiawatha") was born.
- 1844: The Dominican Republic gained its independence from Haiti.
- 1861: The Warsaw Massacre occurred when Russian troops fired on a crowd demonstrating against Russian rule.
- 1879: The discovery of saccharin, the artificial sweetener, was reported by Constantine Fahlberg at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
- 1883: Oscar Hammerstein of New York City patented the first practical cigar rolling machine.
- 1900: The British Labor Party was founded with Ramsay MacDonald as its Secretary.
- 1902: John Steinbeck, American novelist and Nobel Prize winner, was born.
- 1922: The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the 19th Amendment to the Constitution that guaranteed the right of women to vote.
- 1933: The German parliament building, the Reichstag, was destroyed by fire. The Nazis claimed it was a Communist conspiracy and used it as an opportunity to clamp down on its opponents. A Dutchman, Marius van der Lubbe, was executed for the crime.
- 1945: Lebanon declares Independence.
- 1951: The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, limiting presidential terms of office.
- 1973: Members of the American Indian Movement began an occupation of Wounded Knee, S.D., in a siege that lasted until May.
- 1974: "People" magazine made its debut.
- 1990: The Exxon Corporation and Exxon Shipping were indicted on five criminal counts relating to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
- 1991: President Bush declared that "Kuwait is liberated, Iraq's army is defeated" and announced that the allies would suspend combat operations at midnight.
- 1992: Tiger Woods, 16, became the youngest PGA golfer in 35 years when he teed off at the Los Angeles Open.
- 1999: Olusegun Obasanjo becomes Nigeria's first elected president since mid-1983.
- 2002: Ryanair Flight 296 catches fire at London Stansted Airport. Subsequent investigations criticize Ryanair's handling of the evacuation.
- 2002: Godhra train burning: a Muslim mob kills 59 Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya.
- 2003: Rowan Williams is enthroned as the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury in the Anglican church.
- 2004: A bombing of a Superferry by Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines' worst terrorist attack kills 116.
- 2004: Former BPMC general secretary Ordrick Samuel launches a new party in Barbuda, Barbudans for a Better Barbuda.
- 2007: The general strike against Lansana Conté in Guinea ends.
- 2007: The Chinese Correction: the Shanghai Stock Exchange falls 9%, the largest drop in 10 years.