Today in History
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2005 The Airbus A380 takes to the skies for the first time
The double-deck airliner is the world’s largest commercial jet.
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1994 South African citizens of all races are allowed to vote in a general election for the first time
The 1994 general election was held 44 years after the government formalized apartheid with the passage of the Group Areas Act.
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1992 For the first time in its 700-year history, the British House of Commons is presided over by a female Speaker
Betty Boothroyd served as Speaker of the House of Commons from 1992 to 2000.
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1961 Sierra Leone becomes an independent republic
The West African country’s first Prime Minister, Sir Milton Margai, ended over 150 years of British colonial rule.
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1810 Ludwig van Beethoven composes “Für Elise”
“Bagatelle No. 25” for solo piano is one of the German composer’s most popular works and one of music’s most recognized melodies.
Births On This Day, April 27
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1963 Russell T Davies
Welsh screenwriter, producer
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1935 Theodoros Angelopoulos
Greek director, producer, screenwriter
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1822 Ulysses S. Grant
American general, politician, 18th President of the United States
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1791 Samuel Morse
American painter, inventor, co-invented the Morse code
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1759 Mary Wollstonecraft
English author, philosopher
Deaths On This Day, April 27
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1992 Olivier Messiaen
French composer, ornithologist
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1972 Kwame Nkrumah
Ghanaian politician, 1st President of Ghana
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1938 Edmund Husserl
Austrian mathematician, philosopher
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1896 Henry Parkes
English/Australian politician, 7th Premier of New South Wales
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1521 Ferdinand Magellan
Portuguese explorer
