On This Day: 27 April

Moorish troops led by Tariq ibn Ziyad land at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian peninsula		711
Battle of Dunbar: an English army led by John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, defeats the Scots under John Balliol		1296
Ferdinand Magellan killed by natives in the Philippines		1521
John Milton, blind and impoverished, sells the copyright to Paradise Lost for £5, with an additional £5 for each new impression		1667
British government passes the Tea Act, eliminating the tax on shipping tea, which would lead to the Boston Tea Party		1773
Battle of Cassano: Austrians and Russians defeat the French and extinguish the Cisalpine Empire		1799
US forces capture Toronto (York)		1813
Order of St. Michael and St. George founded		1817
London Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park, opened		1828
Christina Rosetti, aged 12, publishes her first book of poetry		1842
Cornell University founded as New York's "land grant institution"		1865
Steamboat Sultana explodes on the Mississippi; 1,450 die		1865
Abdul Hamid II, Sultan of Turkey, overthrown by Young Turks; succeeded by Mohammed V		1909
German reparation for damage done in World War I set at £650,000,000		1921
Imperial Airways inaugurates its service from London to Cape Town		1932
Guernica, Northern Spain, destroyed by German bombs; Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, completed		1937
Conscription of men aged 20 to 21 announced		1939
German troops occupy Athens		1941
US and Soviet troops join hands at the River Elbe		1945
FA Cup Final (Charlton v. Derby): the ball bursts. Charlton's Bert Turner scores an own goal after 85 minutes, and an equaliser one minute later; Derby score three more in extra time to win 4–1		1946
Britain recognises the state of Israel		1950
Georgi Malenkov becomes leader of the Soviet Union		1954
Sierra Leone gains independence after more than 150 years of British colonial rule		1961
David Steel's Abortion Act passed, making abortion legal in the UK		1968
Tony Curtis, US actor, fined £50 in London for possession of cannabis		1970
Police remove demonstrators from the entrance to a courtroom in Carmarthen, where preliminary proceedings against eight members of the Welsh Language Society were taking place		1971
Kwame Nkrumah, deposed president of Ghana, dies in Bucharest		1972
Xerox introduces the first computer mouse		1981
The siege of the Libyan Embassy in St. James's Square, London, ends – 11 days after the shooting of WPC Yvonne Fletcher		1984
The city of Pripyat and surrounding areas are evacuated following the Chernobyl disaster		1986
Kurt Waldheim, President of Austria, and his wife, are refused entry to the USA		1987
South African Communist leader Joe Slovo returns to join peace talks after 27 years in exile		1990
Betty Boothroyd is elected as the first female Speaker of the House of Commons		1992
The Russian Federation, and twelve other former Soviet republics, become members of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank		1992
All members of Zambia's national football team lose their lives in a plane crash off Libreville, Gabon, en route to Dakar to play a World Cup qualifying match against Senegal		1993
Black citizens in South Africa vote in a general election for the first time		1994
The world's longest road–rail suspension bridge, linking Hong Kong to its new offshore airport, opens		1997
The world's largest commercial aircraft, the Airbus A380, makes its maiden flight from Toulouse		2005
Construction begins on the Freedom Tower in New York (later renamed the One World Trade Center)		2006
205 tornadoes touch down in the south–eastern United States, in one of the deadliest tornado outbreaks ever recorded; over 300 people lose their lives		2011
In signing the Panmunjom Declaration, North and South Korea agree to cooperate on officially ending the Korean War and the Korean conflict		2018

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On This Day: 27 April