On This Day: 27 May

John, the youngest and only surviving son of Henry II, is crowned – 51 days after the death of his elder brother, Richard I		1199
Richard of Cornwall, second son of King John, is crowned as King of the Germans at Aachen (and his wife, Sanchia of Provence, as queen)		1257
Oliver Cromwell refuses Parliament's offer of the title King of England		1657
Archibald Campbell, Marquess of Argyll, beheaded		1661
Parliament passes the Habeas Corpus Act		1679
Peter the Great founds St. Petersburg as the capital of Russia		1703
Adolf Andersson of Germany wins the first International Master chess tournament, in London		1851
Dr. William Palmer found guilty of poisoning		1856
Belgium becomes the first country to elect a government by proportional representation		1900
The Japanese navy annihilates the Russian at Port Artur (Tsuskima Straits)		1905
Pope Benedict XV promulgates the first comprehensive codification of Catholic canon law		1917
Battle of Aisne begins		1918
A five–man US crew lands in London to complete the first transatlantic flight (with stops)		1919
Ford Motor Company ceases manufacture of its Model T		1927
The Chrysler Building in New York City opens to the public; at 1,046 feet (319 m) it was the tallest man–made structure at the time		1930
Auguste Piccard and Charles Knipfer make the first ascent into the stratosphere (to 51,800 feet)		1931
Disney releases the cartoon Three Little Pigs, including the song Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?		1933
Queen Mary begins her maiden voyage, from Southampton to New York, via Cherbourg		1936
Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister		1937
The Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrian traffic, linking San Francisco to Marin County		1937
99 soldiers from the Royal Norfolk Regiment, attempting to retreat to Dunkirk, are shot after surrendering to German troops at a farmhouse in the village of Le Paradis, in northern France; two survive, and hid until they were captured by German forces several days later		1940
The German battleship Bismarck is sunk in the North Atlantic, after being hunted down relentlessly following the sinking of HMS Hood		1941
Reinhard Heydrich, founder of the Nazi Party's Security Service, is fatally wounded in Prague by Czechoslovak army–in–exile soldiers; he dies of his injuries eight days later. This was the only government–sponsored targeted assassination of a senior Nazi leader during the Second World War, and led to a wave of reprisals by SS troops, including the destruction of villages and the mass killing of civilians		1942
Communists take Shanghai as Chiang Kai–Shek's nationalists retreat towards Canton		1949
European Defence Community set up		1952
Buddy Holly and the Crickets release their first record		1957
Jomo Kenyatta becomes the first Prime Minister of Kenya		1963
Pandit Nehru, Prime Minister of India, dies suddenly at the age of 74		1964
Australians vote in a referendum to grant the Australian government the power to make laws to benefit Indigenous Australians and to count them in the national census		1967
The aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy is launched by Jacqueline Kennedy and her daughter Caroline		1967
The BBC bans the Beatles' A Day in the Life		1967
Pakistani forces massacre over 200 civilians, mostly Bengali Hindus, in the Bagbati massacre		1971
33 lives are lost in a coach crash near Grassington, in North Yorkshire – the highest ever death toll in a UK road accident		1975
The Sex Pistols release God Save the Queen in the UK		1977
At least 207 lives, and possibly many more, are lost as South Korean troops retake the city of Gwangju from civil militias following an uprising against the military government		1980
Supporters of London teacher Blair Peach react with dismay to the verdict of misadventure brought by the jury at the inquest into his death in a demonstration against the National Front the previous year		1980
Panic buying grips Moscow as the Kremlin announces the phasing out of food subsidies		1990
A car bomb explodes outside the Uffizi Gallery, Florence; five people killed, 37 injured, and many works of art damaged		1993
Alexander Solzhenitsyn returns to Russia, ending a 20–year exile		1994
Boris Yeltsin signs a ceasefire agreement with Chechen leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev		1996
Russia signs a security pact with NATO – finally ending the Cold War		1997
Increased fighting between India and Pakistan over Kashmir causes worldwide concern		1999
British Arctic explorer Pen Hadow is rescued after being trapped at the North Pole for eight days. He had become the first person to walk to the North Pole, unsupported, by the toughest route (from Ward Hunt Island, Canada)		2003
An earthquake in Java leaves 5,700 dead, 37,000 injured, and 100,000 homeless		2006

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On This Day: 27 May