On This Day: 27 June

The Republic of Ragusa (centred on Dubrovnik) is founded		1358
Henry VI's forces under Stafford are defeated at Sevenoaks by Jack Cade		1450
Cornish rebels Michael An Gof and Thomas Flamank are executed at Tyburn		1497
The thirteen Stratford Martyrs (eleven men and two women) are burned at the stake near London for their Protestant beliefs		1556
The Ladies' Mercury – the first women's magazine – first issued		1693
Battle of Dettingen: the Pragmatic Army (British, Hanoverians and Hessians) under George II, defeat the French; George is the last reigning British monarch to take part in a battle		1743
Bonnie Prince Charlie escapes to Skye, disguised as a maid		1746
General James Wolfe begins the siege of Quebec		1759
The Liberty Bell is returned to Philadelphia, after being hidden from the British for a year		1778
Edward Gibbon completes his monumental work The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire		1787
During the Napoleonic Wars, British forces take Buenos Aires (as part of a series of unsuccessful attempts to seize control of areas in the Spanish colonial Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata)		1806
Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon Church, and his brother Hyrum Smith, are murdered in prison in Carthage, Illinois		1844
Japan introduces a new system of currency, based on the yen		1871
Joshua Slocum completes the first solo circumnavigation, in 3 years 64 days, at Briar Island, Nova Scotia		1898
The Central London Electric Railway (Shepherd's Bush to Bank) opens		1900
USA pays $40,000 to France for the rights to the Panama Canal		1902
Mutiny erupts on board the Russian battleship Potemkin		1905
The first Grand Prix takes place at Le Mans		1906
Bell Laboratories in New York gives the first demonstration of colour television		1929
Pan–Am inaugurates the first scheduled transatlantic air service – on a 19–seater flying boat		1939
In the city of Iași, Romanian authorities launch one of the most violent pogroms in Jewish history, resulting in the murder of at least 13,266 Jews		1941
As part of their invasion of Russia (Operation Barbarossa), German troops capture the city of Białystok		1941
President Truman orders the US Army and Navy to Korea		1950
The world's first nuclear power station opens at Obninsk, 55 miles from Moscow		1954
Battle of Berne: referee Arthur Ellis (of England) sends off three players as Hungary beat Brazil 4–2 in the FIFA World Cup quarter–finals		1954
Over 400 people lose their lives, mainly in and around Cameron, Louisiana, when Hurricane Audrey makes landfall near the Texas–Louisiana border		1957
Arthur Michael Ramsay is enthroned as the 100^th Archbishop of Canterbury		1961
Barclays Bank installs the first cash dispenser at Enfield – unveiled by Reg Varney, star of TV's On the Buses		1967
Bill Graham's Fillmore East, a major New York rock venue, closes after only three years in business		1971
Juan María Bordaberry, President of Uruguay, dissolves Parliament and establishes a dictatorship		1973
US President Richard Nixon visits China		1974
A French airbus with 216 passengers, flying from Athens, is hi–jacked by six members of the PLO and forced to fly to Entebbe, Kampala		1976
Djibouti is proclaimed an independent republic		1977
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China lays the blame for the Cultural Revolution on Mao Zedong		1981
The space shuttle Columbia is launched from Kennedy Space Center on its fourth and final test flight		1982
Miners and supporting trade unionists march through London		1984
Fifty–six people lose their lives, and sixty are injured, when an SNCF commuter train headed inbound to Paris's Gare de Lyon terminal crashes into a stationary outbound train		1988
Britons Dave Hurst and Alan Matthews are the first blind people to reach the summit of Mont Blanc		1988
NASA announces that the Hubble space telescope, launched in April, has a serious design fault		1990
Slovenia is invaded by Yugoslav troops, tanks, and aircraft, two days after declaring independence – starting the Ten–Day War		1991
Seven people lose their lives, and 660 are injured, when members of the Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo release sarin gas in the city of Matsumoto		1994
Actor Hugh Grant is charged with committing a lewd act with prostitute Divine Brown		1995
President Chirac of France alarms Tony Blair by calling for a "two–speed Europe"		2000
Gordon Brown becomes Prime Minister following the resignation of Tony Blair		2007
In a highly–scrutinised election, Robert Mugabe is re–elected by a landslide as President of Zimbabwe; his opponent Morgan Tsvangirai had withdrawn a week earlier, citing violence against his party's supporters		2008
Computer systems around the world are swamped by a series of cyberattacks using the Petya malware. Eighty percent of them are in Ukraine, where authorities blame Russian agents		2017

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On This Day: 27 June