On This Day - February 27th

On this day in the year 837 of the common era (CE) with an orbit that has varied between seventy-four and eighty years since it was first observed by Chinese astronomers, the fifteenth record of the perihelion of Halley’s Comet is made; one thousand, one hundred and five years later, radio emissions from the Sun are first detected by English physicist and radio astronomer James Stanley Hey while they were working on radar anti-jamming methods for use in the combat theatres of World War II. Seventy-eight years after that the biggest cosmic explosion ever detected is observed emanating from a supermassive black hole in Ophiuchus galaxy (a rotating structure fifteen times larger than our Milky Way), located three hundred and ninety million lights years away. Official findings are published in the Astrophysical Journal.

On this day in the year 1693 CE The Ladies' Mercury, the first women's magazine is published in London, England; two hundred and eighty-three years later People magazine hits the newsstands.

On this day in 1801 CE, Washington, D.C. is placed under the jurisdiction of the United States Congress; twelve years later, the first federal vaccination legislation is enacted and on this same day Congress authorizes the use of steamboats to transport mail. Forty-eight years after that Congress authorizes the first stamped newspaper wrappers for mailing.

In 1827 CE the first Mardi Gras celebration in held in New Orleans, Louisianna; fifty-six years later, Oscar Hammerstein patents the first cigar-rolling machine. Twenty-four years after that, psychiatrists Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud meet for the first time in Vienna, Austria.

In 1869 CE John Menard becomes the first African-American to make a speech in the United States Congress; three years later Charlotte Ray, becomes the first African American woman lawyer in the United States after graduating from Howard University. Ninety years after that, Wayne Williams is found guilty of murdering two of the twenty-eight black persons he is known to have murdered in Atlanta, Georgia.

In 1901 CE the rules committee for baseball’s National League decrees that all fouls are to count as strikes, except after two strikes; seven years later rules for the “Sacrifice Fly” are first adopted (then repealed in 1931 and reinstated 1954).

In 1921 CE the Fascists incite a riot in Florence, Italy; four years later Adolf Hitler resurrects the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nationalsozialistische deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP) in Munich, Germany. Eight years later, in 1933 CE, Nazi Germany's parliament building, the Reichstag, is set ablaze by members of their own party, who then blame and execute Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe for their crime. Six years after that, in 1939 CE, the United Kingdom and France recognize Francisco Franco's government in Spain. Four years later, University of Munich professor Kurt Huber, advisor to a student non-violent resistance group called the "White Rose", is arrested by Nazis. Twenty-six years after that, in 1967 CE, General Hafez al-Assad becomes head of Syria via military coup; thirty-one years later, Great Britain's House of Lords agrees to end 1,000 years of male precedence by giving a monarch's first-born daughter the same claim to the throne as any first-born son. Fifteen years after that, pope Benedict XVI presents his farewell address to Vatican City, becoming the first pope to abdicate the papacy in five hundred and ninety-eight years, taking the title pope-emeritus to himself as he drifted away into an Alzheimer’s haze.

In 1922 CE the United States Supreme Court unanimously upholds the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote; twenty-nine years later, the Twenty-second Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, limiting the United States President to two terms in office.

1940 Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discover carbon-14 (radiocarbon dating) at the University of California Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley, California; fifty-six years later the first appearance of Pokémon occurs in the role-playing video game Pocket Monsters Red and Green, for Game Boy, in Japan.

In 1958 CE the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya; six years later, France performs underground nuclear test at Ecker, Algeria. Ten years after that, in 1974 CE the United States performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site; four years later, France performs nuclear test at Mururoa Atoll, and they do it again six years after that.

In 1959 CE the Boston Celtic’s, Bob Cousy, sets a National Basketball Association (NBA) record with twenty-eight assists as the Celtics score one hundred and seventy-three points against the Minneapolis Lakers; twenty-two years later, Earl Anthony becomes the first professional bowler to win more than one million dollars.

In 1964 CE the government of Italy asks the world for help to keep the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over.

In 1970 CE the New York Times falsely reports that the United States Army had ended its domestic surveillance program; three years later, two-hundred members of the American Indian Movement occupy the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota.

In 1981 CE Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder record the single Ebony & Ivory; sixteen years later, British singer Sade is arrested in Jamaica for disobeying a police officer. Five years after that, singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell receives Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammy’s.

In 2014 CE, unmarked special forces operatives from the Russian Federation invade neighboring the Crimean region of Ukraine to assist pro-Russian nationalists, they occupy government buildings and declare themselves the Republic of Crimea and force a referendum vote at gunpoint to oust the legitimate regional government of Ukraine. Russian forces then immediately prepare the newly formed republic for annexation; eight years later, Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation are sanction for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine; the European Union (E.U.) closes its airspace to Russian planes and Russian banks are excluded from the worldwide Swift Payment System. Sweden sends arms to Ukraine and the E.U. warns that the Russian invasion of Ukraine means Europe is facing major a humanitarian crisis, with eighteen million Ukrainians already displaced within their own borders, and four million refugees fleeing the country by this date.

 

 

Sid Gateaux, Zen Syndicate Intergalactic, People’s History Project, On This Day