May 27 – Some important events on this day.
1679 ๐๐ผ Habeaus Corpus Act (strengthening person’s right to challenge unlawful arrest & imprisonment) passes in England
1703 ๐๐ผ Saint Petersburg (Leningrad) founded by Russian Tsar Peter the Great
1849 ๐๐ผ Opening of the Great Hall at Euston station in London.
The original Euston railway Station was London’s first mainline station and the first station to connect London with another city. Planned by George and Robert Stephenson, it was designed by Philip Hardwick and opened in 1837.
When the station was first proposed its land was still farmland but it quickly became one of London’s busiest stations. It was controversially redeveloped in the 1960s and its original entrance portico, the Doric Euston Arch, dismantled.
1873 ๐๐ผ Heinrich Schliemann discovers “Priam’s Treasure” a cache of gold and other objects in Hisarlik (Troy) in Anatolia.
1896 ๐๐ผ Tornado hit St Louis, killing 255, leaving thousands homeless ๐ช
1905 ๐๐ผ Japanese fleet destroys the Russian East Sea fleet in the Battle of Tsushima, the only decisive clash between modern steel battleships in history.
The destruction of the Russian fleet by Japan shocked Europe and led to broad unrest throughout Russia. Tensions between the two nations had grown in recent years as Japan feared Russian encroachment on its possessions in China and Korea, especially as Russia wanted a warm-water port on the Pacific Ocean.
The only decisive naval battle in history fought between modern steel battleship fleets, the confrontation at Tsushima was also the last time a defeated fleet’s ships of the line surrendered on the high seas, and the first in which wireless telegraphy played an important role.
Russia lost almost 4,400 dead and 6,000 captured, as well as the loss of 21 ships sunk, 7 ships captured and 6 disarmed. In contrast Japan lost only 117 dead and 3 torpedo boats sunk.
The aftermath of the battle was severe and contributed to the Russian Revolution of 1905. The Russo-Japanese War ended a few months later with no further confrontations. The Romanov monarchy was weakened and its prestige damaged (not helped by the story that Tsar Nicholas II, when told about the loss during a tennis match, simply continued playing). It challenged the prevalent notion of European superiority and destabilized the balance of power in Europe, contributing to World War I.
1907 ๐๐ผ Bubonic Plague breaks out in San Francisco
1930 ๐๐ผ The 319-meter Chrysler Building in New York City, the tallest man-made structure at the time, opens to the public.
1939 ๐๐ผ Ship carrying 937 Jewish refugees, fleeing Nazi Germany, is turned away in Cuba.
Only 28 immigrants are admitted into the country. After appeals to the United States and Canada for entry are denied, the rest are forced to sail back to Europe, where theyโre distributed among several countries including Great Britain and France.
1940 ๐๐ผ British and Allied forces begin the evacuation of Dunkirk (Operation Dynamo) during WWII.
1963 ๐๐ผ Jomo Kenyatta elected 1st Prime Minister of Kenya ๐ฐ๐ช
1977 ๐๐ผ New York City fines George Willig 1 cent for each of 110 stories he climbed of the South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York
1999 ๐๐ผ The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia indicts Slobodan Miloลกeviฤ and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo
2006 ๐๐ผ Earthquake strikes Java, Indonesia at 5:53:58 AM local time (22:53:58 UTC May 26) devastating Bantul and the city of Yogyakarta, killing over 6,600 people ๐ฎ๐ฉ
