NAZIS
On Feb. 27, 1933, Germany's parliament building, the Reichstag, was gutted by fire. Chancellor Adolf Hitler, blaming the Communists, used the fire as justification for suspending civil liberties.
WAR!
1864 6th & last day of Battle at Dalton, Georgia (about 600 casualties).
1991 President George H.W. Bush declared that "Kuwait is liberated, Iraq's army is defeated," and announced that the allies would suspend combat operations at midnight, Eastern time.
2003 Iraq agreed in principle to destroy its Al Samoud II missiles, two days before a U.N. deadline.
TERRORISM
1962 South-Vietnam President Ngo Dinh Diem's palace bombed, 1st US killed.
1969 General Hafez al-Assad becomes head of Syria via military coup.
1980 Terrorists occupies Dominican embassy in Bogota.
1994 Maronite church near Beirut bombed, 10 killed.
1995 Car bomb explodes in Zakho, North-Iraq (54-80 killed).
2003 The Bush administration lowered the national terror alert from orange to yellow.
2007 A suicide bomber struck Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney, who was rushed to a bomb shelter. (Twenty-three people were killed; Cheney was unhurt.)
DISASTER
1803 Great fire in Bombay, India.
1932 Explosion in coal mine Boissevain, Virginia, USA (38 dead).
GOLF
1927 For 2nd Sunday in a row golfers in South Carolina arrested for violating Sabbath.
STARS
1908 Star #46 was added to US flag for Oklahoma.
MAINSTREAM MEDIA
1957 Premiere of only prime-time network TV show beginning with an "X" "Xavier Cugat Show" on NBC (until X-Files).
1974 "People" magazine begins sales.
HAUNTED
1939 English Spook house Borley Rectory destroyed in a fire.
SWEET
1879 Constantine Fahlberg discovers saccharin (artificial sweetener).
TIRED
1890 D Needham & P Kerrigan box 100 rounds (6 hours 39 minutes), San Francisco; match is draw.
PATENTS
1883 Oscar Hammerstein patents 1st cigar-rolling machine.
DEATH PENALTY
1987 NCAA cancels SMU's entire 1987 football schedule for gross violations of NCAA rules regarding athletic corruption.
KILLERS
1982 Wayne Williams found guilty of murdering 2 of 28 blacks in Atlanta GA.
1998 FBI arrests 10 most wanted suspected serial killer Tony Ray Amati.
POLITICS
1801 the District of Columbia was placed under the jurisdiction of Congress.
JEWS
1670 Jews are expelled from Austria by order of Leopold I.
1949 Chaim Weizmann becomes 1st Israeli President.
SPORTS
1901 NL Rules Committee decrees that all fouls are to count as strikes except after two strikes.
UNREST
1861 in Warsaw, Russian troops fired on a crowd protesting Russian rule over Poland; five marchers were killed.
WOMEN
1922 The Supreme Court, in Leser v. Garnett, unanimously upheld the 19th Amendment to the Constitution that guaranteed the right of women to vote.
LIMITS
1951 The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, limiting a president to two terms of office, was ratified.
MIRACLES
1960 The U.S. Olympic hockey team defeated the Soviets, 3-2, at the Winter Games in Squaw Valley, Calif. (The U.S. team went on to win the gold medal.)
INDIANS
1973 Members of the American Indian Movement occupied the hamlet of Wounded Knee in South Dakota, the site of the 1890 massacre of Sioux men, women and children. (The occupation lasted until May.)
UPSETS
1979 Jane M. Byrne confounded Chicago's Democratic political machine as she upset Mayor Michael A. Bilandic to win their party's mayoral primary. (Byrne went on to win the election.)
ROYALS
1998 With the approval of Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's House of Lords agreed to end 1,000 years of male preference by giving a monarch's first-born daughter the same claim to the throne as any first-born son.
FINANCE
2007 The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 416.02 points, the worst drop since the 2001 terrorist attacks.
BORN
1807 poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine.
1920 Reg Simpson cricketer (prolific England opener 1948-55).
BIRTHDAYS
Actress Joanne Woodward is 78. Actress Elizabeth Taylor is 76. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader is 74. Actress Barbara Babcock is 71. Actor Howard Hesseman is 68. Actress Debra Monk is 59. Rock singer-musician Neal Schon (Journey) is 54. Rock musician Adrian Smith (Iron Maiden) is 51. Actor Timothy Spall is 51. Rock musician Paul Humphreys (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark) is 48. Country singer Johnny Van Zant (Van Zant) is 48. Rock musician Leon Mobley (Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals) is 47. Basketball Hall-of-Famer James Worthy is 47. Actor Adam Baldwin is 46. Actor Grant Show is 46. Rock musician Mike Cross (Sponge) is 43. Actor Donal Logue is 42. Rhythm-and-blues singer Chilli (TLC) is 37. Rock musician Jeremy Dean (Nine Days) is 36. Rhythm-and-blues singer Roderick Clark is 35. Country-rock musician Shonna Tucker (Drive-By Truckers) is 30. Chelsea Clinton is 28. Rhythm-and-blues singer Bobby Valentino is 28. Singer Josh Groban is 27. Actress Kate Mara is 25.
DEATH
1939 Nadezjda K Krupskaya Russian revolutionary/wife of Lenin, dies at 70.
1985 J Pat O'Malley actor (My Favorite Martian, Maude), dies at 83.
2003 Children's television host Fred Rogers died in Pittsburgh at age 74.
February 27, the 58th day of 2008. There are 308 days left in the year.
compiled by Mondoreb
image: 911 review
Sources:
* Today in History
* Today in History
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.
