February 27
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Featured Event
TRACE Project/NASA
British physicist discovers solar radio waves
On this day in 1942, physicist James Stanley Hey noticed strange interference while operating British radar equipment during World War II. Though he initially attributed the jamming to the enemy (in this case, Nazi Germany), Hey realized that the pattern began at sunrise and ended at sunset. Astronomers at London’s Royal Observatory confirmed that a sunspot was making its way across the Sun’s surface; Hey knew that sunspots were sources of strong magnetic activity. This meant that he had accidentally discovered solar radio waves—and thus, the field of solar radio astronomy was born. [Read today’s edition of Today in History > >]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
© Photos.com/Getty Images
For when they (the Christian clergy) are free to render supreme service to the Divinity, it is evident that they confer great benefit upon the affairs of state.
Thought to have been born this day after 280 ce, Constantine I, the first Roman emperor to profess Christianity, sparked the empire’s evolution into a Christian state and catalyzed a distinctively Christian culture.
Famous Birthdays
More on February 27
© Allstar Picture Library Limited/Alamy
2015
Leonard Nimoy—who was best known for his portrayal of the stoic, cerebral Mr. Spock in the sci-fi TV and film franchise Star Trek—died at age 83. [Take our quiz about movie stars.]
Natacha Pisarenko/AP Images
2010
A magnitude-8.8 earthquake struck Chile, causing widespread damage and triggering a tsunami that devastated coastal areas; it was the most powerful earthquake to strike the region since 1960 and caused more than 500 deaths. [Take Britannica’s quiz about disasters of historic proportion]
Bert Goulait/U.S. Department of Defense (DA-SC-86-09141)
2008
William F. Buckley, Jr. died at age 82. He became an important influence in right-leaning politics as the founder (1955) and editor in chief of the journal National Review, which he used as a forum for conservative views and ideas. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about magazines.]
Tech. Sgt. Joe Coleman/U.S. Air Force
1991
U.S. President George H.W. Bush ordered a ceasefire effective at midnight and declared victory in the Persian Gulf War, a conflict triggered by Iraq’s invasion and occupation of Kuwait in August 1990. [Watch President Bush’s speech about the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.]
Jim Mone—AP Images/Shutterstock.com
1973
Two hundred members of the American Indian Movement (AIM), a militant Native civil rights organization, occupied the reservation hamlet of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, vowing to stay until the government met AIM’s demands for a change in tribal leaders, a review of treaties made with Native people, and a Senate investigation of the treatment of Native people. They were, however, eventually forced to surrender after being surrounded by federal marshals. [Test your knowledge of Native American history.]
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
1968
During a news broadcast, journalist Walter Cronkite, who was considered “the most trusted man in America,” broke from his usual objectivity to predict that the Vietnam War could end only in a protracted stalemate; his commentary was credited with changing the U.S. public’s opinion of the conflict. [How much do you know about the Vietnam War?]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1967
Saint Kitts and Nevis (with Anguilla) became an independent state associated with the United Kingdom. [Take our quiz about islands.]
NARA
1951
The Twenty-second Amendment, which effectively limited U.S. presidents to serving two terms, was ratified. [Learn about the only president to be elected to office four times.]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (Digital file no. LC-DIG-ppmsca-00332)
1933
In Berlin the Reichstag (parliament) building caught fire, a key event in the establishment of a Nazi-controlled state. The day after the fire, Hitler’s dictatorship began with the enactment of a decree “for the Protection of the People and the State,” which dispensed with all constitutional protection of political, personal, and property rights. [Watch a video about the investigation into the fire.]
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
1932
American actress Elizabeth Taylor was born in London. She was noted for her award-winning portrayals of emotionally volatile and strong-willed characters. [ Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about A-list actors.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1902
Writer John Steinbeck was born. He remains best known for his novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939), which summed up the bitterness of the Great Depression decade and aroused widespread sympathy for the plight of migratory farmworkers. [Test your knowledge of famous authors.]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (neg. no. LC-USZ62-52112)
1886
American lawyer and politician Hugo Black—who, as a Supreme Court justice, was known for his support of the doctrine of total incorporation—was born. [Why are there nine justices on the U.S. Supreme Court?]
Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (2015651534)
1807
Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, known for works such as The Song of Hiawatha (1855) and “Paul Revere’s Ride” (1863), was born in Portland, Massachusetts (now in Maine). [Test your knowledge of poetry.]
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1776
At the Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge, North Carolinian revolutionaries defeated loyalists during the American Revolution, thwarting a British invasion of the southern colonies. [How much do you know about the American Revolution?]