What Happened on August 27

Historical Events

1601 – Olivier van Noort completes first Dutch exploration of new world
1832 – Black Hawk, leader of Sauk-indians, gives himself up
1892 – NYC’s Metropolitan Opera House (opened in 1883) catches fire; takes two years to restore
1908 – Calgary City Rugby Football Club re-organizes as the Tigers
1974 – NY Met Benny Ayala hits a HR in his 1st at bat
2004 – German kayaker Birgit Fischer wins gold in K-4 500m and silver in K-2 500m in Athens; first woman in any sport to win gold medals at 6 different Olympics, gold 24 years apart, and 1st person to win 2 or more medals in 5 different Games

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Famous Birthdays

1870 – Amado Nervo [Juan Crisóstomo Ruiz de Nervo], Mexican writer and poet, born in Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico (d. 1919)
1884 – Vincent Auriol, President of France (1947-53), born in Revel, France (d. 1966)
1886 – Rebecca Clarke, British-American violist and classical composer (Morpheus), born in Harrow, England (d. 1979)
1935 – Ernie Broglio, American baseball player
1947 – Peter Krieg [Wilhelm Gladitz], German documentary filmmaker, and writer (September Wheat), born in Schwäbisch Gmünd, West Germany (d. 2009)
1964 – Frankie Thorn, American actress

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Famous Deaths

1977 – George Merritt, English actor (I Monster, Canterbury Tale), dies at 86
1980 – Douglas Kenney, American humorist (co-founded the magazine National Lampoon), dies at 33
1991 – Gordon Heath, actor (Sapphire, Staircase, Animal Farm), dies
1996 – Abram Games, British graphic artist (“Blonde Bombshell” ATS poster), dies at 82
2001 – Abu Ali Mustafa, leader of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (assassinated) (b. 1938)
2022 – Milutin Šoškić, Serbian soccer goalkeeper (50 caps Yugoslavia; FK Partizan, 1. FC Köln), dies at 84

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