27 January in history

8 events that happened on 27 January, from 98 to 1967.

International day

International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Designated by the United Nations in 2005 to coincide with the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, this day honours the memory of the six million Jewish victims and millions of others murdered by the Nazi regime.

  1. ✦ Anniversary of the day

    98 CE 1,928 years ago

    Trajan becomes Roman Emperor

    On the death of Nerva, his adopted son Trajan, the first emperor born outside Italy, succeeded to the throne. His conquests of Dacia and Mesopotamia brought the empire to its greatest extent.

    Roman EmpireTrajanDacia

  2. 1302 CE 724 years ago

    Dante Alighieri is sentenced to exile from Florence

    Florence's victorious Black Guelphs convicted Dante of corruption in his absence. He never returned home, and wrote the 'Divine Comedy' during his exile.

    Florence

  3. 1756 CE 270 years ago

    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is born in Salzburg

    The son of the court musician Leopold Mozart, he toured Europe as a child prodigy. In a life of 35 years he wrote more than 600 works, including 'The Marriage of Figaro' and 'Don Giovanni'.

  4. 1880 CE 146 years ago

    Thomas Edison patents his incandescent lamp

    Edison received US patent 223,898 for a carbon-filament lamp. Others had made electric bulbs, but his long-lasting design and supply system made electric lighting practical.

  5. 1944 CE 82 years ago

    Siege of Leningrad is lifted after 872 days

    Soviet offensives drove German forces back from Leningrad, ending a blockade that began in September 1941. Some 800,000 or more civilians died, most from starvation.

  6. 1945 CE 81 years ago

    Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz

    Red Army soldiers reached Auschwitz and found about 7,000 prisoners left behind. Around 1.1 million people, most of them Jews, were murdered there. The date is now International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

  7. 1967 CE 59 years ago

    Fire kills three Apollo 1 astronauts during a test

    A flash fire in the pure-oxygen cabin of Apollo 1 killed Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee during a launch rehearsal at Cape Kennedy. NASA redesigned the spacecraft before flying again.

  8. 1967 CE 59 years ago

    Outer Space Treaty signed

    The United States, the Soviet Union and Britain signed a treaty barring nuclear weapons from orbit and forbidding any nation from claiming the Moon or other celestial bodies. It remains the basis of space law.

    United StatesSoviet Union

January

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31

All days of the year →