January 27
Activity of the day
Today is . . .
- International Holocaust Remembrance Day
- St. Sava Day in Serbia
- Feast day of Saint Devota, patron saint of Monaco
- Feast day of St Julian of Le Mans, St Marius or May, St Angela Merici, and St Vitalian
On this day . . .
- The trial of Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators begins (1606)
- T.A. Edison patents the electric light bulb (1880)
- The National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C. (1888)
- The River Thames catches fire (1906)
- The first public demonstration of television by John Logie Baird (1926)
- Three U.S. astronauts are killed in the Apollo I explosion (1967)
- Serious flooding leaves thousands homeless in California (1969)
- Paris Peace Accords officially end the Vietnam War (1973)
- Michael Jackson suffers burns during the filming of a Pepsi commercial (1984)
- In the U.S. Western Union delivers its last telegram (2006)
Births
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer (1756)
- Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson), author of Alice in Wonderland (1832)
- Jerome Kern, American composer (1885)
- Brian Rix, English actor (1924)
- John Ogden, English pianist (1937)
- Bridget Fonda, American actress (1964)
- Mark Owen, English pop singer (1972)
- Marat Safin, Russian tennis player (1980)
Deaths
- Giuseppe Verdi, Italian composer (1901)
- Louis de Funès, French actor (1983)
- Joseph Brodsky, poet (1996)
- John Updike, American Novelist (2009)