Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

March 27

1980
The Alexander Kieland hotel ship overturns in the North Sea killing 137 people.

1972
Funky Winkerbean comic strip premiers, by Tom Batiuk.

1964
North America's largest recorded earthquake: A quake measuring 8.4 on the Richter scale hits near Prince William Sound, Alaska.

1958
Nikita Khrushchev: The Russian leader becomes Premier of the Soviet Union. The previous premier, Bulganin, had resigned.

1956
The offices of the U.S. communist party, along with the newspaper Daily Worker, are seized by the IRS for nonpayment of income taxes.

1914
First indirect (patient and donor not connected together) blood transfusion, by a Belgian Surgeon.

1912
First of the famous cherry trees encircling the Tidal Basin in Washington D.C. are planted.

1860
The corkscrew is patented, by M.L. Byrn of New York City.

1814
End of the Creek War: Andrew Jackson defeats the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, Alabama. 90% of the Indians were killed.

1940
Cale Yarborough, auto racer, 4-time Daytona 500 winner.

1930     d. 1980
David Janssen (David Harold Meyer), American actor. TV: The Fugitive (Dr. Richard Kimble). He won the 1930 Sears, Roebuck title of Prettiest Baby.

1927
Hy Eisman, cartoonist, artist for The Katzenjammer Kids since 1986.

1899     d. 1983
Gloria Swanson (Gloria Svensson), American actress, sex symbol of the 1920s. Film: Sunset Boulevard (1950).

1863     d. 1933
Sir Frederick Henry Royce, English auto maker, co-founder of Rolls-Royce automobile company (1904).

1845     d. 1923
Wilhelm Konrad Roentgen, German physicist, discovered X-rays (1895). He died of cancer.

1813     d. 1888
Nathaniel Currier, American lithographer, co-founded (1857) Currier & Ives, which recorded American history in their prints from the mid 1800s to the turn of the century.

1809     d. 1891
Georges Eugene Haussman, French financier. He was responsible for the rebuilding of Paris in the mid 1800s and for building its underground sewer system.

2002     b. 1908
Milton Berle (Milton Berlinger), American comedian, known as "Uncle Miltie" and "Mr. Television." He got his start in advertising as the Buster Brown kid. TV: Batman (Louie the Lilac).

1998     b. 1918
Joseph Sobek, American sportsman, inventor of racquetball (1950).

1992     b. 1914
Anita Colby (Anita Couniham), one of America's first super-models, known as "The Face." She was the first model to earn $100 per hour. She turned down marriage proposals from Clark Gable and James Stewart.

1968     b. 1934
Yuri A. Gagarin, Soviet cosmonaut. He became the first man in space (1961) when he orbited the Earth aboard the Soviet Vostok 1.

1923     b. 1842
Sir James Dewar, British chemist, physicist, inventor of the Dewar flask (the vacuum thermos bottle).

1869     b. 1795
James Harper, American publisher, co-founded Harper & Row, Publishers.

1625     b. 1566
James I, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1603-25), in 1604 he commissioned the creation of the King James Bible (completed in 1611).

1191     b. ????
Clement III, Italian-born religious leader, 174th Pope (1187-91).

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