Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

April 27

1992
First woman Speaker of House for the British House of Commons is elected, Betty Boothroyd.

1986
A video pirate overrides an HBO movie broadcast with a message announcing he wasn't going to pay for his cable service.

1971
First black admiral in the U.S. Navy: Capt. Samuel L. Gravely, Jr. is selected.

1913
A girl is found murdered in an Atlanta pencil factory. Leo M. Frank was convicted based on the testimony of Jim Conley. In 1915 he was lynched by an anti-Semitic mob after his death sentence was reduced to life in prison. In 1986 his conviction was overturned after evidence surfaced implicating Conley.

1887
First U.S. Appendectomy: George Thomas Morton removes the appendix of a 26-year-old patient.

1865
Worst marine disaster in U.S. history. A boiler explodes on the steamboat Sultana, near Memphis, killing 1,547 people.

1838
Great fire of Charleston, South Carolina.

1959
Sheena Easton (Sheena Shirley Orr), Grammy-winning singer. Music: Morning Train (1981, #1) and For Your Eyes Only (1981).

1951
Ace Frehley, American rock musician, the Spaceman of Kiss, Rock And Roll All Nite (1975).

1939
Judy Carne (Joyce Botterill, English actress. TV: Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (the "Sock it to me" girl).

1938
Earl Anthony, American bowler, PBA champion (1973, 74, 75), first PBA million dollar winner (1982).

1932
Anouk Aimee (Francoise Sorya Dreyfus), French actress. Film: A Man and a Woman (1966, Oscar nomination).

1927     d. 2006
Coretta Scott King, civil rights activist, wife of Martin Luther King, Jr.

1922
Jack Klugman, American actor. TV: The Odd Couple (Oscar Madison).

1900     d. 1994
Walter Lantz, American cartoonist, creator of Woody Woodpecker, Andy Panda, and Chilly Willy.

1896     d. 1937
Wallace Hume Carothers, American chemist. He invented nylon (1934) while working for the du Pont Company. He also developed neoprene, the first successful synthetic rubber (1931).

1840     d. 1911
Edward Whymper, British explorer, first person to climb the Matterhorn (1865). Four of his seven member team died during the descent.

1822     d. 1885
Ulysses Simpson Grant, 18th U.S. President (1869-77).

1820     d. 1903
Herbert Spencer, English sociologist, philosopher. As an early evolutionist, he developed his theories independently of Darwin. He coined the term "survival of the fittest" (1852), seven years before Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859).

1791     d. 1872
Samuel F.B. Morse (Samuel Finley Breese Morse), American inventor of the telegraph and Morse code.

1965     b. 1908
Edward R. Murrow, American Emmy-winning journalist. He won four Peabody awards, the Medal of Freedom (1964), and was knighted an honorary commander of the Order of the British Empire (1965).

1965     b. 1903
Alan Bunce, American actor. TV: Ethel and Albert (Albert).

1882     b. 1803
Ralph Waldo Emerson, American poet, philosopher.

1813     b. 1779
Zebulon Montgomery Pike, American general, for whom Pikes Peak is named. He was killed while leading the attack on York (now Toronto), Canada.

1605     b. 1535
Leo XI, Italian religious leader, 232nd Pope (Apr. 1605).

1521     b. circa 1480
Ferdinand Magellan, explorer, first to undertake a circumnavigation of the globe, died of wounds received in battle with natives of the Philippine Islands before the voyage was completed.

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