October 27

97 Roman Emperor Nerva was a childless old man when he came to power in AD 96, following the assassination of the tyrannical Domitian. On October 27, 97, he adopted Trajan, a general in the Roman army, as his son, making him emperor apparent. Nerva died on January 27, 98, and was succeeded by Trajan without incident.

1275 Amsterdam was settled as a small fishing village in the late 12th century. The name means 'dam on the Amstel.' The earliest recorded use of the name "Amsterdam" is from a certificate dated October 27, 1275, when the inhabitants, who had built a bridge with a dam across the Amstel, were exempted from paying a bridge toll by Count Floris V.

The GIFT-LETTER of 1275.

1377 Stephen Tvrtko I (1338 – 1391) was crowned first King of Bosnia on October 27, 1377. Under his command Bosnia became the strongest power in the Balkans, conquering parts of what is today Serbia, Croatia and Montenegro.

1682 In 1681, Charles II of England gave a large piece of land in the New World to Quaker William Penn, to pay back some money he owed to Penn's father. The new land was called Pennsylvania and its capital, Philadelphia, was founded on October 27, 1682. Philadelphia, which means "brotherly love," rapidly grew into North America's most important city.

Plan of Philadelphia (1683)

1782 Niccolo Paganini regarded by many people to be the greatest violin virtuoso ever, was born on October 27, 1782. Paganini was so good that he was thought to be the son of the Devil or to have sold his soul for his talent. As a result, he was forced to publish his mother's letters to him in order to prove that he had human parents.

1811 Stevens T. Mason was born on October 27, 1811. He served as the first Governor of Michigan from 1835 to 1840. Elected at age 23 and taking office at 24, Mason was and remains the youngest state governor in American history.

Stevens T. Mason

1838 Governor Lilburn Boggs issued Missouri Executive Order 44 on October 27, 1838, ordering all Mormons to leave the state or be killed. The order was issued in the aftermath of a clash between Mormons and a unit of the Missouri State Militia in northern Ray County, Missouri, which resulted in four fatalities. 

1858 Theodore Roosevelt Jr. the 26th President of the United States, was born into a wealthy aristocratic family of Dutch and Scottish descent on October 27, 1858, at 33 (later 28) East 20th Street in New York City. Known as “Teedie”, he was a sickly, delicate, asthmatic child. To overcome this Theodore undertook a strenuous regime of daily exercises.

1895 While married to his first wife Isabel, the author H.G. Wells started an affair with Amy Catherine Robbins who was a pupil at the university correspondence college in London where he taught. After two years of marriage they were divorced and Wells married Amy at St Pancras register office on October 27, 1895. She bore him two sons and was with him until her death in 1927.

1904 The first underground segment of the New York City Subway officially opened on October 27, 1904 running from City Hall in lower Manhattan to Broadway in Harlem. The fare was $0.05 and on the first day the trains carried over 150,000 passengers. Today it is one of the most extensive public transportation systems in the world.

1914 The British lost their first battleship of World War I on October 27, 1914 when the dreadnought battleship HMS Audacious, was sunk off Tory Island, north-west of Ireland, by a minefield laid by the armed German merchant-cruiser Berlin. The loss was kept an official secret in Britain until the end of the war.

1922 At the 1921 Italian elections Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party won 36 seats. Disregarding the lack of public support in the election, the Fascists marched on Rome. After Italy's Prime Minister Luigi Facta and his ministers resigned on October 27, 1922, King Vittorio Emanuele III allowed them to form a government, making Mussolini prime minister.

1925 The first patent for water skis was issued to Fred Waller, of Huntington, New York, on October 27, 1925. Waller's water skis were made out of kiln-dried mahogany and were twice the length of the snow ski. The tips of each ski were linked with a bridle (to keep the two ropes apart) which in turn was attached by a single line to the launch. The rider balanced himself by means of two ropes joined to the bow-end of each ski.

1931 The last UK general election where any one party received an absolute majority of the votes cast was on October 27, 1931 when Stanley Baldwin's Conservatives polled 55.0 of the vote. This was a landslide victory for the Conservatives, who won 522 seats in the House of Commons. The Labour Party, which had been in government since 1929, was reduced to just 52 seats.

1936 American socialite Wallis Simpson was granted a divorce from her second husband, Ernest Simpson, on October 27, 1936, allowing her to marry King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom. The King's desire to marry a woman who had two living ex-husbands threatened caused a constitutional crisis and triggered his abdication. They married in a private ceremony near Tours, France seven months later and Edward was created Duke of Windsor by his brother and successor, King George VI. 

1938 The du Pont company patented their synthetic textile fiber calling it nylon in February 1937. The letters "nyl" were arbitrary and the "on" was copied from the suffixes of other fibers such as cotton and rayon. Nylon stockings was introduced to the American public at the site of the forthcoming World Fair in New York on October 27, 1938. Before nylon, women had to choose between wool, which was hot in summer and silk, which ran easily.

 Erik Liljeroth, Nordiska museet

1939 Glaswegian Kenneth Watson became the world’s first passenger to ride in a helicopter on October 27, 1939 when it took off at Thornliebank in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The development of the aircraft — a Weir 6 — was halted soon afterwards because of World War II.

1971 The Republic of Zaire was the name of the state that existed between October 27, 1971 and May 17, 1997 in the present Democratic Republic of the Congo. Founded by Mobutu Sese Seko, the name of Zaire derives from the Portuguese: Zaire, itself an adaptation of the Kongo word nzere or nzadi, or "the river that swallows all rivers."

1975 Two months after the release of his breakthrough album, Born to Run,  Bruce Springsteen appeared on the covers of both Time and Newsweek on October 27, 1975, becoming the first entertainer to do so.

1978 In 1965 a group of academics met at Palos Heights, Illinois and agreed on the need for a trustworthy and readable translation of the Bible in modern English. Over one hundred scholars from English-speaking countries were enlisted on the project. On October 27, 1978 the complete New International Version (NIV) of the Bible was published by Zondervan of Grand Rapids Michigan. It became one of the most popular and widely used translations in the English language.

1994 The highest scoring rugby international match between two recognized unions was Hong Kong's 164–13 victory over Singapore on October 27, 1994.

2009 19-year-old Canadian country folk singer Taylor Mitchell is the only recorded adult person to have been killed by coyotes. She died on October 27, 2009 of blood loss after coyotes bit her while she was walking in Cape Breton Highlands National Park's Skyline Trail.