May 27 is the 147th day of the year (148th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 218 days remaining until the end of the year.
Up to 1930
- 1153 - Malcolm IV of Scotland becomes King.
- 1199 - King John of England is crowned.
- 1293 - A massive earthquake hits Kamakura, Japan.
- 1328 – Philip VI is crowned King of France.
- 1644 - Manchu regent Dorgon defeats rebel leader Li Zicheng of the Shun Dynasty at the Battle of Shanhai Pass, allowing the Manchus to enter and conquer Beijing.
- 1703 – Tsar Peter the Great founds the city of Saint Petersburg.
- 1799 - War of the Second Coalition: Austrian forces defeat the French at Winterthur, Switzerland, securing control of the Northeast Swiss plateau because of the town's location at the junction of the seven cross-roads.
- 1813 – War of 1812: In Canada, American forces capture Fort George.
- 1849 – The Great Hall of Euston station, London opened.
- 1860 – Giuseppe Garibaldi begins his attack on Palermo, Sicily, as part of the Italian Unification.
- 1883 – Alexander III is crowned Tsar of Russia.
- 1895 – Oscar Wilde is sent to prison for sodomy.
- 1896 – The F5-strength East St. Louis Tornado hits in East Saint Louis, Illinois, and St. Louis, Missouri, killing 255 people.
- 1901 – In New Jersey, the Edison Storage Battery Company is founded.
- 1905 – Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of Tsushima begins.
- 1907 – A bubonic plague outbreak begins in San Francisco, California.
- 1915 - Off Sheerness, minelayer Princess Irene runs over laid mines and explodes, killing 400 people.
- 1919 – The NC-4 aircraft arrives in Lisbon after completing the first transatlantic flight.
- 1923 – The first 24 hours of Le Mans race ends.
- 1924 – The Music Corporation of America (MCA) is founded.
- 1927 – The Ford Motor Company stops making the Ford Model T and gets ready to make Ford Model As.
- 1930 – The 1,046 feet (319 meters) tall Chrysler Building in New York (tallest man-made structure at the time) opens to the public.
1931 – 2000
- 1932 – The Sydney Harbour Bridge opens.
- 1933 – New Deal: The U.S. Federal Securities Act is signed into law requiring the registration of securities with the Federal Trade Commission.
- 1933 – The Walt Disney Company releases the cartoon The Three Little Pigs, with its hit song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?"
- 1933 – The Century of Progress World's Fair opens in Chicago.
- 1934 - The 1934 FIFA World Cup in Italy begins, with a series of knock-out games.
- 1935 – New Deal: The Supreme Court of the United States declares the National Industrial Recovery Act to be unconstitutional in the case A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, (295 U.S. 495).
- 1936 – The RMS Queen Mary begins her first voyage.
- 1937 – In California, the Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrian traffic, creating a vital link between San Francisco and Marin County.
- 1939 – DC Comics prints its second superhero in Detective Comics #27; he is Batman, one of the most topical comic book superheroes of all time.
- 1940 – World War II: 97 out of 99 members of a Royal Norfolk Regiment unit are massacred while trying to surrender at Dunkirk. The German commander, Captain Fritz Knochlein, is later hanged for war crimes.
- 1941 – World War II: US President Franklin Roosevelt proclaims an "unlimited national emergency".
- 1941 – World War II: The German battleship Bismarck is sunk in the North Atlantic killing 2,300 men.
- 1942 - World War II: Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich is wounded in Prague and dies over a week later.
- 1960 – In Turkey, General Cemal Gürsel leads a military coup d'état removing President Celal Bayar and the rest of the democratic government.
- 1963 – Folk music singer Bob Dylan releases The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan album, which features "Blowin' in the Wind" and several other of his best-known songs.
- 1964 – Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru dies in office.
- 1965 – Vietnam War: United States warships begin bombing of National Liberation Front targets within South Vietnam for the first time.
- 1967 – Australians vote to change the Constitution to give Indigenous Australians equal rights
- 1968 – Future U.S. President George W. Bush joins the Texas Air National Guard.
- 1971 - The Dahlerau train disaster near Wuppertal, then-West Germany, kills 46 people and injures 25.
- 1974 – Jacques Chirac becomes Prime Minister of France.
- 1975 - The Dibbles Bridge coach crash near Grassington, North Yorkshire, England, kills 33 people, in the United Kingdom's deadliest-ever road accident.
- 1980 – The Gwangju Massacre: air force and army troops of South Korea retake the city of Gwangju from civil militias, killing at least 207 and possibly many more.
- 1995 – In Charlottesville, Virginia, actor Christopher Reeve is paralyzed (not able to move) from the neck down after falling from his horse in a riding competition.
- 1996 – First Chechnya War: Russian President Boris Yeltsin meets with Chechnyan rebels for the first time and agrees to a cease-fire in the war.
- 1997 – The F5-strength Jarrell Tornado slams into the small town of Jarrell, Texas, killing 27 people.
- 1998 – Oklahoma City bombing: Michael Fortier is sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $200,000 for failing to warn authorities about the terrorist plot.
- 1999 – The International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands charges Slobodan Milošević and 4 others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo.
From 2001
- 2005 – Schapelle Corby is sentenced to 20 years in jail for marijuana smuggling in Indonesia.
- 2006 – An earthquake in Java kills over 6,600 people and destroys the cities of Bantul and Yogyakarta.
- 2009 - A suicide bombing kills at least 35 people in Lahore, Pakistan.
- 2015 - Football's world governing body FIFA is accused by US law enforcement officials of bribery totaling hundreds of dollars over more than 20 years, including a scheme involving the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Fourteen people are arrested, and President Sepp Blatter is under pressure over his position.
- 2016 - Barack Obama becomes the first serving President of the United States to visit Hiroshima and meet victims of the atomic bomb.
- 2017 - A computer failure at British Airways leads to the airline's flights around the world being cancelled.
Up to 1900
- 742 - Emperor Dezong of Tang of China (d. 805)
- 1332 – Ibn Khaldun, Arab polymath (d. 1406)
- 1519 – Girolamo Mei, Italian historian (d. 1594)
- 1623 – William Petty, English scientist and philosopher (d. 1687)
- 1626 – William II, Prince of Orange (d. 1650)
- 1651 - Louis Antoine de Noailles, French cardinal (d. 1729)
- 1652 – Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate (Charlotte Elizabeth, Duchesse d'Orléans) (d. 1722)
- 1738 – Nathaniel Gorham, American politician (d. 1796)
- 1756 - King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria (d. 1825)
- 1774 – Francis Beaufort, Irish scientist and admiral (d. 1857)
- 1794 – Cornelius Vanderbilt, entrepreneur (d. 1877)
- 1818 - Amelia Bloomer, American activist (d. 1894)
- 1818 - Franciscus Donders, Dutch ophthalmologist (d. 1889)
- 1819 – Julia Ward Howe, composer ("The Battle Hymn of the Republic") (d. 1910)
- 1819 – George V of Hanover (d. 1878)
- 1820 – Mathilde Bonaparte, French princess and socialite (d. 1904)
- 1822 - Joachim Raff, Swiss-German composer (d. 1882)
- 1832 - Zenas Ferry Moody, American politician, 7th Governor of Oregon (d. 1917)
- 1832 - Lizardo Montero Flores, President of Peru (d. 1905)
- 1836 – Jay Gould, American financier (d. 1892)
- 1837 – Wild Bill Hickok, American gunfighter (d. 1876)
- 1860 – Manuel Teixeira Gomes, 7th President of Portugal (d. 1941)
- 1864 – Ante Trumbić, Croat politician (d. 1938)
- 1867 – Arnold Bennett, British novelist (d. 1931)
- 1871 – Georges Rouault, painter and graphic artist (d. 1958)
- 1876 - Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski, Polish journalist and author (d. 1945)
- 1876 - William Stanier, English engineer (d. 1965)
- 1877 – Isadora Duncan, American dancer (d. 1927)
- 1879 – Karl Bühler, psychologist (d. 1963)
- 1884 – Max Brod, writer (d. 1968)
- 1888 – Louis Durey, French composer (d. 1979)
- 1893 – Hermann Dörnemann, German supercentenarian, world's oldest man from November 19, 2004 (d. 2005)
- 1894 – Louis-Ferdinand Céline, French writer (d. 1961)
- 1894 – Dashiell Hammett, American writer (d. 1961)
- 1895 - Douglas Lloyd Campbell, 13th Premier of Manitoba (d. 1995)
- 1897 – John Cockcroft, British physicist (d. 1967)
- 1900 - Ethel Lang, British supercentenarian (d. 2015)
1901 – 1925
- 1902 - Fanny Godin, Belgian supercentenarian (d. 2014)
- 1904 – Chohei Nambu, Japanese athlete (d. 1997)
- 1906 - Buddhadasa, Thai monk and philosopher (d. 1993)
- 1907 - Carl Falck, Norwegian businessman and centenarian (d. 2016)
- 1907 – Rachel Carson, American ecologist (d. 1964)
- 1909 – Dolores Hope, American singer (d. 2011)
- 1909 - Don Finlay, English hurdler and pilot (d. 1970)
- 1911 – Hubert H. Humphrey, 38th Vice President of the United States (d. 1978)
- 1911 – Teddy Kollek, Mayor of Jerusalem (d. 2007)
- 1911 – Vincent Price, American actor (d. 1993)
- 1912 – John Cheever, writer (d. 1982)
- 1912 – Sam Snead, American golf champion (d. 2002)
- 1913 – Wols, German painter (d. 1951)
- 1915 – Herman Wouk, American writer (d. 2019)
- 1917 – Yasuhiro Nakasone, former Prime Minister of Japan
- 1920 - Gabrielle Wittkop, French writer, essayist, journalist and artist (d. 2002)
- 1921 – Caryl Chessman, American, executed for murder (d. 1960)
- 1921 - Bob Godfrey, English animator (d. 2013)
- 1922 – Christopher Lee, English actor (d. 2015)
- 1922 - Otto Carius, German World War II tank commander (d. 2015)
- 1922 – John David Vanderhoof, 36th Governor of Colorado (d. 2013)
- 1923 – Henry Kissinger, American politician, 37th United States Secretary of State, received the Nobel Peace Prize
- 1923 - Inge Morath, Austrian-American photographer (d. 2002)
- 1923 – Sumner Redstone, American entrepreneur
- 1924 - Jaime Lusinchi, President of Venezuela (d. 2014)
- 1925 – Tony Hillerman, American mystery writer (d. 2008)
1926 – 1950
- 1928 - Thea Musgrave, Scottish-American composer
- 1930 – John Barth, American novelist
- 1930 – Eino Tamberg, Estonian composer (d. 2010)
- 1930 – William S. Sessions, FBI director
- 1931 - Faten Hamama, Egyptian actress (d. 2015)
- 1934 - Enzo Siciliano, Italian writer (d. 2006)
- 1934 – Harlan Ellison, American science fiction writer (d. 2018)
- 1934 - Uwe Friedrichsen, German actor (d. 2016)
- 1935 – Lee Meriwether, American actress and former Miss America
- 1935 - Luud Schimmelpennink, Dutch inventor, entrepreneur and politician
- 1936 – Louis Gossett Jr., American actor
- 1936 - Marcel Masse, Canadian politician (d. 2014)
- 1937 – Allan Carr, producer, writer (d. 1999)
- 1940 - Mike Gibson, Australian sports journalist (d. 2015)
- 1942 - Piers Courage, English racing driver (d. 1970)
- 1943 – Cilla Black, English singer (d. 2015)
- 1943 - Robert Axelrod, American political scientist
- 1944 - Alain Souchon, French singer-songwriter, guitarist and author
- 1945 – Bruce Cockburn, Canadian musician
- 1946 - Lewis Collins, English actor (d. 2013)
- 1946 – Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Danish jazz musician (d. 2005)
- 1947 - Henry McMaster, American politician, 117th Governor of South Carolina
- 1947 – Branko Oblak, Slovenian footballer
- 1949 - Terry Collins, American baseball manager
1951 – 1975
- 1951 – Ana Belén, Spanish singer and actress
- 1955 – Eric Bischoff, American WWE performer
- 1956 - Giuseppe Tornatore, Italian director and screenwriter
- 1957 – Siouxsie Sioux, English musician ("Siouxsie and the Banshees")
- 1957 – Duncan Goodhew, English swimmer
- 1958 - Jesse Robredo, Filipino politician (d. 2012)
- 1958 – Neil Finn, New Zealand singer and songwriter
- 1958 – Linnea Quigley, American actress
- 1958 – Wayne Williams, American child murderer
- 1959 - Donna Strickland, Canadian physicist
- 1960 - Ray Armstead, American athlete
- 1961 – Peri Gilpin, American actress
- 1962 - David Mundell, Scottish politician
- 1962 - Steven Brill, American actor, director, producer and screenwriter
- 1962 - Ravi Shastri, Indian cricketer and sportscaster
- 1963 - Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Cuban pianist and composer
- 1964 – Adam Carolla, American comedian, television host and actor
- 1964 - Volker Abramczik, German footballer
- 1965 – Todd Bridges, American actor
- 1965 – Pat Cash, Australian tennis player
- 1966 – Sean Kinney, American drummer (Alice in Chains)
- 1966 – Heston Blumenthal, English chef
- 1967 – Paul Gascoigne, English footballer
- 1968 – Rebekah Brooks, English newspaper editor
- 1968 – Jeff Bagwell, American baseball player
- 1968 – Frank Thomas, American baseball player
- 1970 – Joseph Fiennes, English actor
- 1970 - Michele Bartoli, Italian cyclist
- 1970 - Tim Farron, English politician
- 1971 – Paul Bettany, English actor
- 1971 – Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes, American singer (d. 2002)
- 1971 - Sophie Walker, Scottish politician
- 1971 - Lee Sharpe, English footballer
- 1971 - Beatrix von Storch, German politician of the Alternative for Germany Party
- 1974 – Derek Webb, singer-songwriter, former member of Caedmon's Call
- 1974 – Danny Wuerffel, American football quarterback, Heisman Trophy winner
- 1975 – Jamie Oliver, British celebrity chef and TV personality (The Naked Chef)
- 1975 – Michael Hussey, Australian cricketer
- 1975 - André 3000, American rapper, producer and actor
From 1976
- 1976 – Jiri Stajner, Czech footballer
- 1977 – Mahela Jayawardene, Sri Lankan cricketer
- 1979 – Mile Sterjovski, Australian footballer
- 1981 – Johan Elmander, Swedish footballer
- 1981 – Miloy, Angolan footballer
- 1981 – Fivos Constantinou, Cypriot runner
- 1983 – Bobby Convey, American soccer player
- 1984 - Kalle Spjuth, Swedish bandy player
- 1985 – Roberto Soldado, Spanish footballer
- 1987 – Gervinho, Ivorian footballer
- 1988 - Birkir Bjarnason, Icelandic footballer
- 1988 - Mari Pokinen, Estonian actress and singer
- 1989 - Igor Morozov, Estonian footballer
- 1990 - Nadine Beiler, Austrian singer
- 1990 – Chris Colfer, American actor
- 1990 - Apinya Sakuljaroensuk, Thai actress
- 1990 - Jonas Hector, German footballer
- 1994 - Aymeric Laporte, French footballer
- 1999 - Lily-Rose Depp, French-American actress
- 1999 - Harambe, American-bred Western lowland gorilla (d. 2016)
Up to 1950
- 366 – Procopius, Roman usurper (b. 326)
- 866 – Ordoño I, king of Asturias
- 927 – Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria
- 1508 – Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan (b. 1452)
- 1525 - Thomas Müntzer, German theologian and religious reformer (b. 1489)
- 1541 – Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury, daughter of George, Duke of Clarence (executed) (b. 1374)
- 1564 – John Calvin, religious reformer (b. 1509)
- 1610 – Ravaillac, assassin who killed Henry IV of France (b. 1578)
- 1661 – Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll, Scottish Covenanter, was beheaded
- 1707 – Marquise de Montespan, mistress of Louis XIV of France (b. 1641)
- 1797 – François-Noël Babeuf, French revolutionary and early socialist (b. 1760)
- 1831 – Jedediah Smith, American explorer (b. 1799)
- 1840 – Niccolò Paganini, Italian violinist and composer (b. 1782)
- 1885 - Charles Rogier, Belgian politician and journalist (b. 1800)
- 1896 - Aleksandr Stoletov, Russian physicist (b. 1839)
- 1910 – Robert Koch, German doctor, won the 1905 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1843)
- 1918 - Ozutsu Man'emon, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1869)
- 1926 – Srečko Kosovel, Slovenian poet
- 1936 - H. P. Hanssen, Danish politician (b. 1862)
- 1939 - Joseph Roth, Austrian writer (b. 1894)
- 1941 - Ernst Lindemann, German captain (b. 1894)
- 1941 - Günther Lütjens, German admiral (b. 1889)
- 1943 - Gordon Coates, 21st Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1878)
1951 – 2000
- 1960 – James Montgomery Flagg, illustrator (b. 1877)
- 1962 - Egon Petri, German pianist (b. 1881)
- 1963 - Grigoris Lambrakis, Greek physician and politician (b. 1912)
- 1964 – Jawaharlal Nehru, 1st Prime Minister of India (b. 1889)
- 1967 - W. Otto Miessner, American composer and educator (b. 1880)
- 1971 - Armando Picchi, Italian footballer and coach (b. 1935)
- 1985 – Kai Lindberg, Danish politician (b. 1899)
- 1986 – Isma'il Raji' al-Faruqi, Palestinian-American Muslim thinker, philosopher, and comparative religion scholar (b. 1921)
- 1986 - Ajoy Mukherjee, Indian politician, Chief Minister of West Bengal (b. 1901)
- 1987 – John Howard Northrop, American chemist, Nobel Prize winner (b. 1891)
- 1988 - Ernst Ruska, German physicist (b. 1906)
- 1989 - Arseny Tarkovsky, Russian poet (b. 1907)
- 1990 - Robert B. Meyner, 40th Governor of New Jersey (b. 1908)
- 1991 – Leopold Nowak, musicologist (b. 1904)
- 1993 – Werner Stocker, German actor (b. 1955)
- 2000 – Crawford Murray MacLehose of Beoch, British Governor of Hong Kong (b. 1917)
- 2000 – Maurice Richard, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1921)
From 2001
- 2003 – Luciano Berio, Italian composer (b. 1925)
- 2004 – Umberto Agnelli, Italian entrepreneur (b. 1934)
- 2007 – Zard, Japanese singer (b. 1967)
- 2007 - Ed Yost, American inventor (b. 1919)
- 2008 – Franz Künstler, last-surviving Austro-Hungarian World War I veteran (b. 1900)
- 2009 – Clive Granger, British economist (b. 1934)
- 2010 – John William Finn, American naval officer (b. 1909)
- 2011 – Margo Dydek, Polish basketball player (b. 1974)
- 2011 – Jeff Conaway, American actor (b. 1950)
- 2011 – Gil Scott-Heron, American rapper and poet (b. 1949)
- 2012 - Friedrich Hirzebruch, German mathematician (b. 1927)
- 2012 - Johnny Tapia, American boxer (b. 1967)
- 2013 - Bill Pertwee, British actor (b. 1926)
- 2014 - Helma Sanders-Brahms, German movie director, screenwriter, producer and actress (b. 1940)
- 2014 - Miodrag Radulovacki, Serbian medical research scientist (b. 1933)
- 2014 - Massimo Vignelli, Italian graphic designer (b. 1931)
- 2015 - Erik Carlsson, Swedish rally driver (b. 1929)
- 2015 - Nils Christie, Norwegian sociologist and criminologist (b. 1928)
- 2016 - Kai G. Henriksen, Norwegian businessman (b. 1956)
- 2016 - Marshall Jones, American musician (b. 1941)
- 2017 - Gregg Allman, American musician (b. 1947)
- 2017 - Don Robinson, English rugby league player (b. 1932)
- 2018 - Gardner Dozois, American science fiction writer (b. 1947)
- 2018 - Aly Lotfy Mahmoud, Egyptian economist and politician, Prime minister of Egypt (b. 1935)
- 2018 - Donald H. Peterson, American astronaut (b. 1933)
- 2018 - John DiFronzo, American mobster (b. 1928)
- 2019 - Bill Buckner, American baseball player (b. 1949)
- 2019 - Veeru Devgan, Indian choreographer, actor and director (b. 1934)
- 2019 - Gabriel Diniz, Brazilian singer and composer (b. 1990)
- 2019 - Tony Horwitz, American journalist and author (b. 1958)
- 2019 - Aharon Razin, Israeli biochemist (b. 1935)
- 2020 - Tony Scannell, Irish actor (b. 1945)
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