This Day in History – February 27
Today is the 58th day of 2013. There are 307 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight
2010: One of the largest earthquakes ever recorded tears apart houses, bridges and highways in central Chile and sends a tsunami racing halfway around the world. Chileans near the epicentre get tossed about as if shaken by a giant, and authorities say at least 214 people died.
Other Events
1889: Burma — now Myanmar — opens railroad from Rangoon to Mandalay.
1922: The US Supreme Court unanimously upholds the 19th Amendment to the Constitution that guaranteed the right of women to vote.
1933: Germany’s parliament building, the Reichstag, catches fire. The Nazis, blaming the Communists, use the fire as a pretext for suspending civil liberties.
1968: Britain’s House of Commons approves bill to restrict immigration to Britain.
1973: Members of the American Indian Movement occupy Wounded Knee, South Dakota, the site of the 1890 massacre of Sioux men, women and children. The occupation lasts until May.
1974: Ethiopia’s cabinet resigns as military mutiny spreads from captured city of Asmara.
1995: Baring Brothers and Co, one of Britain’s oldest and most prestigious investment banks, goes broke when a trader loses more than US$800 million gambling in Asian futures markets.
1996: The UN suspends sanctions against the Bosnian Serbs after NATO verifies that Serb forces have withdrawn from buffer zones.
1998: US Vice President Al Gore announces that the US is lifting a 35-year-old arms embargo against South Africa.
1999: Nigeria elects Gen Olusegun Obasanjo in the first presidential elections after 15 years of military rule, but the results are disputed.
2000: After a stormy debate and vociferous opposition from legislators, Egypt’s parliament endorses President Hosni Mubarak’s decision to extend the country’s 19-year-old state of emergency for three more years.
2003: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva deploys 3,000 troops to Rio de Janeiro to back up the 30,000 state and local police officers during the city’s six-day Carnival celebration. It is the first time troops are sent to guard the city during Carnival.
2005: Iran and Russia ignore US objections and sign a nuclear fuel agreement that is key to bringing Tehran’s first reactor online by mid-2006.
2008: Masked thieves drill a tunnel into the Damiani showroom in Milan, Italy, making off with gold, diamonds and rubies worth an estimated $20 million. Nine men are arrested in December in connection with the robbery.
2009: President Hugo Chavez ratchets up rhetoric against US after the State Department releases report on drug trafficking and human rights problems in Venezuela.
Today’s Birthdays
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, US poet (1807-1882); John Steinbeck, US writer (1902-1968); Joanne Woodward, US actress
(1930-); Elizabeth Taylor, US actress (1932-2011); Ralph Nader, US consumer activist (1934-); Josh Groban, US singer (1981-).
—AP
