On This Day in History – October 27

Major Events

• 312 – Constantine the Great won the Battle of the Milvian Bridge.
• 1275 – Amsterdam was officially founded.
• 1682 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was founded.
• 1904 – The first underground New York City Subway line opened.
• 1958 – Pakistan became a republic.
• 1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis: A U-2 spy plane was shot down over Cuba.
• 1991 – Turkmenistan declared independence from the Soviet Union.

Famous Birthdays

• Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) – 26th U.S. President.
• Dylan Thomas (1914–1953) – Welsh poet.
• Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) – American poet and novelist.
• John Cleese (born 1939) – English comedian, Monty Python.
• Fran Lebowitz (born 1950) – American author.
• Simon Le Bon (born 1958) – English singer, Duran Duran.

Notable Deaths

• Lise Meitner (1878–1968) – Austrian-Swedish physicist.
• Morey Amsterdam (1908–1996) – American actor.
• Lou Reed (1942–2013) – American rock musician.

Holidays

• Independence Day (Turkmenistan)
• Navy Day (United States, informal)

Fun Facts

• Roosevelt was the youngest U.S. president at age 42.
• Amsterdam’s origins go back to a dam on the Amstel River.
• NYC’s subway is one of the largest transit systems in the world.