October 27 in history — What Happened Today in History

The British government suddenly deregulates financial markets, leading to a total restructuring of the way in which they operate in the country, in an event now referred to as the Big Bang.

Cold War: The Soviet submarine S-363 runs aground on the east coast of Sweden.

The Chun Doo-hwan government forcibly arrests and investigates monks and personnel of the Jogye Order.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gains its independence from the United Kingdom.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is renamed Zaire.

Ronald Reagan delivers a speech on behalf of the Republican candidate for president, Barry Goldwater. The speech launches his political career and comes to be known as "A Time for Choosing".

Major Rudolf Anderson of the United States Air Force becomes the only direct human casualty of the Cuban Missile Crisis when his U-2 reconnaissance airplane is shot down over Cuba by a Soviet-supplied surface-to-air missile.

By refusing to agree to the firing of a nuclear torpedo at a US warship, Vasily Arkhipov averts nuclear war.

NASA tests the first Saturn I rocket in Mission Saturn-Apollo 1.

Iskander Mirza, the first President of Pakistan, is deposed by General Ayub Khan, who had been appointed the enforcer of martial law by Mirza 20 days earlier.

Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. becomes the first African-American general in the United States Air Force.

A deadly smog event begins in Donora, Pennsylvania, eventually killing 20 and sickening thousands.

World War II: German forces capture Banská Bystrica during Slovak National Uprising thus bringing it to an end.

Abdication Crisis: Mrs. Wallis Simpson obtains her divorce, which would eventually allow her to marry King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, thus forcing his abdication from the throne.

Ratifications are exchanged in London for the first London Naval Treaty go into effect immediately, further limiting the expensive naval arms race among its five signatories.

The Uzbek SSR is founded in the Soviet Union.

A referendum in Rhodesia rejects the country's annexation to the South African Union.

The Fourth Regional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents is held by the Makhnovshchina at Oleksandrivsk.

Negus Mikael, marching on the Ethiopian capital in support of his son Emperor Iyasu V, is defeated by Fitawrari Habte Giyorgis, securing the throne for Empress Zewditu I.

World War I: The new British battleship HMS Audacious is sunk by a minefield laid by the armed German merchant-cruiser Berlin.

A rail workers' strike in Chile escalates into a general strike, organized by the Regional Workers' Federation of Chile.

Fifteen people are killed in Hungary when gendarmes opened fire on a crowd gathered at a church consecration.

Franco-Prussian War: Marshal Bazaine surrenders to Prussian forces at the conclusion of the Siege of Metz along with 140,000 French soldiers.

American Civil War: Union General Benjamin Butler launches an attack during the Siege of Petersburg with the Battle of Fair Oaks & Darbytown Road, but is repulsed by the next day.

American Civil War: Union forces led by General William F. Smith defeat Confederate forces in the Battle of Brown's Ferry, opening up a supply line to the besieged city of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs issues the Extermination Order, which orders all Mormons to leave the state or be killed.

United States annexes the former Spanish colony of West Florida.

The French Army under Napoleon enters Berlin following the Prussian defeat at the Battle of Jena–Auerstedt.

Daniel Sams, Australian cricketer

Shohei Takahashi, Japanese footballer

Alex Bentley, American-Belarusian basketball player

Dimitrios Gkourtsas, Greek footballer

Oktovianus Maniani, Indonesian footballer

Mark Barron, American football player

Brady Ellison, American archer

Viktor Genev, Bulgarian footballer

Illimar Pärn, Estonian ski jumper

Evan Turner, American basketball player

Thelma Aoyama, Japanese singer

Björn Barrefors, Swedish decathlete and heptathlete

Andrew Bynum, American basketball player

Noel Davern, Irish lawyer and politician, Minister for Education and Skills (born 1945)

Leonard Herzenberg, American immunologist, geneticist, and academic (born 1931)

Luigi Magni, Italian director and screenwriter (born 1928)

Lou Reed, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor (born 1942)

Michael Wilkes, English general and politician, Lieutenant Governor of Jersey (born 1940)

Vinko Coce, Croatian opera and pop singer (born 1954)

Terry Callier, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1945)

Angelo Maria Cicolani, Italian engineer and politician (born 1952)

Regina Dourado, Brazilian actress (born 1952)

Hans Werner Henze, German composer and educator (born 1926)

Rodney S. Quinn, American colonel, pilot, and politician, 44th Secretary of State of Maine (born 1923)

Göran Stangertz, Swedish actor and director (born 1944)

James Hillman, American psychologist and author (born 1926)