What Happened in 1927 — Events, Births & Deaths

The first transatlantic commercial telephone service is established from New York City to London.

A fire at the Laurier Palace movie theatre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, kills 78 children.

Fritz Lang's futuristic film Metropolis is released in Germany.

Louis B. Mayer, head of film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), announces the creation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, at a banquet in Los Angeles, California.

Teddy Wakelam gives the first live radio commentary of a football match, between Arsenal F.C. and Sheffield United at Highbury.

Ibn Saud takes the title of King of Nejd.

A revolt against the military dictatorship of Portugal breaks out at Porto.

In New York City, Samuel Roxy Rothafel opens the Roxy Theatre.

The first Women's Boat Race between the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge takes place on The Isis in Oxford.

Nanking Incident: Foreign warships bombard Nanjing, China, in defence of the foreign citizens within the city.

Sunbeam 1000hp breaks the land speed record at Daytona Beach, Florida.

Shanghai massacre of 1927: Chiang Kai-shek orders the Chinese Communist Party members executed in Shanghai, ending the First United Front.

Rocksprings, Texas is hit by an F5 tornado that destroys 235 of the 247 buildings in the town, kills 72 townspeople, and injures 205; third deadliest tornado in Texas history.

Mae West is sentenced to ten days in jail for obscenity for her play Sex.

Cardiff City defeat Arsenal in the FA Cup Final, the only time it has been won by a team not based in England.

Carabineros de Chile (Chilean national police force and gendarmerie) are created.

The Federal Industrial Institute for Women opens in Alderson, West Virginia, as the first women's federal prison in the United States.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is incorporated.

Attempting to make the first non-stop transatlantic flight from Paris to New York, French war heroes Charles Nungesser and François Coli disappear after taking off aboard The White Bird biplane.

The Old Parliament House, Canberra, Australia, officially opens.

The Bath School disaster: Forty-five people, including many children, are killed by bombs planted by a disgruntled school-board member in Bath Township, Michigan.

After being founded for 20 years, the Nationalist government approves Tongji University to be among its first national universities.

Treaty of Jeddah: The United Kingdom recognizes the sovereignty of King Ibn Saud in the Kingdoms of Hejaz and Nejd, which later merge to become the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Charles Lindbergh takes off for Paris from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, N.Y., aboard the Spirit of St. Louis on the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, landing 33+1⁄2 hours later.

Charles Lindbergh touches down at Le Bourget Field in Paris, completing the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

The last Ford Model T rolls off the assembly line after a production run of 15,007,003 vehicles.

The Ford Motor Company ceases manufacture of the Ford Model T and begins to retool plants to make the Ford Model A.

Aviator Charles Lindbergh receives a ticker tape parade up 5th Avenue in New York City.

Prime Minister of Japan Tanaka Giichi convenes an eleven-day conference to discuss Japan's strategy in China. The Tanaka Memorial, a forged plan for world domination, is later claimed to be a secret report leaked from this conference.

The Bird of Paradise, a U.S. Army Air Corps Fokker tri-motor, completes the first transpacific flight, from the mainland United States to Hawaii.

First flight of the Lockheed Vega.

Massacre of July 15, 1927: Eighty-nine protesters are killed by Austrian police in Vienna.

Augusto César Sandino leads a raid on U.S. Marines and Nicaraguan Guardia Nacional that had been sent to apprehend him in the village of Ocotal, but is repulsed by one of the first dive-bombing attacks in history.

The first station of the Indian Broadcasting Company goes on the air in Bombay.

The Menin Gate war memorial is unveiled at Ypres.

The Nanchang Uprising marks the first significant battle in the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang and Chinese Communist Party. This day is commemorated as the anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army.

The Peace Bridge opens between Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, New York.

The Dole Air Race begins from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii, during which six out of the eight participating planes crash or disappear.

Patriarch Sergius of Moscow proclaims the declaration of loyalty of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Soviet Union.

Italian anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti are executed after a lengthy, controversial trial.

Five Canadian women file a petition to the Supreme Court of Canada, asking: "Does the word 'Persons' in Section 24 of the British North America Act, 1867, include female persons?"

The first fully electronic television system is achieved by Philo Farnsworth.

The Columbia Broadcasting System goes on the air.

Gutzon Borglum begins sculpting Mount Rushmore.

Opening of The Jazz Singer, the first prominent "talkie" movie.

The Imatra Cinema is destroyed in a fire in Tampere, Finland, during showing the 1924 film Wages of Virtue; 21 people die in the fire and almost 30 are injured.

The Italian luxury liner SS Principessa Mafalda sinks off the coast of Brazil, killing 314.

The Holland Tunnel opens to traffic as the first Hudson River vehicle tunnel linking New Jersey to New York City.

Following 19 years of Ford Model T production, the Ford Motor Company unveils the Ford Model A as its new automobile.

Guangzhou Uprising: Communist Red Guards launch an uprising in Guangzhou, China, taking over most of the city and announcing the formation of a Guangzhou Soviet.

Indian revolutionary Rajendra Lahiri is hanged in Gonda jail, Uttar Pradesh, India, two days before the scheduled date.

Three Indian revolutionaries, Ram Prasad Bismil, Roshan Singh and Ashfaqulla Khan, are executed by the British Raj for participation in the Kakori conspiracy.

B. R. Ambedkar and his followers burn copies of the Manusmriti in Mahad, Maharashtra, to protest its treatment of Dalit people.

Kern and Hammerstein's musical play Show Boat, considered to be the first true American musical play, opens at the Ziegfeld Theatre on Broadway.

The Ginza Line, the first subway line in Asia, opens in Tokyo, Japan.