History of Today 27 August: Important Events, Births and Deaths

Welcome to History of Today 27 August. On this page, you can read important historical events, famous births, notable deaths and general knowledge facts related to 27 August. This information is useful for UPSC, SSC, Banking, Railway, State PSC and other competitive exams.

Last updated on 27 August 2026, 01:06 AM

Important Events on 27 August in History

• 27 Aug 2011: Hurricane Irene strikes the United States east coast, killing 47 and causing an estimated $15.6 billion in damage. Read more
• 27 Aug 2009: Internal conflict in Myanmar: The Burmese military junta and ethnic armies begin three days of violent clashes in the Kokang Special Region. Read more
• 27 Aug 2006: Comair Flight 5191 crashes on takeoff from Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Kentucky, bound for Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta. Of the passengers and crew, 49 of 50 are confirmed dead in the hours following the crash. Read more
• 27 Aug 2003: Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, passing 34,646,418 miles (55,758,005 km) distant. Read more
• 27 Aug 2003: The first six-party talks, involving South and North Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, convene to find a peaceful resolution to the security concerns of the North Korean nuclear weapons program. Read more
• 27 Aug 1992: Aeroflot Flight 2808 crashes on approach to Ivanovo Yuzhny Airport, killing all 84 aboard. Read more
• 27 Aug 1991: The European Community recognizes the independence of the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Read more
• 27 Aug 1991: Moldova declares independence from the USSR. Read more
• 27 Aug 1985: Major General Muhammadu Buhari, Chairman of the Supreme Military Council of Nigeria, is ousted from power in a coup d'état led by Major General Ibrahim Babangida. Read more
• 27 Aug 1985: Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-51-I to deploy three communication satellites and repair a fourth malfunctioning one. Read more
• 27 Aug 1982: Turkish military diplomat Colonel Atilla Altıkat is shot and killed in Ottawa. Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide claim to be avenging the massacre of 1+1⁄2 million Armenians in the 1915 Armenian genocide. Read more
• 27 Aug 1980: South Korean presidential election: After successfully staging the Coup d'état of May Seventeenth, General Chun Doo-hwan, running unopposed, has the National Conference for Unification elect him President of the Fourth Republic of Korea. Read more
• 27 Aug 1979: The Troubles: Eighteen British soldiers are killed at the Warrenpoint ambush by the Provisional Irish Republican Army near Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland, in the deadliest attack on British forces during Operation Banner. An IRA bomb also kills British royal family member Lord Mountbatten and three others on his boat at Mullaghmore, Republic of Ireland. Read more
• 27 Aug 1975: The Governor of Portuguese Timor abandons its capital, Dili, and flees to Atauro Island, leaving control to a rebel group. Read more
• 27 Aug 1971: An attempted coup d'état fails in the African nation of Chad. The Government of Chad accuses Egypt of playing a role in the attempt and breaks off diplomatic relations. Read more
• 27 Aug 1964: South Vietnamese junta leader Nguyễn Khánh enters into a triumvirate power-sharing arrangement with rival generals Trần Thiện Khiêm and Dương Văn Minh, who had both been involved in plots to unseat Khánh. Read more
• 27 Aug 1963: An explosion at the Cane Creek potash mine near Moab, Utah kills 18 miners. Read more
• 27 Aug 1962: The Mariner 2 unmanned space mission is launched to Venus by NASA. Read more
• 27 Aug 1956: The nuclear power station at Calder Hall in the United Kingdom was connected to the national power grid becoming the world's first commercial nuclear power station to generate electricity on an industrial scale. Read more
• 27 Aug 1955: The first edition of the Guinness Book of Records is published in Great Britain. Read more
• 27 Aug 1943: World War II: Japanese forces evacuate New Georgia Island in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II. Read more
• 27 Aug 1943: World War II: Aerial bombardment by the Luftwaffe razes to the ground the village of Vorizia in Crete. Read more
• 27 Aug 1942: First day of the Sarny Massacre, perpetrated by Germans and Ukrainians. Read more
• 27 Aug 1939: First flight of the turbojet-powered Heinkel He 178, the world's first jet aircraft. Read more
• 27 Aug 1933: The first Afrikaans Bible is introduced during a Bible Festival in Bloemfontein. Read more
• 27 Aug 1928: The Kellogg–Briand Pact outlawing war is signed by fifteen nations. Ultimately sixty-one nations will sign it. Read more
• 27 Aug 1927: 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?" Read more
• 27 Aug 1922: Greco-Turkish War: The Turkish army takes the Aegean city of Afyonkarahisar from the Kingdom of Greece. Read more
• 27 Aug 1918: Mexican Revolution: Battle of Ambos Nogales: U.S. Army forces skirmish against Mexican Carrancistas as part of the Mexican Border War. Read more
• 27 Aug 1916: World War I: The Kingdom of Romania declares war on Austria-Hungary, entering the war as one of the Allied nations. Read more
• 27 Aug 1915: Attempted assassination of Bishop Patrick Heffron, bishop of the Diocese of Winona, by Rev. Louis M. Lesches. Read more
• 27 Aug 1914: World War I: Battle of Étreux: A British rearguard action by the Royal Munster Fusiliers during the Great Retreat. Read more
• 27 Aug 1914: World War I: Siege of Tsingtao: A Japanese fleet commanded by Vice Admiral Sadakichi Kato imposes a blockade along the whole coastline of German Tsingtao, initiating the Siege of Tsingtao. Read more
• 27 Aug 1908: The Qing dynasty promulgates the Qinding Xianfa Dagang, the first constitutional document in the history of China, transforming the Qing empire into a constitutional monarchy. Read more
• 27 Aug 1896: Anglo-Zanzibar War: The shortest war in world history (09:02 to 09:40), between the United Kingdom and Zanzibar. Read more
• 27 Aug 1895: Japanese invasion of Taiwan: Battle of Baguashan: The Empire of Japan decisively defeats a smaller Formosan army at Changhua, crippling the short-lived Republic of Formosa and leading to its surrender two months later. Read more
• 27 Aug 1893: The Sea Islands hurricane strikes the United States near Savannah, Georgia, killing between 1,000 and 2,000 people. Read more
• 27 Aug 1883: Eruption of Krakatoa: Four enormous explosions almost completely destroy the island of Krakatoa and cause years of climate change. Read more
• 27 Aug 1881: The Georgia hurricane makes landfall near Savannah, Georgia, resulting in an estimated 700 deaths. Read more
• 27 Aug 1859: Petroleum is discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania, leading to the world's first commercially successful oil well. Read more
• 27 Aug 1832: Black Hawk, leader of the Sauk tribe of Native Americans, surrenders to U.S. authorities, ending the Black Hawk War. Read more
• 27 Aug 1828: Brazil and Argentina recognize the sovereignty of Uruguay in the Treaty of Montevideo. Read more
• 27 Aug 1813: French Emperor Napoleon I defeats a larger force of Austrians, Russians, and Prussians at the Battle of Dresden. Read more
• 27 Aug 1810: Napoleonic Wars: The French Navy defeats the British Royal Navy, preventing them from taking the harbour of Grand Port on Île de France. Read more

Famous Births on 27 August

• 27 Aug 2007: Ariana Greenblatt, American actress Ariana Greenblatt is an American actress. Her first starring role was in the Disney Channel comedy series Stuck in the Middle (2016–2018). Other early roles included the comedy film A Bad Moms Christmas (2017), the Marvel film Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and the musical film In the Heights (2021). She rose to greater prominence with the science-fiction film 65, the comedy film Barbie, and the space opera television series Ahsoka, which were all released in 2023. For her role in Barbie, she received nominations at the Critics' Choice and Screen Actors Guild Awards. Read more
• 27 Aug 2006: Kang Ju-hyeok, South Korean footballer Kang Ju-hyeok is a South Korean professional footballer who plays as a forward for K League 1 club FC Seoul. He made his debut professional appearance in the 2024 K League 1 season. Read more
• 27 Aug 2001: Franz Wagner, German basketball player Franz Jacob Wagner is a German professional basketball player for the Orlando Magic of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Michigan Wolverines. Read more
• 27 Aug 1998: Kevin Huerter, American basketball player Kevin Joseph Huerter, nicknamed "Red Velvet", is an American professional basketball player for the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Maryland Terrapins and was selected by the Atlanta Hawks with the 19th overall pick in the 2018 NBA draft. Read more
• 27 Aug 1998: Matheus Nunes, Portuguese footballer Matheus Luiz Nunes is a professional footballer who plays as a right-back or midfielder for Premier League club Manchester City and the Portugal national team. Initially a midfielder, he switched to right-back in the 2024–25 season. Read more
• 27 Aug 1998: Rod Wave, American rapper, singer, and songwriter Rodarius Marcell Green, known professionally as Rod Wave, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. Signed to Alamo Records, Green is known for his strong voice and incorporation of hip hop and R&B, having been recognized as a pioneer of "trap-soul." Green rose to prominence with his 2019 single "Heart on Ice," which first went viral on TikTok before peaking at number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song preceded his debut studio album, Ghetto Gospel (2019), which peaked at number ten on the US Billboard 200. His second album, Pray 4 Love (2020), peaked at number two on the chart and included the song "Rags2Riches", which peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. Read more
• 27 Aug 1998: Brandon Hagel, Canadian ice hockey player Brandon Hagel is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a left winger for the Tampa Bay Lightning of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected 159th overall by the Buffalo Sabres in the 2016 NHL entry draft, but did not sign with the team. Hagel made his NHL debut with the Chicago Blackhawks in March 2020, following a junior career with the Red Deer Rebels of the Western Hockey League (WHL), where he set a franchise record for most assists. He has since played in the NHL and has represented Canada internationally, winning gold medals at both the 2021 World Championship and the 4 Nations Face-Off in 2025. Read more
• 27 Aug 1997: Lucas Paquetá, Brazilian footballer Lucas Tolentino Coelho de Lima, better known as Lucas Paquetá, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Campeonato Brasileiro Série A club Flamengo and the Brazil national team. Read more
• 27 Aug 1995: Jessie Mei Li, English actress Jessica Mei Li is an English actress. On television, she gained prominence through her role as Alina Starkov in the Netflix fantasy series Shadow and Bone (2021–2023). She has since starred in the Hulu series The Season (2026). Her films include Havoc (2025). Read more
• 27 Aug 1995: Sergey Sirotkin, Russian race car driver Sergey Olegovich Sirotkin is a Russian racing driver, who most recently competed in the 2025 Middle East Trophy for SMP Racing. Sirotkin competed in Formula One in 2018. Read more
• 27 Aug 1994: Ellar Coltrane, American actor Ellar Coltrane Kinney Salmon is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Mason Evans Jr. in Richard Linklater's film Boyhood, for which he won the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Young Performer. Read more
• 27 Aug 1994: Breanna Stewart, American basketball player Breanna Mackenzie Stewart, nicknamed "Stewie", is an American professional basketball player for the New York Liberty of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and for the Mist of Unrivaled. She is one of the most accomplished basketball players in history. Stewart is a founder of the Unrivaled basketball league together with Napheesa Collier. Read more
• 27 Aug 1993: Sarah Hecken, German figure skater Sarah Stefanie Hecken is a German retired figure skater. She is a four-time German national champion and has won twelve senior international medals, including six gold. She has placed as high as 11th at the World Championships. Her first international victory was at the 2007 Junior Grand Prix event in Germany. Read more
• 27 Aug 1993: Olivier Le Gac, French cyclist Olivier Le Gac is a French cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Groupama–FDJ United. He was named in the start list for the 2015 Vuelta a España and the 2016 Giro d'Italia. In June 2017, he was named in the startlist for the 2017 Tour de France. Read more
• 27 Aug 1992: Blake Jenner, American actor and singer Blake Alexander Jenner is an American actor. Jenner won the second season of Oxygen's The Glee Project and, as a result, portrayed Ryder Lynn on the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. He has since had starring and supporting roles in Everybody Wants Some!! (2016), The Edge of Seventeen (2016), American Animals (2018), and What/If (2019). Read more
• 27 Aug 1992: Stephen Morris, American football player Stephen Morris is an American former football quarterback. He played college football at the University of Miami, and signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars as an undrafted free agent in 2014. Morris was also a member of the Philadelphia Eagles, Indianapolis Colts, Washington Redskins, Seattle Seahawks, Houston Texans, and Orlando Apollos. Read more
• 27 Aug 1992: Kim Petras, German singer-songwriter Kim Petras is a German singer and songwriter based in Los Angeles. After receiving international media attention for transitioning as a teenager, she released her debut EP, One Piece of Tape (2011), and wrote tracks for Fergie, JoJo, Skylar Simone, and Twice. In 2017, Petras released her debut single "I Don't Want It at All", which charted at No. 54 on Billboard's Dance Club Songs chart. She followed this with her second EP, Turn Off the Light, Vol. 1 (2018), the mixtapes Clarity and Turn Off the Light, and the single "How It's Done" (2019); the last of these featured on the soundtrack of Charlie's Angels. A further track with Kygo, "Broken Glass" (2020), charted at No. 13 on Billboard's Dance/Electronic Songs chart. Read more
• 27 Aug 1992: Ayame Goriki, Japanese actress and singer Ayame Goriki is a Japanese actress, singer and model. She was represented by the talent agency Oscar Promotion until 2020. Currently she was represented by the talent agency Short Cut. Read more
• 27 Aug 1991: Lee Sung-yeol, South Korean actor and singer Lee Sung-yeol, known mononymously as Sungyeol, is a South Korean singer and actor. He is a member of the South Korean boy band Infinite and its sub-group Infinite F. Read more
• 27 Aug 1990: Tori Bowie, American athlete (died 2023) Frentorish "Tori" Bowie was an American track and field athlete, who primarily competed in the long jump, 100 meters, and 200 meters. She won the silver medal in the 100 m and bronze in the 200 m at the 2016 Rio Olympics, bronze and gold in the 100 m at the 2015 and 2017 World Championships, respectively, and also earned gold medals as part of U.S. women's 4 × 100 m relays at both the 2016 Olympic Games and 2017 World Championships. Read more
• 27 Aug 1990: Luuk de Jong, Dutch footballer Luuk de Jong is a professional footballer who plays as a striker. Born in Switzerland, he played for the Netherlands national team. Read more
• 27 Aug 1989: Romain Amalfitano, French footballer Romain Grégoire Clément Amalfitano is a French professional footballer who last played as an attacking midfielder for Western Sydney Wanderers. He previously played for Reims, Châteauroux, Evian, Newcastle United, Dijon FCO and Al-Faisaly. Read more
• 27 Aug 1989: Juliana Cannarozzo, American figure skater and actress Juliana Cannarozzo is an American former competitive figure skater and actress. She won two gold medals on the ISU Junior Grand Prix series. Read more
• 27 Aug 1988: Alexa PenaVega, American actress and singer Alexa Ellesse PenaVega is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Carmen Cortez in the first four Spy Kids films and Julie Corky in the 2004 film Sleepover. In 2009, she starred as the title character Ruby Gallagher in the ABC Family series Ruby & the Rockits. Read more
• 27 Aug 1987: Darren McFadden, American football player Darren Deon McFadden is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for 10 seasons. He played college football for the Arkansas Razorbacks and was selected by the Oakland Raiders in the first round with the fourth overall pick of the 2008 NFL draft. McFadden also played three seasons for the Dallas Cowboys. Read more
• 27 Aug 1986: Lana Bastašić, Serbian-Bosnian author and translator Lana Bastašić is a Bosnian writer, novelist and translator. Read more
• 27 Aug 1986: Sebastian Kurz, Austrian politician, 25th Chancellor of Austria Sebastian Kurz is an Austrian former politician who served twice as Chancellor of Austria, first from 2017 to 2019 and then again from 2020 to 2021. Read more
• 27 Aug 1986: Mario, American singer and actor Mario Dewar Barrett, known mononymously as Mario, is an American R&B singer, songwriter and dancer. Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, he signed a record deal with J Records—at the age of 14—to release his self-titled debut studio album (2002). Its lead single, "Just a Friend 2002", peaked within the Billboard Hot 100's top five, while the album peaked at number nine on the Billboard 200. His second album, Turning Point (2004), was supported by the Billboard Hot 100-number one single "Let Me Love You," which was nominated for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards, won two Billboard Music Awards, and yielded his furthest commercial success. Read more
• 27 Aug 1985: Kayla Ewell, American actress Kayla Ewell is an American actress known for her roles on television as Caitlin Ramirez on CBS's long-running soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful, as Maureen Sampson on NBC's Freaks and Geeks, and as Vicki Donovan on The CW's The Vampire Diaries. Read more
• 27 Aug 1985: Kevan Hurst, English footballer Kevan James Hurst is an English former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Read more
• 27 Aug 1985: Nikica Jelavić, Croatian footballer Nikica Jelavić is a Croatian football manager and former professional player who played as a forward. He is the manager of Croatian Football League club Lokomotiva. Read more
• 27 Aug 1985: Alexandra Nechita, Romanian-American painter and sculptor Alexandra Nechita is a Romanian-American cubist painter and philanthropist. At age 12 she was dubbed the "Petite Picasso" by the media and the art community. She has been praised for her paintings and vision of art. Read more
• 27 Aug 1984: David Bentley, English footballer David Michael Bentley is an English former professional footballer who played primarily as a winger, but also played as a central midfielder or as a second striker. Read more
• 27 Aug 1984: Amanda Fuller, American actress Amanda Fuller is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for being the second actress to portray Kristin Baxter on the ABC/Fox sitcom Last Man Standing. Read more
• 27 Aug 1984: Sulley Muntari, Ghanaian footballer Suleyman Ali "Sulley" Muntari is a Ghanaian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He spent most of his career in Italy, playing for clubs such as Udinese, Inter Milan, and AC Milan. Read more
• 27 Aug 1983: Joanna McGilchrist, English rugby player and physiotherapist Joanna Gabrielle McGilchrist is an English rugby union player. She represented England at the 2010 Women's Rugby World Cup. She was also named in the squad to the 2014 Women's Rugby World Cup. Read more
• 27 Aug 1981: Patrick J. Adams, Canadian actor Patrick Johannes Adams is a Canadian-American actor. He is best known for his role as Mike Ross, a college dropout turned unlicensed lawyer, in the USA Network legal drama series Suits (2011–2019). His performance earned him a nomination in 2012 for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series. Read more
• 27 Aug 1981: Maxwell Cabelino Andrade, Brazilian footballer Maxwell Scherrer Cabelino Andrade, known as Maxwell, is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a left-back. He is currently employed by Paris Saint-Germain as assistant sporting director. Read more
• 27 Aug 1981: Chantal Djotodia, Beninese-Central African nurse and politician Chantal Vinadou Tohouégnon Djotodia is a Beninese-born nurse who became the First Lady of the Central African Republic from 2013 to 2014. Read more
• 27 Aug 1981: Alessandro Gamberini, Italian footballer Alessandro Gamberini is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a central defender. He is working as assistant coach for Virtus Verona. Read more
• 27 Aug 1981: Karla Mosley, American actress Karla Cheatham Mosley is an American actress and singer. She starred on the Emmy-nominated children's show Hi-5; she has starred in numerous plays and also had minor roles in several other TV shows and films. She regularly appeared as Christina Moore Boudreau in the soap opera Guiding Light and as Maya Avant in The Bold and the Beautiful. As of 2025, she stars as Dani Dupree on Beyond the Gates, receiving a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2026. Read more
• 27 Aug 1979: Sarah Neufeld, Canadian violinist Sarah Neufeld is a Canadian violinist who is known for her work with indie rock band Arcade Fire, with whom she is a former core member and currently a touring member. She has contributed to each of the band's studio albums to date. Neufeld is also a member of the instrumental band Bell Orchestre. Read more
• 27 Aug 1979: Aaron Paul, American actor and producer Aaron Paul is an American actor. He is best known for portraying Jesse Pinkman in the AMC series Breaking Bad (2008–2013) for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series thrice. He went on to reprise the role in the Netflix sequel film El Camino (2019) and during the final season of the spin-off series Better Call Saul (2022). Read more
• 27 Aug 1979: Karel Rachůnek, Czech ice hockey player (died 2011) Karel Rachůnek was a Czech professional ice hockey player. Rachůnek was the captain of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) when the team was decimated in the 2011 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash. He played eight seasons in North America in the National Hockey League (NHL). Rachůnek was drafted in the ninth round, 229th overall, by the Ottawa Senators in the 1997 NHL entry draft. Rachunek was the brother of Ivan Rachůnek and Tomáš Rachůnek who also played professional ice hockey. Read more
• 27 Aug 1979: Rusty Smith, American speed skater Rusty Smith is a short track speed skater from the United States who won bronze in the 500m at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and another bronze in the 5000m relay at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. Read more
• 27 Aug 1978: Demetria McKinney, American actress and singer Demetria Dyan McKinney is an American actress, model, and singer. From 2006 to 2012, during its original run, she starred in the TBS sitcom Tyler Perry's House of Payne, and a BET revival of the show was announced in 2020. Her other series regular roles include TV One sitcom The Rickey Smiley Show, Bounce TV prime time soap opera Saints & Sinners and Syfy horror drama Superstition, as well as Motherland: Fort Salem on Freeform. Read more
• 27 Aug 1977: Deco, Brazilian-Portuguese footballer Anderson Luís de Souza, also known as Deco, is a former professional footballer who primarily played as an attacking or central midfielder. Born and raised in Brazil, he played for the Portugal national team. He currently works as sporting director for Barcelona. Deco is widely considered one of the best midfielders of his generation. Read more
• 27 Aug 1977: Justin Miller, American baseball player (died 2013) Justin Mark Miller was an American professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Toronto Blue Jays, Florida Marlins, San Francisco Giants, and Los Angeles Dodgers. He also played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Chiba Lotte Marines. Miller was the inspiration for the "Justin Miller rule" requiring pitchers with arm tattoos to wear long-sleeved shirts. Read more
• 27 Aug 1976: Sarah Chalke, Canadian actress Sarah Louise Christine Chalke is a Canadian actress. She is known for her starring roles as the second Becky Conner in the ABC sitcom Roseanne (1993–1997), Elliot Reid in the NBC/ABC medical comedy series Scrubs, Beth Smith and Space Beth in the Adult Swim animated science fiction series Rick and Morty (2013–present), and Kate Mularkey in the Netflix drama series Firefly Lane (2021–2023). Read more
• 27 Aug 1976: Audrey C. Delsanti, French astronomer and biologist Audrey Delsanti is a French astronomer and a discoverer of minor planets at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile. Read more
• 27 Aug 1976: Milano Collection A.T., Japanese wrestler Akihito Sawafuji , born Akihito Terui , is a Japanese color commentator and retired professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Milano Collection A. T. . As Milano, Sawafuji adopted the gimmick of an Italian fashion aficionado/supermodel, reflected in his ring attire. Milano is also known for walking to the ring with an invisible dog known as Mikeru. After retiring from in-ring competition in 2010, Milano began working as a color commentator for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), a position he maintains to this day. Read more
• 27 Aug 1976: Carlos Moyá, Spanish-Swiss tennis player Carlos Moyá Llompart is a Spanish former professional tennis player and coach. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), achieved in 1999. Moyá won 20 ATP Tour-level singles titles, including a major at the 1998 French Open, and was part of the victorious Spanish Davis Cup team in 2004. He was also the runner-up at the 1997 Australian Open. After his playing career, Moyá served as Rafael Nadal's primary coach from 2016 to 2024. Read more
• 27 Aug 1976: Elena Reygadas, Mexican chef Elena Reygadas Castillo is a Mexican chef. She is the owner of the eateries Rosetta, Panadería Rosetta, Salón Rosetta, Bella Aurora and Lardo, all found in Mexico City. In 2023, she was named The World's Best Female Chef by The World's 50 Best Restaurants. Rosetta has been awarded one Michelin star and has been listed within The World's 50 Best Restaurants list. Read more
• 27 Aug 1976: Mark Webber, Australian race car driver Mark Alan Webber is an Australian former racing driver, broadcaster, and driver manager who competed in Formula One from 2002 to 2013. Webber won nine Formula One Grands Prix across twelve seasons. In endurance racing, Webber won the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2015 with Porsche. Read more
• 27 Aug 1975: Blake Adams, American golfer Blake Adams is an American professional golfer who has played on the PGA Tour. Read more
• 27 Aug 1975: Mase, American rapper, songwriter and pastor Mason Durell Betha, known professionally as Mase, is an American rapper. Best known for his work with Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs's Bad Boy Records, he signed with the label in 1996 and quickly found mainstream recognition as Combs's hype man. He guest appeared on Combs's 1997 single "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down", which peaked atop the Billboard Hot 100, while his first two singles as a lead artist, "Feel So Good" and "What You Want", both peaked in the chart's top ten. Released in October of that year, his debut studio album, Harlem World (1997), peaked atop the Billboard 200 chart, received quadruple platinum RIAA certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and spawned his third top-ten single as a lead artist, "Lookin' at Me". His guest performances on labelmate the Notorious B.I.G.'s single "Mo Money Mo Problems" and Combs's "Been Around the World" peaked at numbers one and two on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively, that same year. Read more
• 27 Aug 1975: Jonny Moseley, Puerto Rican-American skier and television host Jonathan William Moseley is an American freestyle skier and television presenter. He is the first person born in Puerto Rico to become a member of the U.S. Ski Team. He is also known for hosting three seasons of MTV's The Challenge, which was formerly known as Real World/Road Rules Challenge. He has also hosted four reunion specials for Battle of the Sexes, the sequel of Battle of the Seasons, Rivals II and Free Agents. Read more
• 27 Aug 1975: Marko Rudan, Australian footballer and manager Marko Ante "Mark" Rudan is an Australian association football manager and former player. Read more
• 27 Aug 1974: Aaron Downey, Canadian ice hockey player and coach Aaron Douglas Downey is a Canadian professional ice hockey coach and former player. Downey played 13 seasons of professional ice hockey and played 243 games in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Montreal Canadiens, Chicago Blackhawks, St. Louis Blues, Boston Bruins, Dallas Stars and Detroit Red Wings. He was not drafted by either an NHL team or a major junior team. Downey was mostly known for his role as an enforcer. Downey also played in the minor leagues for the Manitoba Moose, Portland Pirates, Providence Bruins, Norfolk Admirals, Hampton Roads Admirals and the Grand Rapids Griffins. Read more
• 27 Aug 1974: Manny Fernandez, Canadian ice hockey player Emmanuel L. Fernandez is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Dallas Stars, Minnesota Wild and the Boston Bruins. Fernandez was born in Etobicoke, Ontario, but grew up in Kirkland, Quebec. Read more
• 27 Aug 1974: Michael Mason, New Zealand cricketer Michael James Mason is a former New Zealand cricketer, born in Carterton. He played Test matches and One Day Internationals for New Zealand. Read more
• 27 Aug 1974: José Vidro, Puerto Rican-American baseball player José Angel Vidro is a Puerto Rican former professional baseball second baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals and Seattle Mariners. Read more
• 27 Aug 1974: Mohammad Yousuf, Pakistani cricketer Mohammad Yousuf PP SI is a Pakistani cricket coach and former cricketer and captain, who played all three formats. Prior to his conversion to Islam, Yousuf was one of the few Christians to play for the Pakistan national cricket team. Yousuf scored 1,788 runs in 2006 which is a world record for most runs scored in a year in tests at an average of almost 100. He was a part of the Pakistan squad which finished as runners-up at the 1999 Cricket World Cup. Read more
• 27 Aug 1973: Danny Coyne, Welsh footballer Daniel Coyne is a Welsh football coach and former professional player. Read more
• 27 Aug 1973: Dietmar Hamann, German footballer and manager Dietmar Johann Wolfgang Hamann is a German football pundit and former professional player. Read more
• 27 Aug 1973: Burak Kut, Turkish singer-songwriter Burak Kut is a Turkish pop singer and songwriter. Read more
• 27 Aug 1973: Johan Norberg, Swedish historian and author Johan Norberg is a Swedish author devoted to promoting economic globalization and classical liberal positions. He is the author of In Defense of Global Capitalism (2001), Progress: Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future (2016), and The Capitalist Manifesto: Why the Global Free Market Will Save the World (2023). Since 15 March 2007, he has been a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, and since January 2017 an executive editor at Free To Choose Media, where he regularly produces documentaries for US public television. Read more
• 27 Aug 1972: Jaap-Derk Buma, Dutch field hockey player Jaap-Derk Buma is a former Dutch field hockey player, who played 143 international matches for the Netherlands, in which he scored nineteen goals. The striker made his debut for the Dutch on 5 November 1994 in a match against Belgium. He played in the Dutch League for HC Klein Zwitserland, HC Bloemendaal, Amsterdam, and HC Breda, and was a member of the squad that won the golden medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. His father Edo was also a field hockey international for Holland. Read more
• 27 Aug 1972: The Great Khali, Indian professional wrestler Dalip Singh Rana, better known by his ring name The Great Khali, is an Indian-born American former professional wrestler, promoter, and actor. He is best known for his tenure with WWE, where he became the first Indian-born world champion. Standing over 7 feet tall due to acromegaly, Khali gained attention for his imposing stature and was prominently featured in WWE storylines throughout the mid-2000s to early 2010s. Read more
• 27 Aug 1972: Denise Lewis, English heptathlete Dame Denise Rosemarie Lewis is a British sports administrator and former sports presenter and athletics athlete, who specialised in the heptathlon. Read more
• 27 Aug 1972: Jimmy Pop, American singer-songwriter and guitarist James Moyer Franks, better known by his stage name Jimmy Pop, is an American musician. He is the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, primary songwriter, and one of the founding members of the comedic rock band Bloodhound Gang. Read more
• 27 Aug 1972: Pokwang, Filipino comedian, actress, television host and singer Marietta Tan Subong, known professionally as Pokwang, is a Filipino comedian, actress, television host and singer. Read more
• 27 Aug 1971: Ernest Faber, Dutch footballer and manager Ernest Anthonius Jacobus Faber is a Dutch professional football manager and former player who is the head coach and technical director of Eerste Divisie club Heracles Almelo. Read more
• 27 Aug 1971: Kyung Lah, South Korean-American journalist Kyung I. Lah is a South Korean journalist and correspondent for CNN based in the United States. Read more
• 27 Aug 1971: Hisayuki Okawa, Japanese runner Hisayuki Okawa is a retired male long-distance runner from Japan, who won the 1995 edition of Amsterdam Marathon, clocking 2:14:00 on September 24, 1995. Read more
• 27 Aug 1971: Aygül Özkan, German lawyer and politician Aygül Özkan is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as managing director of the German Property Federation (ZIA) since 2020. Read more
• 27 Aug 1970: Andy Bichel, Australian cricketer and coach Andrew John Bichel is a former Australian cricketer, who played 19 Test matches and 67 One Day Internationals for Australia between 1997 and 2004. He was a right-arm fast-medium bowler, but was also a hard-hitting lower-order batsman. Bichel was a member of the Australian team who won the 2003 Cricket World Cup. Read more
• 27 Aug 1970: Mark Ilott, English cricketer Mark Christopher Ilott is a former English professional cricketer. Read more
• 27 Aug 1970: Tony Kanal, British-American bass player. songwriter, and record producer Tony Ashwin Kanal is a British-American musician, songwriter and record producer who is known for his work as the bassist and co-writer for the rock bands No Doubt and Dreamcar. His career outside of performing includes production and songwriting credits with artists such as Pink, Weezer, Elan Atias and No Doubt lead singer Gwen Stefani's solo work. Read more
• 27 Aug 1970: Jim Thome, American baseball player and manager James Howard Thome is an American former professional baseball player—a first baseman, third baseman and designated hitter—who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for 22 seasons (1991–2012). A prolific power hitter, Thome hit 612 home runs during his career—the eighth-most all time. He amassed a total of 2,328 hits and 1,699 runs batted in (RBIs). His career batting average was .276. He was a member of five All-Star teams and won a Silver Slugger Award in 1996. Read more
• 27 Aug 1970: Karl Unterkircher, Italian mountaineer (died 2008) Karl Unterkircher was an Italian mountaineer. He is mostly known for opening new mountain routes. Read more
• 27 Aug 1969: Mark Ealham, English cricketer Mark Alan Ealham is a former English cricketer, who played Test and One Day International cricket. He played domestic cricket for Kent County Cricket Club and Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club as an all-rounder. Read more
• 27 Aug 1969: Cesar Millan, Mexican-American dog trainer, television personality, and author César Felipe Millán Favela is a Mexican-American dog trainer. His television series Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan was produced from 2004 to 2012 and has been broadcast in more than 80 countries worldwide. Read more
• 27 Aug 1969: Reece Shearsmith, English actor, comedian and writer Reeson Wayne Shearsmith is a British actor, comedian and writer. He was a member of The League of Gentlemen, with Steve Pemberton, Mark Gatiss and Jeremy Dyson. Jointly with Pemberton, he created, wrote and starred in the sitcom Psychoville and the dark comedy anthology series Inside No. 9. Shearsmith also had notable roles in Spaced and The World's End. Read more
• 27 Aug 1969: Chandra Wilson, American actress and director Chandra Danette Wilson is an American actress and director best known for her role as Dr. Miranda Bailey in Grey's Anatomy, for which she won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series and two NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. She also played the character of Bailey on Private Practice and Station 19. She made her New York stage debut in 1991 and began to land guest spots on a variety of prime-time television shows. She made her first film appearance in the 1993 film Philadelphia. Read more
• 27 Aug 1968: Eric "Bobo" Correa, American musician Eric "Bobo" Correa is an American percussionist best known as a member of Cypress Hill and for his work with the Beastie Boys in the 1990s. He is also a founding member of the industrial metal supergroup Sol Invicto, alongside Deftones guitarist Stephen Carpenter and producer/guitarist Richie Londres. Read more
• 27 Aug 1968: Daphne Koller, Israeli-American computer scientist and academic Daphne Koller is an Israeli-American computer scientist. She was a professor in the department of computer science at Stanford University and a MacArthur Foundation fellowship recipient. She is one of the founders of Coursera, an online education platform. Her general research area is artificial intelligence and its applications in the biomedical sciences. Koller was featured in a 2004 article by MIT Technology Review titled "10 Emerging Technologies That Will Change Your World" concerning the topic of Bayesian machine learning. Read more
• 27 Aug 1968: Michael Long, New Zealand golfer Michael Richard Long is a New Zealand professional golfer. He has played on a number of tours, including two seasons on the PGA Tour and three seasons on the European Tour. He won four times on the PGA Tour of Australasia between 1996 and 2018 and twice on the Nationwide Tour. He was medalist at 2020 European Senior Tour Q-School. Read more
• 27 Aug 1968: Matthew Ridge, New Zealand rugby player and sportscaster Matthew John Ridge is a New Zealand television presenter, and a former rugby union and rugby league footballer. Read more
• 27 Aug 1967: Ogie Alcasid, Filipino singer-songwriter, producer, and actor Herminio Jose Lualhati "Ogie" Alcasid Jr. is a Filipino actor, singer, songwriter, comedian, director and producer. He is best known for his songwriting and collaboration with other musical artists. He has appeared in films and television shows, notably as a cast member of Tropang Trumpo (1994–1995) and Bubble Gang (1995–2013) and a host and main performer of SOP (1997–2010) and ASAP (2017–present). He is currently married to Regine Velasquez, with whom he has one child. Read more
• 27 Aug 1967: Rob Burnett, American football player and sportscaster Robert Barry Burnett is an American former professional football player who was a defensive end for 14 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Syracuse Orange. Read more
• 27 Aug 1966: Jeroen Duyster, Dutch rower Jeroen Tarquinis Cornelis Duyster is a former coxswain from the Netherlands, who won a gold medal with the Holland Acht as a cox at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. He is the older brother of former Dutch field hockey international Willemijn Duyster, who won the bronze medal at the same Olympic tournament. Read more
• 27 Aug 1966: René Higuita, Colombian footballer José René Higuita Zapata is a Colombian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He was nicknamed El Loco for his high-risk 'sweeper-keeper' playing style and his flair for the dramatic, and sometimes even scoring goals despite being a goalkeeper. Read more
• 27 Aug 1966: Juhan Parts, Estonian lawyer and politician, 14th Prime Minister of Estonia Juhan Parts is an Estonian politician who was Prime Minister of Estonia from 2003 to 2005 and Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications from 2007 to 2014. Juhan Parts is a member of the Isamaa party. Read more
• 27 Aug 1965: Scott Dibble, American lawyer and politician David Scott Dibble is an American politician serving as a member of the Minnesota Senate since 2003. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), Dibble represents District 61, which includes parts of Minneapolis in Hennepin County. From 2001 to 2003, he served in the Minnesota House of Representatives. Read more
• 27 Aug 1965: Wayne James, Zimbabwean cricketer and coach Wayne Robert James is a former cricketer who played as a wicket-keeper batsman for Zimbabwe. Between 2010 and 2014, James was also part of the selection panel for the national team. Read more
• 27 Aug 1965: Ange Postecoglou, Greek-Australian footballer and coach Angelos Postecoglou is a professional soccer manager and former player who is the head coach of Saudi Pro League club Al-Nassr. He is known for his heavily attacking style of play, dubbed "Angeball". Read more
• 27 Aug 1964: Stephan Elliott, Australian actor, director, and screenwriter Stephan Elliott is an Australian film director and screenwriter. His best-known film internationally is The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994). Read more
• 27 Aug 1964: Paul Bernardo, Canadian serial rapist and murderer Paul Kenneth Bernardo, also known as Paul Jason Teale, is a Canadian serial rapist and serial killer dubbed the Scarborough Rapist and Schoolgirl Killer. He initially committed a series of rapes in Scarborough, Ontario, a district of Toronto, between 1986 and 1990, before meeting Karla Homolka, with whom he committed rape leading to the death of her sister Tammy, followed by two murders in 1991 and 1992. Read more
• 27 Aug 1963: Nguyễn Phương Nga,Vietnamese diplomat Madam Nguyễn Phương Nga is a Vietnamese female diplomat. She was the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam from 2011 until 2018. In 2019, she became the Chairwoman Vietnam Union of Friendship Organizations. Read more
• 27 Aug 1962: Adam Oates, Canadian ice hockey player Adam Robert Oates is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player, former co-head coach for the New Jersey Devils and former head coach for the Washington Capitals. He played 19 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Detroit Red Wings, St. Louis Blues, Boston Bruins, Washington Capitals, Philadelphia Flyers, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and Edmonton Oilers from 1985 to 2004. Known as an elite playmaker, Oates's career total of 1,079 assists was the fifth-highest total in NHL history at the time of his 2004 retirement. He has the second highest number of games played and points scored among undrafted NHL players with 1,337 and 1,420, respectively. Read more
• 27 Aug 1961: Yolanda Adams, American singer, producer, and actress Yolanda Yvette Adams is an American gospel singer, actress, and host of her own nationally syndicated morning gospel show. She is one of the best-selling gospel artists of all time, having sold over 10 million albums worldwide. In addition to achieving multi-platinum status,
  she has won four Grammy Awards, four Dove Awards, five BET Awards, six NAACP Image Awards, six Soul Train Music Awards, two BMI Awards and 16 Stellar Awards. She is the first Gospel artist to win the Grammy Award for Best Gospel Song. She is also the first Gospel artist to be awarded an American Music Award. Read more
• 27 Aug 1961: Mark Curry, English television host and actor Mark Preston Curry is an English television presenter, actor and broadcaster. He is best known for his career on the British television children's show Blue Peter (1986–1989) as a presenter, as well as hosting ITV game show Catchphrase in 2002. Read more
• 27 Aug 1961: Tom Ford, American fashion designer and film director Thomas Carlyle Ford is an American fashion designer and filmmaker. He launched his eponymous fashion brand in 2005, having previously been the creative director at Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent. He wrote and directed the films A Single Man (2009) and Nocturnal Animals (2016), and served as chairman of the Council of Fashion Designers of America from 2019 to 2022. Read more
• 27 Aug 1961: Steve McDowall, New Zealand rugby player Steven Clark "Steve" McDowall is a former rugby union player from New Zealand ; he played as a Prop forward and he won 46 full caps for the All Blacks between 1985 and 1992. Read more
• 27 Aug 1961: Helmut Winklhofer, German footballer Helmut Winklhofer is a German former professional footballer who played as a defender or midfielder for Bayer 04 Leverkusen and FC Bayern Munich. He won four German titles and played in the 1987 European Cup Final before his career was cut short by injury in 1990. Read more
• 27 Aug 1959: Daniela Romo, Mexican singer, actress and TV hostess Teresa Presmanes Corona, known professionally as Daniela Romo, is a Mexican singer, actress and TV hostess. During her career, she has sold 15 million records, making her one of the best-selling Latin music artists. Read more
• 27 Aug 1959: Gerhard Berger, Austrian race car driver Gerhard Berger is an Austrian former racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from 1984 to 1997. Berger won ten Formula One Grands Prix across 14 seasons. Read more
• 27 Aug 1959: Juan Fernando Cobo, Colombian painter and sculptor Juan Fernando Cobo Agudelo was a Colombian painter, illustrator, sculptor and cultural promoter, one of the most notable artists of his native region, Valle del Cauca. Read more
• 27 Aug 1959: Denice Denton, American engineer and academic (died 2006) Denice Dee Denton was an American professor of electrical engineering and academic administrator. She was the ninth chancellor of the University of California, Santa Cruz. Read more
• 27 Aug 1959: Frode Fjellheim, Norwegian pianist and composer Frode Fjellheim is a Southern Saami yoiker and musician from Norway. He is best known for his band Transjoik and as the composer of the 2002 song "Eatnemen Vuelie", which was later adapted to become the opening musical number of Frozen. Fjellheim was raised in Gausdal Municipality and Karasjok Municipality, and is South Sámi. Read more
• 27 Aug 1959: András Petőcz, Hungarian author and poet András Petőcz is a Hungarian writer and poet. Read more
• 27 Aug 1959: Jeanette Winterson, English journalist and novelist Jeanette Winterson is an English author. Her first book, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, was a semi-autobiographical novel about a lesbian growing up in an English Pentecostal community. Other novels explore gender and sexual identity, and her later ones the relations between humans and technology. Her novels have been translated into almost 20 languages. She also broadcasts and teaches creative writing. Read more
• 27 Aug 1958: Sergei Krikalev, Russian engineer and astronaut Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalev is a Russian mechanical engineer and former cosmonaut. He is a veteran of six spaceflights, including two long-duration missions to Mir, two short-duration missions aboard NASA's Space Shuttle, and two long-duration missions to the International Space Station (ISS). Read more
• 27 Aug 1958: Tom Lanoye, Belgian author, poet, and playwright Tom Lanoye is a Belgian novelist, poet, columnist, screenwriter and playwright. He is one of the most widely read and honoured authors in his language area, and makes regular appearances at all the major European theatre festivals. He was born in Sint-Niklaas. Read more
• 27 Aug 1958: Hugh Orde, British police officer Sir Hugh Stephen Roden Orde, is a retired British police officer who was the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), representing the 44 police forces of England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Between 2002 and 2009, he was the Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). He holds a degree in Public Administration (BA) from the University of Kent. Read more
• 27 Aug 1957: Jeff Grubb, American game designer and author Jeff Grubb is an American author of novels, short stories, and comics, as well as a computer and role-playing game designer in the fantasy genre. Grubb worked on the Dragonlance campaign setting under Tracy Hickman, and the Forgotten Realms setting with Ed Greenwood. His written works include The Finder's Stone Trilogy, the Spelljammer and Jakandor campaign settings, and contributions to Dragonlance and the computer game Guild Wars Nightfall (2006). Read more
• 27 Aug 1957: Bernhard Langer, German golfer Bernhard Langer is a German professional golfer. He is a two-time Masters champion and was one of the world's leading golfers throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In 1986, he became the sport's first number one ranked player following the creation of the Sony Ranking. Read more
• 27 Aug 1956: Glen Matlock, English singer-songwriter and bass player Glen Matlock is an English musician and the bass guitarist in the original line-up of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols. He is credited as a songwriter on 10 of the 12 songs on the Sex Pistols' only officially released studio album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, although he had left the band early in the recording process, he played bass on one song on the album, "Anarchy in the U.K." However, on the bootleg album Spunk, Matlock played bass on all the songs, which included earlier studio recordings of 10 of the 12 songs that later appeared on the Bollocks album. Read more
• 27 Aug 1955: Robert Richardson, American cinematographer Robert Bridge Richardson, ASC is an American cinematographer. Read more
• 27 Aug 1955: Diana Scarwid, American actress Diana Scarwid is a retired American actress who is best known for her portrayal of Christina Crawford in Mommie Dearest (1981). She received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Inside Moves (1980), and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for Truman (1995). Read more
• 27 Aug 1954: John Lloyd, English tennis player and sportscaster John Lloyd is a British former professional tennis player. Lloyd reached an ATP world ranking of 23 in July 1978, and was ranked as UK number 1 in 1984 and 1985. He now works as a tennis commentator. Read more
• 27 Aug 1954: Rajesh Thakker, English physician and academic Rajesh Vasantlal Thakker is May Professor of Medicine in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine at the University of Oxford and a fellow of Somerville College, Oxford. Thakker is also a Consultant physician at the Churchill Hospital and the John Radcliffe Hospital, Principal investigator (PI) at the Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism (OCDEM) and was Chairman of the NIHR/MRC Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation (EME) Board until Spring 2016. Read more
• 27 Aug 1954: Derek Warwick, English race car driver Derek Stanley Arthur Warwick is a British former racing driver, who competed in Formula One between 1981 and 1993. In endurance racing, Warwick won the World Sportscar Championship and 24 Hours of Le Mans, both in 1992 with Peugeot. Read more
• 27 Aug 1953: Tom Berryhill, American businessman and politician (died 2020) Thomas Charles Berryhill was an American Republican politician. He was a member of the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors from January 7, 2019, until his death. He previously represented the 8th district in the California State Senate from December 6, 2010, to November 30, 2018. He had also served in the California State Assembly, representing the 25th district from December 4, 2006, to November 30, 2010. Read more
• 27 Aug 1953: Alex Lifeson, Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer Aleksandar Živojinović, known professionally as Alex Lifeson, is a Canadian musician, best known as the guitarist for the rock band Rush. In 1968, he co-founded a band with drummer John Rutsey and bassist and lead vocalist Jeff Jones. One month later, Jones was succeeded by Geddy Lee and in 1974, Rutsey was succeeded by Neil Peart, at which point the lineup remained unchanged until the band's initial dissolution in 2015; Lifeson and Lee eventually reformed Rush in 2025, with Anika Nilles as a live drummer. Lifeson is the only member of Rush to have stayed in the band throughout its entire existence and, alongside Lee, the only member to appear on all of the band's albums. Read more
• 27 Aug 1953: Joan Smith, English journalist and author Joan Alison Smith is an English journalist and novelist, who is a former chair of the Writers in Prison committee in the English section of International PEN and was the Executive Director of Hacked Off. Read more
• 27 Aug 1953: Peter Stormare, Swedish actor, director, and playwright Rolf Peter Ingvar Stormare is a Swedish and American actor. He rose to prominence in Sweden for playing Hamlet for Ingmar Bergman in his 1988 production of the play, and in America for portraying Gaear Grimsrud in the film Fargo (1996). He has appeared in films including The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), The Big Lebowski (1998), Armageddon (1998), Dancer in the Dark (2000), Minority Report (2002), Bad Boys II (2003), Birth (2004), Constantine (2005), Nacho Libre (2006), 22 Jump Street (2014), John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017), and Until Dawn (2025). Read more
• 27 Aug 1952: Paul Reubens, American actor and comedian (died 2023) Paul Reubens was an American actor and comedian, widely known for creating and portraying the character Pee-wee Herman. Read more
• 27 Aug 1951: Buddy Bell, American baseball player and manager David Gus "Buddy" Bell is an American former third baseman and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB) currently serving as vice president and senior advisor to the general manager for the Cincinnati Reds. Read more
• 27 Aug 1951: Mack Brown, American football player and coach William Mack Brown is an American former college football coach. Brown most recently coached at the University of North Carolina, where he had two stints, first from 1988 until 1997, and again from 2019 until his firing at the end of the 2024 season. During his second stint in Chapel Hill, Brown became the North Carolina Tar Heels football program's all-time winningest coach, passing Dick Crum for most wins in program history. Read more
• 27 Aug 1951: Randall Garrison, American-Canadian criminologist and politician Randall C. Garrison is a Canadian politician. Elected to the House of Commons in the 2011 federal election, he represented the electoral district of Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke until 2025 as a member of the New Democratic Party. He served as the party's critic for justice, 2SLGBTQIA+ rights and deputy critic for National Defence. Read more
• 27 Aug 1950: Charles Fleischer, American comedian and actor Charles Fleischer is an American actor, stand-up comedian, musician, and writer, best known for his recurring role as Carvelli in Welcome Back, Kotter, and for appearing in films such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Polar Express, Rango, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, and We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story. He made a cameo in Back to the Future Part II and also reprised the role of Roger Rabbit in the Roger Rabbit theatrical shorts. After beginning his career on the comedy club circuit, Charles Fleischer's first big break in comedy television came when he made an appearance on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. Read more
• 27 Aug 1950: Neil Murray, Scottish bass player and songwriter Philip Neil Murray is a Scottish musician, best known as the former bassist of Whitesnake, the Brian May Band, Black Sabbath, and Gary Moore. Read more
• 27 Aug 1950: Edmund Weiner, English lexicographer and author Edmund S. C. Weiner is the former co-editor of the Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (1985–1989) and Deputy Chief Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary (1993–present). He originally joined the OED staff in 1977, becoming the dictionary's chief philologist. Read more
• 27 Aug 1949: Jeff Cook, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2022) Jeffrey Alan Cook was an American country musician. Cook was best known for being a founding member of the band Alabama, in which he contributed to occasional lead vocals, guitar, fiddle, piano and other musical instruments. Read more
• 27 Aug 1949: Leah Jamieson, American computer scientist, engineer, and academic Leah H. Jamieson is an American engineering educator, currently the Ransburg Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University. Jamieson was a co-founder of the Engineering Projects in Community Service program (EPICS), a multi-university engineering design program that operates in a service-learning context. She is a recipient of the Gordon Prize. From 2006-2017, she served as the John A. Edwardson Dean of Engineering at Purdue. Read more
• 27 Aug 1949: Ann Murray, Irish soprano Ann Murray is an Irish mezzo-soprano. Read more
• 27 Aug 1948: John Mehler, American drummer John Mehler is a drummer for Love Song, Spirit of Creation, Noah and other bands. Read more
• 27 Aug 1948: Sgt. Slaughter, American wrestler Robert Rudolph Remus, better known as Sgt. Slaughter, is an American voice actor and retired professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE in its ambassador program. Read more
• 27 Aug 1948: Deborah Swallow, English historian and curator Deborah Anne Swallow is a British educator, museum curator and academic. From 2004 to 2023, she was the Märit Rausing Director of The Courtauld Institute of Art and its Gallery; she was its first female Director. She previously worked at the University of Cambridge and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Alongside education and curation, she is a proponent of the broadest possible appreciation of art and its histories, and a specialist in Indian art and anthropology. Read more
• 27 Aug 1948: Philippe Vallois, French director and screenwriter Philippe Vallois is an openly gay screenwriter and director whose film Johan (1976) was selected for the Cannes Film Festival. Read more
• 27 Aug 1947: Barbara Bach, American actress and model Barbara Bach, Lady Starkey is an American retired actress and model. She played the Bond girl Anya Amasova in The Spy Who Loved Me. She is married to former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr. Read more
• 27 Aug 1947: Halil Berktay, Turkish historian and academic Halil Berktay is a Turkish historian at Ibn Haldun University. He has worked as a columnist for the daily newspaper Taraf and is one of the first Turkish historians to acknowledge the Armenian genocide as a historical fact. Read more
• 27 Aug 1947: Kirk Francis, American engineer and producer Kirk H. Francis was an American sound engineer. He won the 2008 Academy Award for The Bourne Ultimatum, and for LA Confidential he also received an Academy Award nomination in 1998. He was on the crew for the 1973 film Executive Action. Read more
• 27 Aug 1947: Peter Krieg, German director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2009) Peter Krieg, born as Wilhelm Walter Gladitz was a German documentary filmmaker, producer and writer. He initially enrolled in business and economics courses at Hamburg University but abandoned his studies to travel and teach horsemanship in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. He later returned to Germany with his first wife, the American Heidi Knott, with whom he studied film at the German Film & TV Academy (DFFB) in Berlin and collaborated on his early works. Read more
• 27 Aug 1947: John Morrison, New Zealand cricketer and politician John Francis Maclean Morrison is a former New Zealand cricketer who played 17 Test matches and 18 One Day Internationals for New Zealand. From 1998 to 2013, he was a Wellington City Councillor; his political career ended when he stood for mayor in 2013. Read more
• 27 Aug 1947: Gavin Pfuhl, South African cricketer and sportscaster (died 2002) Gavin Pattison Pfuhl was a South African first-class cricketer who played for Western Province. He was a wicketkeeper who took more than 300 dismissals in his 95-game career. Read more
• 27 Aug 1946: Tony Howard, Barbadian cricketer and manager Anthony Bourne Howard is a former West Indies international cricketer who played in one Test match in 1972, taking two wickets for 140 in a drawn match against New Zealand. Read more
• 27 Aug 1945: Douglas R. Campbell, Canadian lawyer and judge Douglas R. Campbell was a judge who served on the Federal Court of Canada. He was Canada's longest-serving judge, serving a total of 46 years. Read more
• 27 Aug 1945: Marianne Sägebrecht, German actress Marianne Sägebrecht is a German film actress. Read more
• 27 Aug 1944: G. W. Bailey, American actor George William Bailey is an American actor. His roles include Staff Sergeant Luther Rizzo in M*A*S*H, Lieutenant/Captain Thaddeus Harris in the Police Academy films (1984–1994), and Captain Felix Maxwell in Mannequin (1987). He played Detective Lieutenant Louie Provenza on TNT's television crime drama The Closer and its spin-off series Major Crimes from 2005 to 2018. Read more
• 27 Aug 1944: Tim Bogert, American singer and bass player (died 2021) John Voorhis "Tim" Bogert III was an American multi-instrumentalist musician and frequent collaborator with drummer Carmine Appice; the duo performed in such bands as Vanilla Fudge, Cactus, and the power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice.. As a bass guitarist and vocalist he was best known for his powerful vocal ability and his fast runs, fluid agility and ground-breaking sound on his Fender Precision Bass. He was one of the pioneers of using distortion with his bass to help it cut through the mix with the low-powered amps of his time, which also imparted a very sharp-edged sound to it. Read more
• 27 Aug 1943: Chuck Girard, American singer-songwriter and pianist Chuck Girard was an American musician, considered a pioneer of Contemporary Christian music. He moved to Santa Rosa, California in his early teens, becoming a band member of the Castells and later the surf-rock band The Hondells. Read more
• 27 Aug 1943: Bob Kerrey, American lieutenant and politician, Medal of Honor recipient, 35th Governor of Nebraska Joseph Robert Kerrey is an American politician who served as the 35th governor of Nebraska from 1983 to 1987 and as a United States senator from Nebraska from 1989 to 2001. Read more
• 27 Aug 1943: Tuesday Weld, American model and actress Tuesday Weld is an American retired actress. She began acting as a child and progressed to mature roles in the late 1950s. She won a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Female Newcomer in 1960. Over the following decade, she established a career playing dramatic roles in films. Read more
• 27 Aug 1942: Daryl Dragon, American keyboard player and songwriter (died 2019) Daryl Frank Dragon was an American musician known as Captain from the pop musical duo Captain & Tennille with his wife, Toni Tennille. Read more
• 27 Aug 1942: Brian Peckford, Canadian educator and politician, 3rd Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador Alfred Brian Peckford is a Canadian politician who served as the third premier of Newfoundland from March 26, 1979 to March 22, 1989. A member of the Progressive Conservative Party, Peckford was first elected as the Member of the House of Assembly (MHA) for Green Bay following the 1972 general election. He served as a cabinet minister in Frank Moores' government before he was elected as PC leader in 1979 following Moores' retirement. Read more
• 27 Aug 1941: Cesária Évora, Cape Verdean singer (died 2011) Cesária Évora GCIH was a Cape Verdean singer known for singing morna, a genre of music from Cape Verde, in her native Cape Verdean Creole. Her songs were often devoted to themes of love, homesickness, nostalgia, and the history of the Cape Verdean people. She was known for performing barefoot and for her habit of smoking and drinking on stage during intermissions. Évora's music received many accolades, including a Grammy Award in 2004, and it has influenced many Cape Verde diaspora musicians as well as American pop singer Madonna. Évora is also known as Cize, the Barefoot Diva, and the Queen of Morna. Read more
• 27 Aug 1941: János Konrád, Hungarian water polo player and swimmer (died 2014) János Konrád was a Hungarian water polo player and backstroke swimmer who competed in the 1960 Summer Olympics, in the 1964 Summer Olympics, and in the 1968 Summer Olympics. He was born in Budapest. On 25 November 2014 he died at the age of 73. Read more
• 27 Aug 1941: Harrison Page, American actor Harrison Page is an American television and film actor who has appeared in many popular series, including Sledge Hammer!, Cold Case, JAG, ER, Ally McBeal, Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero, Melrose Place, Quantum Leap, The Wonder Years, 21 Jump Street, Midnight Caller, Murder, She Wrote, Fame, Gimme a Break!, Benson, Hill Street Blues, Webster, The Dukes of Hazzard, Kung Fu, Kojak, Mannix, Soap, Bonanza, and Columbo. Read more
• 27 Aug 1940: Fernest Arceneaux, American singer and accordion player (died 2008) Fernest Arceneaux was a French-speaking Creole Zydeco accordionist and singer from Louisiana. He was known as "The New Prince of Accordion" for his virtuosity. Read more
• 27 Aug 1940: Sonny Sharrock, American guitarist (died 1994) Warren Harding "Sonny" Sharrock was an American jazz guitarist. His first wife was singer Linda Sharrock, with whom he recorded and performed. Read more
• 27 Aug 1939: William Least Heat-Moon, American travel writer and historian William Least Heat-Moon is an American travel writer and historian. He describes his heritage as English, Irish, and Osage. He is the author of several books which chronicle unusual journeys through the United States, including cross-country trips by boat and, in his best known work, about his journey in a 1975 Ford Econoline van. Read more
• 27 Aug 1939: Edward Patten, American singer-songwriter and producer (died 2005) Edward Roy Patten was an American R&B/soul singer, best known as a member of Gladys Knight & the Pips. He was a cousin of Gladys Knight. Patten was a member of the group from 1959 until the disbandment in 1989. Patten was a multiple Grammy Award winner, and along with the group, he was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Read more
• 27 Aug 1939: Nikola Pilić, Yugoslav tennis player and coach (died 2025) Nikola Pilić was a Croatian professional tennis player who competed for SFR Yugoslavia. He was the coach of the Croatian, West German and Serbian national tennis teams, with whom he won several Davis Cup titles. He participated in the founding of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and the professionalization of tennis. Read more
• 27 Aug 1937: Alice Coltrane, American pianist and composer (died 2007) Alice Lucille Coltrane, also known as Swamini Turiyasangitananda or simply Turiya, was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and Hindu spiritual leader. An accomplished pianist and one of the few harpists in the history of jazz, Coltrane recorded many albums as a bandleader, beginning in the late 1960s and early 1970s for Impulse! and other record labels. One of the foremost proponents of spiritual jazz, her eclectic music proved influential both within and outside the world of jazz. She was married to the jazz saxophonist and composer John Coltrane, with whom she performed in 1966–1967. Read more
• 27 Aug 1937: Tommy Sands, American pop singer and actor Thomas Adrian Sands is an American country and pop music singer and actor. Working in show business as a child, Sands became an overnight sensation and instant teen idol when he appeared on Kraft Television Theater in January 1957 as "The Singin' Idol". The song from the show, "Teen-Age Crush", reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on Cashbox. He is also known for his five-year marriage to Nancy Sinatra. Read more
• 27 Aug 1936: Joel Kovel, American scholar and author (died 2018) Joel Stephen Kovel was an American psychiatrist, scholar, human rights activist, and author known as a founder of eco-socialism. Kovel became a psychoanalyst, but he abandoned psychoanalysis in 1985. Read more
• 27 Aug 1936: Lien Chan, Taiwanese politician, Vice President of the Republic of China Lien Chan is a Taiwanese political scientist and politician. A member of the Kuomintang (KMT), he nominally governed Taiwan as the head of the Taiwan Provincial Government from 1990 to 1993 and served as Premier of the Republic of China from 1993 to 1997, Vice President of the Republic of China from 1996 to 2000, and Chairman of the Kuomintang from 2000 to 2005. Read more
• 27 Aug 1935: Ernie Broglio, American baseball player (died 2019) Ernest Gilbert Broglio was an American professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs from 1959 to 1966. Read more
• 27 Aug 1935: Michael Holroyd, English author Sir Michael de Courcy Fraser Holroyd is an English biographer. Read more
• 27 Aug 1935: Frank Yablans, American screenwriter and producer (died 2014) Frank Yablans was an American studio executive, film producer, and screenwriter. Yablans served as an executive at Paramount Pictures, including President of the studio, in the 1960s and 1970s. Read more
• 27 Aug 1932: Cor Brom, Dutch footballer and manager (died 2008) Cor Brom was a Dutch football player and manager. Read more
• 27 Aug 1932: Antonia Fraser, English historian and author Lady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser is a British author of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction. Read more
• 27 Aug 1931: Sri Chinmoy, Indian-American guru and poet (died 2007) Chinmoy Kumar Ghose, better known as Sri Chinmoy, was an Indian spiritual leader who taught meditation in the United States after moving to New York City in 1964. Chinmoy established his first meditation center in Queens, New York, and eventually had seven thousand students in 60 countries. He was an author, artist, poet, and musician; he also held public events such as concerts and meditations on the theme of inner peace. Chinmoy advocated a spiritual path to God through prayer and meditation. He advocated athleticism including distance running, swimming, and weightlifting. He organized marathons and other races, and was an active runner and, following a knee injury, weightlifter. Some ex-members have accused Chinmoy of running a cult. Read more
• 27 Aug 1931: Joe Cunningham, American baseball player and coach (died 2021) Joseph Robert Cunningham Jr. was an American baseball first baseman and outfielder who played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago White Sox, and Washington Senators from 1954 to 1966. He batted and threw left-handed, and was a two-time All-Star. Read more
• 27 Aug 1930: Aase Foss Abrahamsen, Norwegian writer (died 2023) Aase Foss Abrahamsen was a Norwegian writer. She primarily wrote for children and young adults, but also books for adults. Read more
• 27 Aug 1930: Gholamreza Takhti, Iranian wrestler and politician (died 1968) Gholamreza Takhti was an Iranian freestyle wrestler and a practitioner of varzesh-e bastani. He was a gold medalist at the 1956 Summer Olympics, 1958 Asian Games, 1959 World Championships, and 1961 World Championships, as well as a three-time Pahlevan of Iran. Read more
• 27 Aug 1929: Ira Levin, American novelist, playwright, and songwriter (died 2007) Ira Marvin Levin was an American novelist, playwright, and songwriter. His works include the novels A Kiss Before Dying (1953), Rosemary's Baby (1967), The Stepford Wives (1972), This Perfect Day (1970), The Boys from Brazil (1976), and Sliver (1991). Levin also wrote the play Deathtrap (1978). Many of his novels and plays have been adapted into films. He received the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award and several Edgar Awards. In 1996 he was given the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement. Read more
• 27 Aug 1929: George Scott, Canadian-American wrestler and promoter (died 2014) George Scott was a Canadian professional wrestler, booker and promoter. From the 1950s until the 1970s, he and his younger brother Sandy competed as The Flying Scotts in North American regional promotions including the National Wrestling Alliance, particularly the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic territories, as well as successful stints in the American Wrestling Association, Maple Leaf Wrestling and Stampede Wrestling. Read more
• 27 Aug 1928: Péter Boross, Hungarian lawyer and politician, 54th Prime Minister of Hungary Péter Boross is a Hungarian retired politician and former member of the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) who served as Prime Minister of Hungary from December 1993 to July 1994. He assumed the position upon the death of his predecessor, József Antall, and held the office until his right-wing coalition was defeated in election by the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP), which was led by his successor Gyula Horn. Prior to his premiership, Boross functioned as Minister of Civilian Intelligence Services (1990) and Minister of the Interior (1990–1993). He was also a Member of Parliament from 1994 to 1998 and from 2006 to 2009. Read more
• 27 Aug 1928: Mangosuthu Buthelezi, South African politician, Chief Minister of KwaZulu (died 2023) Prince Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi was a South African politician and Zulu prince who served as the traditional prime minister to the Zulu royal family from 1954 until his death in 2023. He was appointed to this post by King Bhekuzulu, the son of King Solomon kaDinuzulu. Read more
• 27 Aug 1928: Joan Kroc, American philanthropist (died 2003) Joan Beverly Kroc, also known as Joni, was an American philanthropist and the third wife of McDonald's CEO Ray Kroc. Read more
• 27 Aug 1926: George Brecht, American-German chemist and composer (died 2008) George Brecht, born George Ellis MacDiarmid, was an American conceptual artist and avant-garde composer, as well as a professional chemist who worked as a consultant for companies including Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Mobil Oil. He was a key member of, and influence on, Fluxus, the international group of avant-garde artists centred on George Maciunas, having been involved with the group from the first performances in Wiesbaden 1962 until Maciunas' death in 1978. Read more
• 27 Aug 1926: Kristen Nygaard, Norwegian computer scientist and academic (died 2002) Kristen Nygaard was a Norwegian computer scientist, programming language pioneer, and politician. Internationally, Nygaard is acknowledged as the co-inventor of object-oriented programming and the programming language Simula with Ole-Johan Dahl in the 1960s. Nygaard and Dahl received the 2001 A. M. Turing Award for their contribution to computer science. Read more
• 27 Aug 1925: Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, Italian cardinal (died 2017) Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church. He worked in the diplomatic service of the Holy See from 1977 until he retired in 2001. As Archpriest of the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls from 2005 to 2009 he helped oversee important restoration work. He was made a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI on 24 March 2006. Read more
• 27 Aug 1925: Nat Lofthouse, English footballer and manager (died 2011) Nathaniel Lofthouse was an English professional footballer who played as a forward for Bolton Wanderers for his entire career. He won 33 caps for England between 1950 and 1958, scoring 30 goals, with one of the highest goals-per-game ratios of any England player. Read more
• 27 Aug 1925: Saiichi Maruya, Japanese author and critic (died 2012) Saiichi Maruya was a Japanese author and literary critic. Read more
• 27 Aug 1925: Bill Neilson, Australian politician, 34th Premier of Tasmania (died 1989) William Arthur Neilson AC was Premier of Tasmania from 1975 to 1977. Read more
• 27 Aug 1925: Jaswant Singh Neki, Indian poet and academic (died 2015) Jaswant Singh Neki was a leading Indian Sikh scholar, significant neo-metaphysical Punjabi language poet and former Director of PGI Chandigarh and Head of the Psychiatry Department at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi. Read more
• 27 Aug 1925: Carter Stanley, American bluegrass singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1966) Carter Glen Stanley was a bluegrass music lead singer, songwriter, and rhythm guitar player. He formed The Stanley Brothers and The Clinch Mountain Boys band with his younger brother Ralph Stanley. Read more
• 27 Aug 1924: David Rowbotham, Australian journalist and poet (died 2010) David Harold Rowbotham was an Australian poet and journalist. Read more
• 27 Aug 1924: Rosalie E. Wahl, American lawyer and jurist (died 2013) Sara Rosalie Wahl was an American feminist, lawyer, public defender, clinical law professor, and judge. She was the first woman to serve on the Minnesota Supreme Court, which she did for some seventeen years. Governor Rudy Perpich nominated Wahl to the Minnesota Supreme Court in 1977 and Wahl won the election to the seat in a non-partisan election in 1978, defeating three male candidates. She chaired the state's Gender Bias Taskforce and Racial Bias Taskforce and led the American Bar Association's efforts to establish clinical legal education. She was a champion for the mentally ill and for displaced homemakers. She wrote 549 opinions including for the majority in holding that different penalties for crack and powder cocaine were unconstitutional in State v. Russell. Read more
• 27 Aug 1923: Jimmy Greenhalgh, English footballer and manager (died 2013) James Radcliffe Greenhalgh was an English football player and manager. He played as a wing half and made nearly 300 appearances in the Football League for Hull City, Bury and Gillingham. As a manager, he took charge of Darlington from 1966 to 1968 and had a lengthy career in coaching and scouting. Read more
• 27 Aug 1922: Roelof Kruisinga, Dutch physician and politician, Minister of Defence for The Netherlands (died 2012) Roelof Johannes Hendrik Kruisinga was a Dutch politician of the defunct Christian Historical Union (CHU) party and later the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party and physician. Read more
• 27 Aug 1921: Georg Alexander, Duke of Mecklenburg (died 1996) Georg Alexander, Duke of Mecklenburg was the head of the House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz from 1963 until his death. Read more
• 27 Aug 1921: Leo Penn, American actor, director, and screenwriter (died 1998) Leo Zalman Penn was an American television director and actor. He was the father of musician Michael Penn and actors Sean and Chris Penn. Read more
• 27 Aug 1920: Baptiste Manzini, American football player (died 2008) Baptiste John "Bap" Manzini was a professional American football center and high school football coach. Read more
• 27 Aug 1920: James Molyneaux, Baron Molyneaux of Killead, Northern Irish soldier and politician (died 2015) James Henry Molyneaux, Baron Molyneaux of Killead, KBE, PC, often known as Jim Molyneaux, was a unionist politician from Northern Ireland who served as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) from 1979 to 1995, and as the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Antrim from 1970 to 1983, and later Lagan Valley from 1983 to 1997. An Orangeman, he was also Sovereign Grand Master of the Royal Black Institution from 1971 to 1995, and a leading member of the Conservative Monday Club. Read more
• 27 Aug 1919: Pee Wee Butts, American baseball player and coach (died 1972) Thomas Lee "Pee Wee" Butts was an American baseball player who played in the Negro leagues. Read more
• 27 Aug 1919: Murray Grand, American singer-songwriter and pianist (died 2007) Murray Grand was an American singer, songwriter, lyricist, and pianist best known for the song "Guess Who I Saw Today". Read more
• 27 Aug 1918: Jelle Zijlstra, Dutch economist and politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (died 2001) Jelle Zijlstra was a Dutch politician and economist who served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 22 November 1966 until 5 April 1967. He was a member of the Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP). Read more
• 27 Aug 1917: Peanuts Lowrey, American baseball player, coach, and manager (died 1986) Harry Lee "Peanuts" Lowrey was an American outfielder in Major League Baseball who played for the Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds (1949–50), St. Louis Cardinals (1950–54) and Philadelphia Phillies (1955). Read more
• 27 Aug 1916: Gordon Bashford, English engineer, co-designed the Range Rover (died 1991) Gordon Dennis Bashford was a British car design engineer. Bashford played a significant part in the design of most post-war Rover cars, including the Land Rover. Read more
• 27 Aug 1916: Tony Harris, South African cricketer and rugby player (died 1993) Terence Anthony Harris known as Tony Harris, was a South African sportsman who was the last man to be a dual international of both cricket and rugby union for his country. He represented South Africa in five rugby union Tests during the 1930s as a fly-half, following World War II he played Test cricket three times between 1947 and 1949 as an attacking batsman. Read more
• 27 Aug 1916: Martha Raye, American actress and comedian (died 1994) Martha Raye was an American comic actress and singer whose career spanned six decades across film, theater, and television. Her wide smile and energetic comedic style earned her the nickname "The Big Mouth." Read more
• 27 Aug 1915: Norman Foster Ramsey Jr., American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2011) Norman Foster Ramsey Jr. was an American physicist who was awarded the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physics for the invention of the separated oscillatory field method, which had important applications in the construction of atomic clocks. A physics professor at Harvard University for most of his career, Ramsey also held several posts with such government and international agencies as NATO and the United States Atomic Energy Commission. Among his other accomplishments are helping to found the United States Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and Fermilab. Read more
• 27 Aug 1912: Gloria Guinness, Mexican journalist (died 1980) Gloria Guinness, previously Countess Gloria von Fürstenberg-Herdringen, was a Mexican socialite and a contributing editor to Harper's Bazaar from 1963 to 1971. She was photographed by Cecil Beaton, Slim Aarons, Alejo Vidal-Quadras; designed for by Cristóbal Balenciaga, Elsa Schiaparelli, Hubert de Givenchy, Yves Saint-Laurent; and was also a close friend and inspiration to Truman Capote. Read more
• 27 Aug 1911: Kay Walsh, English actress and dancer (died 2005) Kathleen Walsh was an English actress, dancer, and screenwriter. Her film career prospered after she met her future husband, film director David Lean, with whom she worked on productions such as In Which We Serve and Oliver Twist. Read more
• 27 Aug 1909: Sylvère Maes, Belgian cyclist (died 1966) Sylvère Maes was a Belgian cyclist, who is most famous for winning the Tour de France in 1936 and 1939. In 1937, Maes left the 1937 Tour de France together with his Belgian team while he was leading the general classification, in response to actions from French spectators and decisions from the jury. Read more
• 27 Aug 1909: Charles Pozzi, French race car driver (died 2001) Charles Albert Pozzi was a French racing driver who participated in one World Championship Formula One race in 1950, the year of its inception. Read more
• 27 Aug 1909: Lester Young, American saxophonist and clarinet player (died 1959) Lester Willis Young, nicknamed "Pres" or "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and occasional clarinetist. Read more
• 27 Aug 1908: Don Bradman, Australian cricketer and manager (died 2001) Sir Donald George Bradman, nicknamed "the Don", was an Australian international cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time. His cricketing successes have been claimed by Shane Warne, among others, to make Bradman the "greatest sportsperson" in history. Bradman's career Test batting average of 99.94 is considered by some to be the greatest achievement by any sportsman in any major sport. Read more
• 27 Aug 1908: Lyndon B. Johnson, American commander and politician, 36th President of the United States (died 1973) Lyndon Baines Johnson, also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. Johnson was vice president under John F. Kennedy from 1961 until Kennedy's assassination in 1963, when he assumed the presidency. Before becoming vice president, he served in both houses of the U.S. Congress, representing Texas as a member of the Democratic Party. Read more
• 27 Aug 1906: Ed Gein, American murderer and body snatcher, The Butcher of Plainfield (died 1982) Edward Theodore Gein, also known as the Butcher of Plainfield and the Plainfield Ghoul, was an American murderer and body snatcher. His crimes, committed around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin, gathered widespread notoriety in 1957 after authorities discovered that he stole corpses from local graveyards and fashioned keepsakes from their bones and skin. He also confessed to killing two women: tavern owner Mary Hogan in 1954 and hardware store owner Bernice Worden in 1957. Read more
• 27 Aug 1906: Edmund Wojtyła, Polish doctor (died 1932) Edmund Antoni Wojtyła was a Polish doctor who died of scarlet fever a few years after graduating. He was the elder brother of Karol Wojtyła, the future Pope John Paul II. Read more
• 27 Aug 1905: Aris Velouchiotis, Greek soldier (died 1945) Athanasios Klaras, better known by the nom de guerre Aris Velouchiotis, was a Greek journalist and politician. He was a member of the Communist Party of Greece and the most prominent leader and chief instigator of the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS), the military branch of the National Liberation Front (EAM), which was the major resistance organization in occupied Greece from 1942 to 1945. Read more
• 27 Aug 1904: Alar Kotli, Estonian architect (died 1963) Alar Kotli was an Estonian architect. He studied sculpture at the art school Pallas in Tartu during 1922–1923 and mathematics at the University of Tartu. He graduated from the University of technology in Gdańsk in 1927 as an architect. Read more
• 27 Aug 1904: Norah Lofts, English author (died 1983) Norah Ethel Lofts was a 20th-century British writer. She also wrote under the pen names Peter Curtis and Juliet Astley. She wrote more than fifty books. Although specializing in historical fiction and "known for her effective use of English history" in her work, she also wrote some mysteries, short stories and non-fiction. Many of her novels, including her Suffolk Trilogy, follow the history of specific houses and their residents over several generations. Read more
• 27 Aug 1904: John Hay Whitney, American businessman, publisher, and diplomat, founded J.H. Whitney & Company (died 1982) John Hay Whitney was an American venture capitalist, sportsman, philanthropist, newspaper publisher, film producer and diplomat who served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, publisher of the New York Herald Tribune, and president of the Museum of Modern Art. Read more
• 27 Aug 1899: C. S. Forester, English novelist (died 1966) Cecil Louis Troughton Smith, best known by his pen name C. S. Forester, was an English novelist known for writing tales of naval warfare, such as the 12-book Horatio Hornblower series depicting a Royal Navy officer during the Napoleonic Wars. Read more
• 27 Aug 1898: Gaspard Fauteux, Canadian businessman and politician, 19th Lieutenant Governor of Quebec (died 1963) Gaspard Fauteux, was a Canadian parliamentarian, Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada (1945–1949), and the 19th Lieutenant Governor of Quebec (1950–1958). Read more
• 27 Aug 1896: Kenji Miyazawa, Japanese author and poet (died 1933) Kenji Miyazawa was a Japanese novelist, poet, and children's literature writer from Hanamaki, Iwate, in the late Taishō and early Shōwa periods. He was also known as an agricultural science teacher, vegetarian, cellist, devout Buddhist, and utopian social activist. Read more
• 27 Aug 1895: Andreas Alföldi, Hungarian archaeologist and historian (died 1981) András (Andreas) Ede Zsigmond Alföldi was a Hungarian historian, art historian, epigraphist, numismatist and archaeologist, specializing in the Late Antique period. He was one of the most productive 20th-century scholars of the ancient world and is considered one of the leading researchers of his time. Although some of his research results are controversial, his work in several areas is viewed as groundbreaking. Read more
• 27 Aug 1890: Man Ray, American-French photographer and painter (died 1976) Man Ray was an American-born, French-naturalized visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal. He produced major works in a variety of media but considered himself a painter above all. He was a photography innovator as well as a fashion and portrait photographer, and is noted for his work with photograms, which he called "rayographs" in reference to himself. Read more
• 27 Aug 1886: Rebecca Clarke, English viola player and composer (died 1979) Rebecca Helferich Clarke was a British classical composer and violist. Internationally renowned as a viola virtuoso, she also became one of the first female professional orchestral players in London. Read more
• 27 Aug 1884: Vincent Auriol, French lawyer and politician, President of the French Republic (died 1966) Vincent Jules Auriol was President of France from 1947 to 1954. A member of the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO), he was the first president elected under the Fourth Republic. His presidential term was marked by the Indochina War, the implementation of the Monnet Plan for modernisation, as well as France joining the Council of Europe and NATO as a founding member. Read more
• 27 Aug 1884: Denis G. Lillie, British biologist, member of the 1910–1913 Terra Nova Expedition (died 1963) Denis Gascoigne Lillie was a British biologist who participated in the Terra Nova Expedition (1910–1913) to the Antarctic. He collected numerous marine animals as well as plants and fossils–many of which were new to science–and published scientific papers on whales, fossils, and medicine. He received the Polar Medal along with other Terra Nova members in 1913. He was also a noted caricaturist who made cartoons of professors, colleagues, and friends: some of his caricatures are collected in the National Portrait Gallery. He worked as a government bacteriologist during World War I and then suffered a severe mental breakdown, spending three years at Bethlem Royal Hospital and never fully recovering. He is commemorated in the names of several marine organisms as well as Lillie Glacier in Antarctica. Read more
• 27 Aug 1878: Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel, Russian general (died 1928) Baron Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel, nicknamed the "Black Baron", was a Russian military officer who served as a commanding general in the anti-Bolshevik Volunteer Army during the Russian Civil War. In 1920, he became the last commander-in-chief of the White forces in Southern Russia, which he reorganized as the Russian Army. Read more
• 27 Aug 1877: Charles Rolls, English engineer and businessman, co-founded Rolls-Royce Limited (died 1910) Charles Stewart Rolls was a British motoring and aviation pioneer. With Henry Royce, he co-founded the Rolls-Royce car manufacturing firm. He was the first Briton to be killed in an aeronautical accident with a powered aircraft, when the tail of his Wright Flyer broke off during a flying display in Bournemouth. He was aged 32. Read more
• 27 Aug 1877: Ernst Wetter, Swiss lawyer and politician, 48th President of the Swiss Confederation (died 1963) Ernst Wetter was a Swiss politician. Read more
• 27 Aug 1875: Katharine McCormick, American biologist, philanthropist, and activist (died 1967) Katharine Dexter McCormick was an American suffragist, philanthropist and, after her husband's death, heir to a substantial part of the McCormick family fortune. She funded most of the research necessary to develop the first birth control pill. Read more
• 27 Aug 1874: Carl Bosch, German chemist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1940) Carl Bosch was a German chemist and engineer and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry. He was a pioneer in the field of high-pressure industrial chemistry and founder of IG Farben, at one point the world's largest chemical company. Read more
• 27 Aug 1871: Theodore Dreiser, American novelist and journalist (died 1945) Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm moral code, and literary situations that more closely resemble studies of nature than tales of choice and agency. Dreiser's best-known novels include Sister Carrie (1900) and An American Tragedy (1925). Read more
• 27 Aug 1870: Amado Nervo, Mexican journalist, poet, and diplomat (died 1919) Amado Nervo also known as Juan Crisóstomo Ruiz de Nervo, was a Mexican poet, journalist and educator. He also acted as Mexican Ambassador to Argentina and Uruguay. His poetry was known for its use of metaphor and reference to mysticism, presenting both love and religion, as well as Christianity and Hinduism. Nervo is noted as one of the most important Mexican poets of the 19th century. Read more
• 27 Aug 1868: Hong Beom-do, Korean general and activist (died 1943) General Hong Beom-do was a Korean independence activist and national hero. Hong served as commander of a guerrilla unit of the Justice Army "Yibyon" within the Righteous armies and the Korean Independence Army, which essentially gave rise to Korea's armed struggle against Japanese colonialists. Read more
• 27 Aug 1865: James Henry Breasted, American archaeologist and historian (died 1935) James Henry Breasted was an American archaeologist, Egyptologist, and historian. After completing his PhD at the University of Berlin in 1894 – the first American to obtain a doctorate in Egyptology – he joined the faculty of the University of Chicago. In 1901, he became director of the Haskell Oriental Museum at the university, where he continued to concentrate on Egypt. In 1905, Breasted was promoted to full professor and held the first chair in Egyptology and Oriental History in the United States. Read more
• 27 Aug 1865: Charles G. Dawes, American general and politician, 30th Vice President of the United States, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1951) Charles Gates Dawes was the 30th vice president of the United States from 1925 to 1929 under President Calvin Coolidge. He was a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925 for his work on the Dawes Plan for World War I reparations, and a member of the Republican Party. Read more
• 27 Aug 1864: Hermann Weingärtner, German gymnast (died 1919) Otto Ludwig Hermann Weingärtner was a German gymnast. Read more
• 27 Aug 1858: Giuseppe Peano, Italian mathematician and philosopher (died 1932) Giuseppe Peano was an Italian mathematician and glottologist. The author of over 200 books and papers, he was a founder of mathematical logic and set theory, to which he contributed much notation, for instance, notations of set operations. The standard axiomatization of the natural numbers is named the Peano axioms in his honor. As part of this effort, he made key contributions to the modern rigorous and systematic treatment of the method of mathematical induction. He spent most of his career teaching mathematics at the University of Turin. He also created an international auxiliary language, Latino sine flexione, which is a simplified version of Classical Latin. Most of his books and papers are in Latino sine flexione, while others are in Italian. Read more
• 27 Aug 1856: Ivan Franko, Ukrainian author and poet (died 1916) Ivan Yakovych Franko PhD was a Ukrainian poet, writer, social and literary critic, journalist, translator, economist, political activist, ethnographer, and the author of the first detective novels and modern poetry in Ukrainian. Read more
• 27 Aug 1845: Ödön Lechner, Hungarian architect, designed the Museum of Applied Arts and the Church of St Elisabeth (died 1914) Ödön Lechner was a Hungarian architect, one of the prime representatives of the Hungarian Szecesszió style, which was related to Art Nouveau in the rest of Europe, including the Vienna Secession. He is famous for decorating his buildings with Zsolnay tile patterns inspired by old Hungarian and Turkic folk art, which are combined with modern materials such as iron. Read more
• 27 Aug 1845: Friedrich Martens, Estonian-Russian historian, lawyer, and diplomat (died 1909) Friedrich Fromhold Martens, or Friedrich Fromhold von Martens, was a diplomat and jurist in service of the Russian Empire who made important contributions to the science of international law. He represented Russia at the Hague Peace Conferences and helped to settle the first cases of international arbitration, notably the dispute between France and the United Kingdom over Newfoundland. As a scholar, he is probably best remembered today for having edited 15 volumes of Russian international treaties (1874–1909). Read more
• 27 Aug 1827: Charles Lilley, English-Australian politician, 4th Premier of Queensland (died 1897) Sir Charles Lilley was a Premier and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Queensland. He had a significant influence on the form and spirit of state education in colonial Queensland which lasted well into the 20th century. Read more
• 27 Aug 1822: William Hayden English, American politician, U.S. Representative from Indiana and Democratic vice-presidential nominee (died 1896) William Hayden English was an American politician. He served as a U.S. representative from Indiana from 1853 to 1861 and was the Democratic Party's nominee for Vice President of the United States in 1880. Read more
• 27 Aug 1812: Bertalan Szemere, Hungarian poet and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Hungary (died 1869) Bertalan Szemere was a Hungarian poet and nationalist who became the third Prime Minister of Hungary during the short period of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 when Hungary was independent of rule by the Austrian Empire. Read more
• 27 Aug 1809: Hannibal Hamlin, American publisher and politician, 15th Vice President of the United States (died 1891) Hannibal Hamlin was an American politician and diplomat who was the 15th vice president of the United States, serving from 1861 to 1865, during President Abraham Lincoln's first term. He was the first Republican vice president. Read more
• 27 Aug 1803: Edward Beecher, American minister and theologian (died 1895) Edward Beecher was an American theologian, the son of Lyman Beecher and the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry Ward Beecher. Read more

Notable Deaths on 27 August

• 27 Aug 2024: Bob Carr, American politician (born 1943) Milton Robert Carr was an American lawyer, academic, and politician from Michigan. Read more
• 27 Aug 2024: Juan Izquierdo, Uruguayan footballer (born 1997) Juan Manuel Izquierdo Viana was a Uruguayan professional footballer who played as a centre-back. Read more
• 27 Aug 2024: Charlotte Kretschmann, German supercentenarian (born 1909) Charlotte Kretschmann was a German supercentenarian and is Germany's oldest-ever person. Read more
• 27 Aug 2024: Leonard Riggio, American businessman (born 1941) Leonard Stephen Riggio was an American businessman. He served as executive chairman of book store chain Barnes & Noble and was its largest shareholder from 1971 until the sale of the company to the hedge fund Elliott Investment Management in 2019. Under his leadership the company expanded significantly from a single retail location on 105 Fifth Avenue in New York City to a nationwide chain with 600+ stores, which it did with acquisitions and mergers of competing chain stores including his takeover of B. Dalton in 1986, which was supported by a major investment from the Dutch retailer Vendex International and Drexel Burnham Lambert–issued junk bonds. Read more
• 27 Aug 2016: Cookie, Australian Major Mitchell's cockatoo, oldest recorded parrot (born 1933) Cookie was a male pink cockatoo residing at Brookfield Zoo, near Chicago, Illinois, United States. He was believed to be the oldest member of his species alive in captivity, at the age of 82 in June 2015, having significantly exceeded the average lifespan for his kind. He was one of the longest-lived birds on record and was recognised by the Guinness World Records as the oldest living parrot in the world. Read more
• 27 Aug 2015: Kazi Zafar Ahmed, Bangladeshi politician, 8th Prime Minister of Bangladesh (born 1939) Kazi Zafar Ahmad was a Bangladeshi politician of the Jatiya Party, who was Prime Minister of Bangladesh from 1989 to 1990. Read more
• 27 Aug 2015: Pascal Chaumeil, French director and screenwriter (born 1961) Pascal Chaumeil was a French director and screenwriter. He started out as an assistant director in the 1980s, working with directors such as Pierre Tchernia and Luc Besson. He was nominated for two César Awards, both for the film Heartbreaker (2010). He died in 2015. Read more
• 27 Aug 2015: Darryl Dawkins, American basketball player and coach (born 1957) Darryl R. Dawkins was an American professional basketball player and coach. A three-time NBA finalist center, he most notably played for the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Nets with brief tenures at the Utah Jazz and Detroit Pistons later on. His powerful dunks, which shattered two backboards in 1979, led the NBA to adopt breakaway rims. Read more
• 27 Aug 2014: Jacques Friedel, French physicist and academic (born 1921) Jacques Friedel ForMemRS was a French physicist and material scientist. Read more
• 27 Aug 2014: Valeri Petrov, Bulgarian poet, playwright, and screenwriter (born 1920) Valeri Petrov, was a popular Bulgarian poet, screenwriter, playwright and translator of paternal Jewish origin. Read more
• 27 Aug 2014: Benno Pludra, German author (born 1925) Benno Pludra was a German children's author. He was born in Mückenberg, now Lauchhammer-West. Read more
• 27 Aug 2013: Chen Liting, Chinese director and playwright (born 1910) Chen Liting was a Chinese playwright, drama and film director, screenwriter, and film theorist. He was one of the most prominent film directors and screenwriters in pre-Communist China, together with Shi Dongshan, Cai Chusheng, and Zheng Junli. His most famous film was Women Side by Side (1949). Read more
• 27 Aug 2013: Bill Peach, Australian journalist (born 1935) William Norman Peach known as Bill Peach, was an Australian television journalist who hosted the ABC current affairs program This Day Tonight from 1967 to 1975. Read more
• 27 Aug 2013: Dave Thomas, Welsh golfer and architect (born 1934) David Charles Thomas was a Welsh professional golfer and renowned golf course architect. Read more
• 27 Aug 2012: Neville Alexander, South African linguist and activist (born 1936) Neville Edward Alexander OLS was a proponent of a multilingual South Africa and a former revolutionary who spent ten years on Robben Island as a fellow prisoner of Nelson Mandela. Read more
• 27 Aug 2012: Malcolm Browne, American journalist and photographer (born 1931) Malcolm Wilde Browne was an American journalist and photographer, best known for his award-winning photograph of the self-immolation of Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức in 1963. Read more
• 27 Aug 2012: Art Heyman, American basketball player (born 1941) Arthur Bruce Heyman was an American professional basketball player. Playing for Duke University in college, in 1963 he was USBWA Player of the Year, AP Player of the Year, UPI Player of the Year, Sporting News Player of the Year, Helms Foundation College Player of the Year, a consensus first-team All-American, ACC Player of the Year, and ACC Athlete of the Year. That year he was the first overall pick in the first round of the 1963 NBA draft. He went on to have a 310-game professional career in the NBA and ABA. Read more
• 27 Aug 2012: Ivica Horvat, Croatian footballer and manager (born 1926) Ivan "Ivica" Horvat was a Croatian and Yugoslav professional football player and manager. Read more
• 27 Aug 2012: Richard Kingsland, Australian captain and pilot (born 1916) Sir Richard Kingsland, was an Australian RAAF pilot known for being the youngest Australian group captain at age 29. He later became a senior public servant, heading the Departments of the Interior, Repatriation, and Veterans' Affairs. Read more
• 27 Aug 2012: Geliy Korzhev, Russian painter (born 1925) Geliy Mikhailovich Korzhev-Chuvelyov was a Soviet and Russian painter. Read more
• 27 Aug 2010: Anton Geesink, Dutch martial artist (born 1934) Antonius Johannes Geesink was a Dutch 10th dan judoka. He was the first non-Japanese judoka to win gold at the World Judo Championships, a feat he accomplished in 1961 and 1965. He was also an Olympic Champion, having won gold at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Japan, and won a record 21 European Judo Championships during his career. Read more
• 27 Aug 2010: Luna Vachon, Canadian-American wrestler and manager (born 1962) Gertrude Elizabeth Vachon was an American-Canadian professional wrestler, better known as Luna Vachon. Over her 22-year career, she wrestled for the World Wrestling Federation, Extreme Championship Wrestling, the American Wrestling Association, and World Championship Wrestling. She was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame, and Women's Wrestling Hall of Fame. Read more
• 27 Aug 2009: Sergey Mikhalkov, Russian author and poet (born 1913) Sergey Vladimirovich Mikhalkov was a Russian author of children's books and satirical fables. He wrote the lyrics for the Soviet and Russian national anthems. Read more
• 27 Aug 2007: Emma Penella, Spanish actress (born 1930) Manuela Ruiz Penella, better known as Emma Penella, was a Spanish film and television actress. Read more
• 27 Aug 2006: Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Indian director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1922) Hrishikesh Mukherjee was an Indian film director, editor and writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of Indian cinema. Popularly known as Hrishi-da, he directed 42 films during his career spanning over four decades, and is named the pioneer of the 'middle cinema' of India. Renowned for his social films that reflected the changing middle-class ethos, Mukherjee "carved a middle path between the extravagance of mainstream cinema and the stark realism of art cinema". Read more
• 27 Aug 2006: Jesse Pintado, Mexican-American guitarist (born 1969) Jesus "Jesse" Ernesto Pintado Andrade was a Mexican-American guitarist best known as a guitarist for the British grindcore band Napalm Death. Read more
• 27 Aug 2005: Giorgos Mouzakis, Greek trumpet player and composer (born 1922) Giorgos Muzakis was a prominent Greek virtuoso trumpeter and music composer. Read more
• 27 Aug 2005: Seán Purcell, Irish footballer (born 1929) Seán Purcell, was a Gaelic footballer who played at senior level for the Galway county team. Read more
• 27 Aug 2004: Willie Crawford, American baseball player (born 1946) Willie Murphy Crawford was an American professional baseball outfielder. He played in the major leagues with the Los Angeles Dodgers (1964–1975), St. Louis Cardinals (1976), Houston Astros (1977) and Oakland Athletics (1977). Crawford was born in Los Angeles, California. He batted and threw left-handed, and was the father of UCLA football player Willie Crawford who graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 1988. Read more
• 27 Aug 2003: Pierre Poujade, French soldier and politician (born 1920) Pierre Poujade was a French right-wing populist politician after whom the Poujadist movement was named. Read more
• 27 Aug 2002: Edwin Louis Cole, American religious leader and author (born 1922) Edwin Louis Cole (1922–2002), also known as Ed Cole, was the founder of the Christian Men's Network, an American religious organization devoted to helping Christian men and fathers. He published many books and preached numerous sermons relating to men and religion. Read more
• 27 Aug 2001: Michael Dertouzos, Greek-American computer scientist and academic (born 1936) Michael Leonidas Dertouzos was a professor in the department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Director of the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS) from 1974 to 2001. Read more
• 27 Aug 2001: Abu Ali Mustafa, Palestinian politician (born 1938) Mustafa Ali Zabri, better known by his kunya Abu Ali Mustafa and also known as Mustafa Alhaj, was a Palestinian militant who served as the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) from July 2000 until he was assassinated by Israeli forces in a targeted killing on 27 August 2001. Mustafa was succeeded as Secretary General by Ahmad Saadat, and the PFLP subsequently renamed their armed wing in the Palestinian territories the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades. Read more
• 27 Aug 1999: Hélder Câmara, Brazilian archbishop and theologian (born 1909) Hélder Pessoa Câmara was a Brazilian Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Olinda and Recife from 1964 to 1985 during the military dictatorship in Brazil. He was declared a Servant of God in 2015. Read more
• 27 Aug 1998: Essie Summers, New Zealand author (born 1912) Essie Summers was a New Zealand writer whose romance novels sold more than 19 million copies in 105 countries. She was known as New Zealand's "Queen of Romance." Read more
• 27 Aug 1996: Greg Morris, American actor (born 1933) Francis Gregory Alan Morris was an American actor. He was best known for portraying Barney Collier on the television series Mission: Impossible and Lieutenant David Nelson on Vega$. Read more
• 27 Aug 1994: Frank Jeske, German footballer (born 1960) Frank Jeske was a German footballer. Read more
• 27 Aug 1992: Bengt Holbek, Danish folklorist (born 1933) Bengt Holbek was a Danish folklorist known for his unorthodox approach to folklore theory. He wrote one of the definitive works of fairy tale scholarship entitled Interpretation of Fairy Tales (1987). Read more
• 27 Aug 1990: Avdy Andresson, Estonian soldier and diplomat (born 1899) Avdy Andresson was the Estonian Minister of War in exile from April 3, 1973, until two months before his death on June 20, 1990, and disputed Commander of Armed Forces from 14 October 1975. Read more
• 27 Aug 1990: Stevie Ray Vaughan, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (born 1954) Stephen Ray Vaughan, also known abbreviated as SRV, was an American musician, best known as the guitarist and frontman of the blues rock trio Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble. Although his mainstream career spanned only seven years, he is considered one of the most influential musicians in the history of blues music, and one of the greatest guitarists of all time. He was the younger brother of guitarist Jimmie Vaughan. Read more
• 27 Aug 1981: Valeri Kharlamov, Russian ice hockey player (born 1948) Valeri Borisovich Kharlamov was a Russian ice hockey forward who played for CSKA Moscow in the Soviet League from 1967 until his death in 1981. Kharlamov was a speedy, intelligent, skilled and dominant player, being named the Soviet Championship League most valuable player in 1972 and 1973. An offensive player who was considered very creative on the ice, he also led the league in scoring in 1972. He was also a gifted skater who was able to make plays at top speed. Kharlamov was considered one of the best players of his era, as well as one of the greatest players of all time. Read more
• 27 Aug 1980: Douglas Kenney, American actor, producer, and screenwriter (born 1947) Douglas Clark Francis Kenney was an American comedy writer of magazine, novels, radio, TV and film, who co-founded the magazine National Lampoon in 1970. Kenney edited the magazine and wrote much of its early material. He went on to write, produce, and perform in the influential comedies Animal House and Caddyshack. Read more
• 27 Aug 1979: Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, English admiral and politician, 44th Governor-General of India (born 1900) Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, commonly known as Lord Mountbatten, was a British statesman, naval officer, and member of the British royal family. A maternal uncle of Prince Philip and second cousin once removed of Queen Elizabeth II, he served in the Royal Navy during both world wars and rose to become Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia Command, in the later stages of the Second World War. He subsequently oversaw the transition of British India to independence as the last Viceroy and the first Governor‑General of independent India. As the last viceroy of India, Mountbatten also oversaw its partition into the Dominions of India and Pakistan and the integration of the princely states into India. Read more
• 27 Aug 1978: Gordon Matta-Clark, American painter and illustrator (born 1943) Gordon Matta-Clark was an American artist best known for site-specific artworks he made in the 1970s. He was also a pioneer in the field of socially engaged food art. Read more
• 27 Aug 1978: Ieva Simonaitytė, Lithuanian author and poet (born 1897) Ieva Simonaitytė or Ewa Simoneit was a Lithuanian writer. She represented the culture of Lithuania Minor and Klaipėda Region, territories of German East Prussia with historically large, but dwindling, Lithuanian populations. She received critical acclaim for her novel Aukštujų Šimonių likimas. Read more
• 27 Aug 1978: Helmi Üprus, Estonian art historian (born 1911) Helmi Üprus was an Estonian architectural and art historian. She trained in Romance languages, studied English and ethnography, and earned a master's degree in art history from the University of Tartu in 1936. She worked her way up to head the cultural history department of the Estonian National Museum, where she researched folk art. In 1947, she began working at the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the Estonian SSR. Persecuted by Stalinism she lost her job in 1950 and worked in a factory until Stalin's death. From 1953, she was the chief specialist in architecture and history for the government monument restoration service. Read more
• 27 Aug 1975: Haile Selassie, Ethiopian emperor (born 1892) Haile Selassie I was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as the Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia under Empress Zewditu between 1916 and 1930. Read more
• 27 Aug 1971: Bennett Cerf, American publisher, co-founded Random House (born 1898) Bennett Alfred Cerf was an American writer, publisher, and co-founder of the American publishing firm Random House. Cerf was also known for his own compilations of jokes and puns, for regular personal appearances lecturing across the United States, and for his weekly television appearances for 16 years on the panel game show What's My Line? Read more
• 27 Aug 1971: Margaret Bourke-White, American photographer and journalist (born 1906) Margaret Bourke-White was an American documentary photographer and photojournalist. She was known as an architectural and commercial photographer for the first half of her career, representing corporate clients and highlighting the success of industrial capitalism with black and white images of steel factories and skyscrapers. In 1930, she became the first foreign photographer granted official access to document industrial sites in the Soviet Union during the first five-year plan. In 1933, she was commissioned to create the NBC photomural, a monumental photomural about radio for its rotunda at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, then considered the largest photomural in the world. The success of her corporate commissions led her to work at Fortune magazine in the 1930s. She took the photograph of the construction of Fort Peck Dam that became the cover of the first issue of Life magazine. Read more
• 27 Aug 1969: Ivy Compton-Burnett, English author (born 1884) Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett, was an English novelist, published in the original editions as I. Compton-Burnett. She was awarded the 1955 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for her novel Mother and Son. Her works consist mainly of dialogue and focus on family life among the late Victorian or Edwardian upper middle class. Read more
• 27 Aug 1969: Erika Mann, German actress and author (born 1905) Erika Julia Hedwig Mann was a German actress and writer, daughter of the novelist Thomas Mann. Read more
• 27 Aug 1968: Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark (born 1906) Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark, later Duchess of Kent, was a Greek and Danish princess by birth and a British princess by marriage. A granddaughter of King George I of Greece and Queen Olga, she was the daughter of Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark and Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia. In 1934, she married Prince George, Duke of Kent, the fourth son of King George V and Queen Mary. They had three children: Edward, Alexandra, and Michael. She was widowed in 1942, when her husband was killed in a plane crash while on active service, and remained active in royal duties throughout her later life, attending public engagements across the Commonwealth, including the independence celebrations for Ghana and Botswana. She died in 1968, aged 61. Read more
• 27 Aug 1967: Brian Epstein, English businessman and manager (born 1934) Brian Samuel Epstein was an English music entrepreneur who managed the Beatles from 1961 until his death in 1967. Read more
• 27 Aug 1965: Le Corbusier, Swiss-French architect and urban planner, designed the Philips Pavilion (born 1887) Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, known as Le Corbusier, was a French-Swiss architectural designer, painter, urban planner and writer who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland to French-speaking Swiss parents and acquired French nationality in 1930. He designed buildings in Europe, Japan, India, and the Americas during a five-decade career. He considered that "the roots of modern architecture are to be found in Viollet-le-Duc." Read more
• 27 Aug 1964: Gracie Allen, American actress and comedian (born 1895) Grace Ethel Cecile Rosalie Allen was an American vaudevillian, singer, actress, and comedian who became famous as the zany partner and comic foil of husband George Burns, her straight man, appearing with him on radio, television and film as the duo Burns and Allen. Read more
• 27 Aug 1963: W. E. B. Du Bois, American sociologist, historian, and activist (born 1868) William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was an American sociologist, writer, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in a relatively tolerant and integrated community. He completed graduate work at Harvard University, where he was the first African American to earn a doctorate. He was a professor at Atlanta University and over the course of his life wrote many books and articles. He spent the last years of his life in Ghana and died in Accra on August 27, 1963. Read more
• 27 Aug 1963: Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi, Pakistani mathematician and scholar (born 1888) Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi, also known by the honorary title Allama Mashriqi, was a British Indian, and later, Pakistani mathematician, logician, political theorist, Islamic scholar and the founder of the Khaksar movement. Read more
• 27 Aug 1958: Ernest Lawrence, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1901) Ernest Orlando Lawrence was an American physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1939 for his invention of the cyclotron. He is known for his work on uranium-isotope separation for the Manhattan Project, as well as for founding the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Read more
• 27 Aug 1956: Pelageya Shajn, Russian astronomer and academic (born 1894) Pelageya Fedorovna Shajn, née Sannikova, was a Russian astronomer in the Soviet Union, and the first woman credited with the discovery of a minor planet, at the Simeiz Observatory in 1928. Pelageya also discovered numerous variable stars and co-discovered the periodic, Jupiter-family comet 61P/Shajn–Schaldach. She was married to prominent Soviet astronomer Grigory Shajn. Read more
• 27 Aug 1950: Cesare Pavese, Italian author, poet, and critic (born 1908) Cesare Pavese was an Italian novelist, poet, short story writer, translator, literary critic, and essayist. He is often referred to as one of the most influential Italian writers of his time. Read more
• 27 Aug 1948: Charles Evans Hughes, American lawyer and politician, 11th Chief Justice of the United States (born 1862) Charles Evans Hughes was an American politician, academic, and jurist who served as the 11th chief justice of the United States from 1930 to 1941. A member of the Republican Party, he previously was the 36th governor of New York (1907–1910), an associate justice of the Supreme Court (1910–1916), and 44th U.S. secretary of state (1921–1925). He was the Republican nominee in the 1916 presidential election, narrowly losing to incumbent president Woodrow Wilson. Read more
• 27 Aug 1945: Hubert Pál Álgyay, Hungarian engineer, designed the Petőfi Bridge (born 1894) Hubert Pál Álgyay was a Hungarian engineer and lecturer. Read more
• 27 Aug 1944: Georg von Boeselager, German soldier (born 1915) Georg von Boeselager was a German nobleman and an officer in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany, who led the Nazi security warfare operations in the Army Group Centre Rear Area on the Eastern Front, calling for extreme measures, including deporting all males in "gang-infested areas" and shooting those who remained. Read more
• 27 Aug 1935: Childe Hassam, American painter and academic (born 1859) Frederick Childe Hassam was an American Impressionist painter, noted for his urban and coastal scenes. Along with Mary Cassatt and John Henry Twachtman, Hassam was instrumental in promulgating Impressionism to American collectors, dealers, and museums. He produced over 3,000 paintings, oils, watercolors, etchings, and lithographs over the course of his career, and was an influential American artist of the early 20th century. Read more
• 27 Aug 1931: Frank Harris, Irish-American journalist and author (born 1856) Frank Harris was an Irish-American editor, novelist, short story writer, journalist and publisher, who was friendly with many well-known figures of his day. Read more
• 27 Aug 1931: Willem Hubert Nolens, Dutch priest and politician (born 1860) Wilhelmus Hubertus "Wiel" Nolens was a Dutch politician and a Roman Catholic priest. Read more
• 27 Aug 1931: Francis Marion Smith, American miner and businessman (born 1846) Francis Marion Smith was an American miner, business magnate and civic builder in the Mojave Desert, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Oakland, California. He was known nationally and internationally as "Borax Smith" and "The Borax King", as his company produced the popular 20-Mule-Team Borax brand of household cleaner. Read more
• 27 Aug 1929: Herman Potočnik, Croatian-Austrian engineer (born 1892) Herman Potočnik was an Austrian officer, electrical engineer and astronautics theorist. He is regarded as a pioneer and visionary of modern space flight and is remembered mainly for his work concerning the long-term human habitation of space. Read more
• 27 Aug 1922: Reşat Çiğiltepe, Turkish colonel (born 1879) Reşat Çiğiltepe was an officer of the Ottoman Army and the Turkish Army, having fought in the Balkan wars, and in World War 1 during the Gallipoli campaign and the Battle of Muş. He committed suicide on 27 August 1922 during the Battle of Dumlupınar, because he promised the commander of the Turkish forces, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, that he would capture the strategically-located village of Hacan located on a hill within 30 minutes. Because his unit failed to achieve that objective, he committed suicide. The village was captured 45 minutes after his death, and he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Independence. He is one of the most honored heroes of the Turkish War of Independence. Read more
• 27 Aug 1909: Emil Christian Hansen, Danish physiologist and mycologist (born 1842) Emil Christian Hansen was a Danish mycologist and fermentation physiologist. Read more
• 27 Aug 1903: Kusumoto Ine, first Japanese female doctor of Western medicine (born 1827) Kusumoto Ine was a Japanese physician. She was the first female doctor of Western medicine in Japan. Read more
• 27 Aug 1891: Samuel C. Pomeroy, American businessman and politician (born 1816) Samuel Clarke Pomeroy was a United States senator from Kansas in the mid-19th century. He served in the United States Senate during the American Civil War. Pomeroy also served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. A Republican, he also was the mayor of Atchison, Kansas, from 1858 to 1859, the second president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, and the first president to oversee any of the railroad's construction and operations. Pomeroy succeeded Cyrus K. Holliday as president of the railroad on January 13, 1864. Read more
• 27 Aug 1875: William Chapman Ralston, American businessman and financier, founded the Bank of California (born 1826) William Chapman Ralston was a San Francisco businessman and financier, and the founder of the Bank of California. Read more
• 27 Aug 1871: William Whiting Boardman, American lawyer and politician (born 1794) William Whiting Boardman was a politician and United States Representative from Connecticut. Read more
• 27 Aug 1865: Thomas Chandler Haliburton, Canadian judge and politician (born 1796) Thomas Chandler Haliburton was a Nova Scotia-born judge, author, novelist, and Conservative MP in Britain. He was the first internationally bestselling fiction author from what is now Canada. Read more
• 27 Aug 1857: Rufus Wilmot Griswold, American anthologist, poet, and critic (born 1815) Rufus Wilmot Griswold was an American anthologist, editor, poet, and critic. Born in Vermont, Griswold left home when he was 15 years old. He worked as a journalist, editor, and critic in Philadelphia, New York City, and elsewhere. He built a strong literary reputation, in part due to his 1842 collection The Poets and Poetry of America. This anthology, the most comprehensive of its time, included what he deemed the best examples of American poetry. He produced revised versions and similar anthologies for the remainder of his life, although many of the poets he promoted have since faded into obscurity. Many writers hoped to have their work included in one of these editions, although they commented harshly on Griswold's abrasive character. Griswold was married three times: his first wife died young, his second marriage ended in a public and controversial divorce, and his third wife left him after the previous divorce was almost repealed. Read more
• 27 Aug 1828: Eise Eisinga, Dutch astronomer and academic, built the Eisinga Planetarium (born 1744) Eise Jeltes Eisinga was a Frisian astronomer who built the Eise Eisinga Planetarium in his house in Franeker, Dutch Republic. The orrery still exists and is the oldest functioning planetarium in the world. Read more

Why is 27 August Important in History?

27 August is important because many political, cultural, scientific, educational and social events took place on this date. These facts are useful for students, exam aspirants and readers interested in daily history and general knowledge.

History of Today 27 August for Competitive Exams

Questions based on today in history, famous personalities, historical events and important dates are often asked in UPSC, SSC, Banking, Railway, Defence and State PSC examinations.

👉 View complete History of Today archive

Frequently Asked Questions

What happened on 27 August in history?

On 27 August, many important historical events, famous births and notable deaths occurred across the world.

Why is History of Today important for exams?

History of Today helps students remember important dates, events and personalities for competitive exams like UPSC, SSC, Banking, Railway and PSC.

Where can I read daily history facts?

You can read daily history facts on this History of Today section, updated regularly with important events, births and deaths.