History of Today in India – 27 February

Explore the history of today 27 February in India, including important events, famous personalities, and milestones for UPSC SSC,Banking & PSC exams.

Last updated on 27 February 2026, 04:20 AM

📜 Important Events on 27 February in World History

• 27 Feb 2019: Pakistan Air Force JF-17 Thunder downs Indian pilot Abhinandan Varthaman's Mig-21 in an aerial dogfight and captures him after conducting airstrikes in Jammu and Kashmir. Read more
• 27 Feb 2015: Russian politician Boris Nemtsov is assassinated in Moscow while out walking with his girlfriend. Read more
• 27 Feb 2013: A shooting takes place at a factory in Menznau, Switzerland, in which five people (including the perpetrator) are killed and five others injured. Read more
• 27 Feb 2010: An earthquake measuring 8.8 on the moment magnitude scale strikes central parts of Chile leaving over 500 victims, and thousands injured. The quake triggers a tsunami which strikes Hawaii shortly after. Read more
• 27 Feb 2008: Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist Mas Selamat Kastari escapes from a detention center in Singapore, hiding in Johor, Malaysia until he was recaptured over a year later. Read more
• 27 Feb 2007: Chinese stock bubble of 2007: The Shanghai Stock Exchange falls 9%, the largest daily fall in ten years, following speculation about a crackdown on illegal share offerings and trading, and fears about accelerating inflation. Read more
• 27 Feb 2004: A bombing of a SuperFerry by Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines' worst terrorist attack kills more than 100 passengers. Read more
• 27 Feb 2004: Shoko Asahara, the leader of the Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo, is sentenced to death for masterminding the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attack. Read more
• 27 Feb 2002: Ryanair Flight 296 catches fire at London Stansted Airport causing minor injuries. Read more
• 27 Feb 2002: Godhra train burning: A Muslim mob torches a train returning from Ayodhya, killing 59 Hindu pilgrims. Read more
• 27 Feb 2001: Loganair Flight 670A crashes while attempting to make a water landing in the Firth of Forth in Scotland. Read more
• 27 Feb 1991: Gulf War: U.S. President George H. W. Bush announces that "Kuwait is liberated". Read more
• 27 Feb 1988: Sumgait pogrom: The Armenian community in Sumgait, Azerbaijan is targeted in a violent pogrom. Read more
• 27 Feb 1976: The former Spanish territory of Western Sahara, under the auspices of the Polisario Front declares independence as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. Read more
• 27 Feb 1973: The American Indian Movement occupies Wounded Knee in protest of the federal government. Read more
• 27 Feb 1971: Doctors in the first Dutch abortion clinic (the Mildredhuis in Arnhem) start performing artificially-induced abortions. Read more
• 27 Feb 1964: The Government of Italy asks for help to keep the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over. Read more
• 27 Feb 1963: The Dominican Republic receives its first democratically elected president, Juan Bosch, since the end of the dictatorship led by Rafael Trujillo. Read more
• 27 Feb 1962: Vietnam War: Two dissident Republic of Vietnam Air Force pilots bomb the Independence Palace in Saigon in a failed attempt to assassinate South Vietnam President Ngô Đình Diệm. Read more
• 27 Feb 1961: The first congress of the Spanish Trade Union Organisation is inaugurated. Read more
• 27 Feb 1951: The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting Presidents to two terms, is ratified. Read more
• 27 Feb 1943: The Smith Mine #3 in Bearcreek, Montana, explodes, killing 74 men. Read more
• 27 Feb 1943: The Holocaust: In Berlin, the Gestapo arrest 1,800 Jewish men with German wives, leading to the Rosenstrasse protest. Read more
• 27 Feb 1942: World War II: During the Battle of the Java Sea, an Allied strike force is defeated by a Japanese task force in the Java Sea in the Dutch East Indies. Read more
• 27 Feb 1940: Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discover carbon-14. Read more
• 27 Feb 1939: United States labor law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules in NLRB v. Fansteel Metallurgical Corp. that the National Labor Relations Board has no authority to force an employer to rehire workers who engage in sit-down strikes. Read more
• 27 Feb 1933: Reichstag fire: Germany's parliament building in Berlin, the Reichstag, is set on fire; Marinus van der Lubbe, a young Dutch Communist claims responsibility. Read more
• 27 Feb 1932: The Mäntsälä rebellion begins when members of the far-right Lapua Movement start shooting at the social democrats' event in Mäntsälä, Finland. Read more
• 27 Feb 1922: A challenge to the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, allowing women the right to vote, is rebuffed by the Supreme Court of the United States in Leser v. Garnett. Read more
• 27 Feb 1921: The International Working Union of Socialist Parties is founded in Vienna. Read more
• 27 Feb 1916: Ocean liner SS Maloja strikes a mine near Dover and sinks with the loss of 155 lives. Read more
• 27 Feb 1902: Second Boer War: Australian soldiers Harry "Breaker" Morant and Peter Handcock are executed in Pretoria after being convicted of war crimes. Read more
• 27 Feb 1900: Second Boer War: In South Africa, British military leaders receive an unconditional notice of surrender from Boer General Piet Cronjé at the Battle of Paardeberg. Read more
• 27 Feb 1900: The British Labour Party is founded. Read more
• 27 Feb 1900: Fußball-Club Bayern München is founded. Read more
• 27 Feb 1898: King George I of Greece survives an assassination attempt. Read more
• 27 Feb 1881: First Boer War: The Battle of Majuba Hill takes place. Read more
• 27 Feb 1870: The current flag of Japan is first adopted as the national flag for Japanese merchant ships. Read more
• 27 Feb 1864: American Civil War: The first Northern prisoners arrive at the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia. Read more
• 27 Feb 1860: Abraham Lincoln makes a speech at Cooper Union in the city of New York that plays an important role in his election to the Presidency. Read more
• 27 Feb 1859: United States representative Daniel Sickles, after learning of an affair between his wife and Attorney General Philip Barton Key II, murders him in Washington, D.C. Read more
• 27 Feb 1844: The Dominican Republic gains independence from Haiti. Read more
• 27 Feb 1812: Argentine War of Independence: Manuel Belgrano raises the Flag of Argentina in the city of Rosario for the first time. Read more
• 27 Feb 1812: Poet Lord Byron gives his first address as a member of the House of Lords, in defense of Luddite violence against Industrialism in his home county of Nottinghamshire. Read more
• 27 Feb 1809: Action of 27 February 1809: Captain Bernard Dubourdieu captures HMS Proserpine. Read more
• 27 Feb 1801: Pursuant to the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801, Washington, D.C. is placed under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress. Read more

🎂 Important Births on 27 February in World History

• 27 Feb 2002: Johnny Davis, American basketball player Jonathan Christian Davis is an American professional basketball player for the Wisconsin Herd of the NBA G League. He played college basketball for the Wisconsin Badgers. Read more
• 27 Feb 1998: Todd Cantwell, English footballer Todd Owen Cantwell is an English professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for and captains EFL Championship club Blackburn Rovers. Read more
• 27 Feb 1996: Chris Godwin, American football player Rod Christopher Godwin Jr. is an American professional football wide receiver for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Penn State Nittany Lions and was selected by the Buccaneers in the third round of the 2017 NFL draft. He won a Super Bowl championship with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in their victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LV. Read more
• 27 Feb 1996: Ten, Thai singer and dancer Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul, known professionally as Ten, is a Thai singer, dancer, and rapper based in South Korea and China. He debuted with South Korean boy band NCT in 2016 as part of its first sub-unit, NCT U. Since 2019, he has been active mainly as a member of NCT's China-based unit WayV and the South Korean supergroup SuperM. Ten has also released several solo singles through the SM Station project: "Dream in a Dream" (2017), "New Heroes" (2018), "Paint Me Naked" (2021), and "Birthday" (2022). He made his solo debut in February 2024 with his eponymous extended play. Read more
• 27 Feb 1995: Laura Gulbe, Latvian tennis player Laura Gulbe is a Latvian tennis player. Read more
• 27 Feb 1995: Sergej Milinković-Savić, Serbian footballer Sergej Milinković-Savić, also known mononymously as Sergej, is a Serbian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Saudi Pro League club Al Hilal. Read more
• 27 Feb 1995: Tomáš Souček, Czech footballer Tomáš Souček is a Czech professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Premier League club West Ham United and captains the Czech Republic national team. Read more
• 27 Feb 1994: Mike Matheson, Canadian ice hockey player Michael Matheson is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a defenceman and alternate captain for the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected in the first round, 23rd overall, by the Florida Panthers in the 2012 NHL entry draft. Matheson has also previously played for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Read more
• 27 Feb 1993: Alphonse Areola, French footballer Alphonse Francis Areola is a French professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Premier League club West Ham United and the France national team. Read more
• 27 Feb 1992: Meyers Leonard, American basketball player Meyers Patrick Leonard is an American former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the Illinois Fighting Illini before being selected by the Portland Trail Blazers with the 11th overall pick in the 2012 NBA draft. After spending his first seven seasons with the Trail Blazers, he was traded to the Miami Heat in the 2019 off-season. He reached the NBA Finals with the Heat in 2020. No NBA player who is at least 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) has a career three point shot field goal percentage of 40%, but Leonard is one of the few that has one over 39%. Read more
• 27 Feb 1992: Ioannis Potouridis, Greek footballer Ioannis Potouridis is a Greek professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for the Greek club Aris Petroupolis. Read more
• 27 Feb 1992: Jonjo Shelvey, English footballer Jonjo Shelvey is an English professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for UAE Second Division League side Arabian Falcons. Read more
• 27 Feb 1992: Callum Wilson, English footballer Callum Eddie Graham Wilson is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker for Premier League club West Ham United. Read more
• 27 Feb 1991: Azeem Rafiq, Pakistani cricketer Azeem Rafiq is an English cricketer who played professionally in England for Yorkshire County Cricket Club. A right-arm off-spin bowler, Rafiq played for the county between 2008 and 2014 and 2016 and 2018, making his senior debut at the age of 17. He captained the England under-15 and under-19 teams, and in 2012 became the youngest man to captain a Yorkshire team as well as the first person of Asian origin to do so. Read more
• 27 Feb 1990: Chandler Jones, American football player Chandler James Jones is an American former professional football player who was a defensive end in the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons. He played college football for the Syracuse Orange and was selected by the New England Patriots in the first round of the 2012 NFL draft. He also played for the Arizona Cardinals and the Las Vegas Raiders. Read more
• 27 Feb 1990: Adam Morgan, American baseball player Adam Christopher Morgan is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies and the Chicago Cubs. Read more
• 27 Feb 1990: Lindsey Morgan, American actress Lindsey Marie Morgan is an American actress. She is known for playing Raven Reyes in the CW science fiction drama series The 100 (2014–2020) and Micki Ramirez in the action crime drama series Walker (2021–2022). Read more
• 27 Feb 1989: David Button, English footballer David Robert Edmund Button is an English professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for EFL Championship club Ipswich Town. Read more
• 27 Feb 1989: Lloyd Rigby, English footballer Lloyd Joseph Rigby is an English professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper. Read more
• 27 Feb 1988: Dustin Jeffrey, Canadian ice hockey player Dustin Jeffrey is a Canadian former professional ice hockey center who played in the National Hockey League (NHL). Jeffrey was drafted as the 171st overall selection in the sixth round of the 2007 NHL Entry Draft by the Penguins. Read more
• 27 Feb 1988: Iain Ramsay, Australian footballer Iain Irinco Ramsay is a former professional footballer who played as a left winger or a left back. Born in Australia, he played for the Philippines national team. He previously made competitive appearances for Sydney FC, Melbourne City, Sydney Olympic, Adelaide United, Tractor Sazi, Ceres–Negros and Felda United. Read more
• 27 Feb 1987: Valeriy Andriytsev, Ukrainian wrestler Valerii Oleksandrovych Andriitsev is a male freestyle wrestler from Ukraine. He won the silver medal in the Men's freestyle 96 kg at 2012 Summer Olympics. He won the silver in the 2012 European Wrestling Championships. At the 2014 World Wrestling Championships he took the bronze medal after winning a rematch against American Jake Varner, who beat him in the gold medal match at the 2012 Olympics. In June 2015, he earned bronze at the inaugural European Games for Ukraine in wrestling, more specifically, in the men's freestyle in the – 97 kg division. Read more
• 27 Feb 1987: Florence Kiplagat, Kenyan runner Florence Jebet Kiplagat is a Kenyan professional long-distance runner. She is a two-time world champion, having won at the 2009 IAAF World Cross Country Championships and the 2010 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships. She was the world record holder for the women's half marathon with a time of 1:05:09 hours until it was broken by Peres Jepchirchir on 10 February 2017 at the RAK Half Marathon. Read more
• 27 Feb 1986: Yovani Gallardo, Mexican baseball player Yovani Gallardo is a Mexican former professional baseball pitcher. He was selected by the Milwaukee Brewers in the second round of the 2004 Major League Baseball draft out of Trimble Technical High School in Fort Worth, Texas. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Milwaukee Brewers, Baltimore Orioles, Texas Rangers, Seattle Mariners, and Cincinnati Reds. Gallardo was an All-Star in 2010, and won the Silver Slugger Award for pitchers that year. Read more
• 27 Feb 1986: Daniel Gibson, American basketball player and coach Daniel Hiram "Boobie" Gibson is an American former professional basketball player. He was selected by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round of the 2006 NBA draft and played seven seasons for them. Read more
• 27 Feb 1986: Jonathan Moreira, Brazilian footballer Jonathan Cícero Moreira, sometimes known as just Jonathan, is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a right-back. Read more
• 27 Feb 1986: Sandeep Singh, Indian field hockey player Sandeep Singh is an Indian professional field hockey player from Haryana and an ex-captain of the Indian national hockey team. He generally features as a full back and is a penalty corner specialist for the team. He has been dubbed "Flicker Singh" in the media for his specialization of the drag-flick, one of the fastest in the world. Read more
• 27 Feb 1985: Asami Abe, Japanese singer and actress Asami Abe is a former Japanese singer and actress, also known as the younger sister of Japanese singer and actress Natsumi Abe. She started her career doing commercials for Nintendo Puzzle Collection, and she has also appeared in a few TV dramas. Read more
• 27 Feb 1985: Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, Russian footballer Diniyar Rinatovich Bilyaletdinov is a Russian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Read more
• 27 Feb 1985: Vladislav Kulik, Ukrainian-Russian footballer Vladislav Mikhailovich Kulik is a Russian former footballer who played as a central midfielder. Born and raised in Poltava, Ukraine, he decided to represent Russia on international level. Read more
• 27 Feb 1985: Thiago Neves, Brazilian footballer Thiago Neves Augusto is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. Read more
• 27 Feb 1984: James Augustine, American basketball player James Augustine is a retired American professional basketball player who played as a forward. During the career he played college basketball for the Illinois Fighting Illini before being drafted 41st overall in the 2006 NBA draft by the Orlando Magic. Later he relocated in Europe and concluded his playing career for Malaga. Augustine has played over 400 official games in different clubs. Read more
• 27 Feb 1984: Jumbo Díaz, Dominican baseball player Jose Rafael "Jumbo" Diaz is a Dominican former professional baseball relief pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cincinnati Reds and Tampa Bay Rays. He made his MLB debut in 2014. Diaz is nicknamed "Jumbo" for his large size; MLB.com lists him at 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) and 315 pounds (143 kg). Read more
• 27 Feb 1984: Akseli Kokkonen, Norwegian ski jumper Akseli Ensio "Axu" Kokkonen is a Norwegian former ski jumper who competed from 2001 to 2010. He originally had Finnish nationality, but from the 2009/10 World Cup season onwards he represented Norway. Read more
• 27 Feb 1984: Aníbal Sánchez, Venezuelan baseball player Aníbal Alejandro Sánchez Jr. is a Venezuelan former professional baseball pitcher. He made his Major League Baseball (MLB) debut in 2006 with the Florida Marlins and also played for the Detroit Tigers, Atlanta Braves, and Washington Nationals. On September 6, 2006, in his 13th career Major League start, Sánchez pitched a no-hitter against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Read more
• 27 Feb 1984: Lotta Schelin, Swedish footballer Charlotta Eva Schelin is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a forward. Read more
• 27 Feb 1984: Denard Span, American baseball player Keiunta Denard Span is an American former professional baseball center fielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Minnesota Twins, Washington Nationals, San Francisco Giants, Tampa Bay Rays and Seattle Mariners. Read more
• 27 Feb 1983: Devin Harris, American basketball player Devin Lamar Harris is an American sports analyst and former professional basketball player. He played for 15 seasons, primarily with the Dallas Mavericks and New Jersey Nets. Read more
• 27 Feb 1983: Kate Mara, American actress Kate Rooney Mara is an American actress. She is known for her work in television, playing reporter Zoe Barnes in the Netflix political drama House of Cards, computer analyst Shari Rothenberg in the Fox thriller series 24 (2006), wronged mistress Hayden McClaine in the FX miniseries American Horror Story: Murder House (2011), Patty Bowes in the first season of the FX drama series Pose (2018), and a teacher involved with an underage student in the FX miniseries A Teacher (2020). Read more
• 27 Feb 1982: Ali Bastian, English actress Alexandra Louise Bastian is an English actress, known for her roles as Becca Dean in the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, Sally Armstrong in the ITV drama series The Bill and Becky Clarke in the BBC soap opera Doctors. She has also competed in the seventh series of Strictly Come Dancing. Read more
• 27 Feb 1982: Pat Richards, Australian rugby league player Pat Richards is a former professional rugby league footballer. An Ireland international winger, he played in the National Rugby League for Sydney clubs the Parramatta Eels and the Wests Tigers, with whom he won the 2005 NRL Premiership, and the Wigan Warriors and the Catalans Dragons in the Super League, winning the 2010 and 2013 Super League Grand Finals with the former. While in Super League, Richards won the Man of Steel award in 2010 and is the highest overseas points-scorer in the competition's history. Read more
• 27 Feb 1982: Bruno Soares, Brazilian tennis player Bruno Fraga Soares is a Brazilian former professional tennis player who specialised in doubles. Read more
• 27 Feb 1981: Natalie Grandin, English-South African tennis player Natalie Grandin is a retired tennis player from South Africa. She achieved a career-high singles ranking of 144 as of 12 September 2005. On 14 May 2012, she peaked at No. 22 in the doubles rankings. Read more
• 27 Feb 1981: Josh Groban, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor Joshua Winslow Groban is an American singer, songwriter, and actor. His first four solo albums have been certified multi-platinum, and he was charted in 2007 as the number-one best selling artist in the United States, with over 22.3 million records. As of 2022, he had sold over 25 million records worldwide. Read more
• 27 Feb 1981: Élodie Ouédraogo, Belgian sprinter Élodie Ouédraogo is a retired Belgian sprinter of Burkinabé descent, who specializes in the 200 metres and 400 m hurdles. An Olympic gold medalist, her personal best time in the 200 m is 23.11 seconds, achieved in July 2004 in Brussels, while her personal best in the 400 m hurdles is 55.20, achieved at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
  Ouédraogo is also the joint third-fastest Belgian woman after Kim Gevaert and Olivia Borlée and equalling Nancy Callaerts with her best 100 metres time of 11.40. Her 200 metres best ranks her fourth amongst Belgian women after Gevaert, Borlée and Hanna Mariën. Her 400 m hurdles best places her as the second-fastest Belgian woman over the distance, after Ann Mercken. Read more
• 27 Feb 1980: Brandon Beemer, American actor Brandon Beemer is an American actor, best known for his role in the soap operas as Shawn-Douglas Brady in the NBC/Peacock soap opera Days of Our Lives and Owen Knight in the CBS daytime series The Bold and the Beautiful (2008–12). Read more
• 27 Feb 1980: Chelsea Clinton, American journalist and academic Chelsea Victoria Clinton is an American writer. She is the only child of former U.S. President Bill Clinton and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Read more
• 27 Feb 1980: Bobby V, American singer-songwriter Bobby Marcel Wilson, better known by his stage name Bobby V, is an American R&B singer. Born in Jackson, Mississippi and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, he formed the R&B group Mista in 1994, prior to signing with Ludacris' record label, Disturbing tha Peace, in 2005. Read more
• 27 Feb 1978: James Beattie, English footballer and manager James Scott Beattie is an English football coach and a former professional footballer who played as a striker. He is currently a first-team coach at Reading. Read more
• 27 Feb 1978: Kakha Kaladze, Georgian footballer and politician Kakhaber "Kakha" Kaladze is a Georgian politician and former footballer who has served as the Mayor of Tbilisi since November 2017. A versatile player, he was capable of playing as both a centre-back and left-back, or even as a wide midfielder. He played for the Georgia national team from 1996 to 2011. He was voted Georgian Footballer of the Year in 2001–2003, 2006 and 2011 and was considered one of Georgia's most important players. Read more
• 27 Feb 1978: Emelie Öhrstig, Swedish skier and cyclist Emelie Öhrstig, born 27 February 1978 in Borås, Sweden, is a Swedish cross-country skier and road racing cyclist. As a cross-country skier she who won a gold medal during the 2005 Nordic World Ski Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany. She also has eleven additional victories up to 15 km from 2002 to 2005, and her best individual finish in Turin at the 2006 Winter Olympics was 22nd in the individual sprint. Read more
• 27 Feb 1978: Simone Di Pasquale, Italian ballet dancer Simone Di Pasquale is an Italian dancer, television personality, and dance teacher. Read more
• 27 Feb 1976: Ludovic Capelle, Belgian cyclist Ludovic Capelle is a Belgian former professional road racing cyclist. He was professional from 1998 until 2009, riding for Ville de Charleroi–New Systems (1998–2000), AG2R Prévoyance (2001–2002), Landbouwkrediet–Colnago (2003–2005), Roubaix–Lille Métropole (2007), Rietumu Banka–Riga (2008) and Continental Team Differdange (2009). He rode the 2001 Tour de France and recorded victories at Scheldeprijs Vlaanderen (2003), Dwars door Vlaanderen (2004) and Grand Prix d'Isbergues (2004). Read more
• 27 Feb 1976: Cornelia Ecker, Austrian politician Cornelia Ecker is an Austrian politician and former member of the National Council. A member of the Social Democratic Party, she represented Salzburg from October 2013 to September 2023. She has been mayor of Bürmoos since June 2023. Read more
• 27 Feb 1976: Tony Gonzalez, American football player Anthony David Gonzalez is an American former professional football tight end who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 17 seasons. Gonzalez spent his first 12 seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs, who selected him in the first round of the 1997 NFL draft. During his last five seasons, he was a member of the Atlanta Falcons. Since retiring in 2013, Gonzalez has served as a football analyst for NFL on Prime Video and was previously at CBS Sports and Fox Sports. Read more
• 27 Feb 1976: Sergei Semak, Ukrainian-Russian footballer and manager Sergei Bogdanovich Semak is a Russian football manager and a former international midfielder who manages Russian Premier League side Zenit Saint Petersburg. Read more
• 27 Feb 1975: Aitor González, Spanish racing driver Aitor González Jiménez is a Spanish former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 1998 and 2005, and was the winner of the 2002 Vuelta a España. Read more
• 27 Feb 1975: Prodromos Korkizoglou, Greek decathlete Prodromos Korkizoglou is a Greek decathlete. He is the current holder of the national decathlon record and his highest distinction was the gold medal at the 2001 Mediterranean Games. He also competed at two Olympic Games, two World Championships and one European Championships. Read more
• 27 Feb 1974: Carte Goodwin, former United States senator from West Virginia Carte Patrick Goodwin is an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from West Virginia in 2010. A member of the Democratic Party, he was appointed by Governor Joe Manchin on July 16, 2010 to fill the vacancy created by the death of Robert Byrd. He chose not to seek election to finish Byrd’s unexpired term. Goodwin left office on November 15, 2010 when Manchin was sworn in after being elected to the Senate. Read more
• 27 Feb 1973: Peter Andre, English-Australian singer-songwriter and actor Peter Andre is a British-Australian singer, songwriter, and media personality. Read more
• 27 Feb 1972: Richard Coyle, English actor Richard Coyle is an English film, television, and stage actor. He has also narrated numerous audiobooks. Read more
• 27 Feb 1971: Sara Blakely, American businesswoman, founded Spanx Sara Treleaven Blakely is an American businesswoman and philanthropist. She founded Spanx, an intimate apparel company with pants and leggings, in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2012, Blakely was named in Time magazine's "Time 100" annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2014, she was listed as the 93rd most powerful woman in the world by Forbes. Read more
• 27 Feb 1971: Derren Brown, English magician and painter Derren Brown is an English mentalist, illusionist, and writer. He is a self-described "psychological illusionist" whose acts are often designed to expose the methods of those who claim to possess supernatural powers, such as faith healers and mediums. His live performances, which incorporate audience participation and comedy, often include statements describing how his effects are achieved through a combination of psychology, showmanship, magic, misdirection, and suggestion. Read more
• 27 Feb 1971: Roman Giertych, Polish lawyer and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland Roman Jacek Giertych is a Polish political figure and attorney, who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Poland and Minister of National Education from 2006 to 2007. Read more
• 27 Feb 1971: David Rikl, Czech-English tennis player David Rikl is a former professional tennis player from the Czech Republic. His success came mostly in doubles, winning 30 titles and finishing runner-up at the 2004 US Open and 2001 Wimbledon Championships Doubles events. He also achieved a singles ranking of world No. 41 in May 1994. Read more
• 27 Feb 1971: Rozonda Thomas, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress Rozonda Ocielian Thomas, also known by her stage name Chilli, is an American singer, dancer and actress who is a member of the group TLC, one of the best-selling girl groups of the late 1990s. Read more
• 27 Feb 1970: Kent Desormeaux, American jockey Kent Jason Desormeaux is an American thoroughbred horse racing Hall of Fame jockey who holds the U.S. record for most races won in a single year with 598 wins in 1989. He has won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes three times each, and the Belmont Stakes once. Aboard Real Quiet, he lost the 1998 Triple Crown by a nose. Read more
• 27 Feb 1970: Patricia Petibon, French soprano and actress Patricia Josette Petibon is a French soprano. Read more
• 27 Feb 1969: Juan E. Gilbert, American computer scientist, inventor, and academic Juan E. Gilbert is an American computer scientist, researcher, inventor, and educator. An advocate of diversity in the computing sciences, Gilbert's efforts to increase the number of underrepresented minorities in the computing disciplines have been recognized by professional engineering organizations and the United States government. Read more
• 27 Feb 1968: Matt Stairs, Canadian baseball player and sportscaster Matthew Wade Stairs is a Canadian former professional baseball outfielder, first baseman, and designated hitter, who holds the record for most pinch-hit home runs in Major League Baseball (MLB) history with 23. His pinch-hit home run in the eighth inning of Game 4 in the 2008 National League Championship Series off the Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Jonathan Broxton was called "one of the most memorable home runs in Phillies history". Read more
• 27 Feb 1967: Jony Ive, English-American industrial designer, former chief design officer of Apple Sir Jonathan Paul Ive is a British-American designer. He is best known for his work at Apple Inc., where he was senior vice president of industrial design and chief design officer. Ive is the founder of LoveFrom, a creative collective that works with Ferrari, Airbnb, OpenAI and other global brands. He has been chancellor of the Royal College of Art in London since 2017 and a trustee of the British Museum since June 2025. Read more
• 27 Feb 1967: Dănuț Lupu, Romanian footballer Dănuț Lupu is a Romanian former professional footballer who played as a central midfielder.
  Read more
• 27 Feb 1966: Baltasar Kormákur, Icelandic actor, director, and producer Baltasar Kormákur Baltasarsson is an Icelandic actor, theatre and film director, and film producer. He directed the films 101 Reykjavík, The Sea, A Little Trip to Heaven, Contraband, 2 Guns, Everest, Touch, and the TV series Katla. Read more
• 27 Feb 1966: Donal Logue, Canadian actor and director Donal Francis Logue is a Canadian-American film and television actor. He played the starring role of Sean Finnerty on the sitcom Grounded for Life (2001–05), and Detective Harvey Bullock on the DC Comics adaptation Gotham (2014–19). He is also known for playing flight nurse Chuck Martin on ER (2003–05), Lee Toric on Sons of Anarchy (2012–13), Horik on Vikings (2013–14), and the recurring role of Lt. Declan Murphy on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Read more
• 27 Feb 1966: Oliver Reck, German footballer and manager Oliver Reck is a German football manager and former player. Read more
• 27 Feb 1965: Pedro Chaves, Portuguese racing driver Pedro António Matos Chaves is a Portuguese racing driver. Read more
• 27 Feb 1965: Noah Emmerich, American actor Noah Nicholas Emmerich is an American actor and director best known for his roles in films such as Beautiful Girls (1996), The Truman Show (1998), Frequency (2000), Miracle (2004), Little Children (2006), and Super 8 (2011). From 2013 to 2018 he starred as FBI agent Stan Beeman on the FX series The Americans, for which he won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2019. Read more
• 27 Feb 1964: Jeffrey Pasley, American educator and academic
  Jeffrey Lingan Pasley is a professor of American history at the University of Missouri, specializing in the Early Republic. Read more
• 27 Feb 1963: Nasty Suicide, Finnish musician and pharmacist Nasty Suicide, sometimes known as Nasty Homicide, is a Finnish guitarist. He is most famous for being one of the founding members of Hanoi Rocks and the group's rhythm guitarist between 1979 and 1985. Hanoi Rocks was a Finnish rock band that combined elements of punk, glam rock, rock and roll, and blues. Read more
• 27 Feb 1962: Adam Baldwin, American actor Adam Baldwin is an American actor. He made his film debut in My Bodyguard (1980). He later appeared in Full Metal Jacket (1987) as Animal Mother, and in the television series Firefly and its continuation film Serenity as Jayne Cobb. His roles include Stillman in Ordinary People (1980), Colonel John Casey in Chuck, and Mike Slattery in The Last Ship. Read more
• 27 Feb 1962: Grant Show, American actor Grant Show is an American actor. Show is widely known for his role on Melrose Place as Jake Hanson, which he played from 1992 to 1997. From 2017 to 2022, he portrayed Blake Carrington in the soap opera reboot Dynasty. Read more
• 27 Feb 1961: James Worthy, American basketball player and sportscaster James Ager Worthy is an American former professional basketball player. Nicknamed "Big Game James", he played his entire professional career with the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Worthy was a seven-time NBA All-Star, a two-time All-NBA Team member who won three NBA championships and was voted the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 1988. He was named to both the NBA's 50th and 75th anniversary teams. Read more
• 27 Feb 1960: Andrés Gómez, Ecuadorian tennis player Andrés Gómez Santos is an Ecuadorian former professional tennis player. He was ranked as high as world No. 4 in singles and world No. 1 in doubles. Gómez won 21 singles titles and 33 doubles titles during his career, including a singles major at the 1990 French Open, and two doubles majors at the 1986 US Open and the 1988 French Open. Read more
• 27 Feb 1960: Johnny Van Zant, American singer-songwriter John Roy Van Zant is an American singer and the current lead vocalist of Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. He is the younger brother of Lynyrd Skynyrd co-founder and former lead vocalist Ronnie Van Zant, and of the 38 Special founder Donnie Van Zant. Read more
• 27 Feb 1958: Naas Botha, South African rugby player and sportscaster Hendrik Egnatius 'Naas' Botha is a South African former rugby union player who played as a Fly-half for Northern Transvaal, Rugby Rovigo and South Africa. Read more
• 27 Feb 1958: Maggie Hassan, American politician, 81st Governor of New Hampshire Margaret Wood Hassan is an American politician and attorney serving as the junior United States senator for New Hampshire since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Hassan was the 81st governor of New Hampshire, from 2013 to 2017. Read more
• 27 Feb 1957: Danny Antonucci, Canadian animator, producer, and screenwriter Daniel Antonucci is a Canadian animator, cartoonist, director, producer, writer, and voice actor. He created the Cartoon Network animated comedy series Ed, Edd n Eddy as well as Lupo the Butcher and The Brothers Grunt for MTV. He has also provided additional voice roles Read more
• 27 Feb 1957: Kevin Curran, American screenwriter and television producer (died 2016) Kevin Patrick Curran was an American television comedy writer. He wrote for Late Night with David Letterman, Married… with Children, and The Simpsons. He was also the voice of Buck the Dog on Married… with Children. Read more
• 27 Feb 1957: Robert de Castella, Australian runner Francois Robert de Castella is an Australian former world champion marathon runner. Read more
• 27 Feb 1957: Adrian Smith, English guitarist and songwriter Adrian Frederick Smith is an English guitarist and singer best known as a member of heavy metal band Iron Maiden, for whom he also writes songs and performs backing vocals. Read more
• 27 Feb 1957: Timothy Spall, English actor Timothy Leonard Spall is an English actor. He gained recognition for his character actor roles on stage and screen.
  In 2000, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II. Read more
• 27 Feb 1956: Meena Keshwar Kamal, Afghan activist, founded the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (died 1987) Meena Keshwar Kamal, commonly known as Meena, was an Afghan revolutionary political activist, women's rights activist, and founder of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). She was assassinated in 1987. Read more
• 27 Feb 1956: Belus Prajoux, Chilean tennis player Belus Prajoux Nadjar is a retired professional tennis player from Chile. Read more
• 27 Feb 1954: Neal Schon, American rock guitarist and singer-songwriter Neal Joseph Schon is an American musician and songwriter, best known as the co-founder and lead guitarist for the rock band Journey. He is the last original member to remain throughout the group's history. He was a member of the rock band Santana before forming Journey. He was also a member of the group Bad English during Journey's hiatus from 1987 to 1995, as well as an original member of Hardline. Read more
• 27 Feb 1953: Gavin Esler, Scottish journalist and author Gavin William James Esler is a Scottish journalist, television presenter and author. He was a main presenter on BBC Two's flagship political analysis programme, Newsnight, from January 2003 until January 2014, and presenter of BBC News at Five on the BBC News Channel. From 2014 to 2023 he served as the Chancellor of the University of Kent. On 11 March 2017, Esler confirmed via his Twitter profile that he would be leaving the BBC at the end of the month to concentrate on his writing activities. He returned to the BBC later that year as host of Talking Books. Read more
• 27 Feb 1953: Ian Khama, English-Botswanan lieutenant and politician, 4th President of Botswana Seretse Khama Ian Khama is a Motswana politician and former military officer who was the fourth President of the Republic of Botswana from 1 April 2008 to 1 April 2018. After serving as Commander of the Botswana Defence Force, he entered politics and was Vice-President of Botswana from 1998 to 2008, then succeeded Festus Mogae as president on 1 April 2008. He won a full term in the 2009 election and was re-elected in October 2014. Read more
• 27 Feb 1953: Stelios Kouloglou, Greek journalist, author, director and politician Stelios Kouloglou is a Greek journalist, writer, and documentary director. He is the creator of the news web channel "TVXS". Political analyst and major Greek publications columnist in international press including Le Monde Diplomatique. Read more
• 27 Feb 1952: Dwight Jones, American basketball player (died 2016) Dwight Elmo Jones was an American professional basketball player. A 6'10" forward/center, he was the leading scorer and rebounder on the 1972 Olympic team that lost the controversial gold medal game to the Soviet Union. Jones was ejected from the gold medal game after an altercation with a Soviet player. Later it was revealed that the Soviets intentionally provoked him as they saw him as the leader of the U.S. team and wanted to get him out. Read more
• 27 Feb 1951: Carl A. Anderson, 13th Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus Carl Albert Anderson is an American lawyer who served as the thirteenth Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus from October 2000 until his retirement in February 2021. Read more
• 27 Feb 1951: Lee Atwater, American journalist, activist and political strategist (died 1991) Harvey LeRoy "Lee" Atwater was an American political consultant and strategist for the Republican Party. He was an adviser to Republican U.S. presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush and chairman of the Republican National Committee. Atwater aroused controversy through his aggressive campaign tactics, especially the Southern strategy. Read more
• 27 Feb 1951: Walter de Silva, Italian car designer Walter Maria de Silva is an Italian car designer and former head of Volkswagen Group Design, until 2015. Since beginning his car design career in 1972 as trainee car designer for Fiat's Style Centre, De Silva has also worked as a designer at I.DE.A Institute, and as head of design for Alfa Romeo, SEAT and the 'Audi brand group'. He is presently President of the Design Studio Walter De Silva Automotive. Read more
• 27 Feb 1951: Steve Harley, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2024) Stephen Malcolm Ronald Nice, known by his stage name Steve Harley, was an English singer-songwriter and frontman of the rock group Cockney Rebel. The band achieved five UK hit albums, including The Psychomodo (1974) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1975), and six UK hit singles in the mid-1970s, including "Judy Teen", "Mr. Soft", and the number one "Make Me Smile ". Harley later scored a further three UK hit singles as a solo artist, most notably with "The Phantom of the Opera", a duet with Sarah Brightman, in 1986. Read more
• 27 Feb 1950: Annabel Goldie, Scottish lawyer and politician Annabel MacNicoll Goldie, Baroness Goldie is a Scottish politician and life peer who served as Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party from 2005 to 2011 and Minister of State for Defence from 2019 to 2023. She was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), as one of the additional members for the West Scotland region, from 1999 to 2016. Read more
• 27 Feb 1950: Julia Neuberger, Baroness Neuberger, English rabbi and politician Julia Babette Sarah Neuberger, Baroness Neuberger, is a British rabbi and politician. She was the second woman to be ordained as a rabbi in the UK and the first to lead a synagogue. Read more
• 27 Feb 1949: Mary Gibby, British botanist and professor (died 2024) Professor Mary Gibby was a British botanist, pteridologist and cytologist. She was an expert on ferns, becoming president of the British Pteridological Society and long-time editor of its journal, the Fern Gazette. Gibby particularly studied the cytology of the genera Dryopteris and Pelargonium. Read more
• 27 Feb 1949: Debra Monk, American actress, singer, and writer Debra Monk is an American actress, singer, and writer, best known for her performances on the Broadway stage. She is the recipient of a Tony Award (1993), two Drama Desk Awards, the Helen Hayes Award (1994), the Obie Award (2000) and an Emmy Award (1999) for her work. Read more
• 27 Feb 1947: Alan Guth, American physicist and cosmologist Alan Harvey Guth is an American theoretical physicist and cosmologist who is the Victor Weisskopf Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Along with Alexei Starobinsky and Andrei Linde, he won the 2014 Kavli Prize "for pioneering the theory of cosmic inflation." Guth's research focuses on elementary particle theory and how particle theory is applicable to the early universe. Read more
• 27 Feb 1947: Gidon Kremer, Latvian violinist and conductor Gidon Markusovich Kremer is a Latvian classical violinist, artistic director, and founder of Kremerata Baltica. Read more
• 27 Feb 1947: Sonia Manzano Vela, Ecuadorian writer Sonia Manzano Vela is an Ecuadorian writer and poet. Read more
• 27 Feb 1944: Ken Grimwood, American author (died 2003) Kenneth Milton Grimwood was an American author, who also published work under the name of Alan Cochran. In his fantasy fiction, Grimwood combined themes of life-affirmation and hope with metaphysical concepts, themes found in his best-known novel, Replay (1986). It won the 1988 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel. Read more
• 27 Feb 1944: Graeme Pollock, South African cricketer and coach Robert Graeme Pollock is a South African former cricketer who played for Transvaal and Eastern Province. A member of a famous cricketing family, Pollock is widely regarded as one of South Africa's greatest ever cricketers, and as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. Despite Pollock's international career being cut short at the age of 26 by the sporting boycott of South Africa, and all but one of his 23 Test matches being against England and Australia, the leading cricket nations of the day, he broke a number of records. His completed career Test match batting average of 60.97 remains the third best behind Sir Don Bradman and Adam Voges. Read more
• 27 Feb 1944: Roger Scruton, English philosopher and writer (died 2020) Sir Roger Vernon Scruton was an English philosopher, writer, and social critic who specialised in aesthetics and political philosophy, particularly in the furtherance of conservative views. The founding-editor of The Salisbury Review, a conservative political journal, Scruton wrote over 50 books on architecture, art, philosophy, politics, religion, among other topics. Scruton was also Chairman of the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission for the United Kingdom's government, from 2019 to 2020. His views on classical architecture and beauty are still promoted via his foundation, while his political stances remain influential. Read more
• 27 Feb 1943: Mary Frann, American actress (died 1998) Mary Frann was an American stage, film, and television actress. Read more
• 27 Feb 1943: Morten Lauridsen, American composer and conductor Morten Johannes Lauridsen III is an American composer and teacher. A National Medal of Arts recipient (2007), he was composer-in-residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale from 1994 to 2001, and is professor emeritus of composition at the USC Thornton School of Music, where he taught for fifty-two years until his retirement in 2019. Read more
• 27 Feb 1943: Carlos Alberto Parreira, Brazilian footballer and manager Carlos Alberto Gomes Parreira is a Brazilian former football manager who holds the record for attending the most FIFA World Cup final tournaments as manager with six appearances. He also managed five different national teams in five editions of the FIFA World Cup. He managed Brazil to victory at the 1994 World Cup, the 2004 Copa América, and the 2005 Confederations Cup. He is also the only manager to have led two different Asian teams to conquer the AFC Asian Cup. Read more
• 27 Feb 1942: Jimmy Burns, American singer-songwriter and guitarist Jimmy Burns is an American soul blues and electric blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although he was born in the Mississippi Delta, Burns has spent nearly all his life in Chicago. His elder brother, Eddie "Guitar" Burns, was a Detroit blues musician. Read more
• 27 Feb 1942: Robert H. Grubbs, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2021) Robert Howard Grubbs ForMemRS was an American chemist and the Victor and Elizabeth Atkins Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. He was a co-recipient of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on olefin metathesis. Read more
• 27 Feb 1942: Charlayne Hunter-Gault, American journalist Alberta Charlayne Hunter-Gault is an American civil rights activist, journalist and former foreign correspondent for National Public Radio, CNN, and the Public Broadcasting Service. Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes were the first African-American students to attend the University of Georgia. Read more
• 27 Feb 1942: Klaus-Dieter Sieloff, German footballer (died 2011) Klaus-Dieter Sieloff was a German footballer who played as a defender. He spent 11 seasons in the Bundesliga with VfB Stuttgart and Borussia Mönchengladbach. He played in two World Cup Qualifying matches in 1966. Read more
• 27 Feb 1941: Paddy Ashdown, British soldier and politician (died 2018) Jeremy John Durham Ashdown, Baron Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, better known as Paddy Ashdown, was a British politician and diplomat who served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 1988 to 1999. Internationally, he is recognised for his role as High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2002 to 2006, following his vigorous lobbying for military action against Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Read more
• 27 Feb 1940: Pierre Duchesne, Canadian lawyer and politician, 28th Lieutenant Governor of Quebec Pierre Duchesne is a Canadian public servant who was the 28th Lieutenant Governor of Quebec and former secretary general of the National Assembly of Quebec. As lieutenant governor he was the viceregal representative of Queen Elizabeth II of Canada in the Province of Quebec. His appointment was made by Governor General of Canada Michaëlle Jean, on the Constitutional advice of Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper, and announced on May 18, 2007. Read more
• 27 Feb 1940: Howard Hesseman, American actor (died 2022) Howard Hesseman was an American actor known for his television roles as burned-out disc jockey Dr. Johnny Fever on WKRP in Cincinnati and the lead role of history teacher Charlie Moore on Head of the Class. He appeared regularly on television and in film from the 1970s to 2010s, with his other noteworthy roles including Sam Royer in the last two seasons of One Day at a Time and a supporting role as Captain Pete Lassard in the film Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment (1985). Read more
• 27 Feb 1940: Bill Hunter, Australian actor (died 2011) William John Hunter was an Australian actor of film, stage and television, who was also prominent as a voice-over artist. He appeared in more than 60 films and won two AFI Awards. He was also a recipient of the Centenary Medal. Read more
• 27 Feb 1939: Don McKinnon, English-New Zealand farmer and politician, 12th Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand Sir Donald Charles McKinnon is a New Zealand politician who served as the 12th deputy prime minister of New Zealand and the minister of Foreign Affairs of New Zealand. He was the fourth secretary-general of the Commonwealth of Nations from 2000 until 2008. Read more
• 27 Feb 1939: Peter Revson, American race car driver (died 1974) Peter Jeffrey Revlon Revson was an American racing driver, who competed in Formula One between 1964 and 1974. Revson won two Formula One Grands Prix across five seasons. Read more
• 27 Feb 1938: Jake Thackray, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and journalist (died 2002) John Philip "Jake" Thackray was an English singer-songwriter, poet, humourist and journalist. Best known in the late 1960s and early 1970s for his topical comedy songs performed on British television, his work ranged from satirical to bawdy to sentimental to pastoral, with a strong emphasis on storytelling, making him difficult to categorise. Read more
• 27 Feb 1937: Barbara Babcock, American actress Barbara Babcock is an American actress. She began her career on television in mid-1950s with guest-starring appearances in more than 60 television series through her career. She made several appearances on Star Trek: The Original Series, Mannix and Murder, She Wrote and had a recurring role in the CBS prime time soap opera, Dallas from 1978 to 1982. Read more
• 27 Feb 1936: Ron Barassi, Australian footballer and coach (died 2023) Ronald Dale Barassi was an Australian rules footballer, coach and media personality. Regarded as one of the greatest and most important figures in the history of the game, Barassi was the first player to be inaugurated into the Australian Football Hall of Fame as a "Legend", and he is one of four Australian rules footballers to be elevated to the same status in the Sport Australia Hall of Fame. Read more
• 27 Feb 1936: Sonia Johnson, American feminist activist and author Sonia Ann Johnson, is an American feminist activist and writer. She was an outspoken supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and in the late 1970s was publicly critical of the position of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which she was a member, against the proposed amendment. She was eventually excommunicated from the church for her activities. She went on to publish several radical feminist books, ran for president in 1984, and become a popular feminist speaker. Read more
• 27 Feb 1936: Roger Mahony, American cardinal Roger Michael Mahony is an American Catholic retired prelate who served as archbishop of Los Angeles in California from 1985 to 2011. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Fresno in California from 1975 to 1980 and bishop of the Diocese of Stockton in California from 1980 to 1985. Read more
• 27 Feb 1935: Mirella Freni, Italian soprano and actress (died 2020) Mirella Freni was an Italian operatic soprano who had a career of 50 years and appeared at major international opera houses. She received international attention at the Glyndebourne Festival, where she appeared as Mozart's Zerlina in Mozart's Don Giovanni and Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, and as Adina in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore. Read more
• 27 Feb 1935: Uri Shulevitz, American author and illustrator Uri Shulevitz was an American writer and illustrator of children's books. He won the 1969 Caldecott Medal for U.S. picture book illustration, recognizing The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship, an Eastern European fairy tale retold by Arthur Ransome in 1916. Read more
• 27 Feb 1934: Vincent Fourcade, French interior designer (died 1992) Vincent Gabriel Fourcade was a French interior designer and the business and life partner of Robert Denning. "Outrageous luxury is what our clients want," he once said. Read more
• 27 Feb 1934: N. Scott Momaday, American poet and writer (died 2024) Navarre Scotte Momaday was a Kiowa and American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. His novel House Made of Dawn was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1969, and is considered the first major work of the Native American Renaissance. Read more
• 27 Feb 1934: Ralph Nader, American lawyer, politician, and activist Ralph Nader is an American lawyer and political activist involved in consumer protection, environmentalism, and government reform causes. He is a perennial presidential candidate. His 1965 book Unsafe at Any Speed, which criticized the automotive industry for its safety record, helped lead to the passage of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act in 1966. Read more
• 27 Feb 1933: Raymond Berry, American football player and coach Raymond Emmett Berry Jr. is an American former professional football player and coach in the National Football League (NFL). He played as a split end for the Baltimore Colts from 1955 to 1967, and after several assistant coaching positions, was head coach of the New England Patriots from 1984 to 1989. With the Colts, Berry led the NFL in receptions and receiving yards three times and in receiving touchdowns twice, and was invited to six Pro Bowls. The Colts won consecutive NFL championships, including the 1958 NFL Championship Game—known as "The Greatest Game Ever Played"—in which Berry caught 12 passes for 178 yards and a touchdown. He retired as the all-time NFL leader in both receptions and receiving yardage. Read more
• 27 Feb 1933: Malcolm Wallop, American politician (died 2011) Malcolm Wallop was an American rancher and politician. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a United States Senator from Wyoming for three terms from 1977 to 1995, after three terms in the Wyoming Legislature. Read more
• 27 Feb 1932: Elizabeth Taylor, English-American actress and humanitarian (died 2011) Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was a British and American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. She then became the world's highest-paid movie star in the 1960s, remaining a well-known public figure for the rest of her life. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked her seventh on its greatest female screen legends list. Read more
• 27 Feb 1932: David Young, Baron Young of Graffham, English businessman and politician, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (died 2022) David Ivor Young, Baron Young of Graffham, was a British Conservative politician, businessman, and life peer. He served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Employment and Secretary of State for Trade and Industry under Margaret Thatcher, and later reported to government on health and safety, small business and government procurement. Read more
• 27 Feb 1930: Jovan Krkobabić, Serbian politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia (died 2014) Jovan Krkobabić was a Serbian politician. He was the leader of the Party of United Pensioners of Serbia, Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia in charge of social affairs, appointed on 7 July 2008 and Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Policies from 27 July 2012 until his death on 22 April 2014. Read more
• 27 Feb 1930: Peter Stone, American screenwriter and producer (died 2003) Peter Hess Stone was an American screenwriter and playwright. Stone is perhaps best remembered by the general public for the screenplays he wrote or co-wrote in the mid-1960s, Charade (1963), Father Goose (1964), and Mirage (1965). Read more
• 27 Feb 1930: Paul von Ragué Schleyer, American chemist and academic (died 2014) Paul von Ragué Schleyer was an American physical organic chemist whose research is cited with great frequency. A 1997 survey indicated that Dr. Schleyer was, at the time, the world's third most cited chemist, with over 1100 technical papers produced. He was Eugene Higgins Professor of Chemistry at Princeton University, professor and co-director of the Institute for Organic Chemistry at the University of Erlangen–Nuremberg in Germany, and later Graham Perdue Professor of Chemistry at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia. He published twelve books in the fields of lithium chemistry, ab initio molecular orbital theory and carbonium ions. He was past president of the World Association of Theoretically Oriented Chemists, a fellow of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science and editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Computational Chemistry. Read more
• 27 Feb 1930: Joanne Woodward, American actress Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward is an American retired actress. She made her career breakthrough in the 1950s and earned esteem and respect playing complex women with a characteristic nuance and depth of character. Her accolades include an Academy Award, three Primetime Emmy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She is the oldest living winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress. Read more
• 27 Feb 1929: Jack Gibson, Australian rugby league player, coach, and sportscaster (died 2008) John Arthur Gibson OAM was an Australian rugby league coach, player, and commentator. He is widely considered one of the greatest coaches in the sport's history, Nicknamed 'Supercoach', he was highly regarded not only for his coaching record but also for his thirst for innovation. Read more
• 27 Feb 1929: Djalma Santos, Brazilian footballer (died 2013) Djalma Pereira Dias dos Santos, known simply as Djalma Santos was a Brazilian footballer who starred for the Brazil national team in four World Cups and winning the 1958 and 1962 editions. Santos is considered to be one of the greatest right-backs of all time. While primarily known for his defensive skills, he often ventured upfield and displayed some impressive technical and attacking skills. Read more
• 27 Feb 1929: Patricia Ward Hales, British tennis player (died 1985) Patricia Ward Hales was a tennis player from the United Kingdom who reached the singles final of the 1955 U.S. Championships, losing to Doris Hart. Read more
• 27 Feb 1928: René Clemencic, Austrian composer, recorder player, harpsichordist, conductor and clavichord player (died 2022)
  René Clemencic was an Austrian composer, conductor, harpsichordist, clavichordist and recorder player. Read more
• 27 Feb 1927: Aira Samulin, Finnish dancer and entrepreneur (died 2023) Aira Laila Suvio-Samulin was a Finnish dance teacher and businesswoman. Read more
• 27 Feb 1927: Peter Whittle, English-New Zealand mathematician and theorist (died 2021) Peter Whittle was a mathematician and statistician from New Zealand, working in the fields of stochastic nets, optimal control, time series analysis, stochastic optimisation and stochastic dynamics. From 1967 to 1994, he was the Churchill Professor of Mathematics for Operational Research at the University of Cambridge. Read more
• 27 Feb 1926: David H. Hubel, Canadian-American neurophysiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2013) David Hunter Hubel was an American Canadian neurophysiologist noted for his studies of the structure and function of the visual cortex. He was co-recipient with Torsten Wiesel of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for their discoveries concerning information processing in the visual system. For much of his career, Hubel worked as the Professor of Neurobiology at Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Medical School. In 1978, Hubel and Wiesel were awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University. In 1983, Hubel received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. Read more
• 27 Feb 1925: Kenneth Koch, American poet, playwright and professor (died 2002) Kenneth Koch was an American poet, playwright, and professor, active from the 1950s until his death at age 77.) He was a prominent poet of the New York School of poetry. This was a loose group of poets including Frank O'Hara and John Ashbery that eschewed contemporary introspective poetry in favor of an exuberant, cosmopolitan style that drew major inspiration from travel, painting, and music. Comical, narrative, punning and exuberant are adjectives that have been associated with his work. Read more
• 27 Feb 1925: Pia Sebastiani, Argentine pianist and composer (died 2015) Olimpia Ana Pía Sebastiani was an Argentine pianist and composer. Read more
• 27 Feb 1923: Dexter Gordon, American saxophonist, composer, and actor (died 1990) Dexter Gordon was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. He was among the most influential early bebop musicians. Gordon's height was 6 feet 6 inches (198 cm), so he was also known as "Long Tall Dexter" and "Sophisticated Giant". His studio and performance career spanned more than 40 years. Read more
• 27 Feb 1922: Hans Rookmaaker, Dutch historian, author, and scholar (died 1977) Henderik Roelof "Hans" Rookmaaker was a Dutch Christian scholar, professor, and author who wrote and lectured on art theory, art history, music, philosophy, and religion. Read more
• 27 Feb 1921: Theodore Van Kirk, American soldier, pilot, and navigator (died 2014) Theodore Jerome "Dutch" Van Kirk was a navigator in the United States Army Air Forces, best known as the navigator of the Enola Gay when it dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Upon the death of fellow crewman Morris Jeppson on March 30, 2010, Van Kirk became the last surviving member of the Enola Gay crew. Read more
• 27 Feb 1920: Reg Simpson, English cricketer (died 2013) Reginald Thomas Simpson was an English cricketer, who played in 27 Test matches from 1948 to 1955. Read more
• 27 Feb 1919: Chick Halbert, American basketball player (died 2013) Charles Pinkney "Chick" Halbert IV was an American professional basketball player. Read more
• 27 Feb 1919: Johnny Pesky, American baseball player and manager (died 2012) John Michael Pesky, nicknamed "the Needle" and "Mr. Red Sox", was an American professional baseball player, manager and coach in Major League Baseball (MLB). He was a shortstop and third baseman during a ten-year major league playing career, appearing in 1,270 games played in 1942 and from 1946 to 1954 for three teams. He missed the 1943–45 seasons while serving in World War II. Pesky was associated with the Boston Red Sox for 61 of his 73 years in baseball—from 1940 through June 3, 1952, 1961 through 1964, and from 1969 until his death. Pesky also managed the Red Sox from 1963 to 1964, and in September 1980. Read more
• 27 Feb 1917: John Connally, American lieutenant and politician, 39th Governor of Texas and 61st United States Secretary of Treasury (died 1993) John Bowden Connally Jr. was an American politician who served as the 39th governor of Texas from 1963 to 1969 and as the 61st United States secretary of the treasury from 1971 to 1972. He began his career as a Democrat and became a Republican in 1973. Read more
• 27 Feb 1915: Denis Whitaker, Canadian general, football player, and businessman (died 2001) Brigadier William Denis Whitaker, was a Canadian athlete, soldier, businessman, and author. Read more
• 27 Feb 1913: Paul Ricœur, French philosopher and academic (died 2005) Jean Paul Gustave Ricœur was a French philosopher best known for combining phenomenological description with hermeneutics. As such, his thought is within the same tradition as other major hermeneutic phenomenologists, Martin Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer, and Gabriel Marcel. In 2000, he was awarded the Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy for having "revolutionized the methods of hermeneutic phenomenology, expanding the study of textual interpretation to include the broad yet concrete domains of mythology, biblical exegesis, psychoanalysis, theory of metaphor, and narrative theory." Read more
• 27 Feb 1913: Kazimierz Sabbat, Polish soldier and politician, President of Poland (died 1989) Kazimierz Aleksander Sabbat, was President of Poland-in-exile from 8 April 1986 until his death, 19 July 1989, after serving as Prime Minister of the Polish government-in-exile. Read more
• 27 Feb 1913: Irwin Shaw, American author and screenwriter (died 1984) Irwin Shaw was an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story author whose written works have sold more than 14 million copies. He is best known for two of his novels: The Young Lions (1948), about the fate of three soldiers during World War II, which was made into a film of the same name starring Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift, and Rich Man, Poor Man (1970), about the fate of two brothers and a sister in the post-World War II decades, which in 1976 was made into a popular miniseries starring Peter Strauss, Nick Nolte, and Susan Blakely. Read more
• 27 Feb 1912: Lawrence Durrell, British author, poet, and playwright (died 1990) Lawrence George Durrell was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer. He was the eldest brother of naturalist and writer Gerald Durrell. Read more
• 27 Feb 1912: Kusumagraj, Indian author, poet, and playwright (died 1999) Vishnu Vaman Shirwadkar, popularly known by his pen name, Kusumāgraj, was a Marathi poet, playwright, novelist and short story writer, who wrote of freedom, justice and emancipation of the deprived. Read more
• 27 Feb 1911: Oscar Heidenstam, English bodybuilder (died 1991) Oscar Frederick Heidenstam was a Cyprus-born British bodybuilding champion and physical culturist. He was president of the World Amateur Body Building Association (WABBA), the National Amateur Bodybuilders Association (NABBA), and NABBA International. He is 'The Father of British Bodybuilding'. Read more
• 27 Feb 1910: Joan Bennett, American actress (died 1990) Joan Geraldine Bennett was an American stage, film, and television actress, one of three acting sisters from a show-business family. Beginning her career on the stage, Bennett appeared in more than 70 films from the era of silent films, well into the sound era. She is best remembered for her film noir femme fatale roles in director Fritz Lang's films—including Man Hunt (1941), The Woman in the Window (1944), and Scarlet Street (1945)—and for her television role as matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard in the gothic 1960s soap opera Dark Shadows, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Daytime Programming at the 20th Primetime Emmy Awards in 1968. Read more
• 27 Feb 1910: Peter De Vries, American journalist and author (died 1993) Peter De Vries was an American editor and novelist known for his satiric wit. Read more
• 27 Feb 1910: Kelly Johnson, American engineer, co-founded Skunk Works (died 1990) Clarence Leonard "Kelly" Johnson was an American aeronautical and systems engineer. He is recognized for his contributions to a series of important aircraft designs, most notably the Lockheed U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird. Besides the first production aircraft to exceed Mach 3, he also produced the first fighter capable of Mach 2, the United States' first operational jet fighter, as well as the first fighter to exceed 400 mph, and many other contributions to various aircraft. Read more
• 27 Feb 1910: Genrikh Kasparyan, Armenian chess player and composer (died 1995) Genrikh Kasparyan was an Armenian chess player. He is considered to have been one of the greatest composers of chess endgame studies. Read more
• 27 Feb 1907: Mildred Bailey, American singer (died 1951) Mildred Bailey was a Skitswish jazz singer during the 1930s, known as "The Queen of Swing", "The Rockin' Chair Lady", and "Mrs. Swing". Read more
• 27 Feb 1907: Momčilo Đujić, Serbian-American priest and commander (died 1999) Momčilo Đujić was a Serbian Orthodox priest and Chetnik vojvoda. He led a significant proportion of the Chetniks within the northern Dalmatia and western Bosnia regions of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), a fascist puppet state created from parts of the occupied Kingdom of Yugoslavia during World War II. In this role he collaborated extensively with the Italian and then the German occupying forces against the communist-led Partisan insurgency. Read more
• 27 Feb 1905: Tone Peruško, Croatian educator and social worker (died 1967) Tone Peruško, was a Croatian educator, social worker and writer. Read more
• 27 Feb 1905: Franchot Tone, American actor, singer, and producer (died 1968) Stanislaus Pascal Franchot Tone was an American actor, producer, and director of stage, film and television. He was a leading man in the 1930s and early 1940s, and at the height of his career was known for his gentlemanly sophisticate roles, with supporting roles by the 1950s. His acting crossed many genres including pre-Code romantic leads to noir layered roles and World War I films. He appeared as a guest star in episodes of several golden age television series, including The Twilight Zone and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour while continuing to act and produce in the theater and movies throughout the 1960s. Read more
• 27 Feb 1904: James T. Farrell, American author and poet (died 1979) James Thomas Farrell was an American novelist, short story writer and poet. Read more
• 27 Feb 1904: Yulii Borisovich Khariton, Russian physicist and academic (died 1996) Yulii Borisovich Khariton was a Russian physicist who was a leading scientist in the former Soviet program of nuclear weapons. Read more
• 27 Feb 1904: André Leducq, French cyclist (died 1980) André Leducq was a French cyclist who won the 1930 and 1932 Tours de France. He also won a gold medal at the 1924 Summer Olympics in the team road race event and the 1928 Paris–Roubaix. Read more
• 27 Feb 1903: Reginald Gardiner, English-American actor and singer (died 1980) William Reginald Gardiner was an English actor on the stage, in films and on television. Read more
• 27 Feb 1903: Hans Rohrbach, German mathematician (died 1993) Hans Rohrbach was a German mathematician. He worked both as an algebraist and a number theorist and later worked as cryptanalyst at Pers Z S, the German Foreign Office cipher bureau, during World War II. He was latterly known as the person who broke the American diplomatic O-2 cypher, a variant of the M-138-A strip cipher during 1943. Rohrbach wrote a report on the breaking of the strip cypher when he was captured by TICOM, the allied effort to roundup and seize captured German intelligence people and material. Read more
• 27 Feb 1903: Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Belarusian-American rabbi and philosopher (died 1993) Joseph Ber Soloveitchik was a major American Orthodox rabbi, Talmudist, and modern Jewish philosopher. He was a scion of the Lithuanian Jewish Soloveitchik rabbinic dynasty. Read more
• 27 Feb 1902: Lúcio Costa, French-Brazilian architect and engineer, designed Gustavo Capanema Palace (died 1998) Lúcio Marçal Ferreira Ribeiro Lima Costa was a Brazilian architect and urban planner, best known for his plan for Brasília. Read more
• 27 Feb 1902: Gene Sarazen, American golfer and sportscaster (died 1999) Gene Sarazen was an American professional golfer, one of the world's top players in the 1920s and 1930s, and the winner of seven major championships. He is one of six players to win each of the four majors at least once, now known as the Career Grand Slam:
  U.S. Open ,
  PGA Championship ,
  The Open Championship (1932), and
  Masters Tournament (1935). Read more
• 27 Feb 1902: John Steinbeck, American journalist and author, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1968) John Ernst Steinbeck was an American writer. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception". He has been called "a giant of American letters". Read more
• 27 Feb 1901: Marino Marini, Italian sculptor and academic (died 1980) Marino Marini was an Italian sculptor and educator. Read more
• 27 Feb 1901: Kotama Okada, Japanese religious leader (died 1974) Kōtama Okada was the founder of the Mahikari new religious movement (shinshūkyō) in Japan. Today, both Sukyo Mahikari and World Divine Light recognize him as the founder of their religions. Read more
• 27 Feb 1899: Charles Best, American-Canadian physiologist and biochemist, co-discovered insulin (died 1978) Charles Herbert Best, was an American-Canadian medical scientist and one of the co-discoverers of insulin with Frederick Banting. He served as the chair of the Banting and Best Department of Medical Research at the University of Toronto and was further involved in research concerning choline and heparin. Read more
• 27 Feb 1897: Marian Anderson, American singer (died 1993) Marian Anderson was an American contralto. She performed a wide range of music, from opera to spirituals. Anderson performed with renowned orchestras in major concert and recital venues throughout the United States and Europe between 1925 and 1965. Read more
• 27 Feb 1895: Miyagiyama Fukumatsu, Japanese sumo wrestler (died 1943) Miyagiyama Fukumatsu was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Ichinoseki, Iwate Prefecture. He was the sport's 29th yokozuna, and the last yokozuna in Osaka sumo. Read more
• 27 Feb 1892: William Demarest, American actor (died 1983) Carl William Demarest was an American actor, known especially for his supporting roles in screwball comedies by Preston Sturges and as Uncle Charley in the sitcom My Three Sons from 1965 until 1972. Demarest, who frequently played crusty but good-hearted roles, was a prolific film and television actor, appearing in over 140 films, beginning in 1926 and ending in the late 1970s. Before his career in movies, he performed in vaudeville for two decades. Read more
• 27 Feb 1891: David Sarnoff, American businessman, founded RCA (died 1971) David Sarnoff was a Russian-born American businessman who played an important role in the American history of radio broadcasting and television. He led the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) for most of his career in various capacities from shortly after its founding in 1919 until his retirement in 1970. Read more
• 27 Feb 1890: Mabel Keaton Staupers, American nurse and advocate (died 1989) Mabel Keaton Staupers was a pioneer in the American nursing profession. Faced with racial discrimination after graduating from nursing school, Staupers became an advocate for racial equality in the nursing profession. Read more
• 27 Feb 1888: Roberto Assagioli, Italian psychiatrist and psychologist (died 1974) Roberto Assagioli was an Italian psychiatrist and pioneer in the fields of humanistic and transpersonal psychology. Assagioli founded the psychological movement known as psychosynthesis, which is still being developed today by therapists and psychologists who practice the psychological methods and techniques he developed. Read more
• 27 Feb 1888: Lotte Lehmann, German-American soprano and actress (died 1976) Charlotte "Lotte" Pauline Sophie Lehmann was a German-American dramatic soprano noted for her successful performances with international opera houses, on the recital stage and in teaching. She gave memorable appearances in the operas of Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Ludwig van Beethoven, Puccini, Mozart, and Massenet. The Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, Sieglinde in Die Walküre and the title-role in Fidelio are considered her greatest roles. During her long career, Lehmann also made almost five hundred recordings in both opera and art song. Read more
• 27 Feb 1888: Stephen McKenna, English novelist (died 1967) Stephen McKenna was an English novelist who wrote forty-seven novels, mostly focusing on English upper-class society, and six non-fiction titles. He published his first novel, The Reluctant Lover, in 1912. His best-known novel, Sonia: Between Two Worlds, was published in 1917. It was the tenth best-selling novel for 1918 in the United States, and also made into a British film of the same name in 1921. Read more
• 27 Feb 1887: Pyotr Nesterov, Russian captain, pilot, and engineer (died 1914) Pyotr Nikolayevich Nesterov was a Russian pilot, aircraft designer and aerobatics pioneer. Read more
• 27 Feb 1886: Hugo Black, American captain, lawyer, politician, and associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (died 1971) Hugo Lafayette Black was an American lawyer, politician, and jurist who served as a U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1927 to 1937 and as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1937 to 1971. A member of the Democratic Party and a devoted New Dealer, Black endorsed Franklin D. Roosevelt in both the 1932 and 1936 presidential elections. Read more
• 27 Feb 1881: Sveinn Björnsson, Danish-Icelandic lawyer and politician, 1st President of Iceland (died 1952) Sveinn Björnsson was the first president of Iceland, serving from 1944 to 1952. Read more
• 27 Feb 1881: L. E. J. Brouwer, Dutch mathematician, philosopher, and academic (died 1966) Luitzen Egbertus Jan "Bertus" Brouwer was a Dutch mathematician and philosopher who worked in topology, set theory, measure theory and complex analysis. Regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century, he is known as one of the founders of modern topology, particularly for establishing his fixed-point theorem and the topological invariance of dimension. Read more
• 27 Feb 1880: Xenophon Kasdaglis, Greek-Egyptian tennis player (died 1943) Xenophon Emmanuel Kasdaglis, or Xenophon Casdagli, was an Egyptiote Greek – later a British citizen – tennis player. He competed in the 1906 Intercalated Games in Athens. Read more
• 27 Feb 1878: Alvan T. Fuller, American businessman and politician, 50th Governor of Massachusetts (died 1958) Alvan Tufts Fuller was an American businessman, politician, art collector, and philanthropist from Massachusetts. He opened one of the first automobile dealerships in Massachusetts, which in 1920 was recognized as "the world's most successful auto dealership", and made him one of the state's wealthiest men. Politically a Progressive Republican, he was elected a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1916, and served as a United States representative from 1917 to 1921. Read more
• 27 Feb 1877: Adela Verne, English pianist and composer (died 1952)
  Adela Verne was a distinguished English pianist of German descent, born in Southampton. She was considered the greatest woman pianist of her era, ranked alongside the male keyboard giants of the time. She toured with great success in many parts of the world. She composed a Military March dedicated to Queen Elizabeth, later the Queen Mother; her sister Mathilde's pupil. Read more
• 27 Feb 1877: Joseph Grinnell, American zoologist and biologist (died 1939) Joseph P. Grinnell was an American field biologist and zoologist. He made extensive studies of the fauna of California, and is credited with introducing a method of recording precise field observations known as the Grinnell System. He served as the first director of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley from the museum's inception in 1908 until his death. Read more
• 27 Feb 1875: Vladimir Filatov, Russian-Ukrainian ophthalmologist and surgeon (died 1956) Vladimir Petrovich Filatov was a Russian Empire and Soviet ophthalmologist and surgeon best known for his development of tissue therapy. He introduced the tube flap grafting method, corneal transplantation and preservation of grafts from cadaver eyes. He founded the Institute of Eye Diseases & Tissue Therapy in Odessa, Soviet Union. Filatov is also credited for restoring Vasily Zaytsev's sight when he suffered an injury to his eyes from a mortar attack during Battle of Stalingrad. Read more
• 27 Feb 1872: Alexandru Vaida-Voevod, Romanian politician, Prime Minister of Romania (died 1950) Alexandru Vaida-Voevod or Vaida-Voievod was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian politician who was a supporter and promoter of the union of Transylvania with the Romanian Old Kingdom. He later served as 28th Prime Minister of Romania. Read more
• 27 Feb 1869: Alice Hamilton, American physician and academic (died 1970) Alice Hamilton was an American physician, research scientist, and author. She was a leading expert in the field of occupational health, laid the foundation for health and safety protections, and a pioneer in the field of industrial toxicology. She led efforts to reduce lead poisoning. Read more
• 27 Feb 1867: Irving Fisher, American economist and statistician (died 1947) Irving Fisher was an American economist, statistician, inventor, eugenicist and progressive social campaigner. He was one of the earliest American neoclassical economists, though his later work on debt deflation has been embraced by the post-Keynesian school. Joseph Schumpeter described him as "the greatest economist the United States has ever produced", an assessment later repeated by James Tobin and Milton Friedman. Read more
• 27 Feb 1867: Wilhelm Peterson-Berger, Swedish composer and critic (died 1942) Olof Wilhelm Peterson-Berger was a Swedish composer and music critic. As a composer, his main musical influences were Grieg, August Söderman and Wagner as well as Swedish folk idiom. Read more
• 27 Feb 1864: Eemil Nestor Setälä, Finnish linguist and politician, Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs (died 1935) Eemil Nestor Setälä was a Finnish politician who served as Chairman of the Senate of Finland from September 1917 to November 1917, when he was author of the Finnish Declaration of Independence. Read more
• 27 Feb 1863: Joaquín Sorolla, Spanish painter (died 1923) Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida was a Spanish painter. Sorolla excelled in the painting of portraits, landscapes, and monumental works of social and historical themes. His most typical works are characterized by a dexterous representation of the people and landscape under the bright sunlight of Spain and sunlit water. Read more
• 27 Feb 1863: George Herbert Mead, American sociologist and philosopher (died 1930) George Herbert Mead was an American philosopher, sociologist, and psychologist, primarily affiliated with the University of Chicago. He was one of the key figures in the development of pragmatism. He is regarded as one of the founders of symbolic interactionism, and was an important influence on what has come to be referred to as the Chicago School of Sociology. Read more
• 27 Feb 1859: Bertha Pappenheim, Austrian-German activist and author (died 1936) Bertha Pappenheim was an Austrian-Jewish feminist, a social worker pioneer, and the founder of the Jewish Women's Association. Under the pseudonym Anna O., she was also one of Josef Breuer's best-documented patients because of Sigmund Freud's writings on Breuer's treatment of her. Read more
• 27 Feb 1848: Hubert Parry, English composer and historian (died 1918) Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet, was an English composer, teacher and historian of music. Born in Richmond Hill, Bournemouth, Parry's first major works appeared in 1880. As a composer he is best known for the choral song "Jerusalem", his 1902 setting for the coronation anthem "I was glad", the choral and orchestral ode Blest Pair of Sirens, and the hymn tune "Repton", which sets the words "Dear Lord and Father of Mankind". His orchestral works include five symphonies and a set of Symphonic Variations. He also composed the music for Ode to Newfoundland, the Newfoundland and Labrador provincial anthem. Read more
• 27 Feb 1847: Ellen Terry, English actress (died 1928) Dame Alice Ellen Terry was an English actress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Read more
• 27 Feb 1816: William Nicholson, English-Australian politician, 3rd Premier of Victoria (died 1865) William Nicholson was an Australian colonial politician who became the third Premier of Victoria. He is remembered for having been called the "father of the ballot" due to his responsibility in introducing the secret ballot in Victoria. Due to this significant legacy, Nicholson Street, a major north–south traffic artery in modern Melbourne, is named after him. Read more
• 27 Feb 1809: Jean-Charles Cornay, French missionary and saint (died 1837) Jean-Charles Cornay was a French missionary of the Paris Foreign Missions Society who was martyred in Vietnam. He was executed in Ha Tay, Tonkin, now Vietnam, during the persecutions of Emperor Minh Mạng. Read more
• 27 Feb 1807: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet and educator (died 1882) Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator. His original works include the poems "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. He was the first American to completely translate Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy and was one of the fireside poets from New England. Read more

🕊️ Important Deaths on 27 February in World History

• 27 Feb 2025: Boris Spassky, Russian chess grandmaster (born 1937) Boris Vasilyevich Spassky was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster who was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from 1969 to 1972. Spassky played three world championship matches: he lost to Tigran Petrosian in 1966; defeated Petrosian in 1969 to become world champion; then lost to Bobby Fischer in a famous match in 1972. Read more
• 27 Feb 2023: Gérard Latortue, Haitian prime minister (born 1934) Gérard Latortue was a Haitian politician and diplomat who served as the prime minister of Haiti from 12 March 2004 to 9 June 2006. He was an official in the United Nations for many years, and briefly served as foreign minister of Haiti during the short-lived 1988 administration of Leslie Manigat. Read more
• 27 Feb 2021: Ng Man-tat, Hong Kong actor (born 1952) Richard Ng Man-tat, commonly called Uncle Tat (達叔), was a Hong Kong actor originally from Fujian. He was a veteran with dozens of awards in the Hong Kong film industry, including Best Supporting Actor at the 10th Hong Kong Film Awards for his role in A Moment of Romance. Ng was best known for his comedic roles alongside Stephen Chow and was a versatile actor with many memorable performances throughout his career. Read more
• 27 Feb 2019: France-Albert René, Seychellois politician, 2nd President of Seychelles (born 1935) France-Albert René was a Seychellois lawyer and politician who served as the country’s second President of Seychelles from 1977 to 2004, following a coup d'état that ousted the country's founding president, James Mancham. He previously served as the nation’s second and final Prime Minister, from independence in 1976 until the abolition of the post in 1977. He was a leading figure of the Seychelles People’s Progressive Front, later known as United Seychelles. Read more
• 27 Feb 2018: Steve Folkes, Australian rugby league player and coach (born 1959) Steven John Folkes was an Australian professional rugby league footballer and coach of the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs in the National Rugby League. He represented both New South Wales and Australia Read more
• 27 Feb 2016: Yi Cheol-seung, South Korean lawyer and politician (born 1922) Lee Cheol-seung was a South Korean politician who served as Deputy Speaker for the 9th National Assembly of South Korea. He was a long-time lawmaker who served seven terms in the National Assembly, representing Jeonju. His art name was Soseok. Read more
• 27 Feb 2016: James Z. Davis, American lawyer and judge (born 1943) James Z. Davis was an American judge on the Utah Court of Appeals. Read more
• 27 Feb 2015: Boris Nemtsov, Russian academic and politician, First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia (born 1959) Boris Yefimovich Nemtsov was a Russian physicist, liberal politician, opposition leader and outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin. Early in his political career, he was involved in the introduction of reforms into the Russian post-Soviet economy. In the 1990s under President Boris Yeltsin, he was the first governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast (1991–1997). Later he worked in the government of Russia as Minister of Fuel and Energy (1997), Vice Premier of Russia and Security Council member from 1997 to 1998. In 1998, he founded the Young Russia movement. In 1998, he co-founded the coalition group Right Cause and in 1999, he co-formed Union of Right Forces, an electoral bloc and subsequently a political party. Nemtsov was also a member of the Congress of People's Deputies (1990), Federation Council (1993–97) and State Duma (1999–2003). Read more
• 27 Feb 2015: Leonard Nimoy, American actor (born 1931) Leonard Simon Nimoy was an American actor and director, famous for playing Spock in the Star Trek franchise for almost 50 years. This includes originating Spock in the original Star Trek series in 1966, then Star Trek: The Animated Series, the first six Star Trek films, Star Trek: The Next Generation, the 2009 Star Trek film, and Star Trek Into Darkness. Nimoy also directed films, including Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), and Three Men and a Baby (1987), and his career included roles in music videos and video games. In addition to acting and filmmaking, Nimoy was a photographer, author, singer, and songwriter. Read more
• 27 Feb 2015: Julio César Strassera, Argentinian lawyer and jurist (born 1933) Julio César Strassera was an Argentine lawyer and jurist. He served as Chief Prosecutor during the Trial of the Juntas in 1985. Read more
• 27 Feb 2014: Aaron Allston, American game designer and author (born 1960) Aaron Dale Allston was an American game designer and author of many science fiction books, notably Star Wars novels. His works as a game designer include game supplements for role-playing games, several of which served to establish the basis for products and subsequent development of TSR's Dungeons & Dragons game setting Mystara. His later works as a novelist include those of the X-Wing series: Wraith Squadron, Iron Fist, Solo Command, Starfighters of Adumar, and Mercy Kill. He wrote two entries in the New Jedi Order series: Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream and Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand. Allston wrote three of the nine Legacy of the Force novels: Betrayal, Exile, and Fury, and three of the nine Fate of the Jedi novels: Outcast, Backlash, and Conviction. Read more
• 27 Feb 2014: Terry Rand, American basketball player (born 1934) Lynwood Terry Rand was an American basketball player, best known for his college career at Marquette University. Despite being drafted in the second round of the 1954 NBA draft, he never played in the NBA, instead choosing to play in the National Industrial Basketball League for six years. After retiring from basketball, he worked as a stockbroker with Rand Financial Advisors. Read more
• 27 Feb 2013: Van Cliburn, American pianist (born 1934) Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn Jr. was an American pianist. At the age of 23, Cliburn achieved worldwide recognition when in 1958 he won the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Read more
• 27 Feb 2013: Ramon Dekkers, Dutch mixed martial artist and kick-boxer (born 1969) Ramon Dekkers was a Dutch professional Muay Thai fighter. He won multiple world and international titles in Muay Thai during the 1980s and 1990s. Nicknamed the "Turbine from Hell", he was a fan favorite due to his fast-paced, aggressive fighting style which resulted in many brutal fights and knockouts. He was also praised for his willingness to fight in Thailand, including challenging for the Lumpinee Stadium Lightweight title. Read more
• 27 Feb 2013: Dale Robertson, American actor (born 1923) Dayle Lymoine Robertson was an American actor best known for his starring roles on television. He played the roving investigator Jim Hardie in the television series Tales of Wells Fargo and railroad owner Ben Calhoun in Iron Horse. He often was presented as a deceptively thoughtful and modest Western hero. From 1968 to 1970, Robertson was the fourth and final host of the anthology series Death Valley Days. Described by Time magazine in 1959 as "probably the best horseman on television", for most of his career, Robertson played in Western films and television shows—well over 60 titles in all. Read more
• 27 Feb 2013: Adolfo Zaldívar, Chilean lawyer and politician (born 1943) Miguel Adolfo Gerardo Zaldívar Larraín was a Chilean politician and lawyer. He was senator for Aisén and from March 2008 until his death in February 2013 he had been President of the Chilean Senate. He was an historic member of the Christian Democratic Party, leading its right-wing faction until his expulsion from the political party in December 2007. Read more
• 27 Feb 2012: Ma Jiyuan, Chinese general (born 1921) Ma Jiyuan was a Chinese Muslim Ma clique warlord in China during the Republic of China era, ruling the northwestern province of Qinghai. He was the son and only child of general Ma Bufang and commanded nationalist forces against the communists at the Heshui Campaign, Meridian Ridge Campaign, and the Lanzhou Campaign during the Chinese Civil War. Ma was 28 years old when he defeated 30,000 PLA soldiers in the Heshui campaign in 1948. He led the 82nd Cavalry Division, of which 30 percent of whom were Muslims, to charge the Communists with swords. Ma complained that the Kuomintang government was not resupplying him enough and that there was no more "revolutionary spirit". On the opposing side General Zhao Shoushan led the Communists, Zhao formerly attended the same school as Ma. Read more
• 27 Feb 2012: Tina Strobos, Dutch physician and psychiatrist (born 1920) Tina Strobos was a Dutch physician and psychiatrist from Amsterdam, known for her resistance work during World War II. While a young medical student, she worked with her mother and grandmother to rescue more than 100 Jewish refugees as part of the Dutch resistance during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Strobos provided her house as a hiding place for Jews on the run, using a secret attic compartment and warning bell system to keep them safe from sudden police raids. In addition, Strobos smuggled guns and radios for the resistance and forged passports to help refugees escape the country. Despite being arrested and interrogated nine times by the Gestapo, she never betrayed the whereabouts of a Jew. Read more
• 27 Feb 2012: Helga Vlahović, Croatian journalist and producer (born 1945) Helga Vlahović was a Croatian journalist, producer, and television personality, whose career spanned five decades in both SFR Yugoslavia and later Croatia. She was one of the most popular television presenters in the 1980s. Throughout her career, she was also credited as Helga Vlahović Pea and Helga Vlahović Brnobić during the times she was married. Read more
• 27 Feb 2011: Frank Buckles, American soldier (born 1901) Frank Woodruff Buckles was a United States Army corporal and the last surviving American military veteran of World War I. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1917 aged 16 and served with a detachment from Fort Riley, driving ambulances and motorcycles near the front lines in Europe. Read more
• 27 Feb 2011: Necmettin Erbakan, Turkish engineer and politician, 32nd Prime Minister of Turkey (born 1926) Necmettin Erbakan was a Turkish politician and political theorist who served as the 23rd prime minister of Turkey from 1996 to 1997. He was pressured by the military to step down as prime minister and was later banned from politics by the Constitutional Court of Turkey for purportedly violating the separation of religion and state as mandated by the constitution. Read more
• 27 Feb 2011: Duke Snider, American baseball player, manager, and sportscaster (born 1926) Edwin Donald "Duke" Snider, nicknamed "the Duke of Flatbush", was an American professional baseball player. Primarily a center fielder, he spent most of his Major League Baseball (MLB) career playing for the Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers (1947–1962), later playing one season each for the New York Mets (1963) and San Francisco Giants (1964). Read more
• 27 Feb 2011: Gary Winick, American director and producer (born 1961) Gary Scott Winick was an American filmmaker whose films as a director include Tadpole (2002) and 13 Going on 30 (2004), and who also produced such films as Pieces of April (2003) and November (2004) through his New York City-based independent film production company InDigEnt. Read more
• 27 Feb 2010: Nanaji Deshmukh, Indian educator and activist (born 1916) Chandikadas Amritrao Deshmukh, better known as Nanaji Deshmukh, was an Indian social activist and politician. He worked in the fields of education, health, and rural self-reliance. He was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award in 2019 by the Government of India. He was a leader of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS), the precursor to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), alongside being a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindutva paramilitary organisation. Read more
• 27 Feb 2008: William F. Buckley, Jr., American author and journalist, founded the National Review (born 1925) William Frank Buckley Jr. was an American conservative writer, public intellectual, political commentator and novelist. Read more
• 27 Feb 2008: Myron Cope, American journalist and sportscaster (born 1929) Myron Sidney Kopelman, known professionally as Myron Cope, was an American sports journalist, radio personality, and sportscaster. He is best known for being "the voice of the Pittsburgh Steelers". Read more
• 27 Feb 2008: Ivan Rebroff, German vocalist of Russian descent with four and a half octave range (born 1931) Ivan Rebroff was a German vocalist, allegedly of Russian ancestry, who rose to prominence for his distinct and extensive vocal range of four octaves, ranging "from a low F to a high F, one and a quarter octaves above C". An imposing figure on stage, usually bearded and dressed in Cossack clothing, his presence was enhanced by his height, being over 2 metres tall. Read more
• 27 Feb 2007: Bernd Freytag von Loringhoven, German general (born 1914) Alexander Otto Hermann Wolfgang Bernd(t) Freiherr Freytag von Loringhoven, was a Baltic German officer in the German Army during World War II. In 1956, he joined the West German Federal Armed Forces, the Bundeswehr, and rose to the rank of Generalleutnant. Read more
• 27 Feb 2006: Otis Chandler, American publisher (born 1927) Otis Chandler was the publisher of the Los Angeles Times between 1960 and 1980, leading a large expansion of the newspaper and its ambitions. He was the fourth and final member of the Chandler family to hold the paper's top position. Read more
• 27 Feb 2006: Robert Lee Scott, Jr., American general and author (born 1908) Robert Lee Scott Jr. was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force and a flying ace of World War II, credited with shooting down 13 Japanese aircraft. Read more
• 27 Feb 2006: Linda Smith, English comedian and author (born 1958) Linda Helen Smith was an English comedian and comedy writer. She appeared regularly on Radio 4 panel games, and was voted "Wittiest Living Person" by listeners in 2002. From 2004 to 2006, she was head of the British Humanist Association. Read more
• 27 Feb 2004: Yoshihiko Amino, Japanese historian and academic (born 1928)
  Yoshihiko Amino was a Japanese Marxist historian and public intellectual, perhaps most singularly known for his novel examination of medieval Japanese history. Read more
• 27 Feb 2004: Paul Sweezy, American economist and journalist (born 1910) Paul Marlor Sweezy was an American Marxist economist, political activist, publisher, and founding editor of the long-running magazine Monthly Review. He is best remembered for his contributions to economic theory as one of the leading Marxian economists of the second half of the 20th century. Read more
• 27 Feb 2003: John Lanchbery, English-Australian composer and conductor (born 1923)
  John Arthur Lanchbery OBE was an English-Australian composer and conductor, famous for his ballet arrangements. He served as the Principal Conductor of the Royal Ballet from 1959 to 1972, Principal Conductor of the Australian Ballet from 1972 to 1977, and Musical Director of the American Ballet Theatre from 1978 to 1980. He continued to conduct regularly for the Royal Ballet until 2001. Read more
• 27 Feb 2003: Fred Rogers, American minister and television host (born 1928) Fred McFeely Rogers, known professionally as Mister Rogers, was an American television personality, Presbyterian minister, and author. He was the creator, showrunner, and host of the preschool television series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, which ran from 1968 to 2001. Read more
• 27 Feb 2002: Spike Milligan, Irish soldier, actor, comedian, and author (born 1918) Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan was an Anglo-Irish comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright and actor. The son of an English mother and Irish father, he was born in British India, where he spent his childhood before relocating in 1931 to England, where he lived and worked for the majority of his life. Read more
• 27 Feb 1999: Horace Tapscott, American pianist and composer (born 1934) Horace Elva Tapscott was an American jazz pianist and composer. He formed the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra in 1961 and led the ensemble through the 1990s. Read more
• 27 Feb 1998: George H. Hitchings, American pharmacologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1905) George Herbert Hitchings was an American medical doctor who shared the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Sir James Black and Gertrude Elion "for their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment", Hitchings specifically for his work on chemotherapy. Read more
• 27 Feb 1998: J. T. Walsh, American actor (born 1943) James Thomas Patrick Walsh was an American character actor. He starred in many films of the 1980s and 1990s, which include Tin Men (1987), Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), A Few Good Men (1992), Hoffa (1992), Nixon (1995), Sling Blade (1996), Breakdown (1997) and Pleasantville (1998). Read more
• 27 Feb 1993: Lillian Gish, American actress (born 1893) Lillian Diana Gish was an American actress best known for her work in movies of the silent era. Her film-acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. Gish was dubbed the "First Lady of the Screen" by Vanity Fair in 1927 and is credited with pioneering fundamental film performance techniques. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Gish as the 17th-greatest female movie star of classical Hollywood cinema. Read more
• 27 Feb 1992: S. I. Hayakawa, Canadian-American linguist and politician (born 1906) Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa was a Canadian-born American academic and politician of Japanese ancestry. A professor of English, he served as president of San Francisco State University and then as U.S. Senator from California from 1977 to 1983. Read more
• 27 Feb 1989: Konrad Lorenz, Austrian zoologist, ethologist, and ornithologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1903) Konrad Zacharias Lorenz was an Austrian zoologist, ethologist, and ornithologist. He shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Karl von Frisch. He is often regarded as one of the founders of modern ethology, the study of animal behavior. He developed an approach that began with an earlier generation, including his teacher Oskar Heinroth. Read more
• 27 Feb 1987: Bill Holman, American cartoonist (born 1903) Bill Holman was an American cartoonist who drew the classic comic strip Smokey Stover from 1935 until he retired in 1973. Distributed through the Chicago Tribune syndicate, it had the longest run of any strip in the screwball genre. Holman signed some strips with the pseudonym Scat H. He once described himself as "always inclined to humor and acting silly." Read more
• 27 Feb 1987: Franciszek Blachnicki, Polish priest (born 1921) Franciszek Blachnicki was a Polish Roman Catholic priest and the founder of the Light-Life movement, also known as the Oasis Movement, and the Secular Institute of the Immaculate Mother of the Church. He founded several other movements and religious congregations that would address a range of social and ethical issues. These issues included anti-alcoholism and human rights. His movements first came about after starting out as simple retreats designed for both altar servers and families that later began to address a series of issues in Poland at the time. His concern for human rights came during the communist era in Poland as well as his experiences as a prisoner of war during World War II in which he was incarcerated in Auschwitz and other concentration camps under the German Nazi regime. Read more
• 27 Feb 1986: Jacques Plante, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (born 1929) Joseph Jacques Omer Plante was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. During a career as a goaltender lasting from 1947 to 1975, he was considered to be one of the most important innovators in hockey. He played for the Montreal Canadiens from 1953 to 1963; during his tenure, the team won the Stanley Cup six times, including five consecutive wins. In 2017 Plante was named one of the "100 Greatest NHL Players" in history. Read more
• 27 Feb 1985: Ray Ellington, English singer and drummer (born 1916) Henry Pitts Brown, better known by his stage name Ray Ellington, was an English jazz musician and bandleader. He is best known for his appearances on The Goon Show from 1951 to 1960. The Ray Ellington Quartet had a regular musical segment on the show, and Ellington also had a small speaking role in many episodes, often as a parodic African, Native American or Arab chieftain. Read more
• 27 Feb 1985: Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., American politician and diplomat, 3rd United States Ambassador to the United Nations (born 1902) Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. was an American diplomat and politician who represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate and served as United States Ambassador to the United Nations in the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In 1960, he was the Republican nominee for Vice President. Lodge later served as a diplomat in the administrations of Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Gerald Ford. Lodge was a presidential contender in the 1964 primary campaign. Read more
• 27 Feb 1985: J. Pat O'Malley, English-American actor and singer (born 1904) James Rudolph O'Malley was an English actor and singer who appeared in many American films and television programmes from the 1940s to 1982, using the stage name J. Pat O'Malley. He also appeared on the Broadway stage in Ten Little Indians (1944) and Dial M for Murder (1954). Read more
• 27 Feb 1980: George Tobias, American actor (born 1901) George Tobias was an American theater, film and television actor. He had character parts and supporting roles in several major films of Hollywood's Golden Age. He is also known for his role as Abner Kravitz on the TV sitcom Bewitched from 1964 to 1971. Read more
• 27 Feb 1977: John Dickson Carr, American author and playwright (born 1905) John Dickson Carr was an American author of detective stories, who also published using the pseudonyms Carter Dickson, Carr Dickson, and Roger Fairbairn. Read more
• 27 Feb 1973: Bill Everett, American author and illustrator (born 1917) William Blake Everett was an American comic book writer and artist best known for creating Namor the Sub-Mariner, as well as co-creating Daredevil and the zombie Simon Garth with writer Stan Lee for Marvel Comics. Read more
• 27 Feb 1969: Marius Barbeau, Canadian ethnographer and academic (born 1883) Charles Marius Barbeau,, also known as C. Marius Barbeau, or more commonly simply Marius Barbeau, was a Canadian ethnographer and folklorist who is today considered a founder of Canadian anthropology. A Rhodes Scholar, he is best known for an early championing of Québecois folk culture, and for his exhaustive cataloguing of the social organization, narrative and musical traditions, and plastic arts of the Tsimshianic-speaking peoples in British Columbia, and other Northwest Coast peoples. He developed unconventional theories about the peopling of the Americas. Read more
• 27 Feb 1968: Frankie Lymon, American singer-songwriter (born 1942) Franklin Joseph Lymon was an American rock and roll/rhythm and blues singer and songwriter, dancer and composer best known as the boy soprano lead singer of the New York City-based early rock and roll doo-wop group the Teenagers. The group was composed of five boys, all in their early to mid-teens. The original lineup of the Teenagers, an integrated group, included three African-American members, Lymon, Jimmy Merchant, and Sherman Garnes; and two Puerto Rican members, Joe Negroni and Herman Santiago. The Teenagers' first single, 1956's "Why Do Fools Fall in Love", was also their biggest hit. After Lymon went solo in mid-1957, both his career and that of the Teenagers fell into decline. In 1968, Lymon was found dead at age 25 from a heroin overdose. He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 as a member of the Teenagers. Lymon's life was dramatized in the 1998 film Why Do Fools Fall in Love. Read more
• 27 Feb 1964: Orry-Kelly, Australian-American costume designer (born 1897) Orry-Kelly was the professional name of Orry George Kelly, an Australian-American Hollywood costume designer. Until being overtaken by Catherine Martin in 2014, he was the most prolific Australian-born Oscar winner, having won three Academy Awards for Best Costume Design. Read more
• 27 Feb 1956: Ganesh Vasudev Mavalankar, Indian lawyer and politician, 1st Speaker of the Lok Sabha (born 1888) Ganesh Vasudev Mavalankar popularly known as Dadasaheb, was an Indian politician and independence activist who served as the President of the Central Legislative Assembly, then Speaker of the Constituent Assembly of India, and later the first Speaker of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament of India. His son Purushottam Mavalankar was later elected to the Lok Sabha twice from Gujarat. Read more
• 27 Feb 1943: Kostis Palamas, Greek poet and playwright (born 1859) Kostis Palamas was a Greek poet who wrote the words to the Olympic Hymn. He was a central figure of the Greek literary generation of the 1880s and one of the cofounders of the so-called New Athenian School along with Georgios Drosinis and Ioannis Polemis. Read more
• 27 Feb 1937: Hosteen Klah, Navajo artist, medicine man, and weaver (born 1867) Hosteen Klah was a Navajo artist, medicine person, and ceremonial practitioner. Known for combining traditional Navajo weaving with sacred sandpainting imagery, Klah played a significant role in preserving and documenting different aspects of Navajo religion and culture. As a nádleehi, a gender role recognized within Navajo society, Klah occupied both masculine and feminine social and ceremonial roles. Read more
• 27 Feb 1937: Emily Malbone Morgan, American saint, foundress of the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross (born 1862) Emily Malbone Morgan was a prominent social and religious leader in the Episcopal Church in the United States who helped found the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross as well as the Colonel Daniel Putnam Association. Read more
• 27 Feb 1936: Joshua W. Alexander, American judge and politician, 2nd United States Secretary of Commerce (born 1852) Joshua Willis Alexander was United States secretary of commerce from December 16, 1919, to March 4, 1921, in the administration of President Woodrow Wilson. Read more
• 27 Feb 1936: Ivan Pavlov, Russian physiologist and physician, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1849) Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was a Russian and Soviet experimental neurologist and physiologist known for his discovery of classical conditioning through his experiments with dogs. Pavlov also conducted significant research on the physiology of digestion, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1904. Read more
• 27 Feb 1931: Chandra Shekhar Azad, Indian revolutionary (born 1906) Chandra Shekhar Sitaram Tiwari, popularly known as Chandra Shekhar Azad, was an Indian revolutionary who reorganised the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) under its new name of Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) after the death of its founder, Ram Prasad Bismil, and three other prominent party leaders, Roshan Singh, Rajendra Nath Lahiri and Ashfaqulla Khan. He hailed from Bardarka village in Unnao district of United Provinces and his parents were Sitaram Tiwari and Jagrani Devi. He often used the pseudonym "Balraj" while signing pamphlets issued as the commander-in-chief of the HSRA.He worked closely with Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev Thapar and Shivaram Rajguru. Read more
• 27 Feb 1921: Schofield Haigh, English cricketer and umpire (born 1871) Schofield Haigh was a Yorkshire and England cricketer. He played for nineteen seasons for Yorkshire County Cricket Club, sporadically for England from 1898–99 to 1912, and was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1901. Read more
• 27 Feb 1902: Harry "Breaker" Morant, English-Australian lieutenant (born 1864) Harry Harbord "Breaker" Morant was an English horseman, bush balladist, military officer, and war criminal who was convicted and executed for murdering nine prisoners-of-war (POWs) and three captured civilians in three separate incidents during the Second Boer War. Read more
• 27 Feb 1892: Louis Vuitton, French fashion designer and businessman, founded Louis Vuitton (born 1821) Louis Vuitton was a French malletier and businessman. He was the founder of the Louis Vuitton brand of leather goods now owned by LVMH. Prior to this, he had been appointed as trunk-maker to Eugénie de Montijo, wife of Napoleon III. Read more
• 27 Feb 1887: Alexander Borodin, Russian composer and chemist (born 1833) Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin was a Russian Romantic composer and chemist of Georgian–Russian parentage. He was one of the prominent 19th-century composers known as "The Five", a group dedicated to producing a "uniquely Russian" kind of classical music. Borodin is known best for his symphonies, his two string quartets, the symphonic poem In the Steppes of Central Asia and his opera Prince Igor. Read more
• 27 Feb 1844: Nicholas Biddle, American banker and politician (born 1786) Nicholas Biddle was an American financier who served as the third and last president of the Second Bank of the United States. Throughout his life Biddle worked as an editor, diplomat, author, and politician who served in both houses of the Pennsylvania state legislature. He is best known as the chief opponent of Andrew Jackson in the Bank War. Read more

Why is 27 February Important in World History?

Several significant political, cultural, educational, and sporting events took place on 27 February, making it an important topic for general knowledge and competitive examinations.

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On 27 February, several important historical events, notable births, and major milestones occurred in World history.

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