HISTORY AT A GLANCE
TODAY is Tuesday, June 27, the 178th day of 2017. There are 187 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1927 – Prime Minister of Japan Tanaka Giichi leads a conference to discuss Japan’s plans for China; later, a document detailing these plans, the “Tanaka Memorial” is leaked, although it is now considered a forgery.
1941 – German troops capture the city of Bialystok during
Operation Barbarossa. 1950 – The United States decides to send troops to fight in the Korean War.
1954 – The 1954 FIFA World Cup quarterfinal match between Hungary and Brazil, highly anticipated to be exciting, instead turns violent, with three players ejected and further fighting continuing after the game.
1973 – The President of Uruguay Juan María Bordaberry dissolves Parliament and establishes a dictatorship.
1976 – Air France Flight 139 (Tel Aviv-Athens-Paris) is hijacked en route to Paris by the PLO and redirected to Entebbe, Uganda.
1977 – France grants independence to Djibouti. 1980 – Italian Aerolinee Itavia Flight 870 mysteriously explodes in mid air while en route from Bologna to Palermo, killing all 81 on board. Also known in Italy as the Ustica disaster
1981 – The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issues its “Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party Since the Founding of the People’s Republic of China”, laying the blame for the Cultural Revolution on Mao Zedong.
1991 – Slovenia, after declaring independence two days before is invaded by Yugoslav troops, tanks, and aircraft starting the Ten-Day War. 2007 – Tony Blair resigns as British Prime Minister, a position he had held since 1997.
2008 – In a highly scrutizined election President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe is re-elected in a landslide after his opponent Morgan Tsvangirai had withdrawn a week earlier, citing violence against his party’s supporters.
2014 – At least fourteen people are killed when a Gas Authority of India Limited pipeline explodes in the East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, India.
2015 – A midair explosion from flammable powder at a recreational water park in Taiwan injures at least 510 people with about 183 in serious condition in intensive care.