NOW & THEN
27 FEBRUARY
1545: The Scots under the Earl of Angus defeated English under Sir Ralph Eure at Battle of Ancrum.
1700: Pacific island of New Britain discovered by English navigator William Dampier.
1861: Warsaw Massacre, when crowd was fired upon by Russian troops during demonstration against Russian rule.
1900: Labour Party was formed with Ramsay Macdonald as secretary.
1907: The Central Criminal Court, on the site of Newgate Prison, and commonly called the Old Bailey, was opened.
1918: British hospital ship, Glenart Castle, was sunk by U-boat in the Bristol Channel.
1933: Reichstag, German parliament building in Berlin, was burned, and Nazis blamed Communists.
1939: Britain and France recognised General Francisco Franco’s government in Spain.
1952: United Nations held first meeting in New York headquarters.
1965: Goldie the eagle escaped from London Zoo and settled in Regent’s Park. His freedom flights were followed by television and newspapers until his capture on 10 March.
1968: House of Commons approved bill to restrict coloured immigration to Britain.
1976: Eskimo leaders in Canada presented government with claim to quarter of a million square miles of land.
1982: D’oyly Carte Opera Company gave its last Gilbert and Sullivan performance, at the Adelphi Theatre, London.
1985: A “Save the Doctor” campaign was started in Britain when the BBC left Dr Who out of plans for BBC1.
1986: Ferdinand Marcos started life in exile in Hawaii after hurried departure from Philippines.
1989: Derrick Morris, 58, of Swansea, became Britain’s longest living heart transplant patient, nine years after his operation. He lived another 16 years.
1991: Allies pinned down Iraqi Republican Guards near Basra in biggest tank battle since Second World War.
1991: Nine Orkney children from four families on South Ronaldsay were taken into care after claims of child sex abuse. They were returned home on 4 April.
1992: A bomb exploded at London Bridge train station, injuring 28 people. The IRA claimed responsibility.
1993: Three shoppers badly hurt in an IRA bomb blast in Camden Town, north London.
1995: Appeal judges ordered eight Ayrshire children, victims of alleged abuse, to be reunited with parents nearly five years after being taken from them.
2002: Ryanair Flight 296 caught fire at Stansted Airport. Investigations criticised the airline’s handling of evacuation.
2004: A bombing of a superferry by Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines’ worst terrorist attack killed 116.
2007: The Shanghai Stock Exchange fell 9 per cent – the largest drop in a decade.
2010: Central Chile was hit by an 8.8 magnitude earthquake which left more than 700 people dead and two million affected.
BIRTHDAYS
Peter Andre, Australian entertainer, 47; Derren Brown, psychological illusionist, 49; Baroness Goldie, MSP 19992011, 70; Steve Harley, British singer, 69; Dame Barbara Kelly, president, Rural Forum 199299, 80; Edward Lucie-smith, British poet and critic, 87; Rabbi Baroness Neuberger DBE, 70; Dame Antoinette Sibley, British prima ballerina, 81; Joanne Woodward, US actress, 90; Bruno Soares, Brazilian tennis player, 38
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: AD274 Constantine the Great, Roman emperor; 1807 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet; 1861 Rudolf Steiner, social philosopher; 1873 Enrico Caruso, operatic tenor; 1902 Gene Sarazen, golfer; 1902 John Steinbeck, novelist and Nobel laureate; 1912 Laurence Durrell, author, Alexandria Quartet; 1932 Dame Elizabeth Taylor DBE, film actress.
Deaths: 1936 Ivan Pavlov, discoverer of conditioned reflex; 1993 Lillian Gish, actress; 2002 Spike Milligan KBE, comedian (The Goon Show) and author; 2015 Leonard Nimoy, actor (Mr Spock in Star Trek); 2016 Michael Fergus Bowes-lyon, 18th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne.