NOW & THEN
MARCH 27
1703: Russian Czar Peter the Great founded St Petersburg. 1713: Spain agreed at Utrecht to cede Gibraltar and Minorca to Britain.
1802: Peace of Amiens between Britain and France, which achieved complete pacification of Europe.
1871: The first rugby international was played, with Scotland defeating England in Edinburgh. 1914: The first citrated blood transfusion was given in a Brussels hospital. Citrate, introduced by a Belgian surgeon, A Hustin, enabled blood to be bottled without clotting.
1942: British commandos made a dawn raid on the French port of St Nazaire, in which an old destroyer, the Campbeltown, full of explosives, rammed the main dock gate and put it out of action for the rest of the war.
1943: Aircraft carrier HMS Dasher blew up and sank off Arran, with the loss of more than 350 crew members. There were 149 survivors.
1945: The last of more than 1,000 V2 rockets that fell on Britain in the Second World War exploded at Orpington, Kent. 1961: Britain’s first women traffic wardens went on duty in Leicester.
1964: United Nations peace force took over in Cyprus. 1964: Earthquake measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale struck Alaska, killing 118 people.
1966: World Cup football trophy, which had been stolen from Central Hall, Westminster, on 20 March, was found under a hedge in a south-east London garden by a man walking his dog.
1970: Severe earthquake struck western Turkey, killing at least 1,087 and leaving 90,000 homeless.
1977: Two aircraft collided and exploded in fog on airstrip at Los Rodeos Airport at Tenerife, Canary Islands, with 582 deaths. 1991: Commandos stormed a Singapore Airlines jet, killing four Pakistani hijackers who had threatened to set fire to the aircraft and its 120 passengers. 1994: The Eurofighter took its first flight in Manching, Germany.
1995: President Nelson Mandela dismissed his estranged wife Winnie from South Africa’s government.
1998: The Food and Drug Administration approved Viagra for use as a treatment for male impotence.
2004: HMS Scylla, a decom
missioned Leander class frigate, was sunk as an artificial reef off Cornwall.
2007: Police in Scotland revealed there were 17 race-hate crimes in the country each day. 2008: The first day of operations at Heathrow Airport’s new £4.3 billion Terminal 5 descended into farce when flights were cancelled due to a series of problems including faulty lifts, broken escalators and the complete collapse of the baggage system. 2009: The rare 29-year-old whisky Port Ellen, which comes from an abandoned distillery in Islay, named the world’s best single malt.
2009: Aberdeen school banned children from having Easter eggs due to fears over allergies. 2020: Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock tested positive for coronavirus.
BIRTHDAYS
Tony Banks, British musician (Genesis), 71; David Coulthard MBE, Scottish Formula 1 driver and TV presenter, 50; Maria Ewing, US opera singer, 71; Fergie, American pop singer (The Black Eyed Peas), 46; Julian Glover CBE, British actor, 86; Duncan Goodhew MBE, British gold medal-winning Olympic swimmer, 64; Patrick Mccabe, Irish novelist, 66; Admiral Sir Jock Slater, First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff 1995-98, 83; Talisa Soto, American actress, 54; Quentin Tarantino, film director, 58; Daphne Todd OBE, British portrait painter, 74; Michael York OBE, British actor, 79.
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1894 Dashiell Hammett, writer; 1898 Gloria Swanson, actress; 1912 Lord Callaghan of Cardiff, Labour Prime Minister 1976-79; 1924 Sarah Vaughan, American jazz singer; 1952 Maria Schneider, French film actress. Deaths: 1968: Yuri Gagarin, Russian astronaut; 2000 Ian Dury, pop singer; 2001 Irene Thomas, broadcaster; 2002 Dudley Moore, actor and musician; 2011 Farley Granger, American actor; 2011 H R F Keating, British crime novelist (Inspector Ghote stories); 2017 David Storey, British novelist.