TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Saturday, April 27, the 118th day of 2024. There are 248 days left in the year. On this date in:
Spanish conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi and his crew arrived at Cebu and established it as the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.
President Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus between Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., to assist the military in controlling unrest and rebellion during the early days of the Civil War.
Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini was arrested near the village of Dongo, Italy, as he attempted to flee disguised as a German soldier.
The deadliest construction accident in U.S. history killed 51 construction workers when a cooling tower collapsed at the Pleasants Power Station in Willow Island, West Virginia. An investigation into the accident revealed several safety violations including missing bolts in the columns, improper concrete application and lack of access to safety ladders.
Xerox PARC released the first personal computer mouse, an invention of Douglas Engelbart. The device was packaged with the Xerox 8010 Star Workstation, which was a commercial failure, but the mouse lived on and revolutionized how people interacted with computers.
The Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster in the former Soviet Union led to the evacuation of the city of Pripyat and surrounding areas. Over 115,000 residents were forced to leave their homes, being told that they should only pack vital necessities. Soon after, authorities established the Chernobyl exclusion zone, and no one was allowed to return.
Massive student-led protests erupted throughout China. Sympathizers began to join the 150,000 and 200,000 strong crowd in Beijing as an anti-protest editorial from the state-run paper The People’s Daily ignited the flames.
Construction started on One World Trade Center, the main building of a new complex in New York City. Below ground utilities were set up as well as the support systems and foundation. One World Trade Center officially opened to the public nine years later on May 2015.
Alabama suffered a deadly outbreak of over 60 tornadoes. Around 250 people died, and thousands of others were injured. Two EF-5 tornados, the strongest and most violent tornado on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, ripped through the northwestern and northeastern parts of state. Each of them had wind speeds of over 200 mph.
The Panmunjom Declaration was signed between North and South Korea with intentions to end the Korean conflict and denuclearize the Korean peninsula.
Global COVID-19 cases passed 3 million with deaths toll at 205,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
– Hoang Tran, USA TODAY Network