April 27 ...

In 1509 Pope Julius II excommunicated the Italian state of Venice. (The pope lifted the ban in February 1510.) In 1521 Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed by natives in the Philippines. In 1737 historian Edward Gibbon was born in Putney, England. In 1791 inventor and painter Samuel F.B. Morse was born in Charlestown, MA. In 1805 during the First Barbary War, an American-led force of Marines and mercenaries captured the city of Derna, on the shores of Tripoli. In 1822 Civil War general and 18th president of the US Ulysses S. Grant was born in Point Pleasant, OH. In 1861 President Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus in Maryland and parts of Midwestern states, including southern Indiana. In 1865 the steamer Sultana exploded on the Mississippi River near Memphis, TN, killing more than 1,400 Union prisoners of war. In 1896 baseball Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby was born in Winters, TX. In 1937 the nation's first Social Security checks were distributed. In 1965 broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow died in Pawling, NY, at age 57. In 1973 during the Watergate scandal, Acting FBI Director L. Patrick Gray resigned. In 1994 former President Richard M. Nixon was remembered at an outdoor funeral service attended by all five of his successors at the Nixon presidential library in Yorba Linda, CA. In 1999 jazz great Al Hirt died in New Orleans, LA, at age 76. In 2002 the last successful reception of telemetry from NASA space probe Pioneer 10 was reported; Pioneer 10 was the first man-made object to leave the solar system. In 2005 President George W. Bush called for construction of more nuclear power plants and urged Congress to give tax breaks for fuel-efficient hybrid and clean-diesel cars.