June 27

1499 – Americo Vespucci, on a Spanish financed trip of exploration, sights land south of present day Cape Cassipore, Brazil.

1556 – The 13 Stratford Martyrs are burned at the stake near London for their Protestant beliefs.

1760 – During the Anglo-Cherokee War, Cherokee warriors defeat British forces at the Battle of Echoee near present day Otto, North Carolina.

1838 – Paul Mauser is born in Oberndorf am Neckar, in what was then the Kingdom of Württemberg.

1864 – Confederate forces defeat Union forces during the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain

1895 – The inaugural run of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad’s Royal Blue from Washington, D.C., to New York City is the first U.S. passenger train to use electric locomotives.

1944 – During World War II, the town of Mogaung in Kachin state is the first place in Burma to be liberated from the Japanese by British Chindits, supported by the Chinese

1950 – The U.S decides to send troops to support South Korean forces fighting invading North Korean forces.

1957 – Hurricane Audrey makes landfall near the Texas–Louisiana border, killing over 400 people

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.

1982 – Space Shuttle Columbia is launched from the Kennedy Space Center on the final shuttle research and development mission, STS-4.

1994 – Members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult release sarin gas in Matsumoto, Japan, killing 7 people and injuring over 600 more.

2013 – NASA launches the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph probe to observe the Sun.