Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Today is July 27 Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the former shah of Iran, died of cancer on this date in 1980 while in exile in Egypt. After hjis ouster in Iran, the shah traveled to several countries before entering the United States in October 1979 for medical treatment of his cancer. In Tehran, Islamic militants responded on Nov. 4 by storming the U.S. embassy and taking 52 Americans hostage, holding them for 444 days after the U.S. refused to return the shah for trial. Advertisement An armistice agreement ending the Korean War was signed on this date in 1953 at Panmunjom, Korea, by U.S. and North Korean delegates. Both sides claimed victory at the conclusion of the truce negotiations, which had lasted two years and 17 days. On this date in 1921, at the University of Toronto, Canadian scientists Frederick Banting and Charles Best successfully isolate insulin--a hormone they believe could prevent diabetes--for the first time. Within a year, the first human sufferers of diabetes were receiving insulin treatments, and countless lives were saved from what was previously regarded as a fatal disease One person was killed and more than 100 were injured on this date in 1996 when a bomb exploded at Olympic Park in Atlanta, Ga., during the summer Olympic games. Advertisement Orville Wright--one-half of the Wright Brothers--set what was then a world record on this date in 1909 by staying aloft in a plane for one hour, 12 minutes and 40 seconds. And it was on this date in 1986 that Greg LeMond, a 25-year-old cyclist from Sacramento, Calif., became the first American to win biking's toughest contest, the 2500-mile Tour de France. He was a member of a French team. We now return you to the present, already in progress.
