On This Day in History - February 27th - Almanac

Today is Thursday, Feb. 27, the 58th day of 2020 with 308 to follow.

The moon is waxing. Morning stars are Jupiter, Mars and Saturn. Evening stars are Mercury, Neptune, Uranus and Venus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Pisces. They include Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1807; U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black in 1886; soprano Marian Anderson in 1897; novelist John Steinbeck in 1902; actor Joan Bennett in 1910; author Lawrence Durrell in 1912; former Texas Gov. John Connally in 1917; actor Joanne Woodward in 1930 (age 90); actor Elizabeth Taylor in 1932; consumer activist Ralph Nader in 1934 (age 86); author N. Scott Momaday in 1934 (age 86); actor Barbara Babcock in 1937 (age 83); actor Howard Hesseman in 1940 (age 80); actor Mary Frann in 1943; physicist Alan Guth in 1947 (age 73); actor Timothy Spall in 1957 (age 63); actor Adam Baldwin in 1962 (age 58); singer Chille, born Rozonda Thomas, in 1971 (age 49); author/activist Chelsea Clinton in 1980 (age 40); singer Josh Groban in 1981 (age 39); actor Kate Mara in 1983 (age 37).

On this date in history:

In 1844, the Dominican Republic was granted independence from Haiti.

In 1933, it was announced that President-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt would use a 263-year-old tattered Dutch Bible that had been in the possession of his family since 1670 for his inauguration on March 4.

In 1942, opening salvos were fired in the Battle of the Java Sea, during which 11 American-British-Dutch-Australian Command warships were sunk by the Japanese, resulting in the deaths of approximately 3,400 sailors. The USS Houston (CA-30), which was sunk during the Battle of Sunda Strait on March 1, 1942, was located in 2014.

In 1951, the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, limiting presidents to two terms, was ratified.

In 1973, members of the American Indian Movement began a 71-day occupation at Wounded Knee, S.D., to protest the federal government's failure to live up to its agreements with Indian nations.

In 1974, the first issue of People magazine was published.

In 1982, an Atlanta jury convicted Wayne Williams of killing two of 28 young African Americans whose deaths over a two-year period had shaken the city. Williams was sentenced to life in prison.

In 1990, the Soviet Parliament approved the creation of a U.S.-style presidential system that gave Mikhail Gorbachev broad powers and established direct popular elections for the office.

In 1991, President George H.W. Bush ordered a halt to the allied military offensive against Iraqi military forces, saying: ''Our military objectives are met.''

In 1999, Nigeria's transition to civilian rule was nearly completed with the election of Olusegun Obasanjo, a former military leader, as president.

In 2007, a suicide bomber set off a device outside Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan that killed 23 people. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, who was visiting the American military base and identified by the Taliban as the target of the attack, escaped injury.

In 2010, an 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Chile, killing more than 500 people. The quake generated a tsunami, destroyed or heavily damaged nearly 500,000 homes and caused a massive electrical blackout. Chile's president declared a "state of catastrophe."

In 2013, about 150,000 people gathered at St. Peter's Square in Vatican City for Pope Benedict XVI's final general audience.

In 2015, Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov died from a fatal gunshot wound. In the days before his death, Nemtsov expressed fears of being killed by the government, but the government prosecuted Chechen men for his death.

In 2019, President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had their second summit -- at the Lotus Water Puppet Theater in Hanoi, Vietnam.

A thought for the day: "The soul is healed by being with children." -- Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky