Today in History - December 27th
388: Death of St. Fabiola
537: Justinian dedicates Hagia Sophia
1512: The laws of Burgos give New World natives legal protection against abuse and authorize Negro slavery
1558: Queen Elizabeth of England issues a Proclaimation forbidding any other kind of worship other that that used at the close of the reign of Henry VIII
1571: Johannes Kepler, discovered planets travel in eliptical orbits. born
1822: Scientist Louis Pasteur in Dole, France. He developed the pasteurization process and rabies vaccination. born
1831: Naturalist Charles Darwin set out on a voyage to the Pacific aboard the HMS "Beagle." (Darwin's discoveries during the voyage helped formed the basis of his theories on evolution.)
1845: Dr. Crawford Williamson Long used anesthesia for childbirth for the first time, when he delivered his own child in Jefferson, Georgia.
1941: Japanese war planes bombed Manila in the Philippines, even though it had been declared an "open city."
1945: 28 nations signed an agreement creating the World Bank.
1945: Foreign ministers of Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union agree on a plan to take over Korea for five years.
1947: The children's television program "Howdy Doody," hosted by Bob Smith, made its debut on NBC. It showed under the title "Puppet Playhouse." It was aired for 13 years.
1956: Segregation on Tallahassee, Florida buses is outlawed.
1971: Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy and Woodstock of Charles Schulz' famous "Peanuts" comic strip made the cover of "Newsweek" magazine.
1979: Soviet forces seized control of Afghanistan. President Hafizullah Amin, who was overthrown and executed, was replaced by Babrak Karmal.
1983: President Reagan takes all responsibility for the lack of security in Beirut that allowed a terrorist on a suicide mission to kill 241 Marines.
1984: Four Polish officers are tried for the slaying of Reverend Jerzy Popieluszko.
1984: British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was the woman most admired by the American people, according to a Gallup Poll. It marked the third consecutive year that the `Iron Lady' received that honor.
1985: Palestinian guerrillas opened fire inside the Rome and Vienna airports; a total of twenty people were killed, including five of the attackers, who were slain by police and security personnel. [But terrorism's all about Iraq!]
1989: Romanias National Salvation Front names a new government headed by President Ion Iliescu, a day after announcing the execution of Nicolae Ceausescu.
1994: Four Roman Catholic priests - three French and a Belgian - were shot to death in their rectory in Algiers, a day after French commandos killed four radicals who had hijacked an Air France jet from Algiers to Marseille. [But terrorism's all about Iraq!]
2001: U.S. officials announced that Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners would be held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
2001: President Bush extended permanent normal trade status to China.