118 things happened on 27 December, from AD 537 to 2024. UK stories come first, then the rest of the world.
1831 · 195 years ago
HMS Beagle, a Royal Navy ship, sailed from Plymouth, England, on a survey voyage that lasted until October 1836. Its captain, Robert FitzRoy, wanted someone on board who could study rocks and nature. The 22-year-old Charles Darwin, who hoped to see the tropic…
UK history first: stories from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
UK story
HMS Beagle, a Royal Navy ship, sailed from Plymouth, England, on a survey voyage that lasted until October 1836. Its captain, Robert FitzRoy, wanted someone on board who could study rocks and nature. The 22-year-old Charles Darwin, who hoped to see the tropics, took the chance. By the end of the voyage, Darwin had made his name as a geologist and fossil collector.
UK story
J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan opened at the Duke of York's Theatre in London and was an instant success. It tells the story of Peter Pan, a mischievous boy who can fly, and his adventures on the island of Neverland. Other characters include Wendy Darling and her brothers, the fairy Tinker Bell and the pirate Captain Hook. Barrie later turned the story into a novel, Peter and Wendy, in 1911.
UK story
Portugal and England sign the Methuen Treaty which allows Portugal to export wines to England on favorable trade terms.
The rebuilt Hagia Sophia was opened in Constantinople, the city now called Istanbul in Turkey. It was the third church on the site, and it had the largest indoor space in the world. Its design, with a huge dome, is said to have 'changed the history of architecture'. Built as a church, it later became a mosque, then a museum, and is now a mosque again.
The song 'Jana Gana Mana' was sung for the first time, at a meeting of the Indian National Congress in Calcutta. It was written in Bengali by the poet Rabindranath Tagore, India's first Nobel Prize winner. In 1950 its first verse was adopted as the national anthem of India. A formal performance of the anthem takes about 52 seconds.
The Imperial Japanese Navy put Hōshō into service. It was the world's first commissioned ship to be built as an aircraft carrier from the start. An aircraft carrier is a warship with a flat deck where planes can take off and land. Hōshō was used to test equipment and to practise take-offs and landings at sea.
Radio City Music Hall opened in New York City with the largest auditorium in the world at the time. An auditorium is the part of a theatre where the audience sits. The building, part of the Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan, was designed in the Art Deco style. Nicknamed 'The Showplace of the Nation', it is home to the Rockettes dance company.
The Cave of Swallows was discovered in Aquismón, in the state of San Luis Potosí in Mexico. It is an open-air pit cave, a giant hole in the ground, and the largest known cave shaft in the world. Its opening is about 49 by 62 metres wide. From the lowest side of the opening, there is a sheer drop of 333 metres to the cave floor.
The Apollo 8 spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, ending the first crewed mission to orbit the Moon. Its astronauts, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders, had circled the Moon ten times. Apollo 8 was part of NASA's Apollo programme. The following year, in 1969, the programme landed the first humans on the Moon.
Radiation from a huge explosion on a magnetar called SGR 1806−20 reached Earth. A magnetar is a small, very dense type of star with an extremely powerful magnetic field. This one is on the far side of the Milky Way, so its light took about 42,000 years to arrive. In a tenth of a second, it released more energy than the Sun gives out in 150,000 years.
The Spanish Crown issues the Laws of Burgos, governing the conduct of settlers with regard to native Indians in the New World.
A period of unrest in Wittenberg following the arrival of three men of the Radical Reformation, known as the Zwickau prophets, was quelled after Martin Luther's release from custody.
Second Northern War/the Deluge: Monks at the Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa are successful in fending off a month-long siege.
Citizens of New Netherland presented the Flushing Remonstrance to Peter Stuyvesant, the director general of the colonial province, requesting an exemption to his ban on Quaker worship.
War of 1812: The destruction of the schooner USS Carolina brings to an end Commodore Daniel Patterson's makeshift fleet, which fought a series of delaying actions that contributed to Andrew Jackson's victory at the Battle of New Orleans.
Ether anesthetic is used for childbirth for the first time by Dr. Crawford Long in Jefferson, Georgia.
Having coined the phrase "manifest destiny" the previous July, journalist John L. O'Sullivan argued in his newspaper New York Morning News that the United States had the right to claim the entire Oregon Country.
The Great Poland Uprising against the Germans begins.
Kern and Hammerstein's musical play Show Boat, considered to be the first true American musical play, opens at the Ziegfeld Theatre on Broadway.
Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin orders the "liquidation of the kulaks as a class".
Regina Jonas is ordained as the first female rabbi in the history of Judaism.
Winter War: Finland holds off a Soviet attack in the Battle of Kelja.
The International Monetary Fund is created with the signing of an agreement by 29 nations.
Indonesian National Revolution: Queen Juliana of the Netherlands signed papers that relinquished sovereignty of most of the Dutch East Indies, officially recognising the independence of Indonesia.
Spain becomes a democracy after 40 years of fascist dictatorship.
Pope John Paul II visits Mehmet Ali Ağca in Rebibbia's prison and personally forgives him for the 1981 attack on him in St. Peter's Square.
The Romanian Revolution concludes, as the last minor street confrontations and stray shootings abruptly end in the country's capital, Bucharest.
Burger King and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission order a recall of plastic Poké Ball containers after they are determined to be a choking hazard.
The human-cloning company Clonaid claimed to have performed the first reproductive cloning of a human, but provided no evidence for the claim.
Operation Cast Lead: Israel launches three-week operation on Gaza.
Acting president and prime minister of South Korea Han Duck-soo was impeached by the National Assembly.
Every answer is somewhere on this page. Have a go, then check!
In which year did this happen: “HMS Beagle sets sail from Plymouth with Charles Darwin aboard”?
C: 1831. 1831 — that’s 195 years ago. Find it on the page
In which year did this happen: “J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan opens in London”?
C: 1904. 1904 — that’s 122 years ago. Find it on the page
Which of these happened first?
B: The great church of Hagia Sophia opens in Constantinople. 1904: J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan opens in London · AD 537: The great church of Hagia Sophia opens in Constantinople · 1831: HMS Beagle sets sail from Plymouth with Charles Darwin aboard Find it on the page
“George Cayley” happened in 1773. How many years ago was that?
B: 253 years. 2026 − 1773 = 253. Find it on the page
Famous people whose birthday is 27 December.
UK story
George Cayley was an English engineer and inventor, sometimes called 'the father of aviation'. In 1799 he described the idea of the modern aeroplane, with fixed wings and separate systems for lift, power and control. He built the first flying model aeroplane and designed the first glider reliably reported to carry a person into the air. The Wright brothers recognised how important his work was.
Well-known people who died on 27 December.
Festivals, holidays and saints’ days celebrated on 27 December somewhere in the world.
The Twelve Days of Christmas are a Christian festive season, running from Christmas Day to Twelfth Night on the evening of 5 January. 27 December, the third day, is the Feast of Saint John the Apostle. In England in the Middle Ages, the twelve days were a time of feasting and fun. Traditionally, many people take down their Christmas decorations on Twelfth Night.
Content note: these entries mention things like war, violence, deaths, disasters or crime. They are part of history, but they can be upsetting. Grown-ups and teachers: you may want to read them first. They come straight from Wikipedia and have not been rewritten for children.
Stories with a heading have been written for young readers by A Day in the Past, using the linked articles as sources. Other entries show text from Wikipedia’s “December 27” page and its “On this day” feed, written by Wikipedia contributors and shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. Each “Read more” link goes to the article an entry is based on. Photos are credited under each picture. Spotted a mistake? Please tell us.