27 May 1647

Achsah Young of Windsor, Connecticut, becomes the first known American woman to be executed as a witch.

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27 May 1810

As colonel of the first Madras Fusiliers, he was involved in the suppression of the Indian Mutiny, meting out brutal retribution to captured mutineers and anyone suspected of supporting them.


27 May 1818

Birth in Homer, New York of temperance campaigner and women's rights advocate Amelia Bloomer. She published her own newspaper, The Lily, to promote causes in which she believed but is best-known for wearing the ankle-length pantaloons that bear her name.


27 May 1919

Lieutenant Commander Albert Read and the crew of the US navy's NC-4 flying boat become the first men to fly across the Atlantic when they land at Lisbon, Portugal.


27 May 1941

After having her steering gear disabled by Fleet Air Arm aircraft and being badly damaged by the battleships King George V and Rodney, the German battleship Bismarck was sunk by torpedoes. Of the ship's 2,200 crew, 1,995 perished.

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27 May 1942

SS General Reinhard Heydrich, the acting reich protector of Bohemia and Bohemia, was mortally wounded by Jan Kubis and Josef Gabcik, two British-trained Czech agents who attacked his car in Prague.

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