On September 27:
489 Odoacer attacked Theodoric at the Battle of Verona, and was defeated again.
1331 The Battle of Płowce between the Kingdom of Poland and the Teutonic Order was fought.
1422 The Teutonic Knights signed the Treaty of Melno with the Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
1540 The Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) received its charter from Pope Paul III.
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1590 Pope Urban VII died 13 days after being chosen as the Pope, making his reign the shortest papacy in history.
1605 The armies of Sweden were defeated by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Battle of Kircholm.
1669 The Venetians surrender the fortress of Candia to the Ottomans, ending the 21-year long Siege of Candia.
1821 Mexico gained its independence from Spain.
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1822 Jean-François Champollion announced that he had deciphered the Rosetta stone.
1825 The Stockton and Darlington Railway opened, and begins operation of the world’s first service of locomotive-hauled passenger trains.
1854 The steamship SS Arctic sank with 300 people on board. This marks the first great disaster in the Atlantic Ocean.
1903 Wreck of the Old 97, a train crash made famous by the song of the same name.
1905 The physics journal Annalen der Physik published Albert Einstein‘s paper “Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?”, introducing the equation E=mc².
1908 The first production of the Ford Model T car was built at the Piquette Plant in Detroit, Michigan.
1916 Iyasu was deposed as ruler of Ethiopia in a palace coup in favor of his aunt Zauditu.
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1922 King Constantine I of Greece abdicated his throne in favor of his eldest son, King George II.
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1930 Bobby Jones won the U.S. Amateur Championship to complete the Grand Slam of gol -the U.S. Open, British Open, U.S. Amateur, and British Amateur.
1937 Balinese Tiger declared extinct.
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1938 Ocean liner Queen Elizabeth launched in Glasgow.
1940 World War II: The Tripartite Pact was signed in Berlin by Germany, Japan and Italy.
1941 The SS Patrick Henry was launched becoming the first of more than 2,700 Liberty ships.
1941 – Foundation of EAM (National Liberation Front) in Greece.
1942 Last day of the September Matanikau action on Guadalcanal as United States Marine Corps barely escaped after being surrounded by Japanese forces.
1942 – Alvin Stardust, English singer, was born.
1943 Randy Bachman, Canadian musician, was born.
1944 The Kassel Mission resulted in the largest loss by a USAAF group on any mission in World War II.
1947 Meat Loaf, ( Michael Lee Aday)American singer, was born.
1948 Michele Dotrice, English actress, was born.
1949 The first Plenary Session of the National People’s Congress approved the design of the Flag of the People’s Republic of China.
1953 Greg Ham, Australian musician and songwriter (Men at Work), was born.
1954 The nationwide debut of Tonight! (The Tonight Show) hosted by Steve Allen on NBC.
1956 USAF Captain Milburn G. Apt became the first man to exceed Mach 3 while flying the Bell X-2.
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1958 Socttish author Irvine Welsh was born.
1959 Nearly 5000 people died on the main Japanese island of Honshū as the result of a typhoon.
1964 The Warren Commission released its report, concluding that Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, assassinated President John F. Kennedy.
1964 The British TSR-2 aircraft XR219 made its maiden flight from Boscombe Down in Wiltshire.
1968 – The stage musical Hair opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London.
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1972 Gwyneth Paltrow, American actress, was born.
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1974 William Sutch was charged with spying.
1977 The 300 metre tall CKVR-TV transmission tower in Barrie, Ontario, was hit by a light aircraft in a fog, causing it to collapse. All aboard the aircraft were killed.
1983 Richard Stallman announced the GNU project to develop a free Unix-like operating system.
1986 Clifford Lee Burton of Metallica died in tour bus accident.
1988 The National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi was founded.
1993 The Sukhumi massacre in Abkhazia.
1995 The Government of the United States unveiled the first of its redesigned bank notes with the $100 bill featuring a larger portrait of Benjamin Franklin slightly off-centre.
1996 In Afghanistan, the Taliban captured the capital city Kabul after driving out President Burhanuddin Rabbani and executing former leader Mohammad Najibullah.
1996 – The Julie N. tanker skip crashed into the Million Dollar Bridge in Portland, Maine spilling thousands of gallons of oil.
1998 Google was founded.
2003 Smart 1 satellite was launched.
2008 CNSA astronaut Zhai Zhigang became the first Chinese person to perform a spacewalk while flying on Shenzhou 7.
Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia