Today in History: April 27

1993: Eritrea declared itself independent.

1989: Protesting students take over Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China.

1987: Austrian president Kurt Waldheim was barred from entering the United States. He was accused of aiding in the execution of thousands of Jews in World War II.

1983: Pitcher Nolan Ryan surpassed Walter Johnson’s strikeout record—one that had held since 1927.

1978: The Afghanistan revolution begins.

1975: Saigon is encircled by North Vietnamese troops.

1961: The United Kingdom grants Sierra Leone independence.

1956: Rocky Marciano retired as undefeated world heavyweight boxing champion.

1950: South Africa passes the Group Areas Act, formally segregating races.

1941: The Greek army capitulates to the invading Germans.

1937: German bombers of the Condor Legion devastate Guernica, Spain.

1909: The Sultan of Turkey, Abdul Hamid II, is overthrown.

1865: The Sultana, a steam-powered riverboat, catches fire and burns after one of its boilers explodes. At least 1,238 of the 2,031 passengers–mostly former Union POWs–are killed.

1863: The Army of the Potomac begins marching on Chancellorsville.

1861: President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.

1861: West Virginia secedes from Virginia after Virginia secedes from the Union.

1813: American forces capture York (present-day Toronto), the seat of government in Ontario.

1805: The U.S. Marines captured Derna, on the shores of Tripoli.

1773: British Parliament passes the Tea Act.

1746: King George II wins the battle of Culloden.

1565: The first Spanish settlement in Philippines is established in Cebu City.

1521: Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed in a fight with natives of the Philippines.

1509: Pope Julius II excommunicates the Italian state of Venice.

1296: Edward I defeats the Scots at the Battle of Dunbar.