Today is Friday, April 27, the 117th day of 2018. There are 248 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On April 27, 1968, Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey declared his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for president, less than a month after President Lyndon B. Johnson said he would not run for re-election.
On this date:
In 1521, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed by natives in the Philippines.
In 1777, the only land battle in Connecticut during the Revolutionary War, the Battle of Ridgefield, resulted in a limited British victory.
In 1822, the 18th president of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant, was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio.
In 1865, the steamer Sultana, carrying freed Union prisoners of war, exploded on the Mississippi River near Memphis, Tennessee; death toll estimates vary from 1,500 to 2,000.
In 1925, the song "Yes, Sir! That's My Baby" by Walter Donaldson and Gus Kahn was published by Irving Berlin, Inc. of New York.
In 1938, King Zog I of the Albanians married Countess Geraldine Apponyi de Nagy-Apponyi.
In 1941, German forces occupied Athens during World War II.
In 1950, Britain formally recognized the state of Israel.
In 1967, Canada's International and Universal Exhibition, also known as "Expo 67," began a six-month run as it was officially opened in Montreal by Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson.
In 1978, 51 construction workers plunged to their deaths when a scaffold inside a cooling tower at the Pleasants Power Station site in West Virginia fell 168 feet to the ground. Convicted Watergate defendant John D. Ehrlichman was released from an Arizona prison after serving 18 months.
In 1982, the trial of John W. Hinckley Jr., who shot four people, including President Ronald Reagan, began in Washington. (The trial ended with Hinckley's acquittal by reason of insanity.)
In 1992, the new Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was proclaimed in Belgrade by the republic of Serbia and its lone ally, Montenegro. Russia and 12 other former Soviet republics won entry into the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Betty Boothroyd became the first female Speaker of Britain's House of Commons.