Here are notable events that took place on Sept. 27 across history, from the founding of religious orders and early rail travel to modern trials, natural disasters and space milestones.
Notable Events
1540: The Society of Jesus — commonly known as the Jesuits — was formally chartered by the Roman Catholic Church, establishing a religious order that would become influential in education, missionary work and global Catholic life.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder (C) arrives at the White House with his escort on June 27, 2005. On September 27, 1998, Schroeder led Germany's Social Democratic Party to victory in parliamentary elections, bringing to an end 16 years of power by Chancellor Helmut Kohl and his Christian Democratic Party. File Photo by Roger L. Wollenberg/UPI
1825: In England, engineer George Stephenson operated the first locomotive to haul a passenger train, a landmark moment in the development of rail transportation and the Industrial Revolution.
1938: Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Consort, later the Queen Mother) christened the ocean liner RMS Queen Elizabeth at Clydebank, Scotland. At the time it was among the world's largest passenger liners and a sister ship to the Queen Mary.
File Photo by Rachel Griffith/UPI
1939: After 19 days of intense air raids and artillery bombardment, Polish forces defending Warsaw surrendered to invading German forces during the opening weeks of World War II.
1954: The Tonight Show premiered on U.S. television with Steve Allen as host, launching a late-night format that became a mainstay of American broadcasting.
A Segway tour stops outside the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington on August 7, 2010. On September 27, 2010, Jimi Heselden, 62, manufacturer of the upright Segway scooter, was killed when he apparently lost control of one of the two-wheeled, self-balancing machines and ran over a cliff into a river. File Photo by Alexis C. Glenn/UPI
1964: The Warren Commission released its report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy following a 10-month investigation; the commission concluded there was no evidence of a conspiracy and that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.
1998: Gerhard Schröder led Germany's Social Democratic Party to victory in parliamentary elections, ending 16 years of rule by Chancellor Helmut Kohl and the Christian Democratic Party.
File Photo by Alexis C. Glenn/UPI
2008: Chinese astronaut Zhai Zhigang performed a spacewalk from the Shenzhou VII spacecraft, becoming the first citizen of the People’s Republic of China to conduct an extravehicular activity.
2010: Jimi Heselden, the British businessman who owned the company that manufactured the Segway personal transporter, died after apparently losing control of a vehicle and tumbling over a cliff; he was 62.
File Photo by Fadel Itani/UPI
2013: A five-story building collapsed in Mumbai, killing 60 people. Two other building collapses in the same city during the previous five months had raised the death toll from such incidents to more than 80.
2014: Mount Ontake in Japan, the country's second-highest volcano, erupted suddenly in a cloud of ash, killing 63 people — many were hikers caught on the mountain.
2017: Thailand's Supreme Court unanimously sentenced former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to five years in prison for dereliction of duty related to the government's rice-pledging scheme.
2021: A federal jury in Brooklyn convicted singer R. Kelly on multiple charges stemming from longstanding allegations that he sexually abused women and underage girls; he was later sentenced to 30 years in prison.
2023: Members of the Writers Guild of America returned to work after a 146-day strike, following a tentative agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers; the guild represents roughly 11,000 members.
2024 (Reports): News outlets circulated claims that an Israeli airstrike on Beirut killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. These reports were described as preliminary and, at the time of publication, remained unconfirmed in publicly verifiable sources. (Readers should consult reliable, up-to-date sources for confirmation.)
Note: Duplicate or inconsistent original entries have been consolidated and ambiguous or unverified reports have been clearly labeled so readers can assess their reliability.
