Something to think about.Something to discover.Something to remember.Every day.
⌕ My Time Capsule
HISTORY & TIMELINE
27 July

A journey through
27 July in history

The story of 27 July runs from a battle between Siward of Northumbria and Macbeth in 1054 to the longest total eclipse of the Moon this century in 2018. In between come Osman’s victory at Bapheus, the Battle of Bouvines, the ban on Spinoza in Amsterdam, the founding charter of the Bank of England, the fall of Robespierre, the completion of the first lasting Atlantic telegraph cable, the Afghan victory at Maiwand, the Geneva convention on prisoners of war, the first flight of the Comet jet airliner, the Korean armistice, the vote to impeach Richard Nixon, the attempted coup in Trinidad and the opening of the London Olympics.

Begin the Timeline ↓ ← Back to Explore This Day
JUMP THROUGH TIME
II
THE MIDDLE AGES

Medieval History

Kingdoms, conflict, faith, power and the changing medieval world.

1054
The Battle of Dunsinane, an imagined scene painted by John MartinThe Battle of Dunsinane, an imagined scene painted by John MartinImage: John Martin · Public domain
world · Europe

Siward of Northumbria defeats Macbeth

Macbeth had been King of Scots since 1040, when he killed Duncan I in battle. In 1054 Siward, the Danish-born Earl of Northumbria, led an army and a fleet into Scotland, probably to support Duncan’s son Malcolm, and on 27 July he defeated Macbeth in a bloody battle in which Siward’s own son was killed. Tradition, followed by Shakespeare, places it at Dunsinane. Macbeth survived and kept his throne until Malcolm killed him in 1057.

Source: Britannica: Siward, earl of Northumbria ↗
1214
The Battle of Bouvines, painted by Horace Vernet in the 19th century for the palace of VersaillesThe Battle of Bouvines, painted by Horace Vernet in the 19th century for the palace of VersaillesImage: Horace Vernet · Public domain
world · Europe

Philip Augustus wins the Battle of Bouvines

By 1214 Philip II of France, known as Philip Augustus, had taken Normandy, Anjou and most of the other French lands of the English kings. King John of England, determined to win them back, built an alliance with his nephew the Holy Roman Emperor Otto IV and two powerful vassals of the French king, Ferrand, Count of Flanders, and Renaud, Count of Boulogne. John would attack from the west while the allies marched on Paris from the north, but his own campaign collapsed at La Roche-aux-Moines early in July. On Sunday 27 July 1214 Philip caught the northern army on the plain near the village of Bouvines, between Lille and Tournai. In a hard-fought battle the king was pulled from his horse and nearly killed, but the French knights broke the allies; Otto fled the field and Ferrand and Renaud were taken prisoner. Bouvines confirmed Philip’s conquests and made the French crown the strongest power in France. Otto lost his throne to Frederick II, and John came home weakened and broke, which led within a year to Magna Carta.

Source: Britannica: Battle of Bouvines ↗
1302
A modern map of the Turkish principalities of Anatolia around 1300, with Osman's lands in the north-westA modern map of the Turkish principalities of Anatolia around 1300, with Osman’s lands in the north-westImage: Khateeb88 · CC BY-SA 3.0
world · Middle East

Osman defeats a Byzantine army at Bapheus

Around 1300 Osman, the leader of a small Turkish principality in north-western Anatolia, was raiding the Byzantine lands around Nicaea and Nicomedia. The emperor Andronikos II sent an army of about 2,000 men under George Mouzalon to relieve Nicomedia, and on 27 July 1302, according to the Byzantine historian Pachymeres, Osman’s horsemen routed it at Bapheus, east of the city. The victory opened Bithynia to the Turks and is often seen as the birth of the Ottoman state.

Source: EBSCO Research Starters: Battle of Bapheus ↗
III
A CHANGING WORLD

Early Modern Era

Exploration, political change, scientific development and expanding global connections.

1656
The record of the ban pronounced on Baruch Spinoza by the Portuguese Jewish community of Amsterdam on 27 July 1656The record of the ban pronounced on Baruch Spinoza by the Portuguese Jewish community of Amsterdam on 27 July 1656Image: Portuguese Jewish community of Amsterdam (unknown scribe) · Public domain
culture · Europe

Amsterdam’s Jewish community casts out Spinoza

Baruch Spinoza was born in 1632 into a family of Portuguese Jewish merchants who had settled in Amsterdam, one of the few cities in Europe where Jews could worship openly. He studied at the congregation’s school and took over his father’s business, but as a young man he began to question the authority of scripture, the immortality of the soul and the idea of a God who acts in history. On 27 July 1656, when he was 23, the leaders of the Talmud Torah congregation pronounced a herem, or ban, on him for ‘abominable heresies’. It was the harshest ever issued by the community and was never lifted: no one was to speak to him or read anything he wrote. Spinoza left, earned his living grinding lenses and wrote the Theological-Political Treatise and the Ethics, which made him one of the great philosophers of the early Enlightenment.

Source: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Baruch Spinoza ↗
1694
The Bank of England on Threadneedle Street in the City of London, where it has stood since 1734The Bank of England on Threadneedle Street in the City of London, where it has stood since 1734Image: acediscovery · CC BY 4.0
world · Europe

The Bank of England receives its charter

In the 1690s William III was at war with Louis XIV’s France and running out of money. A Scottish merchant, William Paterson, proposed that a group of investors should lend the government a large sum in return for the right to form a company that would act as the government’s banker and issue its own notes. Parliament agreed, and in June 1694 subscribers pledged £1.2 million in a matter of days. On 27 July 1694 the charter creating ‘The Governor and Company of the Bank of England’ was sealed, and the Bank opened for business a few days later in rented rooms in Mercers’ Hall, Cheapside. It moved to Threadneedle Street in 1734 and slowly grew into the lender of last resort for the whole banking system. It was nationalised in 1946 and given control of interest rates in 1997, and it is one of the oldest central banks in the world.

Source: Bank of England: Why was the Bank of England founded? ↗
1794
A 19th-century picture by Jean-Joseph-François Tassaert of the night of 9 Thermidor, showing the claim that a guardsman shot Robespierre in the face at the Hôtel de VilleA 19th-century picture by Jean-Joseph-François Tassaert of the night of 9 Thermidor, showing the claim that a guardsman shot Robespierre in the face at the Hôtel de VilleImage: Jean-Joseph-François Tassaert · Public domain
politics · Europe

The Convention turns on Robespierre

By the summer of 1794 the Reign of Terror had reached its height. Under a law passed in June, the Revolutionary Tribunal in Paris could send suspects to the guillotine with hardly a hearing, and in June and July well over a thousand people were executed in the capital. Maximilien Robespierre, the best-known member of the Committee of Public Safety, spoke of purifying the Republic, and many deputies of the National Convention feared that they would be next. On 26 July he gave a long, threatening speech about unnamed traitors but refused to name them. The next day, 27 July 1794, or 9 Thermidor in the revolutionary calendar, the deputies shouted him down and voted to arrest him, his brother Augustin, Saint-Just and Couthon. Freed by the Paris Commune, they gathered at the Hôtel de Ville, but troops loyal to the Convention stormed it that night. Robespierre and 21 others were guillotined on 28 July, and the Terror soon came to an end.

Source: Britannica: Thermidorian Reaction ↗
IV
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

The 1800s

Industry, empire, invention, reform and a century of enormous transformation.

1866
The landing of the Atlantic cable at Heart's Content, Newfoundland, in 1866, painted by Robert Charles DudleyThe landing of the Atlantic cable at Heart’s Content, Newfoundland, in 1866, painted by Robert Charles DudleyImage: Robert Charles Dudley · Public domain
science · Americas

The Great Eastern brings the Atlantic cable ashore

A telegraph cable was first laid across the Atlantic in 1858, and Queen Victoria and President Buchanan exchanged messages over it, but it failed within weeks. A second attempt in 1865 ended when the cable snapped in mid-ocean. The American businessman Cyrus Field and his Atlantic Telegraph Company tried again in 1866, using the Great Eastern, Brunel’s giant iron steamship, the only vessel big enough to carry the whole cable. The ship left Valentia Island in south-west Ireland on 13 July, paying out the cable behind her, and on 27 July 1866 she arrived at Heart’s Content in Newfoundland, where crowds watched the end brought ashore. This time the cable worked, and news that had taken ten days or more to cross the ocean by ship now took minutes. A few weeks later the crew fished up the broken 1865 cable and completed it too, giving two working lines.

Source: Heritage Newfoundland and Labrador: 19th-century communications and transportation ↗
1880
The Battle of Maiwand as pictured in the collected works of the Afghan writer Mohamed Yusuf, known as Riyazi, published in 1906The Battle of Maiwand as pictured in the collected works of the Afghan writer Mohamed Yusuf, known as Riyazi, published in 1906Image: Mohamed Yusuf (pen name Riyazi) · Public domain
world · Asia

An Afghan army routs the British at Maiwand

In 1878 Britain invaded Afghanistan for the second time, to force the emir to shut out Russian influence. By 1880 British troops held Kabul and Kandahar, but the country was far from subdued. Ayub Khan, a son of the former emir Sher Ali Khan and governor of Herat, raised an army and marched on Kandahar, and a British and Indian brigade under Brigadier-General George Burrows was sent out to stop him. On 27 July 1880 the two forces met near the village of Maiwand, west of Kandahar. Burrows’ brigade of about 2,500 men was heavily outnumbered, and after hours of artillery fire the Afghan infantry and horsemen broke through; nearly 1,000 British and Indian soldiers were killed, many of the 66th Regiment of Foot in a last stand in a walled garden. Afghan tradition tells of a young woman, Malalai, who rallied the fighters. The survivors were besieged in Kandahar until General Roberts’ famous march from Kabul relieved the city in September.

Source: National Army Museum: Second Afghan War ↗
V
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The 1900s

War and peace, technological leaps, social change, politics, sport and popular culture.

1929
The cover of the Geneva conventions of 1929, published by the International Committee of the Red Cross, from Archives New ZealandThe cover of the Geneva conventions of 1929, published by the International Committee of the Red Cross, from Archives New ZealandImage: Archives New Zealand from New Zealand · CC BY-SA 2.0
politics · Global

A Geneva convention protects prisoners of war

Millions of soldiers were taken prisoner in the First World War, and the rules then in force, in the Hague Conventions, proved vague and hard to enforce. At the urging of the International Committee of the Red Cross, 47 governments met in Geneva in July 1929, and on 27 July they adopted a convention on the treatment of prisoners of war. It banned reprisals and collective punishment and allowed inspections of camps; it was replaced by the Third Geneva Convention in 1949.

Source: ICRC: Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Geneva, 27 July 1929 ↗
1949
A BOAC Comet at Entebbe in Uganda in 1952, the year the jet airliner entered serviceA BOAC Comet at Entebbe in Uganda in 1952, the year the jet airliner entered serviceImage: Ministry of Information official photographer · Public domain
science · Europe

The Comet, the first jet airliner, takes to the air

The de Havilland company designed the DH106 Comet at Hatfield in Hertfordshire to give Britain a lead in post-war air travel, with four jet engines buried in its wings. On 27 July 1949 the test pilot John Cunningham took the prototype up for its first flight. It cruised at about 450 miles an hour, far faster than any propeller airliner, and entered service with BOAC in 1952, but a series of fatal crashes caused by metal fatigue grounded it in 1954.

Source: BAE Systems heritage: de Havilland DH106 Comet 1 and 2 ↗
1953
General William Harrison (seated left) and General Nam Il (seated right) sign the armistice at Panmunjom on 27 July 1953General William Harrison (seated left) and General Nam Il (seated right) sign the armistice at Panmunjom on 27 July 1953Image: F. Kazukaitis, U.S. Navy (U.S. Department of Defense) · Public domain
world · Asia

An armistice ends the fighting in Korea

The Korean War began in June 1950, when North Korea invaded the South. United Nations forces led by the United States drove the North Koreans back almost to the Chinese border, and China then sent in hundreds of thousands of troops. By mid-1951 the front had settled close to the 38th parallel, where the war had started, and talks opened. They dragged on for two years, stuck above all on whether prisoners who did not want to go home should be forced to return. At 10 a.m. on 27 July 1953, in a hall built for the purpose at Panmunjom, the American general William Harrison and the North Korean general Nam Il signed the armistice after 158 meetings, and the guns fell silent at 10 p.m. It set up a demilitarised zone four kilometres wide across the peninsula. South Korea’s president, Syngman Rhee, refused to sign, and no peace treaty has ever followed. The war cost millions of lives, and North Korea marks the day as its Victory Day.

Source: US National Archives: Armistice Agreement for the Restoration of the South Korean State (1953) ↗
1974
Peter Rodino, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and its chief counsel John Doar face the press about the impeachment inquiry in January 1974Peter Rodino, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and its chief counsel John Doar face the press about the impeachment inquiry in January 1974Image: Leffler, Warren K. · Public domain
politics · Americas

A House committee votes to impeach Richard Nixon

For two years the Watergate affair, which began with a burglary at the Democratic Party’s offices in 1972, had crept closer to President Richard Nixon. After months of hearings, the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted on 27 July 1974, by 27 votes to 11, to recommend the first article of impeachment, charging him with obstruction of justice; two more articles followed within days. Facing certain impeachment, Nixon resigned in August.

Source: US House of Representatives, History, Art & Archives: Impeachment inquiries into President Richard Nixon ↗
1990
The eternal flame and memorial to the 1990 coup attempt outside the Red House in Port of SpainThe eternal flame and memorial to the 1990 coup attempt outside the Red House in Port of SpainImage: Albert Sydney · CC BY-SA 4.0
politics · Americas

Gunmen seize Trinidad’s parliament

On the afternoon of 27 July 1990 members of the Jamaat al Muslimeen, a Muslim group led by Yasin Abu Bakr, stormed the Red House, the seat of the parliament of Trinidad and Tobago in Port of Spain, and took Prime Minister A. N. R. Robinson and several ministers hostage, while others seized the state television station. Looting broke out in the capital. The gunmen surrendered on 1 August; more than 20 people had died.

Source: Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago: Report of the Commission of Enquiry into the 1990 attempted coup ↗
VI
2000 TO TODAY

Modern Day

The events of recent decades that have already become part of the historical record.

2012
Chimneys rise from the Olympic Stadium during the Industrial Revolution scene of the London 2012 opening ceremonyChimneys rise from the Olympic Stadium during the Industrial Revolution scene of the London 2012 opening ceremonyImage: Barney Moss from London, UK · CC BY 2.0
sport · Europe

London opens its third Olympic Games

London had held the Olympics in 1908 and again in 1948, and in 2005 it won the right to hold them a third time, the first city to do so. The Games were centred on a new Olympic Park built on old industrial land in Stratford, in the east of the city, and the opening ceremony, on the evening of 27 July 2012, was created by the film director Danny Boyle under the title Isles of Wonder. The show began with a rural ‘green and pleasant land’ of farm animals and maypoles, which was torn up as smoking chimneys rose from the ground in a portrayal of the Industrial Revolution. It went on to celebrate the National Health Service, children’s books and British pop music, and included a film in which the Queen appeared to parachute into the stadium with James Bond. The cauldron, made of 204 copper petals, one for each competing team, was lit by seven young athletes.

Source: Olympics.com: London 2012 Olympic Games open in spectacular style ↗
2018
The eclipsed Moon rising red over an old cemetery at Brastad in Sweden on 27 July 2018The eclipsed Moon rising red over an old cemetery at Brastad in Sweden on 27 July 2018Image: W.carter · CC0
science · Global

The longest total eclipse of the Moon this century

On the evening of 27 July 2018 the full Moon passed almost through the centre of Earth’s shadow and turned a deep red for 1 hour and 43 minutes, the longest total lunar eclipse of the 21st century. The Moon was near the farthest point of its orbit, so it moved slowly, and Earth had just passed its farthest point from the Sun, so its shadow was near its largest. It was seen across Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Europe and Australia; Mars shone brightly nearby.

Source: NASA: Total lunar eclipse, 27 July 2018 ↗
RESEARCH

Sources & Further Reading

Selected authoritative references supporting the events on this page.

Britannica: Siward, earl of Northumbria↗Wikipedia: Siward, Earl of Northumbria↗Britannica: Battle of Bouvines↗Wikipedia: Battle of Bouvines↗EBSCO Research Starters: Battle of Bapheus↗Wikipedia: Battle of Bapheus↗Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Baruch Spinoza↗Britannica: Benedict de Spinoza↗Bank of England: Why was the Bank of England founded?↗Bank of England: Our history↗Britannica: Thermidorian Reaction↗Wikipedia: Fall of Maximilien Robespierre↗Heritage Newfoundland and Labrador: 19th-century communications and transportation↗IEEE Milestone: Heart’s Content Cable Station↗National Army Museum: Second Afghan War↗Wikipedia: Battle of Maiwand↗ICRC: Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Geneva, 27 July 1929↗Wikipedia: Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War↗BAE Systems heritage: de Havilland DH106 Comet 1 and 2↗RAF Museum: Comet, the world’s first jet airliner↗US National Archives: Armistice Agreement for the Restoration of the South Korean State (1953)↗Wikipedia: Korean Armistice Agreement↗US House of Representatives, History, Art & Archives: Impeachment inquiries into President Richard Nixon↗Wikipedia: Impeachment process against Richard Nixon↗Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago: Report of the Commission of Enquiry into the 1990 attempted coup↗Wikipedia: Jamaat al Muslimeen coup attempt↗Olympics.com: London 2012 Olympic Games open in spectacular style↗Wikipedia: 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony↗NASA: Total lunar eclipse, 27 July 2018↗NASA Goddard: Catalog of lunar eclipses, 2001 to 2100↗
WHY THESE MOMENTS?

Significance before volume

This page is not the longest possible list of events. It is a chronological journey through 27 July, where each entry is chosen for historical significance, human interest and reliability.

Facts are checked against authoritative museums, archives, universities and reference works. Where sources disagree, the page says so.

EXPLORED THE DEEPER STORY?

Return to the highlights of 27 July

Discover the lighter side of the date with famous birthdays, culture, firsts and lives remembered.

Explore This Day →
← PREVIOUS DAY26 July
HISTORY & TIMELINE27 July
NEXT DAY →28 July