This date in history

[Jimbuna]

1792 - Guillotine first used in France, executes highwayman Nicolas Pelletier.

[Betonov]

Titos partisans are formed in 1941 and begin guerilla operations against the axis.
Until 1945 those operations included railway bombings, ambushes, assasinations kindapings, espionage, helping shot down ally pilots, enciting further insurection, raids and general unpleasantry to the ocupiers. In the later years that incuded a freed area with it's own government, it's own airforce and a tank battalion (the famed french resistance was a disorganised rabble in comparison). They tied up several German divisions that could have been efectively used in Russia.

27th April is still a national holliday in the former republics even after the Yugoslav dissolution.

[Jimbuna]

1865 - Steamboat "SS Sultana" explodes in the Mississippi River, killing up to 1,800 of the 2,427 passengers in the greatest maritime disaster in United States history. Most were paroled Union POWs on their way home.

[Aktungbby]

1777: The revolutionary battle of Ridgefield Connecticutt takes place. On April 27, 1777, American forces under the command of Major General David Wooster attacked the retreating British troops under Major General William Tryon in Ridgefield. In anticipation of Tryon’s return march to Long Island Sound after the April 25/26 attack on Danbury, a important Rebel depot. Wooster, GEN Benedict Arnold (still on our side) and General Gold S. Silliman deployed their forces of militia and members of the Continental Army farther westward. While Wooster attacked Tryon from the rear, Arnold and his men set up defences at the north end of Ridgefield’s town center. It was here that the fiercest of the fighting occurred. General Wooster was wounded-dying 5 days later; and Arnold, his horse shot from under him, escaped in a hail of musket balls having killed a British soldier trying to bayonet him while pinned under the horse with his pistol. "His hairbreadth escape was a testament to what England's Annual Register of 1777 called his "usual intrepidity." A British officer on the scene conceded only that Arnold, like Wooster before him, had "opposed us with more obstinacy than skill," a statement of begrudging respect." In 1977 the town of Ridgefield did a rather extraordinary thing: It issued silver and bronze medals commemorating General Benedict Arnold and his leadership at the Battle of Ridgefield A British cannon ball is still embedded in the wall of the local tavern. British general Tryon (former provincal governor of North Carolina and New York> He won the battle: The expedition was a tactical success for the British forces, but their actions in pursuing the raid galvanized Patriot support in Connecticut. While the British again made raids on Connecticut's coastal communities (including a second raid by Tryon in 1779 and a 1781 raid led by Arnold after his defection to the British side), they made no more raids that penetrated far into the countryside. Tryon's policies during the Revolutionary War were described as savagely brutal by persons on both sides of the conflict. Although he has been described as a tactful and competent administrator who improved the colonial postal service, Tryon became unpopular being overly harsh in his conduct of the war in the neutral ground in New York. Tryon's desolation warfare shocked many British officers and outraged Patriots. Joseph Galloway, a leading Tory, charged that marauding and even rape was officially tolerated by the British and the Loyalists. Galloway said that "indiscriminate and excessive plunder" was witnessed by "thousands within the British lines." In a "solemn inquiry," backed by affidavits, he said, "it appears, that no less than twenty-three [rapes] were committed in one neighborhood in New Jersey; some of them on married women, in presence of their helpless husbands, and others on daughters, while the unhappy parents, with unavailing tears and cries, could only deplore the savage brutality." Similarly, in New York City, citizens and officers accused Hessians, Redcoats, and Loyalists of robbing houses, raping women, and murdering civilians.'
The Cherokees had given Tryon the name of "Wolf" for his dealings in setting a boundary dispute for them in the western part of the (Carolina) colony...and they would know best perhaps...[wiki]

[Von Tonner]

Benito Mussolini. One of the world's most vicious dictators was executed on this day in 1945.

[Jimbuna]

1770 - Capt James Cook aboad Endeavour lands at Botany Bay in Australia.

1789 - Fletcher Christian leads mutiny on HMS Bounty against its captain William Bligh.

[Jimbuna]

1707 - English and Scottish parliaments accept Act of Union; the United Kingdom of Great Britain came into being on 1st May.

[Aktungbby]

1900: Skilled engineer enters legend and immortal song(s). John Luther 'Casey' Jones, 37, a well-regarded engineer, died in a train wreck near Vaughan, Mississippi. He stayed at the controls trying desperately to stop the train, The Cannonball Express! hitting a stalled train on a blind curve. When Jones did see the other train, it was too late to prevent a crash, but with a collision imminent, he acted heroically. Pulling the whistle to warn anyone in the other train, he slammed on the brakes and ordered his fireman to jump from the train. Jones, too, could have jumped, but if he had, he wouldn't have been able to work the brakes and slow his train – in the process, saving every passenger on board. The only person who died in the wreck was Jones himself, standing by his post in order to save lives. When crews went into the wreckage they found Mr. Jones in pieces, but most notably his hands were still clenched to the brake handle and the whistle. Proof that he did his best to prevent further carnage right up to the end. It is by no means certain that his employers were as fond of Casey as he is in the hearts of those who have heard the legend. Damned by faint praise, the regard in which he was held by the railroad company is evidenced in the company's (CYA) report on the accident...

"Engineer Jones ... had a reasonably good record, not having been disciplined for the past three years ... Jones' work upto the the time of the accident had been satisfactory."

Casey left his stamp on history and became immortal in verse....and song And for our virtual rail roaders: http://www.virtualrailroader.com/volume_1/casey.html

[Jimbuna]

1939 - Batman comics hit street.

1944 - Messerschmitt Me 262 Sturmvogel, 1st jet bomber, makes 1st flight.

1961 - Fidel Castro announces there will be no more elections in Cuba.

[Aktungbby]

1898:Commodore Admiral Dewey issues the 2nd most famous (in American Naval history) Command: "You may fire when you are ready Gridley" and America acquires an empire at Manila Bay. Aboard flagship USS Olympia The only Admiral of the NAVY in full uniform wearing only the Manila "Dewey" Award (of all his awards) USS Olympia at Philadelphia, PA today

[Jimbuna]

1892 - The Red Baron [Manfred von Richthofen] was born today.

1945 - WWII: Battle of Berlin ends as Soviet army takes Berlin and General Weidling surrenders.

1982 - Falklands War: Argentine cruiser General Belgrano sunk by British submarine Conqueror, killing more than 350 men.

2011 - Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks and the FBI's most wanted man is killed by United States special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

[Jimbuna]

1945 - WWII: German ship "Cap Arcona" laden with prisoners sunk by Royal Air Force in East Sea, 5,800 killed - one of largest maritime losses of life.

[Jimbuna]

1979 - Margaret Thatcher 1st woman to be elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

[Betonov]

1980- Josip Broz Tito died in Lubljana medical center
He died form a gangrene poisoning after a complication with blood flow to his leg. His leg was amputated days prior but it was too late. He was 3 days short from his 88th birthday.

[Aktungbby]

^HE was a ' man of many parts!' As a leader of the Non Aligned Movement during the cold war, he steered his own path and did it very well; too bad his work fell apart in the Balkans after his death.A revisinist counterpoint perhaps https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/review-essay/1995-07-01/titos-last-secret-how-did-he-keep-yugoslavs-together