July 27: Facts & Historical Events On This Day

Around 1,000 prisoners escaped from Queyfiya Prison in Benghazi, Libya.

Queen Elizabeth II of England declared the 30th Olympics opened in London, UK.

To the audience's surprise, a stand-in for the Queen made an entrance by skydiving from a helicopter with James Bond's assistance.

NASA decided to suspend space shuttle flights after analyzing the launch of mission STS-114.

STS-114 was the first space shuttle mission since the destruction of the Columbia space shuttle in 2003. While the launch of STS-114 seemed to go smoothly at first, video records of the launch were analyzed, and pieces of debris were discovered falling off the shuttle. NASA decided to suspend all shuttle missions again, this time for a year until all kinks could be worked out.

Tony Hawk landed the first “900” on a skateboard at the 5th annual X Games in San Francisco.

The "900" is a dangerous two-and-a-half revolution spin of a vertical ramp.

The musical “Little Shop of Horrors” by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman premiered on Broadway at Orpheum Theater, New York, US.

Martin Luther King Jr. was jailed while performing a public prayer at the city hall in Albany, Georgia, US.

Billboard magazine started ranking sales of recorded songs.

The Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War was signed in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Hague Regulations of 1899 and 1907 already covered the treatment of prisoners of war, but the atrocities committed during World War I clearly showed that this needed updating. The Geneva Convention vastly improved the existing regulations and included points such as the organization of POW's work and the prohibition of collective penalties and reprisals.

Vincent van Gogh shot himself at a wheat field in Auvers-Sur-Oise, France, and died from his wounds two days later.

The US Department of Foreign Affairs, the fledgling nation’s first federal agency, was established.

Oliver Cromwell’s forces from Cambridgeshire and forces from Nottingham met near Gainsborough, ready to battle the following day in the Battle of Gainsborough.

Tobacco arrived in England for the first time.

Sir Walter Raleigh was the man to bring it from Virginia. The tales say that one of his servants who was smoking a pipe had water thrown over him as someone feared he was on fire.

The first recorded example of having to “quarantine” was written by The Ragusan Republic.

The Ragusan Republic, modern-day Dubrovnik, Croatia, was the first city to implement a compulsory 30-day quarantine for anyone traveling from a high infected plague area.

The Battle of Bouvines began.

French King Philip II battled Holy Roman Emperor Otto IV and King John of England, resulting in King John losing Normandy.