Years Ago

Today is Wednesday, April 27, the 117th day of 2011. There are 248 days left in the year.

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On this date in:

1521: Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines.

1777: The only land battle in Connecticut during the Revolutionary War, the Battle of Ridgefield, takes place, resulting in a limited British victory.

1805: During the First Barbary War, an American-led force of Marines and mercenaries captures the city of Derna, on the shores of Tripoli.

1822: The 18th president of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant, is born in Point Pleasant, Ohio.

1861: President Abraham Lincoln, citing public safety concerns amid the Civil War, suspends the writ of habeas corpus in an area between Philadelphia and Washington. (Lincoln later lifts the order, but then suspends habeas corpus for the entire Union in September 1862. Habeas corpus is restored by President Andrew Johnson in December 1865.)

1865: The steamer Sultana explodes on the Mississippi River near Memphis, Tenn., killing more than 1,400 people, mostly freed Union prisoners of war.

1941: German forces occupy Athens during World War II.

1967: Expo ’67 is officially opened in Montreal by Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson.

1973: Acting FBI Director L. Patrick Gray resigns after it is revealed that he’d destroyed files removed from the safe of Watergate conspirator E. Howard Hunt.

1981: The Xerox Star computer workstation, featuring the first commercially available mouse, makes its debut.

1986: A video pirate calling himself “Captain Midnight” interrupts a movie on HBO with a printed message protesting de-scrambling fees. (Captain Midnight turns out to be John R. MacDougall of Florida, who is fined and placed on probation.)

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