June 27

It’s Sun Glasses Day and Paul Bunyan Day and National Orange Blossom Day

ON THIS DAY…
1542 Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo claims California for Spain
1787 In Lausanne, Switzerland, Edward Gibbon completes the sixth and final volume of his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, one of the great works of history in the English language
1844 Joseph Smith, who was founder of Mormonism and the Latter-day Saint movement, and his brother Hyrum, imprisoned in Illinois for treason and conspiracy, are taken from jail and killed by a mob
1847 New York and Boston were linked by telegraph wires
1857 The Scientific American warns that whale oil, used for lighting, may soon run out due to overhunting
1905 Mutiny on the battleship Potemkin
1932 In Britain, the Baird Laboratories exhibited a range of domestic TV sets; the screen size was 9 inches by 4 inches
1934 The Federal Savings and Loan Association is created
1950 After the UN Security Council votes to repel the invasion of South Korea by North Korea, President Harry Truman orders US forces into battle for South Korea
1954 World’s first nuclear power station opens in Obninsk, near Moscow
1966 The first broadcast of Dark Shadows aired on ABC-TV
1967 World’s first ATM installed in Enfield, London
1972 ATARI is established by Nolan Bushnell.
1978 The first pen with truly erasable ink, the Gillette Eraser Mate, was invented
1985 Route 66 ceases to be an official highway
1991 Slovenia, which declared independent two days previously, is invaded by Yugoslavia troops, tanks, and aircraft
2008 Pixar’s WALL·E and Wanted open in US movie theaters

BORN:
1880 Helen Keller, author, activist and lecturer; she was the first deafblind person to graduate from college
1927 Bob Keeshan, actor (Clarabell the Clown on The Howdy Doody Show, Captain Kangaroo)
1930 Ross Perot, businessman who founded Electronic Data Systems (EDS), ran for President of the United States in 1992 and 1996, ranked by Forbes as the 76th-richest person in America
1951 Julia Duffy, actress (Newhart, Designing Women, Battle Beyond the Stars, The Mommies)
1955 Isabelle Adjani, actress (Camille Claudel, Diabolique, Ishtar, The Driver)
1963 Meera Syal, comedian, writer, singer, journalist, and actress (Jekyll, The Kumars at No. 42, Goodness Gracious Me, The Amazing Mrs Pritchard)
1966 J. J. Abrams, 2-time Emmy Award producer and director (Lost, Alias, Star Trek, What About Brian)
1975 Tobey Maguire, actor (Spider-Man, Pleasantville, This Boy’s Life)

DIED:
1996 Albert R. Broccoli, Academy Award-winning film producer, co-founder of Danjac, LLC and Eon Productions, Broccoli is most notable as the producer of the iconic James Bond series of films, dies at 87
2001 Jack Lemmon, 2-time Academy Award-winning actor (Mister Roberts, Save the Tiger, Some Like it Hot, The Apartment, The Days of Wine and Roses, The China Syndrome, Tribute, Missing), dies at 76
2001 Tove Jansson, novelist, painter, illustrator and comic strip author; she was the author of, among other works, the Moomin books, dies at 86
2002 John Entwistle, bass guitarist, songwriter, singer, and horn player, who was best known as the bass guitarist for the rock band The Who, dies due to a heart attack induced by an undetermined amount of cocaine at 57