| 1845–1958 | Germany [earth sciences] | German naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt lays the basis of modern geography with the publication of Kosmos/Cosmos, in which he arranges geographic knowledge in a systematic fashion. |
| November 1926 - July 1927 | Indonesia [political events] | An unsuccessful communist revolt takes place in Java, Dutch East Indies (later Indonesia). |
| 1927 | [philosophy] | German philosopher Martin Heidegger publishes his central work Sein und Zeit/Being and Time. |
| 1927 | USA [sculpture] | Work begins on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, which when complete will include the likenesses of US presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. |
| 1927 | [fiction] | The US writer Ernest Hemingway publishes his story collection Men Without Women. |
| 1927 | [fiction] | The German writer Hermann Hesse publishes his novel Der Steppenwolf/Steppenwolf. |
| 1927 | [fiction] | The US writer Sinclair Lewis publishes his novel Elmer Gantry. |
| 1927 | [fiction] | The English writer Virginia Woolf publishes her novel To the Lighthouse. |
| 1927 | [fiction] | The US writer Thornton Wilder publishes his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey. |
| 1927 | China [anthropology] | Canadian anthropologist Davidson Black discovers the first specimens of ‘Beijing man’ (Sinanthropous pekinensis), a species of Homo erectus believed to be 300,000 to 400,000 years old, at Choukoutien, China. |
| 1927 | [art] | The US photographer Edward Weston takes Shell. |
| 1927 | [art] | The US photographer Ansel Adams takes Monolith, the face of Half Dome, Yosemite Valley, California. |
| 1927 | Belgium [astronomy] | Belgian astronomer Georges Lemaître proposes that the universe was created by an explosion of energy and matter from a ‘primaeval atom’ – the beginning of the Big Bang theory. |
| 1927 | USA [cinema and film] | The US motion picture executive William Fox produces the Movietone News newsreel. It is the first commercially successful sound film combining narration and picture. |
| 7 January 1927 | USA, UK [telephone services] | A transatlantic telephone service begins between London, England, and New York City, provided by the American Telephone and Telegraph company (AT&T). |
| 29 March 1927 | USA, UK [speed records] | The British driver Henry Segrave establishes a new world land-speed record of 327.96 kph/203.79 mph in a 1,000 hp Sunbeam, at Daytona Beach, Florida. He is the first person to set a land-speed record in excess of 200 mph. |
| April 1927 | USA [natural disasters] | The flooding Mississippi River overflows onto 16,000 sq km/6250 sq mi, leaving 600,000 people without homes for weeks and causing $300 million in property damage. |
| 7 April 1927 | USA [technology] | The American Telephone and Telegraph company (AT&T)'s president Walter Gifford gives the first demonstration of television in the USA, in the auditorium of Bell Laboratories. The image and voice of US commerce secretary Herbert Hoover is transmitted from Washington, DC, to New York City. |
| 20 May - 21 May 1927 | USA [aircraft] | US aviator Charles Lindbergh, in his single-engine aircraft Spirit of St Louis, flies from New York City to Paris, France, the first nonstop solo transatlantic flight. He arrives at Le Bourget Airfield, outside Paris, France, at 10:24 p.m., 33 hr 29 min after departing Roosevelt Field, Long Island, New York. |
| 3 June - 4 June 1927 | USA, UK, Ireland [golf] | The first Ryder Cup match between the professional golfers of the USA and Great Britain is held at Worcester, Massachusetts. The US team wins 9–2. |
| 6 June 1927 | Syria, France [political events] | The Druze revolt against French rule in Syria is finally ended. |
| 7 July 1927 | United Kingdom [radio] | The first regular programme of recorded music on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is broadcast, presented by Christopher Stone, considered to be the world's first disc-jockey. |
| 29 July 1927 | USA [medicine] | Bellevue Hospital in New York City installs an electric respirator, a device designed to offset respiratory failure designed by Harvard University physicians Philip Drinker and Louis Shaw. |
| 6 August 1927 | [births and deaths] | Andy Warhol, US artist and film-maker, a leading exponent of Pop Art in the 1960s, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (–1987). |
| 23 August 1927 | Egypt [political events] | Following the death of the prime minister Saad Zaghlul, Nahas Pasha becomes the leader of the Wafd nationalist party in Egypt. |
| 30 September 1927 | USA [baseball] | The US baseball player Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees sets a major league record of 60 home runs in a season. The record stands until 1961 when Roger Maris, also of the Yankees, hits 61, from 7 more games. |
| 6 October 1927 | USA [cinema and film] | The film The Jazz Singer, directed by Alan Crosland and produced by the film company Warner Brothers, is released in the USA. It is the first feature film with spoken dialogue, and it stars Al Jolson, May McAvoy, and Warner Oland. All US film studios convert to sound within two years. |
| 17 October 1927 | Norway [political events] | The first Labour government is formed in Norway by Christopher Hornsrud, following a general election in which Labour won 59 seats, the Conservatives 30, the Liberals 30, and the Farmers' Party 26. |
| 14 November 1927 | USSR [political events] | In Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's decisive victory over his rivals, Leon Trotsky and Grigory Zinovyev are expelled from the Soviet Communist Party. |
| 15 November 1927 | Canada [League of Nations] | Canada is elected to a seat on the Council of the League of Nations. |
