| 27 April 1423 | Bohemia, Holy Roman Empire [wars] | John Žiška, leader of the antipapal Taborite Hussites, defeats the moderates at Horic, Bohemia, in the first battle of the Bohemian civil war. |
| 27 April 1521 | Spain, Philippines [political events] | Ferdinand Magellan, the Portuguese navigator and explorer, dies in Mactan, Philippines, while leading a Spanish expedition across the Pacific Ocean (c. 41). He is killed in a skirmish on the island of Mactan while attempting to convert the Philippines to the allegiance of Spain and Christianity. His remaining two ships continue south to the Moluccas in the Malay Archipelago. |
| 27 April 1682 | Russia [administration] | Following the death of Tsar Fyodor III of Russia, a faction led by the family of his stepmother, Natalia Naryshkin, proclaims her son Peter I the Great as tsar. |
| 27 April 1737 | England [births and deaths] | Edward Gibbon, English historian, author of The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, born in Putney, England (–1794). |
| 27 April 1791 | USA [births and deaths] | Samuel Finley Breese Morse, US painter and inventor of Morse Code, born in Charlestown, Massachusetts (–1872). |
| 27 April 1822 | USA [births and deaths] | Ulysses S Grant, US general who commands the Union army during the last two years of the American Civil War and president 1863–77, born in Point Pleasant, Ohio (–1885). |
| 27 April 1909 | Anatolia, Ottoman Empire [law and government] | The Young Turks depose the Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II because of his sympathy for the attempted counter-revolution. He is succeeded by his brother Mohammed V (–1918). |
| 27 April 1928 | Portugal [political events] | The reforming Portuguese academic Antonio de Oliveira Salazar is given wide powers as minister of finance to address Portugal's economic problems. |
| 27 April 1943 | USA [horse-racing] | Judy Johnson makes her debut as the first professional woman jockey in a steeplechase race at the Pimlico Racetrack, Baltimore, Maryland. She has been granted a licence by the Maryland Jockey Club because of the shortage of male jockeys resulting from their enlistment to the armed forces. |
| 27 April 1960 | French West Africa, Togo [decolonization] | The French-governed part of Togoland becomes the independent Republic of Togo, Africa's smallest independent country. |
| 27 April 1961 | Sierra Leone [decolonization] | The British colony of Sierra Leone wins independence within the Commonwealth. |
| 27 April 1964 | Tanganyika, Zanzibar, Tanzania [law and government] | Tanganyika and Zanzibar are united, with Julius Nyerere as president, and, on 29 October, the state is named the United Republic of Tanzania. |
| 27 April 2000 | UK [diplomacy] | Talks in London, England, between officials from Zimbabwe and British foreign secretary Robin Cook aimed at restoring peace in Zimbabwe end in a deadlock after the Zimbabwean delegation refuse to make a commitment to end the violence. |
