February 27

1594 – Henry IV is crowned King of France.

1812 – Poet Lord Byron gives his first address as a member of the House of Lords, in defense of Luddite violence against Industrialism in his home county of Nottinghamshire.

1860 – Abraham Lincoln makes a speech at Cooper Union in the city of New York that is largely responsible for his election to the Presidency.

“An eyewitness that evening said, “When Lincoln rose to speak, I was greatly disappointed. He was tall, tall, — oh, how tall! and so angular and awkward that I had, for an instant, a feeling of pity for so ungainly a man.” However, once Lincoln warmed up, “his face lighted up as with an inward fire; the whole man was transfigured. I forgot his clothes, his personal appearance, and his individual peculiarities. Presently, forgetting myself, I was on my feet like the rest, yelling like a wild Indian, cheering this wonderful man.”

1922 – A challenge to the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, allowing women the right to vote, is rebuffed by the Supreme Court of the United States in Leser v. Garnett.

1933 – Reichstag fire: The Reichstag fire was an arson attack on the Reichstag building, the home of the German parliament on February 27 1933, just one month after Adolf Hitler had been sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. and is seen as pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany.

1939 – United States labor law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that sit-down strikes violate property owners’ rights and are therefore illegal.

1940 – Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discover carbon-14.

1943 – In Berlin, the Gestapo arrest 1,800 Jewish men with German wives, leading to the Rosenstrasse protest.

1951 – The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting Presidents to two terms, is ratified.

1964 – The Government of Italy asks for help to keep the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over.

2015 – The assassination of Boris Nemtsov, a Russian politician opposed to the government of Vladimir Putin, happened in central Moscowon Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge at 11:31pm February 27 2015. An unknown assailant fired seven or eight shots from a Makarov pistol; four of them hit Boris Nemtsov in the head, heart, liver and stomach, killing him almost instantly. He died hours after appealing to the public to support a march the next day against Russia’s war in Ukraine.

272 – Constantine the Great, Roman emperor (d. 337)

1807 – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet and educator (d. 1882)

1886 – Hugo Black, American captain, jurist, and politician (d. 1971)

1902 – John Steinbeck, journalist and author, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968)

1923 – Dexter Gordon, American saxophonist, composer, and actor (d. 1990)

1934 – Ralph Nader, American lawyer, politician, and activist

906 – Conrad the Elder, Frankish nobleman

1985 – Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.,  3rd United States Ambassador to the United Nations (b. 1902)

1993 – Lillian Gish, American actress (b. 1893)

1998 – George H. Hitchings, American pharmacologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)

2008 – William F. Buckley, Jr., American author and journalist, founded the National Review (b. 1925)

2013 – Van Cliburn, American pianist (b. 1934)

2015 – Boris Nemtsov, Russian academic and politician, First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia (b. 1959)

2015 – Leonard Nimoy, American actor (b. 1931

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Corrections Department: Tex Avery did in fact die in 1980, and probably never set foot in Battery Park City.  Sleep deprivation and other excuses allowed an editing error to confuse Tex McCrary for Tex Avery.

Tex McCrary, born John Reagan McCrary, was an American journalist and public relations specialist who popularized the talk show genre first on the radio, then TV with his wife Jinx Falkenburg. And he was one of the first residents of Battery Park City.