On May 27, 1647, the first recorded American execution of a suspected witch took place in Massachusetts.
In 1818 Amelia Bloomer, who popularized the garment that bears her name — bloomers — was born in Homer, N.Y.
In 1819 Julia Ward Howe, a leader of the anti-slavery and women’s suffrage movements and writer of the lyrics for “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” was born in New York.
In 1837 gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok was born in Troy Grove, Ill.
In 1894 crime novelist Dashiell Hammett was born in St. Mary’s County, Md.
In 1921 Caryl Chessman, who wrote four books while on Death Row for kidnapping, was born in St. Joseph, Mich.
In 1933 the Century of Progress World’s Fair opened on Chicago’s lakefront.
In 1935 jazz pianist Ramsey Lewis was born in Chicago.
In 1937 the Golden Gate Bridge across San Francisco Bay was opened.
In 1941 British ships sank the German battleship Bismarck off France.
In 1949 author-cartoonist Robert Ripley, creator of “Ripley’s Believe It or Not,” died in New York at 55.
In 1964 Jawaharlal Nehru, first prime minister of independent India, died in New Delhi at 74.
In 1992 Tony “Big Tuna” Accardo, reputed leader of the Chicago crime syndicate, died in Chicago at 86.
In 1993 five people were killed in a bombing at the Uffizi art museum in Florence, Italy; three dozen paintings were ruined or damaged.
In 1994, after two decades in exile, author Alexander Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia.
In 1995 actor Christopher Reeve was paralyzed when he was thrown from his horse during a jumping event in Charlottesville, Va.
In 1998 Michael Fortier, the government’s star witness in the Oklahoma City bombing case, was sentenced to 12 years in prison after apologizing for not warning anyone about the deadly plot.
In 2004 Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri was arrested in London and accused of trying to build a terrorist training camp in Oregon.
