Following are some of the major events to have occurred on April 27:
1909 – A group known as the Young Turks deposed Sultan Abdul Hamid in Turkey.
1956 – Rocky Marciano retired as undefeated world heavyweight boxing champion.
1961 – Sierra Leone gained independence from Britain.
1969 – Bolivian President Rene Barrientos Ortuno was killed in a helicopter crash. He had been president since 1964.
1990 – Joe Slovo, South African Communist leader, returned home to join peace talks after 27 years in exile.
1998 – Nguyen Van Linh, former general secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party, died.
2001 – Russia signed an agreement with North Korea to upgrade weapons it had supplied during the Soviet era.
2002 – Biggest cheese in the world recorded in Alkmaar, Netherlands.
2003 – Nicanor Duarte Frutos won Paraguay’s presidency, extending his Colorado party’s reign as the world’s longest-serving political force still in power.
2007 – Ukrainian authorities controversially remove Bronze soldier from Tallinn, during political dispute with Russia.
2012 – Chinese students set world record for largest smiley face.
