Today is Thursday, December 27, the 361st day of 2007. There are 4 days left in the year.
537 _ St. Sofia Church in Constantinople initiated
1703 _ England and Portugal sign the Methuen-Asiento-trade agreement
1831 _ Darwin begins his voyage to South America on board the HMS Beagle
1927 _ Stalin's faction wins All-Union Congress in the USSR, Trotsky expelled
1939 _ 8.0 Earthquake in Erzincam, Turkey, about 50,000 die
1941 _ Japan bombs Manila even though it was declared an ``open city"
1945 _ The International Monetary Fund established; the World Bank founded
1960 _ France performs a nuclear test
1972 _ New North Korean constitution comes into effect
1978 _ King Juan Carlos ratifies Spain's first democratic constitution
1979 _ Soviet troops invade Afghanistan, President Hafizullah Amin overthrown