On May 27, 1997, an F5 tornado half a mile wide ripped through the small Texas town of Jarrell, killing 27 people, including a family of five. File Photo courtesy of the National Weather Service
On this date in history:
In 1703, Czar Peter the Great founded St. Petersburg as the new capital of Russia.
In 1930, Richard Gurley Drew received a patent for his adhesive tape, which was later manufactured by 3M as Scotch tape.
In 1937, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge was opened. An estimated 200,000 people crossed it the first day.
File Photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI
In 1941, after attacks by British ships and planes, the German battleship Bismarck sank 400 miles west of the French port of Brest.
In 1943, former Olympic distance runner Louis Zamperini’s B-24 bomber crashed in the Pacific Ocean during a rescue mission. He and one other survivor were captured by the Japanese and made prisoners of war. His story became the subject of the book Unbroken and a film by the same name directed by Angelina Jolie.
In 1968, the U.S. nuclear submarine USS Scorpion was reported overdue in the Atlantic with 99 men aboard. The wreckage was located in October 1968.
In 1990, Cesar Gaviria, 34, was elected president of Colombia after a campaign in which three candidates were killed. He vowed to make no deals with the cocaine cartels.
File Photo by Ricardo Watson/UPI
In 1992, hours after a Russian-brokered cease-fire went into effect in Bosnia, Serb guerrillas launched a surprise mortar bombardment on Sarajevo, killing at least 20 people and injuring up to 160 more waiting in lines to buy bread.
In 1997, an F5 tornado half a mile wide ripped through the small Texas town of Jarrell, killing 27 people, including a family of five.
In 2004, a federal appeals court in San Francisco upheld Oregon’s law authorizing doctors to help their terminally ill patients kill themselves.
In 2006, an earthquake struck the Indonesian island of Java, killing approximately 5,000 people and leaving an estimated 200,000 homeless.
In 2021, Friends: The Reunion aired on HBO Max, 17 years after the sitcom ended. All six main cast members — Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer — participated. Cox described the special as “unbelievable” and “emotional.”
File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI
