Today in History(April 27)

                By The Associated Press
                - Today is Tuesday, April 27, the 117th day of 1999. There are 248
                  days left in the year.

                - On April 27, 1521, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed
                  by natives in the Philippines.
                - In 1509, Pope Julius II excommunicated the Italian state of Venice.
                - In 1805, a force led by U.S. Marines captured the city of Derna, on
                  the shores of Tripoli.
                - In 1822, the 18th president of the U.S., Ulysses S. Grant, was born
                  in Point Pleasant, Ohio.
                - In 1865, the steamer Sultana exploded on the Mississippi River near
                  Memphis, Tenn., killing more than 1,400 Union prisoners of war.
                - In 1932, American poet Hart Crane drowned after jumping from a
                  steamer while en route to New York; he was 32.
                - In 1937, the nation's first Social Security checks were distributed.
                - In 1967, Expo '67 was officially opened in Montreal by Canadian
                  Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson.
                - In 1973, during the Watergate scandal, Acting FBI Director L.
                  Patrick Gray resigned.
                - In 1978, convicted Watergate defendant John D. Ehrlichman was
                  released from an Arizona prison after serving 18 months.
                - In 1978, 51 construction workers plunged to their deaths when a
                  scaffold inside a cooling tower at the Pleasants Power Station site
                  in West Virginia fell 168 feet to the ground.
                - Ten years ago: More than 150,000 students and workers calling for
                  democracy marched, cheered and sang through central Beijing.
                - Five years ago: Former President Richard M. Nixon was remembered at
                  an outdoor funeral service attended by all five of his successors at
                  the Nixon presidential library in Yorba Linda, Calif.
                - One year ago: A Pentagon panel said remains of the Vietnam veteran
                  in the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery should be
                  exhumed to determine whether they belonged to Air Force First Lt.
                  Michael J. Blassie, as his family believed. (The remains were later
                  positively identified as those of Blassie.)

                *Happy Birthday*
                - Actor Jack Klugman is 77.
                - Civil rights activist Coretta Scott King is 72.
                - Actress Anouk Aimee is 67.
                - Announcer Casey Kasem is 67.
                - Broadcast journalist Phil Jones is 62.
                - Actress Judy Carne is 60.
                - Opera singer Judith Blegen is 58.
                - Rhythm-and-blues singer Cuba Gooding is 55.
                - Singer Ann Peebles is 52.
                - Rock singer Kate Pierson (The B-52's) is 51.
                - Rhythm-and-blues singer Herbie Murrell (The Stylistics) is 50.
                - Actor Douglas Sheehan ("Knots Landing") is 50.
                - Rock musician Ace Frehley (KISS) is 48.
                - Pop singer Sheena Easton is 40.
                - Singer Mica Paris is 30.
                - Rock singer-musician Travis Meeks (Days of the New) is 20.