On this day: The Scots defeated English at Battle of Ancrum

27 February

1545: The Scots under the Earl of Angus defeated English under Sir Ralph Eure at Battle of Ancrum.

1861: Warsaw Massacre took place when a crowd was fired upon by Russian troops during demonstration against Russian rule.

1889: Railroad was opened in Burma from Rangoon to Mandalay.

1900: Labour Party was formed with Ramsay MacDonald as secretary.

1918: British hospital ship, Glenart Castle, was sunk by U-boat in the Bristol Channel.

1933: Reichstag, the German parliament building in Berlin, was burned, and Nazis blamed Communists.

1952: United Nations held first meeting in New York headquarters.

1978: Egypt restricted special privileges of Palestinians living in that country, and said they would be treated as any other Arab aliens.

1982: D’Oyly Carte Opera Company gave its last Gilbert and Sullivan performance, at the Adelphi Theatre, London.

1985: A “Save the Doctor” campaign was started in Britain when the BBC left Dr Who out of plans for BBC1.

1986: Ferdinand Marcos started life in exile in Hawaii after hurried departure from Philippines.

1989: Derrick Morris, 58, of Swansea, became Britain’s longest living heart swap patient, nine years after his operation. He lived another 16 years.

1989: Yugoslavia imposed emergency measures in strike-torn southern province of Kosovo.

1991: Allies pinned down Iraqi Republican Guards near Basra in biggest tank battle since Second World War.

1991: Nine Orkney children from four families on South Ronaldsay were taken into care after allegations of child sex abuse. They were returned home in April.

1992: A bomb exploded at London Bridge train station, injuring 28 people. The IRA claimed responsibility as part of threatened pre-election bombing campaign.

1993: Three shoppers were badly hurt in an IRA bomb blast in Camden Town, north London.

1995: Appeal judges ordered eight Ayrshire children, victims of alleged abuse, to be reunited with their parents nearly five years after they had been taken from them.

2010: Central Chile was hit by an 8.8 magnitude earthquake which left more than 700 people dead and two million affected.

BIRTHDAYS

Derren Brown, illusionist, 42; Peter Andre, singer, 40; Lord Ashdown of Norton Sub Hamdon, MP 1983-2001, leader of the Liberal Democrats 1988-99, 72; Timothy Spall OBE, actor, 56; Robert Anthony Carmichael Hamilton, 13th Lord Belhaven and Stenton, 86; Annabel Goldie, MSP, 62; Steve Harley, singer, 62; Rabbi Baroness Neuberger DBE, 63; Oliver Peter St John, 9th Earl of Orkney, 75; Prof Roger Scruton, philosopher, 69.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1807 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet; 1861 Rudolf Steiner, social philosopher; 1902 John Steinbeck, novelist; 1907 Kenneth Horne, comedian; 1912 Laurence Durrell, author; 1924 Magnus Shearer, Lord Lieutenant of Shetland 1982-94; 1932 Dame Elizabeth Taylor DBE, actress; 1933 John Crichton-Stuart, 6th Marquess of Bute.

Deaths: 1735 John Arbuthnot, writer; 1936 Ivan Pavlov, discoverer of the conditioned reflex; 1990 Leslie Ames, cricketer; 2002 Spike Milligan KBE, comedian.

On this day: The Scots defeated English at Battle of Ancrum | Labour Party was formed