THE DAY IN HISTORY · APRIL 27

April 27 in history

What happened on April 27: 3 moments from the Maps of History atlases, in 1289, 1881 and 1994, each linked to the map that shows it.

1289 — Fall of Tripoli

27 Apr 1289 — Sultan Qalawun storms and levels Tripoli, the county’s capital. Survivors fleeing to an offshore island are killed or enslaved. Only Acre now remains. A site of memory.

READ THIS MOMENT → · SEE IT ON THE CRUSADES MAP → · THE FULL STORY →

1881 — Elisavetgrad pogrom

15/27 Apr 1881 — Anti-Jewish riots begin here, led mostly by townsmen and migrant workers. During 1881–82 the violence spreads to some two hundred towns and villages in the south-west. Around fifty people die, half of them rioters, and thousands of Jewish homes and shops are looted. Jewish memory calls this wave the “storms in the south”; the memorial marks its victims.

READ THIS MOMENT → · SEE IT ON THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION MAP → · THE FULL STORY →

1994 — South African general election

27 Apr 1994 — Some 20 million people vote, most for the first time in their lives, as kilometre-long queues wind through townships and suburbs. Four days of counting follow; then the map completes in red.

READ THIS MOMENT → · SEE IT ON THE DECOLONIZATION OF AFRICA MAP → · THE FULL STORY →