Today in History.....January 27

On this day in …

* 1880, Thomas Edison received a patent for his electric incandescent lamp

* 1943, some 50 bombers struck Wilhelmshaven in the first all-American air raid against Germany during World War II

* 1944, the Soviet Union announced the end of the deadly German siege of Leningrad, which had lasted for more than two years

* 1945, Soviet troops liberated the Nazi, ym"sh, concentration camps Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland

* 1951, an era of atomic testing in the Nevada desert began as an Air Force plane dropped a one-kiloton bomb on Frenchman Flats

* 1967, astronauts Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee died in a flash fire during a test aboard their Apollo 1 spacecraft at Cape Kennedy, Fla.

* 1967, more than 60 nations signed a treaty banning the orbiting of nuclear weapons

* 1973, the Vietnam peace accords were signed in Paris

* 1981, President Reagan greeted the 52 former American hostages released by Iran

* 2004, frail survivors and humbled world leaders remembered the victims of the Holocaust as they marked the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz. ALSO: Condoleezza Rice, in her first day as Secretary of State, reached out to European allies and partners in the war on terrorism and echoed President Bush's inaugural charge to promote liberty across the globe.