Today in History.....July 27

On this day in …

1789, Congress established the Department of Foreign Affairs, the forerunner of the Department of State

1794, French revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre was overthrown and placed under arrest; he was executed the following day


1861, Union Gen. George B. McClellan was put in command of the Army of the Potomac

1866, Cyrus W. Field finally succeeded, after two failures, in laying the first underwater telegraph cable between North America and Europe

1953, the Korean War armistice was signed at Panmunjom, ending three years of fighting

1974, the House Judiciary Committee voted 27-11 to recommend President Nixon's impeachment on a charge that he had personally engaged in a "course of conduct" designed to obstruct justice in the Watergate case
1980, on day 267 of the Iranian hostage crisis, the deposed Shah of Iran died at a military hospital outside Cairo, Egypt, at age 60


1995, the Korean War Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington by President Clinton and South Korean President Kim Young-sam

1996, terror struck the Atlanta Olympics as a pipe bomb exploded at Centennial Olympic Park, killing one person and injuring 111. (Anti-government extremist Eric Rudolph later pleaded guilty to the bombing.)

2005, NASA said a sizable chunk of foam insulation came flying off the shuttle Discovery's fuel bank during liftoff, prompting the space agency to ground future shuttle flights until the problem could be fixed. ALSO: Iraq's most feared terror group said it had killed two kidnapped Algerian diplomats.
AND: Ahmed Ressam, a practitioner of that "religion of peace" and an Algerian, who'd plotted to bomb the Los Angeles airport on the eve of the millennium, was sentenced to 22 years in prison by a judge in Seattle. India's financial capital, Bombay, was paralyzed by the strongest rains ever recorded in the nation