Today in History....July 27

On this day in …


* 1789, President Washington signed a measure establishing the Department of Foreign Affairs, 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 took 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

* 1967, in the wake of urban rioting, President Lyndon Johnson appointed the Kerner Commission to assess the causes of the violence, the same day black militant H. Rap Brown said in Washington that violence was "as American as cherry pie."

* 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

* 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.)

* 1997, United Auto Workers approved a deal to end a six-day strike at a General Motors parts plant that forced four assembly plant shutdowns and threatened GM's entire North American production

* 2006, Floyd Landis' stunning Tour de France victory just four days earlier was thrown into question when he tested positive for high levels of testosterone during the race (Landis has denied cheating)