Friday 27th of March 1378

201st Pope Gregorius XI dies of unknown causes at the age of 49 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

Thursday 27th of March 1845

Physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen is born in Schwelmer Straße 41, Lennep, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

Friday 27th of March 1863

Automobile designer and manufacturer Henry Frederick Royce is born in Alwalton, Huntingdonshire, United Kingdom.

Wednesday 27th of March 1878

Teacher, playwright and journalist Dobri Popov Voynikov aka the Father of Modern Bulgarian theatre dies of typhus at the age of 45 in Tarnovo, Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria.

Saturday 27th of March 1886

Modernist architecture pioneer Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is born as Maria Ludwig Michael Mies in Aachen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

Wednesday 27th of March 1895

Murderess Ruth Brown Snyder aka The Granite Woman is born in New York, Queens, New York, United States.

Monday 27th of March 1899

Actress Gloria May Josephine Swanson is born in Chicago, Illinois, United States.

Wednesday 27th of March 1901

Murderer Harold Hagger aka Sidney Sinclair is born in 1 Moreland Street, London, Holloway, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Sunday 27th of March 1910

312 die in barn dance fire in Ököritófülpös, Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg, Hungary.

Saturday 27th of March 1915

46-year-old Asymptomatic carrier of the pathogen associated with typhoid fever Mary Mallon aka Typhoid Mary is sent to quarantine in Riverside Hospital, New York, North Brother Island, New York, United States.

Mallon remained confined for the remainder of her life until 11 November 1938. She became a minor celebrity, and was occasionally interviewed by the media. They were told not to accept even water from her.

Thursday 27th of March 1930

Artist Daniel Spoerri known for his ‘snare-pictures’ is born as Daniel Isaac Feinstein in Galați, Moldavia, Romania.

Sunday 27th of March 1960

35-year-old Satan worshipper and serial rapist Edward John Louis Paisnel aka The Beast of Jersey abducts and rapes an unidentified 14-year-old girl in Saint Martin, Jersey, United Kingdom.

Wednesday 27th of March 1963

Film director Quentin Jerome Tarantino is born in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States.

Wednesday 27th of March 1968

Cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin known for becoming the first man in space dies in a MiG-15UTI crash while on a routine training flight from Chkalovsky Air Base with flight instructor Vladimir Seryogin at the age of 34 in Kirzhach, Vladimir Oblast, Russia.

Thursday 27th of March 1969

19-year-old Karen Elena Sprinker is abducted, raped and strangled by foot fetishist and serial killer Jerry Brudos aka The Lust Killer in 3123 Center Street, Salem, Oregon, United States.

Brudos brought Sprinker to his garage and made her try on his collection of undergarments and pose while he photographed her, raped her, and strangled her by hanging her by her neck from a pulley. He had sex with the body on several occasions and cut off her breasts to make plastic molds. Afterwards he tied the body to a 6-cylinder car engine with nylon cord and threw it in the Willamette. During this attack Brudos was dressed in women's clothes.

Friday 27th of March 1970

Princess of Iran Leila Pahlavi is born in Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

Monday 27th of March 1972

Artist Maurits Cornelis Escher aka M. C. Escher dies of natural causes at the age of 74 in Hilversum, Noord-Holland, Netherlands.

Sunday 27th of March 1977

583 die in KLM Boeing 747-206B Flight 4805 and Pan Am Boeing 747–121 Flight 1736 collision in Los Rodeos Airport, Tenerife, Islas Canarias, Spain.

Neither airline was originally due to be at the airport but both were diverted from the much bigger Las Palmas airport on nearby Gran Canaria island after a terrorist bomb blast near the departure lounge. 61 people survived. The crash is the deadliest accident in aviation history.

Thursday 27th of March 1980

123 die in Alexander L. Kielland oil platform capsizing in Ekofisk, North Sea, Norway.

Tuesday 27th of March 1984

21-year-old Artiss Ann Wick is abducted, raped and strangled by serial killer Bobby Joe Long aka The Adman Rapist in Ponderosa Street, Tampa, Florida, United States.

Police found Wick's skeletal remains on 22 November in rural southern Hillsborough County.

Wednesday 27th of March 1985

65-year-old Vincent Zazzara is shot dead by serial killer Richard Ramirez aka The Night Stalker in 10234 Strong Ave, Whittier, California, United States.

Zazzara's 44-year-old wife Maxine was awakened by her husband's murder and Ramirez beat her and bound her hands while demanding to know where her valuables were. While he ransacked the room Maxine escaped her bonds and retrieved a shotgun from under the bed, which was not loaded. An infuriated Ramirez shot her three times and mutilated her body by stabbing her several times. He gouged out her eyes and placed them in a jewelry box that he took with him.

Sunday 27th of March 1988

Noise music band Club Moral play their 77th concert in Ekko, Bemuurde Weerd Westzijde 3, Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands.

Monday 27th of March 2000

Musician Ian Robins Dury known from Ian Dury and the Blockheads dies of colorectal cancer at the age of 58 in Upminster, East London, United Kingdom.

Tuesday 27th of March 2001

Double murderer Robert Lee Massie is executed by lethal injection at the age of 60 in San Quentin State Prison, San Quentin, California, United States.

Massie’s last meal request was for two vanilla milkshakes, extra crispy french fries, extra crispy fried oysters and soft drinks.

Wednesday 27th of March 2002

Filmmaker Billy Samuel Wilder dies of pneumonia at the age of 80 in Beverly Hills, California, United States.

Monday 27th of March 2006

Serial killer Wayne Clifford Boden aka The Vampire Rapist dies of skin cancer at the age of 58 in Kingston General Hospital, 76 Stuart Street, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

Boden had been confined in the hospital for six weeks.

Monday 27th of March 2006

Science fiction writer Stanisław Lem known for his philosophical science fiction novel Solaris dies of heart failure at the age of 85 in Kraków, Województwo Małopolskie, Poland.

Thursday 27th of March 2014

78-year-old Boxer and presumed mass murderer Iwao Hakamada is released from prison after spending 46 years in solitary confinement on death row in Yūtō, Shizuoka, Japan.

Hakamada was sentenced to death for the stabbing to death of his boss, his boss' wife and two children. A 2008 DNA test suggested the blood on the clothing used as evidence did not match Hakamada's.

Monday 27th of March 2023

School shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale known for the 2023 Covenant School Shooting is shot dead by responding police officers at the age of 28 in The Covenant School, Nashville, Green Hills, Tennessee, United States.

Before Hale had entered the school and shot and killed students 9-year-old Evelyn Dieckhaus, 9-year-old William Kinney and 9-year-old Hallie Scruggs, 61-year-old substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61-year-old custodian Mike Hill and 60-year-old head of school Katherine Koonce. Hale sent a message to a former middle school basketball teammate at 9:57 am the day of the shooting stating that he/she planned to die by suicide.

Wednesday 27th of March 2024

Waiting for the man in Lexington 125, Lexington Av, New York, Harlem, New York, United States.