Today in History in 1904 New York City's first underground Subway opens; in 1936 Wallis Simpson files for divorce. She later marries Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, after he abdicates the throne; and in 1961 NASA tests the first Saturn I rocket in Mission-Saturn Apollo 1.

The On This Day In History archives at “Simple English Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia” contains over 200,000 events, birthdays and deaths from 6,000 years of history. Here is a roundup of a few of them:

October 27 is the 300th day of the year (301st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 65 days remaining until the end of the year.

EVENTS

97 - Roman Emperor Nerva adopts the then-44-year-old Trajan.

710 - Saracen invasion of Sardinia.

939 – Edmund I of England becomes king.

1275 – Traditional founding of Amsterdam.

1524 - Italian Wars: French troops lay siege to Pavia.

1553 - Condemned as a heretic, Michael Servetus is burned at the stake just outside Geneva.

1644 - The Second Battle of Newbury takes place in the English Civil War.

1662 - Charles II of England sells Dunkirk to France.

1682 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is founded.

1795 – The United States and Spain sign the Treaty of Madrid, establishing boundaries between the US and the Spanish colonies.

1806 – The French Army enters Berlin.

1810 – The US annexes the former Spanish colony of West Florida.

1827 - Vincenzo Bellini's third opera, Il pirata, has its first performance at La Scala, Milan.

1838 - Governor of Missouri Lilburn Boggs issues an extermination order to Mormons in the state, which would force them either to leave or be killed.

1870 - Franco-Prussian War: Marshal Francois Achille Bazaine surrenders to Prussian forces at the conclusion to the Siege of Metz.

1892 - British passenger steamer Roumania crashes into rocks off Peniche, Portugal.

1904 – New York City's first underground Subway opens.

1907 - Cernova massacre: 15 people are killed in the Hungarian half of Austria-Hungary when a gunman opens fire on a crowd gathered at a church for its consecration.

1914 - World War I: British super dreadnought battleship HMS Audacious is sunk off Tory Island, northwest of Ireland, by a minefield laid by German merchant cruiser Berlin.

1916 - Battle of Segale in Ethiopia.

1922 – Italian fascists, led by Benito Mussolini, begin their March on Rome.

1922 - A referendum in Rhodesia rejects the country's annexation (being taken control of) to the Union of South Africa.

1924 - Soviet Union: The Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic is founded.

1936 – Wallis Simpson files for divorce. She later marries Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, after he abdicates the throne.

1944 - World War II: German troops end the Slovak National Uprising in Banska Bystrica.

1953 - British nuclear test Totem 2 is carried out at Emu Field, South Australia.

1954 - Benjamin O. Davis Jr. becomes the first African American to join the United States Air Force.

1958 – Iskandar Mirza is deposed as President of Pakistan.

1961 – Mauritania and Mongolia join the UN.

1961 - NASA tests the first Saturn I rocket in Mission-Saturn Apollo 1.

1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis: A nuclear war is narrowly avoided.

1962 - Rudolf Anderson of the United States Air Force becomes the only direct human casualty of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

1962 - A plane carrying Enrico Mattei, a post-war Italian administrator, crashes in mysterious circumstances.

1962 - Australian Dawn Fraser swims the 100 meter-backstroke in less than a minute, as the first woman to do so.

1964 - Ronald Reagan delivers "A Time for Choosing" speech at a Barry Goldwater campaign.

1966 - The UN removes South Africa's mandate over Namibia.

1968 - The 1968 Summer Olympics end in Mexico City.

1971 – The Democratic Republic of the Congo is renamed Zaire.

1979 – Saint Vincent and the Grenadines become independent.

1981 - Soviet submarine U 137 runs aground on the east coast of Sweden.

1991 – Turkmenistan achieves independence from the Soviet Union.

1994 – Gliese 229B is the first substellar mass object to be unquestionably identified.

1995 – Latvia applies for EU membership.

1995 – Former Prime Minister of Italy Bettino Craxi is convicted in-absentia (without attending) for corruption.

1997 - Global stock markets crash because of financial meltdown fears.

1999 – Gunmen open fire on the Armenian Parliament.

2002 – The volcano Mount Etna on Sicily erupts.

2002 – Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is elected to succeed Fernando Henrique Cardoso as President of Brazil.

2003 – In Malaga, where Pablo Picasso was born, the Museo Picasso (Picasso Museum) is opened.

2003 - Bomb attacks in Baghdad kill over 40 people.

2005 – Riots begin in France after the accidental deaths of two Muslim teenagers.

2006 – Opening of Arsenal F.C.'s Emirates Stadium.

2010 – Former President of Argentina Néstor Kirchner dies aged 60. He had been expected to run for president again in 2011.

2011 - Michael D. Higgins is elected President of Ireland.

2013 - Sebastian Vettel becomes the fourth driver to win four Formula One world titles in a row, and the youngest driver, at age 26, to do so.

2013 - Storms begin to affect parts of western and central Europe, causing destruction and disruption the next day.

2017 - The Parliament of Catalonia declares the region's independence from Spain; The central government in Madrid decides to impose direct rule on Catalonia.

2018 - Pittsburgh synagogue shooting: A gunman shoots and kills 11 people worshipping at a synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighbourhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

2018 - 2018 Leicester City F.C. helicopter crash: A helicopter crash near Leicester City F.C.'s King Power Stadium in Leicester, England, kills 5 people, including the club's Thai owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha.

2019 - Sophie Wilmès becomes the first female Prime Minister of Belgium, succeeding Charles Michel, who had been chosen to succeed Donald Tusk as President of the European Council.

2019 - Alberto Fernández wins Argentina's Presidential election against the incumbent Mauricio Macri.