Wednesday · November 11, 2026
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American history, reported as it happened
Made for the 250th
On this day › October 27

What happened on October 27 in American history

October 27 is the 300th day of the year (the 301st in leap years). Patriot Compass has published 6 stories from October 27 spanning 1682 to 1962. Among them: in 1682, William Penn steps ashore at Philadelphia, a city that exists only on paper; and in 1795, Spain opens the Mississippi; Pinckney wins a treaty Madrid didn't want to sign.

1682

William Penn steps ashore at Philadelphia, a city that exists only on paper

He had landed at New Castle days earlier; now he comes to the ground he has already named for brotherly love.
1795Member story · 1776 Club

Spain opens the Mississippi; Pinckney wins a treaty Madrid didn't want to sign

The border lands at the 31st parallel, and New Orleans reopens to American cargo.
1904

A train leaves City Hall underground, and New York gets its subway

Mayor George McClellan takes the controls himself for the ceremonial run before paying riders board that evening for a nickel.
1961Member story · 1776 Club

A giant, untested rocket lifts off Pad 34; engineers gave it a 75 percent chance

SA-1 carried no crew and no real upper stages, only a plan to find out if the booster would hold together.
1962Member story · 1776 Club

A U-2 pilot is killed over Cuba; it is the only combat death of the missile crisis

Two Soviet generals in Havana order the shot that kills Major Rudolf Anderson on his sixth mission over the island.
1962

One officer says no, and a Soviet sub's nuclear torpedo stays in its tube

Depth-charged and nearly out of air near Cuba, B-59's crew thought the war had already started.