Wednesday · November 11, 2026
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American history, reported as it happened
Made for the 250th
19831776 Club

Madonna's debut album lands in stores

A dance-club regular with a demo tape lands a Billboard top-ten single.

By the summer of 1983, disco was dead and dance-pop was still finding its footing on American radio. Madonna Louise Ciccone, who had arrived in New York five years earlier with 35 dollars in her pocket, released her self-titled debut on Sire Records on July 27. The album climbed to number eight on the Billboard 200 and produced two top-ten singles, "Borderline" and "Lucky Star," while "Holiday" became her breakthrough. It went on to sell an estimated 10 million copies worldwide…

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More from July 27
1953

Armistice ends the fighting in Korea; the peace that follows is only a truce

Two years of talks end in a tent at Panmunjom, but South Korea's own president will not put his name on it.
1789

Washington signs the first agency of the new government into law

A department to handle foreign affairs becomes the executive branch's opening act under the Constitution.
1974

Judiciary Committee votes 27 to 11: Nixon obstructed justice

Six Republicans join every Democrat on the panel, three days after the Supreme Court ordered the tapes handed over.
16631776 Club
Foreign ships lose the colonial trade, and Dutch merchants lose the most.
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Read the full July 27 edition →Everything that happened on July 27 →
More from Cold War America
1971

The AEC sets off a five-megaton bomb under Amchitka; the ground lifts 20 feet

Environmentalists had warned of earthquakes and a tsunami; the Supreme Court refused to stop the test by 4 votes to 3.
1967

The first Saturn V leaves Florida with no crew aboard; the shock rattles the control center ceiling

Ten months after the Apollo 1 fire, NASA flies every stage and the spacecraft together on the very first try.
1979

NORAD screens show a massive Soviet strike; satellite and radar checks find no attack

A test tape is running as though it were real, and the warnings reach two continuity of government bunkers and command posts around the world.
1982

Columbia lifts off with four aboard, the biggest crew yet, and two commercial satellites in the bay

After four test flights, the shuttle's fifth trip is its first with customers, and its crew rides up without pressure suits.
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