It happened today – this day in history – December 27

1822: Birth of bacteriologist Louis Pasteur.

1831: HMS Beagle with Charles Darwin on board departs England for a survey of South America, a voyage Darwin later said “determined my whole career”.

1862: The Battle of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, in the American Civil War.

1904: ‘Peter Pan’ by J. M. Barrie premieres at the Duke of York Theatre, London.

1923: Emperor Hirohito of Japan narrowly evades an assassination attempt by a Korean independence activist.

1924: Albania is declared a dictatorship under Ahmed Beg Zofu.

1934: The Shah of Persia declares Persia now called Iran.

1937: Mae West performs an Adam & Eve skit that gets her banned from NBC radio.

1941: Japan bombs The Philippines capital Manila even though it was declared an “open city”.

1949: Queen Juliana of the Netherlands grants independence to Indonesia.

1966: Bobby Charlton wins the Ballon d’Or.

1968: Apollo 8 returns to Earth.

1978: Spain becomes a democracy after 40 years of dictatorship. On the same day, singer, songwriter and guitarist Chris Bell from Big Star was killed after his car crashed into a telephone pole, he was 27.

1979: After invading Afghanistan two days earlier Soviet forces pull off a coup in Kabul, killing President Hafizullah Amin.

1981: Composer, pianist, singer, actor, and bandleader Hoagy Carmichael died aged 82. On the same day, Australian cricketer Dennis Lillee becomes the leading wicket-taker in test cricket with 310.

1983: Pope John Paul II pardons the man who shot him (Mehmet Ali Agca).

2007: Former Pakistani president Benazir Bhutto is assassinated by a suicide bomber in Rawalpindi.

2008: Singer, songwriter, guitarist, Delaney Bramlett dies in Los Angeles from complications after gall bladder surgery.

2016: Actress Carrie Fisher dies four days after suffering a heart attack on a flight from London to Los Angeles, aged 60.

BIRTHDAYS: Mick Jones, guitarist (Foreigner) 75; Janet Street Porter, broadcaster, 73; Gerard Depardieu, actor, 71; Terry Bozzio, drummer, 69; Maryam D’Abo, actress, 59; Duncan Ferguson, former footballer, 48; Emilie de Ravin, actress, 38; Lily Cole, model/actress, 32; Hayley Williams, singer (Paramore) 31; Timothée Chalamet, actor, 24.