50 Fun Facts About 1927

Which pilot won the $25,000 Orteig Prize in May 1927 by flying alone and nonstop from New York to Paris?

Charles Lindbergh's plane, the Spirit of St. Louis, was designed and built in San Diego and now hangs in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington.

Which 1927 Warner Bros. film starring Al Jolson is remembered as the first feature-length talking picture?

The Jazz Singer has synchronized singing and speech in only several isolated sequences, played back from Vitaphone discs, and features six songs performed by Jolson.

Which New York Yankees slugger hit 60 home runs in 1927, a single-season record that stood until 1961?

Babe Ruth hit number 60 on September 30 off pitcher Tom Zachary, beating his own previous record by a single home run.

Which monument did sculptor Gutzon Borglum begin carving in October 1927, a job that lasted fourteen years?

Mount Rushmore was picked partly because it faces southeast and catches the most sunlight, and Borglum's son Lincoln took over the project after his father died in 1941.

Which powdered drink did Edwin Perkins create in Nebraska in 1927 by drying out his Fruit Smack concentrate?

Kool-Aid was turned into a powder to cut shipping costs, and it is now Nebraska's official soft drink.

Which car, nicknamed the Tin Lizzie, ended production in May 1927 after more than 15 million had been built?

The Ford Model T remained the best-selling car in history until the Volkswagen Beetle overtook it in 1972.

Which invention did 21-year-old Philo Farnsworth demonstrate in 1927 by transmitting a single straight line?

Television's scanning lines came to Farnsworth as a farm boy, inspired by the back-and-forth motion used to plow a field.

Which animator co-created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit for Universal in 1927, only to lose the character a year later?

Walt Disney's company got Oswald back in 2006 by trading sportscaster Al Michaels to NBC in exchange for the character.

Which touring basketball team played its first road game in Hinckley, Illinois, in January 1927?

The Harlem Globetrotters came from Chicago's South Side; promoter Abe Saperstein chose the name because Harlem was seen as the centre of Black American culture.

Which candy, named from the German word for peppermint, was first sold in Vienna in 1927 by Eduard Haas III?

Pez was pitched to adults as an alternative to tobacco, and its first dispensers, introduced in 1949, were shaped like a cigarette lighter.

Which river's 1927 flood, the most destructive in US history, left more than 700,000 people homeless?

The Mississippi flood made a national hero of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover, whose relief work helped carry him to the presidency the following year.

Which pair of anarchists were executed in Massachusetts in August 1927 after protests in cities around the world?

Sacco and Vanzetti were declared unfairly tried by Governor Michael Dukakis on the 50th anniversary of their execution, though his proclamation was not a pardon.

Which European capital was linked to New York in January 1927 by the first commercial transatlantic telephone service?

London callers paid £9 for three minutes on the new radio service, and a telephone cable across the Atlantic did not open until TAT-1 in 1956.

Which silent star became known as the It Girl after playing a plucky shopgirl in the 1927 comedy It?

Clara Bow shared the screen with a young Gary Cooper, who was cast in a minor role as a newspaper reporter.

Which city hosted Australia's Parliament for the first time in May 1927, taking over from Melbourne?

Canberra's new Parliament House was opened by the Duke of York, who unlocked the front doors with a golden key, while Dame Nellie Melba sang the national anthem.

Which Fritz Lang science-fiction film, written with Thea von Harbou, had its premiere in Berlin in January 1927?

Metropolis became the first film inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register, in 2001.

Which Welsh club beat Arsenal in the 1927 FA Cup final, the only time a team from outside England has won it?

Cardiff City's winner came when Arsenal goalkeeper Dan Lewis let a shot slip out of his hands and knocked the ball into the net with his elbow.

Which Bolshevik was expelled from the Soviet Communist Party in November 1927, leaving Joseph Stalin in control?

Leon Trotsky was exiled to Alma Ata in Kazakhstan early the following year and deported from the Soviet Union in 1929.

Which Hudson River tunnel opened in November 1927 as the world's first mechanically ventilated underwater road tunnel?

The Holland Tunnel is named for chief engineer Clifford Holland, who died in 1924 before it was finished; its ventilation was tested by releasing gas clouds in one of the tubes.

Which boxer kept his heavyweight title against Jack Dempsey in the 1927 Long Count Fight at Soldier Field?

Gene Tunney was knocked down in the seventh round, but the referee's count was delayed until Dempsey finally went to a neutral corner.

Which actor, born prematurely in Miami in February 1927, became the first Black winner of the Best Actor Oscar?

Sidney Poitier grew up in the Bahamas; his parents were only in Florida to sell tomatoes, and his unexpected birth there made him a US citizen.

Which country was the birthplace in March 1927 of Gabriel García Márquez, author of One Hundred Years of Solitude?

Colombia's small town of Aracataca, where he was born, inspired Macondo, the fictional village in his novels.

Which actor, born in October 1927, played James Bond in seven films, beginning with Live and Let Die?

Roger Moore trained at RADA in the same class as Lois Maxwell, who later played Miss Moneypenny opposite him.

Which pope, born Joseph Ratzinger in Bavaria in April 1927, became the first to resign since 1415?

Benedict XVI stepped down in February 2013, citing his advanced age, and was known as pope emeritus for the rest of his life.

Which performer, born in January 1927, recorded Santa Baby and later played Catwoman in the Batman series?

Eartha Kitt found new fans late in life as the voice of the villain Yzma in The Emperor's New Groove, a part that won her two Emmy Awards.

Which playwright, born in the Bronx on July 4, 1927, wrote The Odd Couple and The Goodbye Girl?

Neil Simon had four shows playing on Broadway at the same time in 1966.

Which tennis player, born in South Carolina in August 1927, was the first Black player to win a Grand Slam title?

Althea Gibson later changed sports, and in 1964 became the first African-American woman on the LPGA golf tour.

Which First Lady, born in Plains, Georgia, in August 1927, made mental health her signature cause?

Rosalynn Carter was married to Jimmy Carter from 1946 until her death in 2023, a marriage of 77 years.

Which actor, born in September 1927, wore an artificial eye from childhood and played Lieutenant Columbo?

Peter Falk lost his right eye to a tumour at the age of three, and the artificial one gave him his trademark squint.

Which Patton star, born in Virginia in October 1927, became the first actor to decline an Oscar?

George C. Scott warned the Academy months in advance that he would refuse, because he believed performances cannot be compared, and he won anyway.

Which Jerome Kern musical, based on an Edna Ferber novel, opened on Broadway in December 1927?

Show Boat was produced by Florenz Ziegfeld, an unusual choice for him because he was best known for the light revues of the Ziegfeld Follies.

Which 1927 silent film directed by William Wellman went on to win the first Academy Award for Best Picture?

Wings is still the only fully silent film to have won the top prize, which was called Outstanding Picture at the first ceremony in 1929.

Which golf contest between the United States and Great Britain was first played in Massachusetts in 1927?

The Ryder Cup takes its name from Samuel Ryder, the English businessman who donated the trophy after sponsoring a number of British professional events.

Which director made his first thriller and first screen cameo in The Lodger, released in February 1927?

Alfred Hitchcock said the cameo happened only because the actor hired to play a telephone operator failed to appear, so he filled in himself.

Which Hollywood cinema, known for stars' handprints and footprints in its forecourt, opened in May 1927?

Grauman's Chinese Theatre opened with the premiere of Cecil B. DeMille's The King of Kings, eighteen months after building work began.

Which swashbuckling star was elected first president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1927?

Douglas Fairbanks led an Academy that began with a roster of 230 members, months after MGM chief Louis B. Mayer gathered film people at a banquet to launch it.

Which composer wrote the melody of Stardust in 1927, a tune since recorded more than 1,500 times?

Hoagy Carmichael gave up practising law to pursue music, and the words to his tune were added later by lyricist Mitchell Parish.

Which bandleader began his famous Cotton Club residency in December 1927 after King Oliver turned the job down?

Duke Ellington had to grow his group from six players to eleven to pass the audition, and weekly radio broadcasts from the club spread his name.

Which Tennessee city hosted the 1927 recording sessions often called the Big Bang of country music?

Bristol's sessions launched the recording career of Jimmie Rodgers and were run by Victor producer Ralph Peer, on a two-month trip through southern cities.

Which Nashville radio show, launched in 1925 as the WSM Barn Dance, took its lasting name in December 1927?

The Grand Ole Opry got its name from a quip by announcer George Hay, whose show came on straight after a programme of classical music and grand opera.

Which German physicist published the uncertainty principle in 1927 while working in Copenhagen?

Werner Heisenberg was nominated for a Nobel Prize by Albert Einstein the following year, and received the 1932 physics prize for the creation of quantum mechanics.

Which juvenile detective series began in 1927 with The Tower Treasure, credited to Franklin W. Dixon?

The Hardy Boys were mostly written in the early years by Canadian ghostwriter Leslie McFarlane, because Franklin W. Dixon was only a shared pen name.

Which NHL team was called the St. Patricks until Conn Smythe bought and renamed it in 1927?

The Toronto Maple Leafs were named for the emblem worn by Canadian soldiers, which Smythe regarded as a badge of courage and a reminder of home.

Which country gained a five-year-old king, Michael I, when his grandfather Ferdinand died in July 1927?

Romania's boy king was replaced in 1930 by his own father, Carol II, then returned to the throne in 1940 and reigned until his forced abdication in 1947.

Which Scot became the first Director-General of the BBC when it turned into a public corporation in January 1927?

John Reith stood six feet six inches tall, and his style of management gave the dictionary a new word, Reithian.

Which Belgian priest and physicist argued in a 1927 paper that the universe is expanding?

Georges Lemaître's paper had little impact because few astronomers outside Belgium read the journal, and he later proposed the primeval atom, the first form of the Big Bang theory.

Which Englishman won the first World Snooker Championship in 1927 and was never beaten in the event?

Joe Davis won all fifteen championships held from 1927 to 1946 and then retired from the event, which he had persuaded the sport's governing body to create.

Which British driver became the first person to exceed 200 miles per hour on land, at Daytona Beach in March 1927?

Henry Segrave went on to hold the land and water speed records at the same time, the first person to do so.

Which Italian open-road race from Brescia to Rome and back was first run in March 1927?

The Mille Miglia was dreamed up by two young counts, apparently in response to the Italian Grand Prix being moved from Brescia to Monza, and it ended after fatal crashes in 1957.

Which Belgian town's Menin Gate, unveiled in July 1927, lists more than 54,000 soldiers with no known grave?

Ypres still closes the road under the arch at eight every evening while buglers sound the Last Post.