TODAY IN HISTORY: MAY 27

May 27 1703: St. Petersburg founded by Peter the Great
After winning access to the Baltic Sea through his victories in the Great Northern War, Czar Peter I founded the city of St. Petersburg as the new Russian capital.

The reign of Peter, who became sole czar in 1696, was characterized by a series of sweeping military, political, economic, and cultural reforms based on Western European models. Peter the Great, as he became known, led his country into major conflicts with Persia, the Ottoman Empire, and Sweden. Russian victories in these wars greatly expanded Peter’s empire, and the defeat of Sweden won Russia direct access to the Baltic Sea, a lifelong obsession of the Russian leader. With the founding of St. Petersburg, Russia was now a major European power–politically, culturally, and geographically. In 1721, Peter abandoned the traditional Russian title of czar in favor of the European-influenced title of emperor. Four years later, he died and was succeeded by his wife, Catherine.

May 27 1863: Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus was challenged
On this day in 1863, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney of Maryland issues Ex parte Merryman, challenging the authority of President Abraham Lincoln and the U.S. military to suspend the writ of habeas corpus (the legal procedure that prevents the government from holding an individual indefinitely without showing cause) in Maryland.

Early in the war, President Lincoln faced many difficulties due to the fact that Washington was located in slave territory. Although Maryland did not secede, Southern sympathies were widespread. On April 27, 1861, Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus between Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia to give military authorities the necessary power to silence dissenters and rebels. Under this order, commanders could arrest and detain individuals who were deemed threatening to military operations. Those arrested could be held without indictment or arraignment.

On May 25, John Merryman, a vocal secessionist, was arrested in Cockeysville, Maryland. He was held at Ft. McHenry in Baltimore, where he appealed for his release under a writ of habeas corpus. The federal circuit court judge was Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, who issued a ruling, Ex parte Merryman, denying the president’s authority to suspend habeas corpus. Taney denounced Lincoln’s interference with civil liberties and argued that only Congress had the power to suspend the writ.

Lincoln did not respond directly to Taney’s edict, but he did address the issue in his message to Congress that July. He justified the suspension through Article I, Section 9, of the Constitution, which specifies a suspension of the writ “when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.”

Although military officials continued to arrest suspected Southern sympathizers, the incident led to a softening of the policy. Concern that Maryland might still secede from the Union forced a more conciliatory stance from Lincoln and the military. Merryman was remanded to civil authorities in July and allowed to post bail. He was never brought to trial, and the charges of treason against him were dropped two years after the war.

May 27 1900 - Boer War
General Lord Roberts crossed the Vaal River and occupied the town of Vereeniging.

May 27 1941- World War II: North Africa
General Erwin Rommel, reinforced with the 15th Panzer Division, recaptured Halfaya Pass.

May 27 1956
The Casbah area of Algiers was sealed off as French troops search for weapons caches.

May 27 1963
Jomo Kenyatta was elected as Kenya's first prime minister, he was inaugurated on 1 June.

May 27 1971
President Anwar el-Sadat of Egypt signed a 15-year friendship treaty with the Soviet Union.

May 27 2006: Hollywood power welcomed child
On this day in 2006, in Swakopmund, Namibia, the actors Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt welcome the arrival of their first biological child, a daughter named Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt.

Talented and famous, Jolie and Pitt were both fixtures on Hollywood’s A-list by the time they starred together as married assassins in the action film Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005). Rumors soon began flying that the two had begun an off-screen affair, and intensified after Pitt and his wife, Jennifer Aniston (most famous for her role on the long-running TV sitcom Friends), announced their separation in early 2005. That spring, Pitt and Jolie (who had previously been married to the actors Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton) were photographed on a beach in Africa, where Jolie was working as a representative for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Though Pitt and Jolie refused to publicly acknowledge their relationship, they fueled speculation throughout 2005, notably by posing in a photo spread for W magazine. The press dubbed the couple “Brangelina” and obsessively chronicled their every move, noting Pitt’s growing comfort with Jolie’s two adopted children, Maddox (from Cambodia) and Zahara (from Ethiopia). On January 11, 2006, Jolie announced she was pregnant with Pitt’s child; barely a week later, the news broke that Pitt had successfully adopted Maddox and Zahara, whose surnames were legally changed to Jolie-Pitt.

Jolie gave birth to little Shiloh by a scheduled caesarean section that May in Namibia, an African country that had come under intense media scrutiny since the celebrity power couple decided it would be the birthplace of their first biological child. Pitt and Jolie held a press conference days after the birth, stating that Shiloh would have a Namibian passport; they had earlier announced a donation of $300,000 to refurbish hospitals there. Jolie had reportedly been attracted to Namibia after filming the movie Beyond Borders (2003) and meeting with aid workers there.

Shiloh’s first baby pictures went for a then-record sum of more than $4.1 million for the U.S. rights (paid by People magazine, which ran the photos in their June 19, 2006, issue) and $3.5 million for the international rights (picked up by Hello!). Pitt and Jolie donated those profits to charity. In February 2007, Jolie generated controversy for telling British ELLE that little blonde Shiloh was, as a newborn, like “a blob” and saying that she feels “so much more for [Maddox and Zahara] because they’re survivors, they came through so much.” That March, Jolie and Pitt adopted another son, Pax Thien, from Vietnam. When Jolie and Pitt’s biological twins, Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline, arrived in July 2008, People paid $14 million–another record-breaking sum–for images that adorned its cover and a 19-page photo spread inside the magazine. As before, the money went to charity.

Source: history.com, africanhistory.about.com