27 APRIL

1883 - Graciano Lopez Jaena, member of the so-called triumvirate of Filipino propagandists during the Spanish colonial rule, declares his desire for all territories under Spain to be given equal treatment, attention and consideration under the law; Jaena expresses this call during a well.applauded speech delivered in Madrid  and attended by the press and personages from Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico.

1945 - Soviet and American troops join hands at the River Elbe in Germany as part of the affirmation of Allied powers to completely destroy the Third Reich and bring an end to World War II; the alliance effectively cut the German forces in two and in three days, Adolf Hitler will commit suicide in the underground bunker from where he has been directing operations.

1961 - Sierra Leone becomes the latest West African state to declare independence from British colonial rule, over 150 years after it was first colonized; the terms of independence include the holding of elections the following year although the opposition All People's Congress Party has presented some threat of disturbance with its insistence that independence be postponed until after elections.

1992 - The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is formed following the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; only two of the six member states of the former socialist Yugoslavia becomes part of the new republic--Serbia and Montenegro--while Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina are effectively recognized as separate states.