Today in History 1/27

1606: Guy Fawkes and the other conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot are put on trial.
1756: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is born.
1785: The University Of Georgia, the first public university in the US, is founded.
1825: The US Congress approves Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma, clearing the way for the Trail of Tears.
1832: Lewis Carroll is born.
1850: Samuel Gompers, US labor leader, is born. He founded the American Federation of Labor.1850: Edward J. Smith, captain of the Titanic, is born.
1880: Thomas Edison receives a patent for his electric incandescent lamp.
1888: The National Geographic Society is founded.
1900: Admiral Hymie Rickover is born. He is known as the father of the nuclear navy. He also changed the practice of naming subs after fish to naming them after US cities saying, "Fish don't vote."1918: Elmore James, bluesman, is born.
1921: Donna Reed is born. She was never more lovely than she was in It's a Wonderful Life.1936: Troy Donahue is born. He one one half of the basis for The Simpsons character Troy McClure - the other half being Doug McClure.
1939: The first flight of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning.1940: James Cromwell is born. He played the nerd father in Revenge of the Nerds and Zefram Cochran in Star Trek: First Contact and about a million other roles.
1944: Nick Mason, drummer for Pink Floyd is born.
1949: The Siege of Leningrad is lifted.
1951: Astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee are killed in a fire during atest of the spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center.

l-r: Grissom, White, Chaffee

1954: Peter Laird is born. He is the co-creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles along with Kevin Eastman.
1955: John Roberts, 17th Chief Justice of the United States is born.
1956: Mimi Rogers is born. Not only is she a classic babe, but she's also a crackerjack poker player.1957: Frank Miller, comic book artist and writer, is born.
1964: Bridget Fonda is born.
1965: Alan Cumming is born. He was deliciously evil in the vastly underrated Josie and the Pussycats movie.
1967: More than 60 nations sign the Outer Space Treaty banning nuclear weapons in space.
1973: The Paris Peace Accords officially end the Vietnam War.
1993: Andre the Giant dies.

Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up