Today in History, 2/27

1560: The Treaty of Berwick, intended to expel the French from Scotland, is signed by England and Scotland. It wouldn't take.
1801: Washington, DC is placed under the jurisdiction of Congress.
1807: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is born.
1860: Abraham Lincoln makes a speech at Cooper Union in New York City that is largely responsible for his election to the Presidency.
1864: During the Civil War, the first Northern prisoners arrive at Andersonville Prison, GA.1892: William Demarest is born. He played Uncle Charley on My Three Sons.1900: The British Labour Party is founded.
1902: John Steinbeck is born.1910: Clarence "Kelly" Johnson is born. He was a genius aircraft designer who worked for Lockheed's Skunk Works design facility. The list of planes he either designed or contributed on the design is a laundry list of famous aircraft: the P-38 Lightning, the F-80 Shooting Star (the first successful American jet fighter), the F-104 Starfighter, the C-130 Hercules, the U-2, the SR-71 Blackbird, and the AH-56 Cheyenne - and that's just a partial list! My personal favorite is the P-38 Lightning, but I've always been a piston snob.1917: John Connally, Governor of Texas, is born. He was in the car with Kennedy when Oswald fired and was wounded in the attack.1932: Elizabeth Taylor is born. She's been married, like, a hundred times and was once targeted for assassination by the Manson Family.1933: The Reichstag in Germany is destroyed in a mysterious fire.
1934: Ralph Nader, consumer activist and perennial presidential candidate, is born.1940: Howard Hesseman, aka Johnny Fever, is born.

1943: Mary Frann is born. She played Bob Newhart's wife on Newhart.1958: Nancy Spungen is born. She was Sid Vicious' girlfriend.1962: Adam Baldwin is born. He played Jayne Cobb on Firefly and is not related to any of the other Baldwins.

1980: Chelsea Clinton is born. I don't care what Rush Limbaugh says, I always thought she was attractive.1986: The United States Senate allows its debates to be televised.
1998: Britain's House of Lords votes to end 1,000 years of male preference by giving a monarch's first born daughter the same claim to the throne as a first-born son.

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.