June 27 in History

Jovian (; Latin: Jovianus; Greek: Ἰοβιανός Iobianós; 331 – 17 February 364) was Roman emperor from June 363 to February 364. As part of the imperial bodyguard, he accompanied Julian on his Persian expedition. Julian was killed in battle, and the exhausted and ill-provisioned Roman army declared Jovian his successor. Unable to cross the Tigris, Jovian made peace with the Sasanian Empire on humiliating terms. He spent the rest of his seven-month reign traveling back towards Constantinople, but died at Dadastana without reaching the capital city. Jovian was a Christian, whose accession ended the imperial endorsement of polytheism briefly revived under Julian; during a stop in Edessa he received petitions from bishops over doctrinal issues. He was also the third-to-last emperor to govern the empire as a single polity, and the last to do so for the whole of his reign. From his successor Valentinian I to the fall of the Western Roman Empire, all subsequent administrations involved co-emperors governing a territory split into jurisdictions of the East and West.

Pope Agatho (c. 577 – 10 January 681) served as the bishop of Rome from 27 June 678 until his death on 10 January 681. He heard the appeal of Wilfrid of York, who had been displaced from his see by the division of the archdiocese ordered by Theodore of Canterbury. During Agatho's tenure, the Sixth Ecumenical Council was convened to deal with monothelitism. He is venerated as a saint by both the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. He is said to have been the longest lived pope ever.

Amerigo Vespucci (9 March 1454 – 22 February 1512) was an Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Florence after whom the Americas are named. Vespucci participated in at least two voyages of the Age of Discovery between 1497 and 1504, first on behalf of Spain (1499–1500) and then for Portugal (1501–1502). In 1503 and 1505, two booklets were published under his name containing colourful descriptions of these explorations and other voyages. Both publications were extremely popular and widely read throughout much of Europe. Historians still dispute the authorship and veracity of these accounts, but they were instrumental in raising awareness of the discoveries and enhancing the reputation of Vespucci as an explorer and navigator. Vespucci claimed to have understood in 1501 that Brazil was part of a fourth continent unknown to Europeans, which he called the "New World" (Mundus Novus). The claim inspired cartographer Martin Waldseemüller to recognize Vespucci's accomplishments in 1507 by applying the Latinized form "America" to a map showing the New World. Other cartographers followed suit, securing the tradition of marking the name "America" on maps of the newly discovered continents. It is unknown whether Vespucci was ever aware of these honours. In 1505, he was made a subject of Castile by royal decree, and he was appointed to the position of piloto mayor (master navigator) for Spain's Casa de Contratación (House of Trade) in Seville in 1508, a post which he held until his death in 1512.

The Stratford Martyrs were eleven men and two women who were burned at the stake together for their Protestant beliefs, either at Stratford-le-Bow, Middlesex or Stratford, Essex, both near London, on 27 June 1556 during the Marian persecutions.

The Battle of Dettingen took place on 27 June 1743 during the War of the Austrian Succession, near Karlstein am Main in Bavaria. An alliance composed of British, Hanoverian and Austrian troops, known as the Pragmatic Army, defeated a French force commanded by the Duke of Noailles. While the Earl of Stair exercised operational control, the Allies were nominally commanded by George II of Great Britain, and Dettingen was the last time a reigning British monarch led troops in combat. The battle had little impact on the wider war, and has been described as 'a happy escape, rather than a great victory.'

The Anglo-Cherokee War (1758–1761; in the Cherokee language: the "war with those in the red coats" or "War with the English"), was also known from the Anglo-European perspective as the Cherokee War, the Cherokee Uprising, or the Cherokee Rebellion. The war was a conflict between British forces in North America and Cherokee bands during the French and Indian War. The British and the Cherokee had been allies at the start of the war, but each party had suspected the other of betrayals. Tensions between British-American settlers and Cherokee warriors of towns that the pioneers encroached on had increased during the 1750s, culminating in open hostilities in 1758.

Buenos Aires, officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− global city, according to the GaWC 2024 ranking. The city proper has a population of 3.1 million and its urban area has a population of 16.7 million, making it the 21st most populous metropolitan area in the world.

Joseph Smith Jr. (December 23, 1805 – June 27, 1844) was an American religious and political leader and the founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. Publishing the Book of Mormon at the age of 24, Smith attracted tens of thousands of followers by the time of his death fourteen years later. The religious movement he founded is followed by millions of global adherents and several churches, the largest of which is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Born in Sharon, Vermont, Smith moved with his family to Western New York amid hardships following a series of crop failures in 1816. Living in an area of intense religious revivalism during the Second Great Awakening, Smith reported experiencing a series of visions. The first of these was in 1820, when he saw "two personages" (whom he eventually described as God the Father and Jesus Christ). In 1823, he said he was visited by an angel who directed him to a buried book of golden plates inscribed with a Judeo-Christian history of an ancient American civilization. In 1830, Smith published the Book of Mormon, which he described as an English translation of those plates. The same year he organized the Church of Christ, calling it a restoration of the early Christian Church. Members of the church were later called Latter Day Saints or nicknamed the Mormons. In 1831, Smith and his followers moved west, planning to build a communal Zion in the American heartland. They first gathered in Kirtland, Ohio, and established an outpost in Independence, Missouri, which was intended to be Zion's central location. During the 1830s, Smith sent out missionaries, published revelations, and supervised construction of the Kirtland Temple. Smith and his followers left Ohio and Missouri after the collapse of the church-sponsored Kirtland Safety Society and violent skirmishes with non-Mormon Missourians escalated into the Mormon extermination order. They established a new settlement at Nauvoo, Illinois, which quickly grew to be the second-largest city in Illinois during Smith's mayoralty. Smith launched a presidential campaign in 1844. During his campaign, Smith and the Nauvoo City Council ordered the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor's printing press after it criticized Smith's power and his practice of polygamy. This inflamed opposition to Smith and his followers. Smith surrendered to Illinois authorities but was shot and killed by a mob that stormed the jailhouse. During his ministry, Smith published numerous documents and texts, many of which he attributed to divine inspiration and revelation from God. He dictated the majority of these in the first-person, saying they were the writings of ancient prophets or expressed the voice of God. His followers accepted his teachings as prophetic and revelatory, and several of these texts were canonized by denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement, which continue to treat them as scripture. Smith's teachings discuss God's nature, cosmology, family structures, political organization, and religious community and authority. Mormons generally regard Smith as a prophet comparable to Moses and Elijah. Several religious denominations identify as the continuation of the church that he organized, including the LDS Church and the Community of Christ.

The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States. The South saw slavery as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war ended with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans. Decades of controversy over slavery came to a head when Abraham Lincoln, a Republican who opposed slavery's expansion, won the 1860 presidential election. Seven slave states in the South responded to Lincoln's victory by seceding from the United States and forming the Confederate States of America. The Confederacy seized US forts and other federal assets in the South. The war began on April 12, 1861, when the Confederacy bombarded Fort Sumter in South Carolina. A wave of enthusiasm for war swept over the North and South, as military recruitment soared. Four more Southern states seceded after the war began and, led by its president, Jefferson Davis, the Confederacy comprised eleven states, containing a third of the US population. Four years of intense combat, mostly in the South, ensued. During 1861–1862 in the western theater, the Union made permanent gains, though in the eastern theater the conflict was inconclusive. The abolition of slavery became a Union war goal on January 1, 1863, when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared all slaves in rebel states to be free, applying to more than 3.5 million of the 4 million enslaved people in the country. To the west, the Union first destroyed the Confederacy's river navy by the summer of 1862, then much of its western armies, and seized New Orleans. The successful 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River, while Confederate general Robert E. Lee's incursion north failed at the Battle of Gettysburg. General Ulysses S. Grant's western successes led Lincoln to promote him to command of all Union armies in 1864. Inflicting an ever-tightening naval blockade of Confederate ports, the Union marshaled resources and manpower to attack the Confederacy from all directions. This led to the fall of Atlanta in 1864 to Union general William Tecumseh Sherman, followed by his March to the Sea, which culminated in his taking Savannah. The last significant battles raged around the ten-month siege of Petersburg, gateway to the Confederate capital of Richmond. The Confederates abandoned Richmond, and on April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant following the Battle of Appomattox Court House, setting in motion the end of the war. Lincoln lived to see this victory but was shot by an assassin on April 14, dying the next day. By the end of the war, much of the South's infrastructure had been destroyed. The Confederacy collapsed, the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, and four million enslaved black people were freed. The war-torn nation then entered the Reconstruction era in an attempt to rebuild the country, bring the former Confederate states back into the United States, and grant civil rights to freed slaves. The war is one of the most extensively studied and written about episodes in the history of the United States. It remains the subject of cultural and historiographical debate. Of continuing interest is the myth of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy. The war was among the first to use industrial warfare. Railroads, the electrical telegraph, steamships, the ironclad warship, and mass-produced weapons were widely used. The war left an estimated 700,000 soldiers dead, along with an undetermined number of civilian deaths, making it the deadliest in American history. The technology and brutality of the Civil War foreshadowed the coming world wars.

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was one of the oldest railroads in the United States and the first steam-operated common carrier. Maryland chartered the railroad in 1827 and construction began in 1828. It operated as B&O from 1830 until 1987, when it was merged into the Chessie System. Its lines are today controlled by CSX Transportation (CSX).

Circumnavigation is the complete navigation of a person around an entire island, continent, or astronomical body. This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth.

The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the Liaodong Peninsula and near Mukden in Southern Manchuria, with naval battles taking place in the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan. At the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, the Treaty of Shimonoseki of 1895 had ceded the Liaodong Peninsula and Port Arthur to Japan before the Triple Intervention, in which Russia, Germany, and France forced Japan to relinquish its claim. Japan feared that Russia would impede its plans to establish a sphere of influence in mainland Asia, especially as Russia built the Trans-Siberian Railroad, began making inroads in Korea, and acquired a lease of the Liaodong Peninsula and Port Arthur from China in 1898. Japan signed the Anglo-Japanese Alliance in 1902, and began offering to recognize Russia's dominance in Manchuria in exchange for recognition of Korea as part of Japan's sphere of influence. However, this was rejected by Russia. After negotiations broke down, Japan opened hostilities in a surprise attack on the Russian Pacific Fleet at Port Arthur on 9 February [O.S. 27 January] 1904. Both sides declared war, and Japanese troops landed in Korea, crossed the Yalu River into Manchuria in May, and landed more forces on the Liaodong Peninsula. In August, the Japanese laid siege to Port Arthur, which eventually fell in January 1905. In March 1905, Japanese troops took Mukden, the Manchurian capital, after heavy fighting. The Russian Baltic Fleet, which had sailed over seven months and 18,000 nautical miles (33,000 km) from the Baltic Sea to reinforce its Pacific Fleet, arrived in the region in May and was intercepted and destroyed by the Japanese Combined Fleet at the Battle of Tsushima. The war was concluded with the Treaty of Portsmouth (5 September [O.S. 23 August] 1905), mediated by US president Theodore Roosevelt. The treaty recognized Japanese interests in Korea, and awarded to Japan Russia's lease on the Liaodong Peninsula, control of the Russian-built South Manchuria Railway, and the southern half of the island of Sakhalin (Karafuto). The complete military victory of an Asian and non-Western nation over a European and Western power surprised international observers, and transformed the global balance of power, with the Empire of Japan emerging as a great power and the Russian Empire declining in prestige among the European powers. Russia's incurrence of substantial casualties and losses for a cause which resulted in a humiliating defeat contributed to internal unrest culminating in the 1905 Russian Revolution, during which the Russian autocracy was forced to make concessions. More widely, however, Japan's win effectively damaged the credibility of European dominance across Asia.

The Illinois Monument is a public monument located in the Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park in Cobb County, Georgia, United States. The monument honors the soldiers from Illinois who fought in the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain during the Atlanta campaign of the American Civil War. It is located on Cheatham Hill, the site of intense fighting during the battle, and was dedicated in 1914, on the 50th anniversary of the battle. It was designed by Mario Korbel and James Dibelka.

The Johor–Singapore Causeway is a 1.056-kilometre (0.66 mi) causeway across the Straits of Johor. The Causeway links Johor Bahru in Malaysia to Woodlands in Singapore. It is one of the busiest border crossings in the world, with 300,000 road and rail travelers daily. The Causeway also serves as a water pipeline between the two countries.

The prime minister of Japan (内閣総理大臣, Naikaku Sōri Daijin; Japanese pronunciation: [naꜜi.ka.kɯ | soː.ɾʲi daꜜi.dʑiɴ]) is the head of government of Japan. The prime minister chairs the Cabinet of Japan and has the ability to select and dismiss its ministers of state. The prime minister also serves as the commander-in-chief of the Japan Self Defence Forces. The National Diet (parliament) acts as an electoral college and both houses nominate the prime minister from among their members (typically from among the members of the House of Representatives). Each house conducts a ballot under the run-off system, though the nominee of the House of Representatives prevails if the two houses disagree on the nomination. They are then formally appointed by the emperor. The prime minister must retain the confidence of the House of Representatives to remain in office. Conventionally, the prime minister is almost always the leader of the majority party in the House of Representatives or the leader of the senior partner in the governing coalition, though there have been cabinet prime ministers from junior coalition partners. The prime minister lives and works at the Naikaku Sōri Daijin Kantei (Prime Minister's Official Residence) in Nagatachō, Chiyoda, Tokyo, close to the National Diet Building. Before the adoption of the Meiji Constitution, Japan had in practice no written constitution. Under the Yōrō Code enacted in 752, the Daijō-daijin was the head of the Daijō-kan (Department of State), the highest organ of Japan's pre-modern Imperial government during the Heian period and until briefly under the Meiji Constitution. The office was replaced with the office of prime minister on 22 December 1885 with the appointment of Itō Hirobumi to the new position. The Meiji Constitution was adopted in 1890, which gave the emperor the powers to appoint and dismiss the prime minister and cabinet members. During this period, the Prime Minister and his Cabinet were not necessarily chosen from the elected members of parliament. The modern constitution, adopted in 1947, transferred formal executive powers from the emperor to the prime minister, as well as designating the Diet as the nominator of the prime minister instead of the emperor. The prime minister exercises control and supervision over the entire executive branch and appoints all Cabinet ministers, with the power to dismiss them any time. They present bills to the Diet on behalf of the Cabinet, and sign laws and Cabinet orders along with other members of the Cabinet. They also have the power to call an early election by advising the emperor to dissolve the House of Representatives. Powers of the prime minister have grown significantly in the 21st century. The prime minister is one of the world's most powerful political leaders in modern times. As the leader of the world's fourth largest economy, the prime minister holds significant domestic and international leadership, being the leader of a prominent member state of the G7 and G20. As of 2026, sixty-six people (sixty-five men and one woman) have served as prime minister. The longest-serving prime minister was Shinzo Abe, who served over eight years across two non-consecutive terms, and the shortest-serving was Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni, who served fifty-four days. Sanae Takaichi succeeded Shigeru Ishiba as prime minister on 21 October 2025, following the 2025 Liberal Democratic Party presidential election; she is the first woman to serve as prime minister.

Rovaniemi is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Lapland. It is located near the Arctic Circle in the northern interior of the country. The population of Rovaniemi is approximately 66,000, while the sub-region has a population of approximately 70,000. It is the 17th most populous municipality in Finland, and the 11th most populous urban area in the country.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many engaging in total war on an unprecedented scale. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the deaths of 60 to 75 million people, a majority of whom were civilians. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

Mogaung is a town in Kachin State, Myanmar. It is situated on the Mandalay-Myitkyina railway line. It's near the capital city state Myitkyina.

The Canadian Citizenship Act (French: Loi sur la citoyenneté canadienne) was a statute passed by the Parliament of Canada in 1946 which created the legal status of Canadian citizenship. The Act defined who were Canadian citizens, separate and independent from the status of the British subject and repealed earlier Canadian legislation relating to Canadian nationals and citizens as sub-classes of British subject status. The Act came into force on 1 January 1947 and was in force for thirty years, until replaced on 15 February 1977 by a new statute, the Canadian Citizenship Act, 1976, now known as the Citizenship Act.

The Korean War was an armed conflict fought on the Korean Peninsula between North Korea and South Korea and their allies. North Korea was supported by China and the Soviet Union, while South Korea was supported by the United Nations led by the United States under the auspices of the United Nations Command (UNC).

Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant (Russian: Обнинская АЭС, romanized: Obninskaya AES; ) was built in the "Science City" of Obninsk, Kaluga Oblast, about 110 km (68 mi) southwest of Moscow, Soviet Union. Connected to the power grid in June 1954, Obninsk was the first grid-connected nuclear power plant in the world, i.e. the first nuclear reactor that produced electricity industrially, albeit at small scale. It was located at the Institute of Physics and Power Engineering. The plant is also known as APS-1 Obninsk (Atomic Power Station 1 Obninsk). It remained in operation between 1954 and 2002. Its production of electricity for the grid ceased in 2002; thereafter it functioned as a research and isotope production plant only. According to Lev Kotchetkov, who was there at the time: "Although utilisation of generated heat was going on, and production of isotopes was even enhanced, the main task was to carry out experimental studies on 17 test loops installed in the reactor." The technology perfected in the Obninsk pilot plant was later employed on a much larger scale in the RBMK reactors.

The 1954 FIFA World Cup was the fifth edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football tournament for senior men's national teams of the nations affiliated to FIFA. It was held in Switzerland from 16 June to 4 July. Switzerland was selected as the host country in July 1946. At the tournament, several all-time records for goalscoring were set, including the highest average number of goals scored per game. The tournament was won by West Germany, who defeated tournament favourites Hungary 3–2 in the final for their first World Cup title. Uruguay, the defending champions, were eliminated by Hungary in the semi-finals and would lose to Austria in the match for third place.

Hurricane Audrey was a catastrophic and very deadly hurricane that devastated the southwestern Louisiana coast in 1957. Along with Hurricane Alex in 2010, it was also the most intense June hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin, with a pressure of 946 mbar (hPa; 27.91 inHg), and was the strongest in terms of windspeed until Hurricane Beryl in 2024. The rapidly developing storm struck southwestern Louisiana as an intense Category 3 hurricane, destroying coastal communities with a powerful storm surge that penetrated as far as 20 mi (32 km) inland. The first named storm and hurricane of the 1957 hurricane season, Audrey formed on June 24 from a tropical wave that moved into the Bay of Campeche. Situated within ideal conditions for tropical development, Audrey quickly strengthened, reaching hurricane status a day afterwards. Moving north, it continued to strengthen and accelerate as it approached the United States Gulf Coast. On June 27, the hurricane reached peak sustained winds of 125 mph (205 km/h), making it a major hurricane. At the time, Audrey had a minimum barometric pressure of 946 mbar (hPa; 27.91 inHg). The hurricane made landfall with the same intensity between the mouth of the Sabine River and Cameron, Louisiana, later that day, causing unprecedented destruction across the region. Once inland, Audrey weakened and turned extratropical over West Virginia on June 29. Audrey was the first major hurricane to form in the Gulf of Mexico since 1945. Prior to making landfall, Audrey severely disrupted offshore drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico. Damages from offshore oil facilities alone were estimated at $16 million. Audrey caused much of its destruction near the border between Texas and Louisiana. The hurricane's strong winds resulted in widespread property and infrastructural damage. Power outages also resulted from the strong winds. However, as is typical with most landfalling tropical cyclones, most of the destruction at the coast was the result of the hurricane's strong storm surge, which was amplified by Audrey's rapid strengthening just prior to landfall. The storm surge was reported to have peaked as high as 12 ft (3.7 m), inundating coastal areas. Damage from the surge alone extended 25 mi (40 km) inland. The rough seas killed nine people offshore after capsizing the boat they were in. Further inland in Louisiana, the storm spawned two tornadoes, causing additional damage. Audrey also dropped heavy rainfall, peaking at 10.63 in (270 mm) near Basile. In Louisiana and Texas, where Audrey first impacted, the damage toll was $128 million. After moving inland and transitioning into an extratropical cyclone, Audrey caused additional damage across the interior United States. The storm produced 18 tornadoes across Mississippi and Alabama, causing $600,000 in losses and killing one person. As it moved towards the northeast, moisture associated with the extratropical remnants of Audrey intersected with a cold front over the Midwest, producing record rainfall that peaked at 10.20 in (259 mm) in Paris, Illinois. The resultant flooding killed 10 people. Elsewhere in the United States, the storm brought strong winds that wrought additional damage. Farther north, in Canada, 15 people were killed in Ontario and Quebec. Strong winds and torrential rainfall disrupted transportation services. In Quebec, ten people were killed in the Montreal area, making Audrey the deadliest hurricane to strike the Canadian province in recorded history. The storm was also considered among the worst storms to strike Quebec. In the United States, Audrey killed at least 416 people, the majority of whom were in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, though the final death total may never be known. Damage totaled $147 million in the country, at the time the fifth-costliest hurricane recorded in the US since 1900. The name Audrey was later retired from usage as an identifier for an Atlantic hurricane.

The president of Uruguay, officially known as the president of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is the head of state and head of government of Uruguay. The president presides over the Council of Ministers, directing the executive branch of the national government, and is the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces.

The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.

Air France, stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France, and is headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. The airline is a subsidiary of the Air France–KLM Group and is one of the founding members of the SkyTeam airline alliance. As of 2013, Air France served 29 destinations in France and operates worldwide scheduled passenger and cargo services to 201 destinations in 78 countries and also carried 46,803,000 passengers in 2019. The airline maintains its global and domestic hub at Charles de Gaulle Airport. Air France's corporate headquarters, previously in Montparnasse, Paris, are located at the Roissypôle complex on the grounds of Charles de Gaulle Airport, north of Paris.

Djibouti, officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to the east. The country has an area of 23,200 km2 (8,958 sq mi).

On 27 June 1980, Itavia Flight 870 (IH 870, AJ 421), a Douglas DC-9 passenger jet en route from Bologna to Palermo, Italy, crashed into the Tyrrhenian Sea between the islands of Ponza and Ustica at 20:59 CEST, killing all 81 occupants on board. Known in Italy as the Ustica massacre (Italian: strage di Ustica), the disaster led to numerous investigations, as well as legal actions and accusations; it continues to be a source of controversy, including claims of conspiracy by the Government of Italy and others. Francesco Cossiga, the Prime Minister of Italy at the time, attributed the crash to the shooting down by a French missile during a dogfight between Libyan and French fighter jets. The technical commission's report concluded that a bomb hidden in the rear lavatory caused the aircraft's destruction. However, this conclusion still remains highly contested: the civil lawsuit in the 2010s, concerning compensation for the victims' families, instead, accepted as valid the theory that the aircraft had been caught up in an aerial battle. In September 2023, former Italian prime minister Giuliano Amato declared that the crash was "part of a plan to shoot down the airplane of Gaddafi".

The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, officially the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is the highest organ when the national congress is not in session and is tasked with carrying out congress resolutions, directing all party work, and representing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) externally. The current electoral term (20th) is composed of 205 members and 150 alternates. The composition is elected once every five years by the National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. In practice, the selection process is done privately, usually through consultation of the CCP's Politburo and its corresponding Standing Committee.

Space Shuttle Columbia (OV-102) was a Space Shuttle orbiter manufactured by Rockwell International and operated by NASA. Named after the first American ship to circumnavigate the globe, and the female personification of the United States, Columbia was the first of five Space Shuttle orbiters to fly in space, debuting the Space Shuttle launch vehicle on its maiden flight on April 12, 1981 and becoming the first spacecraft to be re-used after its first flight when it launched on STS-2 on November 12, 1981. As only the second full-scale orbiter to be manufactured after the Approach and Landing Test vehicle Enterprise, Columbia retained unique external and internal features compared with later orbiters, such as test instrumentation and distinctive black chines. In addition to a heavier aft fuselage and the retention of an internal airlock throughout its lifetime, these made Columbia the heaviest of the five spacefaring orbiters: around 1,000 kilograms heavier than Challenger and 3,600 kilograms heavier than Endeavour when originally constructed. Columbia also carried ejection seats based on those from the SR-71 during its first six flights until 1983, and from 1986 onwards carried an imaging pod on its vertical stabilizer.

The Gare de Lyon rail accident, occurred on 27 June 1988, when an SNCF commuter train headed inbound to Paris's Gare de Lyon terminal crashed into a stationary outbound train, killing 56 and injuring 57, resulting in the deadliest rail disaster in peacetime France and the third deadliest in the nation's history.

Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to its west, Austria to its north, Hungary to its northeast, and Croatia to its south and southeast; its southwestern boundary consists of a 46.6-kilometre (29.0 mi) coastline on the Adriatic Sea. The country is mostly mountainous and forested, covering 20,271 square kilometres (7,827 sq mi). Its population is approximately 2.1 million people. Slovene is the official language. Slovenia has a predominantly temperate continental climate, with the exception of the Slovene Littoral and the Julian Alps. Ljubljana, the capital and largest city, is geographically situated near the centre of the country. Other urban centers include Maribor, Ptuj, Kranj, Celje, Koper, Novo Mesto, Velenje, Nova Gorica, Sežana, Murska Sobota, and Jesenice.

Aleph , better known by their former name Aum Shinrikyo , is a Japanese new religious movement and doomsday cult founded by Shoko Asahara in 1987. It carried out the deadly Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995 and was then found to have been responsible for the Matsumoto sarin attack the previous year.

Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader of the Opposition from 1994 to 1997, held shadow cabinet posts from 1987 to 1994, and was Member of Parliament (MP) for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007. He is the longest-serving Labour prime minister and only person to lead Labour to three consecutive general election victories. Blair founded the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change in 2016 and serves as its executive chairman.

Military Police, also known as PM, are the uniformed preventive state police of the states and Federal District of Brazil. The Military Police units are the main ostensive police force at the state level and are responsible for policing and maintaining the public order. Their formations, rules and uniforms vary depending on the state. Investigative work and forensics are undertaken by the Civil Police of each state.

General elections were held in Zimbabwe on 29 March 2008 to elect the president and Parliament. Because of Zimbabwe's dire economic situation, the elections were expected to provide incumbent President Robert Mugabe with his toughest electoral challenge to date. Mugabe's opponents were critical of the handling of the electoral process, and the government was accused of planning to rig the election. Human Rights Watch said that the election was likely to be "deeply flawed." The elections were characterized by violence.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the United States' civil space program, as well as research in aeronautics and space. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., NASA operates ten field centers across the US and is organized into three mission directorates: Human Spaceflight, Research and Technology, and Science. Established in 1958 amid the Space Race, NASA succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) to give the US space program a distinct civilian orientation focused on peaceful applications. Since then, it has led most American spaceflight programs, including Project Mercury, Project Gemini, the Apollo program, Skylab, the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station (ISS), and the ongoing multinational Artemis program.

GAIL (India) Limited is an Indian state-owned energy corporation with primary interests in the trade, transmission production and distribution of natural gas. GAIL also has interests in the exploration and production of solar and wind power, telecom and telemetry services (GAILTEL) and electricity generation. GAIL was founded as the Gas Authority of India Ltd. in August 1984 under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to build, operate and maintain the HVJ Gas Pipeline. On 1 February 2013, the Indian government conferred GAIL with Maharatna status along with 14 other Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs).

On 27 June 2015, a dust fire occurred at Formosa Fun Coast, a water park in Bali, New Taipei City, Taiwan. Staff of an outdoor "color powder party" sprayed participants with clouds of corn starch, which ignited. The fire lasted 40 seconds and burned 508 people, killing 15 and leaving 199 in critical condition.

A series of powerful cyberattacks using the Petya malware began on 27 June 2017 that swamped websites of Ukrainian organizations, including banks, ministries, newspapers, and electricity firms. Similar infections were reported in France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia, United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia. ESET estimated on 28 June 2017 that 80% of all infections were in Ukraine, with Germany second hardest hit with about 9%. On 28 June 2017, the Ukrainian government stated that the attack was halted. On 30 June 2017, the Associated Press reported experts agreed that Petya was masquerading as ransomware, while it was actually designed to cause maximum damage, with Ukraine being the main target.

The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.