May 27

  • 1940 ‘Operation Dynamo’, the evacuation of c. 338,000 Belgian, British and French troops over nine days from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, began.
  • 1564 John Calvin (54), influential French theologian during the Protestant Reformation, died.
  • 1911 The first edition of the Irish Worker, organ of the ITGWU and edited by James Larkin, was issued. Averaging 20,000 copies per issue, it was suppressed in December 1914 but was revived in 1930–2 under the editorship of James Larkin Jr.
  • 1964 Pandit (Jawaharlal) Nehru (74), prime minister of India since independence (1947), died.
  • 1993 President Mary Robinson met Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, the first official contact between a British monarch and an Irish president.
  • 1923 Henry Kissinger, politician, diplomat and influential geopolitical consultant, born in Furth, Bavaria, Germany.
  • 1993 President Mary Robinson made a private visit to Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, the first meeting of an Irish head of state with a British monarch.
  • 1974 With a total electrical power breakdown imminent, Chief Executive Brian Faulkner tried to convince the Executive to negotiate with the UWC strikers. The SDLP, however, insisted that the British army should man the power stations. Faulkner resigned and the Executive collapsed.