April 27: Independence Day in Togo (1960) and Sierra Leone (1961), Freedom Day in South Africa.

• 1521 - Filipino natives led by Lapu-Lapu killed Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan in the Battle of Mactan.

• 1565 - Conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi and 500 armed soldiers arrived at Cebu and established the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.

• 1667 - John Milton (pictured), blind and impoverished, sold the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10.

• 1865 - An explosion destroyed the steamboat Sultana on the Mississippi River, killing 1,700 passengers.

• 1994 - Apartheid in South Africa: The African National Congress had a landslide victory in the first non-racial elections in the history of South Africa.

Recent days: April 26 – April 25 – April 24