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Today in History, July 27th

On July 27, 1953, an armistice halted the Korean War. Plus the first article of impeachment against Nixon and the Olympic Park bombing.

By Today in History Updated November 10, 2026 3 min read Sources checked

Published July 27, 2026 · Last updated November 10, 2026

July 27 is best known for 1953, when an armistice halted the fighting in the Korean War after three years. The date also saw the House Judiciary Committee approve its first article of impeachment against President Richard Nixon in 1974 and a bomb explode in Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park in 1996.

The big story: An armistice stops the Korean War (1953)

The war began on June 25, 1950, when communist North Korea invaded the South. The United States won United Nations backing to defend South Korea, and American forces were in the fight within days. Late in 1950, hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops poured in, and the conflict settled into a grinding war of attrition. Truce talks opened in July 1951 and dragged on for two more years. In the 1952 campaign, Dwight D. Eisenhower promised to “go to Korea,” and once in office he leaned on everyone involved, even hinting at nuclear weapons, though historians still debate how much that mattered. On July 27, 1953, the armistice was signed at Panmunjom. It drew a new boundary that gave South Korea a bit more ground, created a demilitarized zone between the two sides, and let a neutral commission handle prisoners, who could choose whether to go home. Millions of Koreans and Chinese had died, along with almost 40,000 Americans. The deal also closed America’s first trial run of the Cold War idea of a limited war.

More events on July 27

Year	What happened
1377	The city of Ragusa (today’s Dubrovnik, Croatia) adopted what is often called the world’s first quarantine, an effort to keep out the Black Death.
1794	Maximilien Robespierre was overthrown and arrested in Paris, bringing the Reign of Terror to an end.
1830	The July Revolution broke out in France. Within days King Charles X gave up the throne, and Louis-Philippe took over.
1909	The Wright brothers’ military airplane completed its qualifying flights for sale to the U.S. Army Signal Corps.
1919	The Chicago Race Riot began after a young Black man drowned in Lake Michigan, having been stoned for swimming in an area claimed by whites.
1921	Frederick Banting and Charles Best isolated insulin at the University of Toronto, a breakthrough for people with diabetes.
1940	Warner Bros. released the cartoon A Wild Hare, the debut of Bugs Bunny in the form audiences came to know.
1949	The British de Havilland Comet, the first jet airliner, made its first test flight.
1974	The House Judiciary Committee approved its first article of impeachment against President Richard Nixon, over the Watergate cover-up.
1996	A pipe bomb exploded in Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park, killing one person and injuring 111.
2003	Comedian Bob Hope, a fixture of American entertainment for decades, died at age 100.
2017	Sam Shepard, the playwright and actor, died at age 73.

Born on July 27

1824: Alexandre Dumas fils, French writer of The Lady of the Camellias, born in Paris.
1905: Leo Durocher, baseball player and manager remembered for “Nice guys finish last,” born in West Springfield, Massachusetts.
1922: Norman Lear, television writer and producer behind All in the Family, born in New Haven, Connecticut.
1972: Maya Rudolph, comic actress known for Saturday Night Live and Bridesmaids, born in Gainesville, Florida.