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Today in History, October 27th

On October 27, 1904, the New York City subway opened. Plus a tense turn in the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Red Sox's first title in 86 years.

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

Fidel-Castro-Nikita-Khrushchev — Fidel Castro (L) Nikita Khrushchev (R)

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

October 27 is best known for the opening of the New York City subway in 1904. The date also saw a tense turn in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 and the Boston Red Sox’s first World Series title in 86 years, won in 2004.

The big story: New York City’s subway opens (1904)

New York was late to the underground. London had opened its system in 1863, and Boston built the first American subway in 1897. When New York finally caught up, it did so with some ceremony. At 2:35 p.m. on October 27, 1904, Mayor George McClellan took the controls of the first train and stayed there until 103rd Street. The line, run by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, covered 9.1 miles and 28 stations, from City Hall up to Grand Central, across 42nd Street to Times Square and north to 145th Street and Broadway in Harlem. The fare was a nickel. When the public got its turn that evening, more than 100,000 people paid to ride. The system kept growing, reaching the Bronx in 1905, Brooklyn in 1908 and Queens in 1915. It became one of the few rapid transit systems anywhere that runs around the clock.

More events on October 27

Year	What happened
1659	Quakers William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson were executed in the Massachusetts Bay Colony for defying a ban on their faith.
1795	The U.S. and Spain signed Pinckney’s Treaty, which gave Americans the right to navigate the Mississippi River and set the southern U.S. border at 31° north latitude.
1873	Illinois farmer Joseph Glidden applied for a patent on his design for barbed wire.
1962	At the peak of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Nikita Khrushchev offered to pull missiles out of Cuba if the U.S. removed its missiles from Turkey. The Kennedy administration answered by accepting his earlier, softer offer instead.
1966	It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown premiered on CBS.
1979	The Caribbean nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines became independent.
1994	The U.S. Justice Department announced that the nation’s prison population had passed 1 million.
2004	The Boston Red Sox swept the St. Louis Cardinals to win the World Series, their first title in 86 years, ending talk of the “Curse of the Bambino.”
2006	The last Ford Taurus rolled off the line in Hapeville, Georgia. It went to Chick-fil-A founder Truett Cathy.

Born on October 27

1858: Theodore Roosevelt, future U.S. president, born in New York City.
1922: Ruby Dee, groundbreaking actress and civil rights activist, born in Cleveland.
1923: Roy Lichtenstein, painter and a founder of Pop art, born in New York City.
1932: Sylvia Plath, poet and author of The Bell Jar, born in Boston.