01011227 This Day In History, December 27

537: The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey was completed. The Greek Orthodox patriarchal basilica (church), later became a Muslim mosque. It is today a museum.

1512: The Spanish Crown issued the Laws of Burgos. They governed the conduct of settlers (who the native people came to view as invaders in their homelands) toward native people in the "New World."

1741: Prussian (not to be confused with Russian - Prussia is in Germany) forces took Olmutz, Czechoslovakia.

1822: Louis Pasteur, the French chemist and bacteriologist, was born. He originated the heat process known as Pasteurization, used to destroy micro-organisms in certain foods and drinks.

1825: The first public railroad using steam locomotives was completed, in England.

1831: The British survey ship HMS Beagle set sail from Plymouth, England, on its scientific voyage around the world. On board was a young naturalist by the name of Charles Darwin (listen to our Sermon Darwin's Theory of Evolution).

1922: The Japanese Hosho was commissioned; it was the world's first purpose-built aircraft carrier (earlier carriers were converted ships e.g. the first U.S. aircraft carrier was a converted bulk coal carrier).

1927: Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, marking a victory for Joseph Stalin.

1929: Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin orders the "liquidation of the kulaks as a class." The kulaks were peasants who owned property that they worked for, but were regarded as a threat to socialism.

1945: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was established.

1949: Indonesia became independent from the Netherlands by decree from by Queen Juliana.

1966: The Cave of Swallows, the largest known cave shaft in the world, was discovered in Aquismon, San Luis Potosi, Mexico.

1972: Lester Pearson died at age 75. The 14th Canadian Prime Minister (1963-1968) was awarded the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize (back in the days when the recipient had to actually do something for peace) for his efforts to resolve the Israeli Suez Crisis of 1956.

1972: Belgium became the first NATO country to establish diplomatic relations with East Germany.

1978: King Juan Carlos ratified Spain's first democratic constitution.

1979: Soviet forces invaded Afghanistan. Hafizullah Amin, President of Afghanistan, was executed. The U.S. condemned the Soviet invasion until it did so itself a few years later.

1995: Israeli troops withdrew from Ramallah, completing the handover of 6 "West Bank" towns to the "Palestinians" ("Palestine" is merely a variant English-language rendering of "Philistine").

1996: Rwanda's first genocide trial opened with the accused facing charges for their part in the slaughter of 800,000 Tutsis in 1994.

2007: Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated.

2008: Israel began a 3-week military operation on Gaza - "Operation Cast Lead."