1927 in the United States

Incumbents

Federal Government">Federal government of the United States">Federal Government

• President: Calvin Coolidge
• Vice President: Charles G. Dawes
• Chief Justice: William Howard Taft
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Nicholas Longworth
• Senate Majority Leader: Charles Curtis
• Congress: 69th, 70th

  Governors

Lieutenant Governors

Events

January–March

• January 7 – The first transatlantic telephone call is made from New York City to London.
• February 23 – The U.S. Federal Radio Commission begins to regulate the use of radio frequencies.
• March 11
• *In New York City, the Roxy Theater is opened by Samuel Roxy Rothafel.
• *The first armoured car robbery is committed by the Flatheads Gang near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

  April–June

• April 22–May 5 – The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 affects 700,000 people in the greatest national disaster in U.S. history at this time.
• April 30 – The Federal Industrial Institute for Women opens near Alderson, West Virginia, as the first federal prison for women in the U.S.
• May 2 – Buck v. Bell decided in the Supreme Court of the United States, permitting compulsory sterilization of people with intellectual disability.
• May 11 – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the "Academy" in "Academy Awards," is founded.
• May 14 – The University of Chicago's local collegiate organization, Phi Sigma, becomes incorporated under the laws of the State of Illinois as Eta Sigma Phi, the National Honorary Classical Fraternity.
• May 17 – Army aviation pioneer Major Harold Geiger dies in the crash of his Airco DH.4 de Havilland plane, at Olmsted Field, Pennsylvania.
• May 18 – Bath School disaster: Bombings result in 45 deaths, mostly children, in Bath Township, Michigan.
• May 20–21 – Charles Lindbergh makes the first solo non-stop trans-Atlantic flight, from New York to Paris in the single-seat, single-engine monoplane Spirit of St. Louis.
• May 23 – Nearly 600 members of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the Institute of Radio Engineers view the first live demonstration of television at the Bell Telephone Building in New York.
• June 13 – A ticker-tape parade is held for aviator Charles Lindbergh down Fifth Avenue in New York City.

  July–September

• August 2 – U.S. President Calvin Coolidge announces, "I do not choose to run for president in 1928."
• August 7 – The Peace Bridge opens between Fort Erie, Ontario, and Buffalo, New York.
• August 23 — After six years of appeals, as protests rage in capital cities around the world, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are electrocuted at midnight in Charlestown, Massachusetts.
• August 26 – Paul R. Redfern leaves Brunswick, Georgia, flying his Stinson Detroiter "Port of Brunswick" to attempt a solo non-stop flight to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He later crashes in the Venezuela jungle.
• September 18 – The Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System is formed and goes on the air with 47 radio stations.
• September 29 – 79 are killed and 550 are injured in the East St. Louis Tornado, the 2nd costliest and at least 24th deadliest tornado in U.S. history.

  October–December

• October 6 – The Jazz Singer movie opens in the United States and becomes a huge success, marking the end of the silent film era.
• October 8 – Murderer's Row: The New York Yankees complete a 4-game sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the World Series.
• October 28 – Pan American Airways' first flight takes off from Key West, bound for Havana.
• November 3–4 – Floods devastating Vermont incur the "worst natural disaster in the state's history".
• November 4
• * Frank Heath and his horse Gypsy Queen return to Washington, D.C., having completed a 2-year journey of 11,356 miles to all 48 states.
• * The 7.3 Lompoc earthquake affected the central coast of California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII, causing a tsunami and moderate damage.
• November 10 – Unexplained explosions occur in Canton, Ohio.
• November 13 – The Holland Tunnel opens to traffic as the first Hudson River vehicular tunnel linking New Jersey to New York City.
• November 14 – The Pittsburgh Gasometer Explosion: Three Equitable Gas storage tanks in the North Side of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, explode, killing 26 people and causing damage estimated between contemporary totals of $4 million and $5 million.
• December 2 – Following 19 years of Ford Model T production, the Ford Motor Company unveils the Ford Model A as its new automobile.
• December 15 – Marion Parker, 12, is kidnapped in Los Angeles. Her dismembered body is found on December 19, prompting the largest manhunt to date on the West Coast for her killer, William Edward Hickman, who is arrested on December 22 in Oregon.
• December 17 – The U.S. submarine S-4 is accidentally rammed and sunk by the United States Coast Guard destroyer John Paulding off Provincetown, Massachusetts, killing everyone aboard after several unsuccessful attempts to raise the sub.
• December 27 – Kern and Hammerstein's musical play Show Boat, based on Edna Ferber's novel, opens on Broadway and goes on to become the first great classic of the American musical theatre.

  Undated

• The Voluntary Committee of Lawyers is founded in New York to bring about the repeal of Prohibition of alcohol in United States.

  Ongoing

• Lochner era
• U.S. occupation of Haiti
• Prohibition
• Roaring Twenties

  Births

January

• January 1
• * Vernon L. Smith, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
• * Doak Walker, American football player
• January 2 – Gino Marchetti, American football player
• January 4
• * Lauro Cavazos, American politician and educator
• *Barbara Rush, American actress
• January 5 – Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, American guru and author
• January 10
• * Arthur Kramer, American lawyer
• * Johnnie Ray, American singer, pianist and songwriter
• January 13 – Brock Adams, American politician
• January 15 – Phyllis Coates, American actress
• January 17
• * Thomas Anthony Dooley III, American physician, humanitarian
• * Eartha Kitt, African-American singer, actress, activist, and author
• * Harlan Mathews, American politician
• January 22
• * Lou Creekmur, American football player
• * Joe Perry, African-American football player
• January 23
• * Robert L. Butler, American politician
• * Ernest Hawkins, American football coach
• January 24
• * Paula Hawkins, American politician
• * Marvin Kaplan, American actor
• January 25
• * Marian Brown, American celebrity icon
• * Vivian Brown, American celebrity icon
• * Gregg Palmer, American actor
• January 27
• * Bob DeMoss, American football player
• * Richard Fulton, American politician
• January 28 – Vera Williams, American author and illustrator
• January 31 – Jean Speegle Howard, American actress

  February

• February 1 – Galway Kinnell, American poet
• February 2
• * Stan Getz, American jazz saxophonist
• * Doris Sams, American female professional baseball player
• February 3 – Kenneth Anger, American actor, director and screenwriter
• February 6 – William Gardner Smith, American novelist and journalist
• February 8 – George Taliaferro, American football player
• February 10 – Leontyne Price, African-American soprano
• February 11 – Nalda Bird, American female professional baseball player
• February 12
• * Ann Gillis, American actress
• * Rita Meyer, American female professional baseball player
• * H. M. Wynant, American actor
• February 13 – Buck Hill, American jazz tenor, soprano saxophonist
• February 15 – Harvey Korman, American actor and Comedian
• February 17 – John Selfridge, American mathematician
• February 18 – John Warner, American politician
• February 20
• * Roy Cohn, American lawyer, anti-Communist
• * Sidney Poitier, Bahamian-American actor, film director
• February 21
• * Patricia Benoit, American actress
• * Erma Bombeck, American humorist
• February 22
• * Donald May, American actor
• * Guy Mitchell, American singer and actor
• February 24 – Mark Lane, American conspiracy theorist
• February 25 – Ralph Stanley, American bluegrass banjo player and vocalist
• February 26 – Tom Kennedy, American game show host

  March

• March 1
• * George O. Abell, American astronomer, professor at UCLA, science popularizer, and skeptic
• * Harry Belafonte, Jamaican-American musician, actor, and civil rights activist
• * Robert Bork, American conservative law professor
• March 3 – Harry Whittington, American lawyer, real estate investor and political figure
• March 4
• * Philip Batt, American politician
• * Thayer David, American actor
• * Robert Orben, American comedy writer
• * Dick Savitt, American tennis player
• March 5 – Jack Cassidy, American actor and singer
• March 6
• * William J. Bell, American soap creator
• * Gordon Cooper, American astronaut
• * Mel Groomes, American football player
• March 7 – James Broderick, American actor
• March 8 – Dick Hyman, American composer, pianist
• March 9 – Jackie Jensen, American baseball player
• March 10 – Bill Fischer, American football offensive lineman
• March 11 – Gloria Blackwell, African-American civil rights activist and educator
• March 13 – Robert Denning, American interior designer
• March 15
• * Annastasia Batikis, Greek-American female professional baseball player
• *Aaron Rosand, American violinist
• *Carl Smith, American country music singer
• March 16 – Daniel Patrick Moynihan, American author, politician, and statesman
• March 18 – George Plimpton, American writer and actor
• March 20 – Earlene Risinger, American professional baseball player
• March 29 – John Mclaughlin, American television and radio host
• March 31
• * César Chávez, American labor activist, United Farm Workers founder
• * William Daniels, American actor

  April

• April 1 – Amos Milburn, American R&B singer-songwriter and pianist
• April 2
• * Rita Gam, American actress
• * Ken Sansom, actor, singer, and voice actor
• * Rembert Weakland, American monk
• April 6 – Gerry Mulligan, American musician
• April 10 – Marshall Warren Nirenberg, American biochemist and geneticist
• April 12 – Alvin Sargent, American screenwriter
• April 15 – Robert Mills, American physicist
• April 16
• * John Chamberlain, American sculptor
• * Doris McLemore, linguist Her mother was Wichita and her father was European-American.
• * Peter Mark Richman, American actor
• April 17 – Junior Collins, American-French horn player
• April 18 – Samuel P. Huntington, American political scientist
• April 20 – Phil Hill, American race car driver
• * Anita Darian, American singer, actress
• * Harry Gallatin, American basketballer, coach
• * Jackie Robinson, American Olympic basketball player
• April 26 – Harry Gallatin, American basketball player and coach
• April 27 – Coretta Scott King, African-American civil rights activist
• April 28 – William Lewis Moore, American postal worker
• April 29 – Big Jay McNeely, R&B saxophonist

  May

• May 4 – Hal Hudson, American professional baseball player
• May 5 – Pat Carroll, American actress
• May 10 – Mike Souchak, American golfer
• May 13
• * Fred Hellerman, American folk singer
• * Herbert Ross, American film director
• May 20 – Bud Grant, Canadian and American football coach
• May 21 – Chuck Stewart, American photographer
• May 22 – Michael Constantine, American actor
• May 24 – William Ennis Thomson, American music educator
• May 25 – Robert Ludlum, American novelist
• May 28 – William A. Hilliard, American journalist
• May 30 – Clint Walker, American actor

  June

• June 3 – Boots Randolph, American saxophone player
• June 8 – Jerry Stiller, American actor
• June 9 – George Nigh, American politician
• June 10 – Eugene Parker, American astrophysicist
• June 11 – John W. O'Malley, American Catholic historian, author and Jesuit priest
• June 17
• * Austin Murphy, American politician
• * Wally Wood, American cartoonist
• June 18 – Bud Brown, American politician
• June 19 – John Glenn Beall, Jr., American politician
• June 21 – Carl Stokes, American politician
• June 23 – Bob Fosse, American choreographer
• June 25
• * Gerald Freedman, American theatre director, librettist, lyricist and college dean
• * Chuck Smith, American pastor
• June 27
• * John Barber, American professional basketball player
• * Bobby Myers, American NASCAR driver
• June 28
• * Dick Lane, American professional baseball player
• * Frank Sherwood Rowland, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• June 29
• * Roy Radner, American economist
• * Bert Hubbard, American synchronized swimmer, choreographer and coach
• * Kenneth Snelson, American contemporary sculptor, photographer
• June 30
• * Shirley Fry Irvin, American tennis player
• * Frank McCabe, American basketball player

  July

• July 1
• * Winfield Dunn, American politician
• * Joseph Martin Sartoris, American Catholic prelate
• July 3 – Tim O'Connor, American actor
• July 4 – Neil Simon, American playwright
• July 5
• * Robert E. Jones, American politician and judge
• * Thomas Fleming, American military historian, historical novelist
• July 6
• * Janet Leigh, American actress, singer, dancer, and author
• * Pat Paulsen, American comedian and actor
• July 7
• * Alan Dixon, American politician
• * George C. Lodge, American politician
• * Charlie Louvin, American country singer and songwriter
• * Doc Severinsen, American jazz trumpeter
• July 9
• * Ed Ames, American singer and actor
• * Alma Carlisle, African-American architect and architectural historian
• July 10
• * David Dinkins, African-American Mayor of New York City
• * Jack Kelley, American ice hockey coach
• July 14 – Mike Esposito, American comic book artist
• July 16
• * Mindy Carson, American singer
• * Jules Witcover, American journalist, author, and columnist
• July 18 – Don Bagley, American bassist
• July 19
• * Tom Blake, American football player
• * Billy Gardner, American professional baseball player, coach and manager
• July 20 – Robert Wahl, American football player
• July 21
• * William Liller, American astronomer
• * Dick Smith, American baseball player
• July 24 – Alex Katz, American painter
• July 27
• * Guy Carawan, American folk musician and musicologist
• * Will Jordan, American character actor
• July 28 – John Ashbery, American poet

  August

• August 1 – Warren Wolf, American footballer
• August 4
• * Eddie Kamae, American ukuleleist
• * Johnny Maddox, American pianist
• * Del Shankel, American microbiologist, academic administrator
• * Jess Thomas, American tenor
• August 6 – William D. Ford, American politician
• August 7
• * Rocky Bridges, American middle infielder, third baseman
• * Edwin W. Edwards, American politician
• * Art Houtteman, American baseball player
• * Carl Switzer, American actor
• August 8
• * Johnny Temple, American baseball player
• * Jim Weaver, American politician
• August 9 – Marvin Minsky, American computer scientist
• August 11 – Stuart Rosenberg, American director
• August 12
• * Elgen Long, American aviator, world record holder, author
• * Porter Wagoner, American country singer
• August 15 – Carmela Marie Cristiano, American Roman Catholic nun
• August 17 – F. Ray Keyser Jr., American lawyer, politician
• August 18 – Rosalynn Carter, 39th First Lady of the United States
• August 19
• * Jim Broyhill, American politician
• * L. Q. Jones, American actor
• August 21 – Thomas S. Monson, American religious leader, 16th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• August 23 – Allan Kaprow, American painter and performance artist
• August 24 – Harry Markowitz, American economist
• August 25 – Althea Gibson, African-American tennis player
• August 26 – Sam Massell, American businessman
• August 29
• * A. Ross Eckler Jr., American logologist, statistician and author
• * Jimmy C. Newman, American country singer and songwriter
• August 30
• * Geoffrey Beene, American fashion designer
• * William G. Curlin, American Roman Catholic prelate
• * Bill Daily, American actor and Comedian
• * Buford A. Johnson, African-American World War II pilot

  September

• September 1 – Bob DiPietro, American baseball player
• September 2 – Gene Rhodes, American basketball player and coach
• September 3 – Br. John Hamman S.M., close-up magician, inventor, Marianist brother
• September 4 – John McCarthy, American computer and cognitive scientist
• September 5 – Paul Volcker, American economist, academic
• September 8
• * Marguerite Frank, American-French mathematician
• * Harlan Howard, American country singer, songwriter
• September 9 – Elvin Jones, African-American jazz drummer
• September 11
• * Christine King Farris, African-American civil rights activist
• * G. David Schine, American businessman
• September 15
• * Norm Crosby, American comedian
• * John M. Jacobus Jr., American art historian
• September 16
• * Peter Falk, American actor
• * Jack Kelly, American actor
• September 17 – George Blanda, American football quarterback, placekicker
• September 19
• * Harold Brown, American nuclear physicist, 14th United States Secretary of Defense
• * William Hickey, American actor
• * Nick Massi, American bassist for 'The Four Seasons'
• September 21
• * Owen Aspinall, American attorney and politician
• * Joan Hotchkis, American actress, writer and performance artist
• September 22
• * Kika de la Garza, American politician
• * Tommy Lasorda, American baseball manager
• September 23 – Thomas Vose Daily, American Roman Catholic prelate
• * James W. Symington, American politician
• September 29 – Pete McCloskey, American politician
• September 30 – W. S. Merwin, American poet

  October

• October 1 – Tom Bosley, American actor
• October 5
• * John W. Downey, American composer, conductor, pianist and educator
• * Al Hansen, American artist
• October 6 – Alice Bauer, American golfer
• October 7 – Al Martino, American singer and actor
• October 10 – Dana Elcar, American actor, director
• October 11 – William Perry, American mathematician, engineer and businessman
• October 13 – Lee Konitz, American jazz composer, alto saxophonist
• October 18 – George C. Scott, American actor
• October 19 – Red McCombs, American billionaire
• October 20 – Joyce Brothers, American psychologist
• October 23 – Barron Hilton, American socialite and businessman
• October 24 – Cal Hogue, American baseball player
• October 25
• * William Acker, American judge
• * Barbara Cook, American soprano musical singer
• October 27 – Dominick Argento, American composer and educator
• October 29 – William Cousins, American judge

  November

• November 2 – Steve Ditko, American comic book artist
• November 3 – Peggy McCay, American actress
• November 4 – Bobby Breen, Canadian-born American actor and singer
• November 5 – Howard Terpning, American painter and illustrator
• November 8 – Patti Page, American singer
• November 11 – Mose Allison, American jazz and blues pianist and singer-songwriter
• November 12 – Jack Butler, American football player
• November 13 – John Pont, American football player and coach
• November 14
• * Betty Brewer, American actress
• * McLean Stevenson, American actor
• November 16 – Barbara Payton, American actress
• November 17 – Lynn Stalmaster, American casting director
• November 18
• * Hank Ballard, American musician
• * Lawrence Moss, American composer
• November 19 – John Hulett, African American civil rights activist
• November 20 – Estelle Parsons, American actress
• November 21
• * Georgia Frontiere, American co-owner of the Los Angeles/St. Louis Rams
• * Gordon Christian, American ice hockey player
• November 23 – Guy Davenport, American writer and graphic artist
• November 26
• * John Carter, American actor
• * Ernie Coombs, American-Canadian entertainer
• November 27
• * William E. Simon, American businessman, 63rd Secretary of the Treasury
• * José de Jesús Madera Uribe, American Roman Catholic bishop
• November 29
• * Rupert Crosse, African-American actor
• * Vin Scully, American baseball broadcaster
• November 30 – Robert Guillaume, African-American actor and singer

  December

• December 3 – Andy Williams, American singer
• December 8 – Ferdie Pacheco, American physician and author
• December 10 – Bob Farrell, American motivational speaker, author, and founder of Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour and Restaurant
• December 12 – Robert Noyce, American co-founder of Intel
• December 13 – James Wright, American poet
• December 14 – Hershel McGriff, American stock car racing driver
• December 18 – Ramsey Clark, American politician, lawyer
• December 20 – Charlie Callas, American comedian, singer
• December 23 – Edith Irby Jones, African-American physician
• December 24 – Mary Higgins Clark, American novelist
• December 25
• * Nellie Fox, American baseball player
• * Leo Kubiak, American basketball player
• December 26 – Alan King, American actor, comedian
• December 27 – Genevieve Audrey Wagner, American professional baseball player, physician
• December 29 – Andy Stanfield, American athlete

  Deaths

• January 26 – Lyman J. Gage, financier and Presidential Cabinet Officer
• February 7 – Walter Guion, U.S. Senator from Louisiana in 1918
• February 25 – David Baird, U.S. Senator from New Jersey from 1918 to 1919
• March 11 – August Paulsen, Danish-American businessman and philanthropist
• May 23 - Henry E. Huntington, railroad magnate
• June 9 - Victoria Woodhull, American leader of the woman's suffrage movement
• June 15 – William Joseph Deboe, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1897 to 1903
• August 15 – B. B. Comer, 33rd Governor of Alabama from 1907 to 1911 and U.S. Senator from Alabama in 1920
• September 20 – George Nichols, American actor and director
• September 30 – Charles Kilpatrick, one-legged trick cyclist
• December 3 – Orrin Dubbs Bleakley, U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania
• December 18 – Nicholas Fessenden, politician