27th April
1124 – David I became King of Scotland.
1296 – The Scots were defeated by Edward I of England at the Battle of Dunbar.
1667 – The blind and impoverished John Milton sold the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10.
1773 – The Parliament of Great Britain passed the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade. They were not a Fair Trade company.
1791 – Samuel Finley Breese Morse, the inventor of the Morse code, was born.
1840 – The foundation stone for new Palace of Westminster, London, was laid.
1992 – Betty Boothroyd became the first woman to be elected Speaker of the British House of Commons in its 700-year history.