Today in History: October 27, ‘Curse of the Bambino’ reversed
Today is Monday, October 27, the 300th day of the year 2025. There are 65 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On October 27, 2004, the Boston Red Sox won their first World Series since 1918, sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals in four games. The team’s 86-year championship drought was known as the “Curse of the Bambino.”
Also on this date:
In 1787, the first of the Federalist Papers, a series of essays calling for ratification of the United States Constitution, was published.
In 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a U-2 reconnaissance plane was shot down while flying over Cuba, killing the pilot, U.S. Air Force Major Rudolf Anderson Jr.
In 1995, a sniper killed a soldier and wounded 18 others during an outdoor physical training session at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. (Paratrooper William J. Kreutzer was convicted of the shooting and sentenced to death; the sentence was later commuted to life in prison.)
In 1998, powerful Hurricane Mitch crossed the western Caribbean, striking the coasts of Honduras and Belize; the storm caused several thousand deaths in Central America before finally making landfall in the United States in southwest Florida as a tropical storm.
In 2018, a gunman shot and killed 11 worshipers and injured six others at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue, in the deadliest domestic attack on Jews in U.S. history; Authorities said the suspect, Robert Bowers, was furious with Jews during and after the carnage. (Bowers was convicted and sentenced to death in 2023.)
In 2019, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi died when he detonated a suicide vest during a US special forces raid on his compound in northwest Syria. He once commanded tens of thousands of fighters who for a time established a territorial caliphate in parts of Syria and Iraq and carried out a wave of atrocities.
In 2023, Israel cut communications and created a virtual information blackout by intensifying bombings and artillery fire in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military said it was expanding its ground operations in the territory ahead of a planned invasion as it seeks to crush the ruling Hamas militant group following its October 7, 2023, surprise attack and hostage-taking in southern Israel.
Today’s birthdays:
- Actor-comedian John Cleese is 86 years old.
- Author Maxine Hong Kingston is 85 years old.
- Country singer Lee Greenwood is 83 years old.
- Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is 80 years old.
- Author Fran Lebowitz is 75 years old.
- Actor-director Roberto Benigni is 73 years old.
- Golf Hall of Famer Patty Sheehan is 69 years old.
- Singer Simon Le Bon (Duran Duran) is 67 years old.
- Internet news editor Matt Drudge is 59 years old.
- Author Anthony Doerr is 52 years old.
- Violinist Vanessa-Mae is 47 years old.
- Television personality Kelly Osbourne is 41 years old.
