On This Day (February 27)

[MSFixR]

1594 – The King of Navarre was crowned King Henry IV of France at the Cathedral of Chartres near Paris, beginning the Bourbon dynasty.
1801 – Washington, D.C., a new planned city and capital of the United States, was placed under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress.
1887 - Alexander Borodin, Russian composer and chemist died. (b. 1833)

Polovtsian dances from Prince Igor

1933 – The Reichstag building in Berlin, the assembly location of the German Parliament, was set on fire (pictured), a pivotal event in the establishment of the Nazi regime in Germany.

1935 - Mirella Freni, Italian soprano born. (The most astounding Madame Butterfly I've ever heard.)
1936 - Ivan Pavlov, Russian physiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine died. (b. 1849) (Pavlov is widely known for first describing the phenomenon of classical conditioning.)
1940 – American biochemists Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discovered the radioactive isotope carbon-14, which today is used extensively as the basis of the radiocarbon dating method to date archaeological, geological, and hydrogeological samples.
1976 – The rebel movement Polisario Front proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in Western Sahara.