On this day - 27th May

1647   Achsah Young, a resident of Windsor, CT, was executed for being a "witch." It was the first recorded American execution of a "witch."

1907   The Bubonic Plague broke out in San Francisco.

1931   Piccard and Knipfer made the first flight into the stratosphere, by balloon

1941   The German battleship Bismarck was sunk by British naval and air forces. 2,300 people were killed

1985   In Beijing, representatives of Britain and China exchanged instruments of ratification on the pact returning Hong Kong to the Chinese in 1997

1996   Russian President Boris Yeltsin negotiated a cease-fire to the war in Chechnya in his first meeting with the leader of the rebels