At A Glance

27 May 1978 at a glance

Day of the week
27 May 1978 was a Saturday.
UK Number One
The UK Number One single was “Rivers of Babylon / Brown Girl in the Ring” by Boney M..
Top Film of 1978
The highest-grossing film worldwide released in 1978 was Grease.
Star sign
The star sign for 27 May is Gemini.
Chinese zodiac
In the Chinese zodiac, 27 May 1978 fell in the Year of the Horse.
Birthstone
The birthstone for May is Emerald.
Moon phase
The moon phase on 27 May 1978 was Waning Gibbous.

On this day: 27 May

  • 1962 The Centralia mine fire is ignited in the town's landfill above a coal mine.
  • 1967 Australians vote in favor of a constitutional referendum granting the Australian government the power to make laws to benefit Indigenous Australians and to count them in the national census.
  • 1967 The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy is launched by Jacqueline Kennedy and her daughter Caroline.
  • 1984 The Danube–Black Sea Canal is opened, in a ceremony attended by the Ceaușescus. It had been under construction since the 1950s.
  • 1988 Somaliland War of Independence: The Somali National Movement launches a major offensive against Somali government forces in Hargeisa and Burao, then the second- and third-largest cities of Somalia.

Famous people born on 27 May

  • Christopher Lee, English actor (1922–2015)
  • Paul Bettany, English actor (born 1971)
  • Henry Kissinger, German-American political scientist and politician, 56th United States Secretary of State, Nobel Prize laureate (1923–2023)
  • João Cancelo, Portuguese footballer (born 1994)

Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Choose your country: the charts, news and leaders change to match.

Events of 1978 in the United Kingdom

A selection from Wikipedia's '1978 in the United Kingdom'. Not a complete list.

  • 11 January – A North Sea storm surge ruins four piers in the UK: Herne Bay, Margate, Hunstanton and Skegness.
  • 9 February – Gordon McQueen, 25-year-old Scotland central defender, becomes Britain's first £500,000 footballer in a transfer from Leeds United to Manchester United.
  • 8 March – The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy first broadcast by BBC Radio 4.
More events of 1978 →Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Life in 1978

Prime Minister

James Callaghan

Monarch

Elizabeth II

Pint of Beer

34p

Loaf of Bread

24p

Average House

£15,590

Weekly Wage

£88.00

Or

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Famous Faces Born in the 1970s

Well-known people born in the same decade as you, not on your birthday.

Matthew Rhys8 November 1974ActorView their day →Hannah Waddingham28 July 1974ActressView their day →Andy Burnham7 January 1970PoliticianView their day →Christopher Nolan30 July 1970FilmmakerView their day →Lucy Davis17 February 1973ActressView their day →Tom Hardy15 September 1977ActorView their day →Christian Bale30 January 1974ActorView their day →Kelly Macdonald23 February 1976ActressView their day →

Sources: Wikidata and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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