Today in History

On Jan. 27, 1945, during World War II, Soviet troops liberated the Nazi concentration camps Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland.

Also on this date:

In 1756, composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria.

In 1880, Thomas Edison received a patent for his electric incandescent lamp.

In 1967, astronauts Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee died in a flash fire during a test aboard their Apollo spacecraft at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

In 1973, the Vietnam peace accords were signed in Paris, ending direct U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

In 1984, singer Michael Jackson suffered serious burns to his scalp when pyrotechnics set his hair on fire during the filming of a Pepsi-Cola TV commercial at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

In 2013, a fire started by pyrotechnics in the Kiss nightclub in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, killed 242 people and injured over 600.

In 2017, President Donald Trump barred all refugees from entering the United States for four months, declaring the ban necessary to prevent “radical Islamic terrorists” from entering the country.

Today’s birthdays: Actor James Cromwell is 85. Rock musician Nick Mason (Pink Floyd) is 81. Ballet star Mikhail Baryshnikov is 77. U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is 70. Political and sports commentator Keith Olbermann is 66. Actor Bridget Fonda is 61. Actor Alan Cumming is 60. Country singer Tracy Lawrence is 57. Rock singer Mike Patton is 57. Rapper Tricky is 57. Actor-comedian Patton Oswalt is 56.