From Historynet: Today in History February 27

425             Theodosius II  effectively founds a university in Constantinople.

1531          German Protestants form the League of Schmalkalden to resist the power of the emperor.

1700          The Pacific Island of New Britain is discovered.

1814          Napoleon's Marshal Nicholas Oudinot  is pushed back at Barsur-Aube by the Emperor's allied enemies shortly before his abdication.

1827          The first Mardi-Gras celebration is held in New Orleans.

1864          The first Union prisoners arrive at Andersonville Prison in Georgia.

1865          Confederate raider William Quantrill  and his bushwackers attack Hickman, Kentucky, shooting women and children.

1905          The Japanese push Russians back in Manchuria and cross the Sha River.

1908          The forty-sixth star is added to the U.S. flag, signifying Oklahoma's admission to statehood.

1920          The United States rejects a Soviet peace offer as propaganda.

1925          Glacier Bay National Monument is dedicated in Alaska.

1933          The burning down of the Reichstag building in Berlin gives the Nazis the opportunity to suspend personal liberty with increased power.

1939          The Supreme Court outlaws sit-down strikes.

1942          British Commandos raid a German radar station at Bruneval on the French coast.

1953          F-84 Thunderjets raid North Korean base on Yalu River.

1962          South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem  is unharmed as two planes bomb the presidential palace in Saigon.

1963          The Soviet Union says that 10,000 troops will remain in Cuba.

1969          Thousands of students protest 

President Richard Nixon's  arrival in Rome.

1973          U.S. Supreme Court rules that a Virginia pool club can't bar residents because of color.

1988          Debi Thomas  becomes the first African American to win a medal at the Winter Olympics.

1991          Coalition forces liberate Kuwait after seven months of occupation by the Iraqi army.