Today in history—April 27

399 BC: Socrates commits suicide by drinking a cup of hemlock.

1565: The first Spanish settlement in the Philippines is established at Cebu, which the Spanish call San Miguel and, later, La Villa del Santissimo Nombre de Jesus).

1667: Hitherto unsuccessful writer John Milton, not long out of prison, sells the copyright to his new poem, Paradise Lost, for £10, or about £1,000 in 2002 pounds. He’ll make more money off the sequel, Paradise Regained.

1737: Historian Edward Gibbon is born Putney-on-Thames, near London, England. He once said that he could recall only 14 really happy days in his entire lifetime.

1773: Hoping to keep the British East India Company afloat, the the British Parliament passes the Tea Act, which gives it a (short-lived) monopoly on the North American tea trade.

1813: American troops capture Fort York and the town of York (now Toronto), the capital of Upper Canada. They subsequently destroy the fort and all government buildings. The British will return the favor the next year in Washington, D.C.

1861: President Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.

1954: A Christmas classic is born with the premiere of White Christmas, starring Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Danny Kaye, and Vera-Ellen.  The film didn’t introduce the eponymous song; that was first heard in 1942 in Holiday Inn.

1967: Expo ’67, part of the great World’s Fair craze of the Sixties, opens in Montreal, Quebec.

1981: Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center introduces the first practical computer mouse.