Commentaries by Peter J. Brann

The Mexican army executed more than 400 Texian prisoners of war on March 27, 1836, during the Texas Revolution, in an event that would become known as the Goliad Massacre. A decree passed in December 1835 allowed Mexican soldiers under General Antonio López de Santa Anna to shoot any foreigners in rebellion. Texian Colonel James Fannin and his men surrendered to the Mexican government under the expectation that they would be treated as prisoners of war, but they were executed regardless, engendering sympathy (and eventual support) from the neighboring United States. Learn more about the Goliad Massacre.

On March 27, 1958, Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev became the new Premier of the USSR, replacing Joseph Stalin as the Soviet leader. During his rise to power, Khruschev denounced crimes of the Stalinist regime and the "cult of personality" surrounding his predecessor. While in office as Soviet Premier, Khruschev oversaw some of the most famous and influential events of the Cold War: the launch of Sputnik, the Sino-Soviet split, the U-2 Spy Plan incident, and finally the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1963, which led to his ouster by reactionary elements the following year. The conspirators forced Khruschev's resignation on October 15, 1964 and replaced him with Leonid Brezhnev.

Read the New York Times obituary of Nikita Khrushchev.

On March 27, 1866, President Andrew Johnson vetoed a civil rights bill that would later become the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, conferring full US citizenship on all slaves. Read President Johnson's veto letter, transmitted to the US Senate.