Today in History, January 27, 1945: Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau liberated

Associated Press

A group of children at Auschwitz just after its liberation in January 1945 by the Russian army. More than 1.5 million people died at Auschwitz during the Nazi regime.

Today is Jan. 27. On this date:

1756

Composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria.

1832

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who wrote “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” under the pen name Lewis Carroll, was born in Cheshire, England.

1880

Thomas Edison received a patent for his electric incandescent lamp.

1943

Some 50 bombers struck Wilhelmshaven in the first all-American air raid against Germany during World War II.

1945

During World War II, Soviet troops liberated the Nazi concentration camps Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland.

Auschwitz liberation day. The Russian military photographer asked the children to display their tattoos. On the far left is 6-year-old Tova Friedman.

1951

An era of atomic testing in the Nevada desert began as an Air Force plane dropped a 1-kiloton bomb on Frenchman Flat.

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.

Astronauts Virgil "Gus" Grissom, left, and Roger Chaffee, right, and University of Michigan grad Edward White II pose next to their Saturn 1 launch vehicle on Jan. 17, 1967.

1967

More than 60 nations signed a treaty banning the deploying of nuclear weapons in outer space.

1973

The Vietnam peace accords were signed in Paris.

1977

The Vatican issued a declaration reaffirming the Roman Catholic Church's ban on female priests.

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.

1998

First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, on NBC’s “Today” show, charged the sexual misconduct allegations against her husband, President Bill Clinton, were the work of a “vast right-wing conspiracy.”

2016

The Ferguson, Missouri, Police Department agreed to overhaul its policies, training and practices as part of a sweeping deal with the Justice Department following the 2014 fatal police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown.