January 27

International Holocause Remembrance Day

International Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, is the first universal memorial day for the victims of the Holocaust. It was designated by the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 60/7 on 1 November 2005 during the 42nd plenary session. On 24 January 2005, during a special session, the United Nations General Assembly marked the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps and the end of the Holocaust which resulted in the annihilation of 6 million European Jews and millions of others by the Nazi regime.

January 27 is the date, in 1945, when the largest Nazi death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau (Poland), was liberated by Soviet troops.

Prior to the 60/7 resolution, there had been national days of commemoration, such as Germany's Tag des Gedenkens an die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus (The Day of remembrance for the victims of National Socialism), established in a proclamation issued by Federal President Roman Herzog on 3 January 1996; and the Holocaust memorial day observed every 27 January since 2001 in the UK

Events January 27
447 – The Walls of Constantinople are severely damaged by an earthquake, destroying large parts of the wall, including 57 towers.
1785 – The University of Georgia is founded, the first public university in the United States.
1967 – Astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee are killed in a fire during a test of their Apollo 1 spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
1967 – The United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union sign the Outer Space Treaty in Washington, D.C., banning deployment of nuclear weapons in space, and limiting use of the Moon and other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes.
1996 – Germany first observes International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
2002 – An explosion at a military storage facility in Lagos, Nigeria, kills at least 1,100 people and displaces over 20,000 others.

For details, contact Datacentre