Reuters historical calendar - October 27

London, Oct 26 (Reuters) Following are some of the major events to have occurred on October 27 since 1900: 1900 - After four years of work, the first section of the New- York subway was opened.

1901 - The first known use of a ''getaway car'' occurred in Paris when thieves drove off after holding up a shop.

1918 - In Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm II accepted the resignation of General Erich Ludendorff after the failure of his offensive on the Western Front.

1922 - The Italian government resigned under increasing pressure from the fascist movement of Benito Mussolini.

1961 - Mongolia and Mauritania were admitted as members of the United Nations.

1966 - The UN General Assembly voted to end South Africa's mandate over South West Africa.

1971 - The government of Congo announced that the country would change its name to the Republic of Zaire.

1978 - Menachem Begin of Israel and Anwar Sadat of Egypt were named winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.

1979 - St Vincent and the Grenadines became independent of Britain.

1980 - The first total Internet crash took place in its earliest days when the US defence department's prototype Internet - ARPANET - caught a virus.

1986 - In what traders called the ''Big Bang'', the London Stock Exchange introduced computerised dealing and ended many controls.

1987 - A referendum in South Korea approved constitutional reforms, including direct elections to the presidency.

1990 - New Zealand's voters ousted the Labour Party of Mike Moore giving the National Party under James Bolger the biggest election victory in more than 50 years.

1990 - Bandleader Xavier Cugat, the ''Rumba King'' of the 1930s and 40s who played a major role in popularising Latin American music, died aged 90.

1991 - Turkmenistan's Supreme Soviet passed a law establishing independence from the Soviet Union.

1995 - A court in Milan sentenced two former Italian prime ministers, Bettino Craxi and Arnaldo Forlani, to jail terms on corruption charges.

1998 - Gerhard Schroeder was sworn in as German chancellor the day after Helmut Kohl stepped down.

1999 - The dress that Marilyn Monroe wore to sing ''Happy Birthday, Mr President'' to President John F Kennedy was sold for 1,267,500 dollars - a record for an item of clothing at auction.

2002 - Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won an historic victory in presidential elections making him the first elected leftist to occupy Brazil's Palacio de Planalto presidential palace.

2004 - Natural disasters killed 76,806 people in 2003, three times the number of victims in 2002, a rise due in part to extremes in the global climate, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said.

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