Reuters historical calendar - January 27

London, Jan 26 (Reuters) Following are some of the major events to have occurred on January 27 in history: 1901 - Giuseppe Verdi, Italian composer of operas including ''Rigoletto'', ''La Traviata'' and ''Aida'', died.

1926 - John Logie Baird gave the first public demonstration of television in London.

1944 - Soviet General Leonid Govorov announced the complete lifting of the German siege of Leningrad during World War Two.

1945 - Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz concentration camp, where the Nazis had murdered 1.5 million men, women and children, including more than one million Jews.

1967 - Three U.S. astronauts died in a flash fire aboard Apollo 1 during a simulated launch at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

1973 - A ceasefire agreement signed in Paris ended the U.S.

military role in Vietnam.

1991 - Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre fled after rebels overran his palace and captured the capital Mogadishu.

1996 - The military seized power in Niger, ousting its first democratically elected president, Mahamane Ousmane.

2002 - More than 1,000 people were killed and thousands made homeless after multiple explosions at a Nigerian munitions dump in Lagos triggered by an accidental fire caused mass panic.

2003 - Serbia's parliament adopted an accord to ditch the Yugoslav federation in favour of a loose union to be known as Serbia and Montenegro.

2005 - World leaders and survivors gathered in Poland for the 60th anniversary ceremony of the liberation of the Nazi death camp in Auschwitz.

2006 - Former German President Johannes Rau, a prominent figure in post-war German politics, died. He was 75.

REUTERS PDM KP1036