Today in History: October 27, ‘Curse of the Bambino’ reversed

Today is Monday, Oct. 27, the 300th day of 2025. There are 65 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Oct. 27, 2004, the Boston Red Sox won their first World Series since 1918, sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals in four games. The team’s 86-year championship drought was known as the “Curse of the Bambino.”

Also on this date:

In 1787, the first of the Federalist Papers, a series of essays calling for ratification of the United States Constitution, was published.

In 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a U-2 reconnaissance aircraft was shot down while flying over Cuba, killing the pilot, U.S. Air Force Maj. Rudolf Anderson Jr.

In 1995, a sniper killed one soldier and wounded 18 others during an outdoor physical training session at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. (Paratrooper William J. Kreutzer was convicted in the shootings and condemned to death; the sentence was later commuted to life in prison.)

In 1998, powerful Hurricane Mitch cut through the western Caribbean, pummeling coastal Honduras and Belize; the storm caused several thousand deaths in Central America before eventually making U.S. landfall in southwest Florida as a tropical storm.

In 2018, a gunman shot and killed 11 congregants and wounded six others at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in the deadliest domestic attack on Jews in U.S. history; authorities said the suspect, Robert Bowers, raged against Jews during and after the rampage. (Bowers was convicted and sentenced to death in 2023.)

In 2019, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi died by detonating a suicide vest as U.S. special forces raided his compound in northwest Syria. He once commanded tens of thousands of fighters who had carved out a territorial caliphate for a time in parts of Syria and Iraq and carried out a wave of atrocities.

In 2023, Israel knocked out communications and created a near-blackout of information with stepped-up bombardment and artillery fire in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military said it was expanding ground operations in the territory ahead of a planned invasion as it sought to crush the ruling Hamas militant group after its Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack and hostage-taking in southern Israel.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Actor-comedian John Cleese is 86.
• Author Maxine Hong Kingston is 85.
• Country singer Lee Greenwood is 83.
• Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is 80.
• Author Fran Lebowitz is 75.
• Actor-director Roberto Benigni is 73.
• Golf Hall of Famer Patty Sheehan is 69.
• Singer Simon Le Bon (Duran Duran) is 67.
• Internet news editor Matt Drudge is 59.
• Author Anthony Doerr is 52.
• Violinist Vanessa-Mae is 47.
• TV personality Kelly Osbourne is 41.