Template:On This Day (nonfiction)/May 27
From Gnomon Chronicles
1610: Factotum and regicide François Ravaillac executed.
1897: Physicist, academic, and Nobel Prize laureate John Cockcroft born. He will be instrumental in the development of nuclear power.
1931: Physicist and explorer Auguste Piccard and his assistant Paul Kipfer take off from Augsburg, Germany in their high-altitude balloon, reaching a record altitude of 15,781 m (51,775 ft). During the flight, Piccard gathers data on the upper atmosphere, including cosmic ray measurements.
