Portal:University of Oxford/On this day/December 27

Births

• 1793 – George Spencer-Churchill, 6th Duke of Marlborough (Christ Church), politician
• 1855 – George Byron, 9th Baron Byron (Christ Church), army officer
• 1859 – Sir William Henry Hadow (Worcester), musicologist and academic
• 1865 – Richard Ellis (Jesus), Welsh librarian
• 1869 – Henry St John Stirling Woollcombe (Keble), Bishop of Whitby 1923–1939
• 1898 – W. C. Sellar (Oriel), humorist and co-author of 1066 and All That
• 1902 – Nowell Myres (New College and Christ Church), archeologist and Bodley's Librarian 1948–1965
• 1903 – Edith Bülbring, German pharmacologist
• 1915 – Lionel Cooper (Queen's), South African mathematician
• 1919 – Brinley Rees (Merton and Jesus), Welsh classical scholar and academic
• 1920 – Richard Nolte, American diplomat
• 1930 – Wilfrid Sheed, American novelist
• 1936 – Hugh James Arbuthnott (New College), diplomat
• 1946 – Polly Toynbee (St Anne's), journalist
• 1962 – John Kampfner (Queen's), journalist

Deaths

• 1615 – John Fenn (New College), Catholic priest and writer
• 1784 – Edward Wynne (Jesus), lawyer
• 1904 – Gerald Yonge, cricketer
• 1972 – Lester B. Pearson (St John's), Prime Minister of Canada 1963–1968
• 1986 – George Dangerfield (Hertford), journalist and historian
• 2001 – Ian Hamilton (Keble), poet and critic
• 2006 – Marmaduke Hussey, Baron Hussey of North Bradley (Trinity), Chairman of the Board of Governors of the BBC 1986–1996
• 2007 – Benazir Bhutto (Lady Margaret Hall and St Catherine's), former Prime Minister of Pakistan, is assassinated after a political rally.