World History · Daily chronology

William’s Crossing, Champollion and the Tripartite Pact: September 27 Across the Centuries

Seven turning points connect medieval conquest, a new Catholic order, Mexican independence, the recovery of ancient Egyptian writing, Axis diplomacy, Afghanistan’s civil war and China’s first spacewalk.

Published Sunday, September 27, 2026 at 8:14 a.m. America/New_York · Approximately 10 minutes

The Rosetta Stone displayed at the British Museum — The Rosetta Stone helped scholars compare Egyptian hieroglyphic and demotic writing with Greek; Champollion used such evidence to demonstrate phonetic values in hieroglyphs. Hans Hillewaert / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Chronology note: No securely attested September 27 event was identified for ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Bronze Age, classical Greece, Rome or late antiquity. Modern civil-calendar dates cannot responsibly be projected onto many ancient records. Champollion’s 1822 announcement concerns the modern decipherment of Egyptian writing; it is not presented as an ancient Egyptian event.

1066 · Normandy and England

William’s invasion fleet sails across the Channel

After weeks of contrary winds, William, duke of Normandy, sailed from Saint-Valery-sur-Somme on September 27, 1066. His fleet crossed overnight and landed at Pevensey the next morning. The expedition followed a succession crisis after Edward the Confessor’s death and William’s claim that Harold Godwinson had usurped a promised crown. Harold had just fought a Norwegian invasion in northern England; William’s arrival forced another rapid march. Victory at Hastings on October 14 made the crossing the opening movement of the Norman Conquest, which reshaped English landholding, government, aristocratic culture and language.

1540 · Rome

Pope Paul III formally approves the Society of Jesus

Paul III promulgated the bull Regimini militantis ecclesiae on September 27, 1540, recognizing Ignatius of Loyola and his companions as a religious order. The Society of Jesus emerged amid Catholic reform and the upheavals of the Protestant Reformation. Its members emphasized disciplined education, missionary work and direct service to the papacy. Jesuit schools and missions later linked Europe with Asia, Africa and the Americas, making the order a major institution of early modern religion, scholarship and cross-cultural encounter—often alongside imperial expansion and conflict.

1821 · Mexico

The Army of the Three Guarantees enters Mexico City

Agustín de Iturbide led the Army of the Three Guarantees into Mexico City on September 27, 1821, consummating independence after eleven years of insurgency and counterinsurgency. The army’s name referred to the Plan of Iguala’s promises of religion, independence and union. The following day, a governing junta signed the Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire. The entry ended Spanish rule in most of New Spain, but it did not settle the new country’s political order: Iturbide’s monarchy proved brief, and disputes over federalism, executive power and the place of the church continued.

1822 · Paris and ancient Egypt

Champollion presents a phonetic key to hieroglyphs

Jean-François Champollion presented his Lettre à M. Dacier to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres on September 27, 1822. Comparing royal names and scripts—including evidence made possible by the Rosetta Stone—he argued that Egyptian hieroglyphs used phonetic signs as well as symbolic ones. This was a breakthrough, not an instantaneous or solitary reading of the entire ancient language: Champollion extended earlier work by scholars including Thomas Young and refined his system in later publications. The method opened large bodies of Egyptian inscriptions to systematic historical study and helped establish Egyptology as a modern discipline.

1940 · Berlin

Germany, Italy and Japan sign the Tripartite Pact

Representatives of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan signed the Tripartite Pact in Berlin on September 27, 1940. The treaty recognized German and Italian leadership in a projected “new order” in Europe and Japan’s in East Asia, while promising mutual assistance if a signatory was attacked by a power not already at war with it. That provision was chiefly intended to deter the United States. The pact formalized the three principal Axis powers, though their military strategies remained only loosely coordinated and their wars had distinct origins and objectives.

1996 · Afghanistan

The Taliban captures Kabul

Taliban forces entered Kabul in the early hours of September 27, 1996, encountering little visible resistance after forces loyal to President Burhanuddin Rabbani and Ahmad Shah Massoud withdrew. Fighters seized and killed former president Mohammad Najibullah, who had taken refuge in a United Nations compound. The capture gave the Taliban control of the capital and enabled it to proclaim an Islamic emirate, but it did not end Afghanistan’s civil war. Opposition forces retained territory in the north, while the new authorities imposed sweeping restrictions, especially on women and girls.

2008 · Low Earth orbit

Zhai Zhigang conducts China’s first spacewalk

On September 27, 2008, Shenzhou 7 commander Zhai Zhigang left the spacecraft wearing a Chinese-developed Feitian suit while crewmate Liu Boming assisted from the hatch. The short extravehicular activity made China the third country to independently master the essential technology of a spacewalk, after the Soviet Union and the United States. Beyond its symbolic force, the mission tested suits, airlock procedures and in-orbit operations needed for later construction and maintenance of China’s space stations.

Across the centuries

Crossings change history only when institutions follow

A Channel crossing became conquest because William could turn military victory into a new ruling order. The Jesuits converted papal recognition into schools and missions; Mexican independence required a government after the army’s entry; Champollion’s insight became a durable method through publication and testing. The Tripartite Pact, Taliban rule in Kabul and China’s spacewalk likewise joined symbolic moments to institutions of power. September 27 repeatedly shows that an arrival, signature or demonstration matters most through what people build—or impose—afterward.

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