Events January January 1 – The British Broadcasting Company becomes the British Broadcasting Corporation, when its Royal Charter of incorporation takes effect. John Reith becomes the first Director-General. January 7 The first transatlantic telephone call is made via radio from New York City, United States, to London, United Kingdom. The Harlem Globetrotters exhibition basketball team play their first ever road game in Hinckley, Illinois. January 9 – The Laurier Palace Theatre fire at a movie theatre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, kills 78 children. January 10 – Fritz Lang's futuristic film Metropolis is released in Germany. January 11 – Louis B. Mayer, head of film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), announces the creation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, at a banquet in Los Angeles, California. January 19 – Great Britain sends troops to China to protect foreign nationals from spreading anti-foreign riots in central China. January 24 – U.S. Marines invade Nicaragua by orders of President Calvin Coolidge, intervening in the Nicaraguan Civil War, and remaining in the country until 1933. February February – Werner Heisenberg formulates his famous uncertainty principle, while employed as a lecturer at Niels Bohr's Institute for Theoretical Physics, at the University of Copenhagen. February 7 – A attempted military coup in Lisbon, Portugal, is successfully put down. February 12 – British troops land in Shanghai as a result of UK government concerns about the safety of residents in the British settlement. February 14 – A magnitude 6.1 earthquake, with a maximum MSK intensity of VII–VIII (Very strong – Damaging), kills 50 in Yugoslavia. February 19 A general strike takes place in Shanghai in protest against the presence of British troops. In the United States, the silent romantic comedy film It starring Clara Bow, is released, popularising the concept of the "It girl". February 23 – The U.S. Federal Radio Commission (later renamed the Federal Communications Commission) begins to regulate the use of radio frequencies. March March 4 – A diamond rush in South Africa includes trained athletes, who have been hired by major companies to stake claims. March 7 – 1927 Kita Tango earthquake: A 7.0 earthquake kills at least 2,925 in the Toyooka and Mineyama areas of western Honshu, in Japan. March 11 – In New York City, the Roxy Theatre is opened by Samuel Roxy Rothafel. March 14 – Pan American World Airways is founded by Juan T. Trippe. March 24 –