Benedict XVI was born on 16 April 1927 in Birth house of Benedict XVI. A German theologian, Joseph Ratzinger was ordained a priest in 1951 and became a professor and an adviser at the Second Vatican Council. As archbishop of Munich and then for more than two decades as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he was a leading defender of Catholic orthodoxy. He was elected pope in April 2005 after the death of John Paul II and wrote encyclicals on love and hope. His papacy was troubled by the sexual abuse scandals and by internal affairs at the Vatican. In February 2013 he resigned, the first pope to do so in almost six hundred years, and lived as pope emeritus until his death.
Before and after
- from c. 1927 to 1930Leonard Woolley excavates the Royal Cemetery of Ur
- 20 February 1927Birth of Sidney Poitier
- 6 March 1927Birth of Gabriel García Márquez
- 12 April 1927Shanghai massacre of 1927
- 16 April 1927Birth of Benedict XVI
- 7 May 1927Construction of San Francisco International Airport
- 21 May 1927Lindbergh flies the Atlantic alone
- 7 June 1927Founding of AS Roma
- from 1 August 1927 to 1 May 1950Chinese Civil War
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The era
This moment belongs to the Modern era (1914 CE to 1945 CE), world wars and a changing world. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.