This Day in History: 0000-02-27

27 Feb – US patent awarded to the drug and dye firm Bayer for the new pain killer, acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), popularly known as aspirin (1900).
27 Feb – A fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy under Takeo Takagi devastated a combined American, British, Dutch and Australian (ABDA) task force, sinking two Dutch light cruisers, in the Battle of the Java Sea (1942).