Earthquake Measuring 6.5 Hits Off Tonga, USGS Says; No Tsunami

June 27 (Bloomberg) -- A magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck off Tonga in the Pacific Ocean at about 10:19 a.m. local time today, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site. The earthquake was located 200 kilometers (125 miles) east- northeast of Nuku'alofa in Tonga and 2,130 kilometers northeast of Auckland, New Zealand, the USGS said. The temblor was 20 kilometers deep. There were no immediate reports of damage and no tsunami alert was issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

Today in History - June 27

Today is June 27, 2008. It is the 178th day of the year. There are 187 days remaining until the end of the year. Important event on this day: On June 27, 1995, US space shuttle STS-71 blasted off in space to dock with the Russian space station Mir. It became the first shuttle to dock with Mir, and the first to conduct a Mir main expedition crew exchange. Aside from five American astronauts who conducted separate research in the Spacelab attached to the shuttle, on board were the Mir Expedition EO-19 crew of Budarin and Solovyov. Other events on this day: In 1693: The first women's magazine, The Ladies' Mercury, was published by John Dunton in London. In 1703: After winning access to the Baltic Sea through his victories in the Great Northern War, Czar Peter I founded the city of Saint Petersburg as the new Russian capital. In 1801: In Egypt, British forces defeated the French and take control of Cairo. In 1922: The American Library Association (ALA) awarded the first Newbery Medal, honoring the year's best children's book, to The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon. In 1937: San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, a stunning technological and artistic achievement, opened to the public after five years of construction. In 1940: During World War II, the Germans set up two-way radio communication to transmit information to German bombers in Brest and the port town of Cherbourg, employing their most sophisticated coding machine, Enigma, invented in 1919 by Hugo Koch, a Dutchman. In 1941: The British navy sinks the German battleship Bismarck in the North Atlantic near France. The German death toll was more than 2,000. In 1944: The Allies, as Hitler had anticipated, captured the fortified town and port of Cherbourg, in northwest France, freeing it from German occupation. In 1946: The foreign ministers of Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union and France transfered the Dodecanese Islands from Italy to Greece, and areas of northern Italy to France. In 1950: The United Nations Security Council approved a resolution put forward by the United States calling for armed force to repel the North Korean invaders, two days after communist North Korean forces invaded South Korea; an action that provided the pretext for US intervention in the conflict and was the first time the Security Council had ever approved the use of military force. In 1953: National Book Award-winner Alice McDermott was born this day in Brooklyn to first-generation Irish-Catholic parents. She wrote books such as the A Bigamist's Daughter, That Night, At Weddings and Wakes, and Charming Billy. That Night was nominated for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer. In 1963: John F. Kennedy, an Irish-American and the first Catholic to become president of the United States, arrived in Ireland for a visit. In 1998: An earthquake struck the area around Adana in Turkey killing at least 120 and injuring over 1,500.

Strong earthquake hits India's Andaman Islands today(27 jun, 2008)

The Indian Meteorological Department says a 6.7-magnitude earthquake has stuck the Andaman Islands off the east coast of India. The office said the undersea quake struck at 5:40 p.m. Friday. A police officer in Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman Islands, said the quake shook the islands causing panic among people. S. M. Tiwari said there were no reports immediate reports of damage of injuries and that no tsunami alert had been issued. The remote islands were among the many areas devastated by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.