The name of the battleship that was assigned to fire the first shot on the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg (also known as Petrograd) during the 1917 revolution in Russia. This occured on the night of November 6th, 1917, after the Bolsheviks had taken over the telephone, railroad and electric power systems in the city.By this time in 1917, almost all soldiers and sailors governed themselves per Order No. 1, a decree issued by the St. Petersburg Soviet telling millitary groups to elect their own governing commitees, and thus, the Bolsheviks had a millitary force on their hands with which they could overthrow Alexander Kerensky's provisional government.
As the story goes, the Aurora was docked in the Neva river was supposed to receive the official order to fire at Midnight of the 7th, but the signal wasn't sent until 45 minutes later. Upon receiving the signal, the battleship fired the opening shot on the Winter Palace, and with this shot, the militia, known as the Red Guard stormed the palace. By morning, the provisional government had fallen, and the Aurora took her place in history.
Citations:
http://eserver.org/history/october-revolution.txt
Palmer, R.R./Colton, Joel/Kramer, Lloyd. A History of the Modern World: Ninth Edition 2002