Historical Events on July 27
- 1775: The Second Continental Congress passes legislation that founds the U.S Army Medical Department.
- 1778: British and French Naval forces come to a stalemate during the First Battle of Ushant during the American Revolution.
- 1789: The Department of Foreign Affairs is created. It would later be renamed the Department of State.
- 1794: Maximilien Robespierre is arrested during the French Revolution.
- 1816: At the Battle of Negro Fort, a US Navy Gunboat pitches a hot shot cannonball into the powder magazine of the fort. The resulting explosion kills over 275 people. Experts consider it to be one of the deadliest single cannon shots fired in United States history.
- 1857: At the Siege of Arrah, 68 men hold out for over a week against 3,000 mutinying sepoys and 8,000 irregular forces.
- 1890: Vincent van Gogh commits suicide by shooting himself. 2 days later, he dies.
- 1900: A speech is given by Kaiser Wilhelm II that compares Germans to Huns. The word Hun would then be used for many years thereafter as an insulting term for Germans.
- 1929: 53 nations sign the Geneva Convention which deals with the treatment of POW’s during war.
- 1940: Bugs Bunny is introduced in an animated short called the Wild hare.
- 1942: Allied forces manage to stop the Axis advance into Egypt.
- 1955: The Allied occupation of Austria – which ran from the end of World War II – comes to a conclusion.
- 1964: 5,000 additional American military advisers are sent to South Vietnam. This brings the total U.S forces in the country up to 21,000.
- 1974: The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee makes a 27-11 vote to recommend the first article of impeachment against U.S President Richard Nixon.
Famous Birthdays on July 27
- Italian poet, educator and Nobel Prize laureate, Giosue Carducci is born in 1835.
- German chemist and Nobel Prize laureate, Hans Fischer is born in 1881.
- American actor Jerry Van Dyke is born in 1931
- American basketball player Forest Able is born in 1932.
- English actress and singer, Anna Dawson is born in 1937.
- American game designer and co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, Gary Gygax is born in 1938.