On This Day January 27th

 OTD

January 27th is the Twenty-seventh day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 339 days remain until the end of the year.

 

Events

1302 – Dante Alighieri is condemned in absentia and exiled from Florence.

1343 – Pope Clement VI issues the papal bull Unigenitus to justify the power of the pope and the use of indulgences. Nearly 200 years later, Martin Luther would protest this.

1606 – Gunpowder Plot: The trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators begins, ending with their execution on January 31.

1776 – American Revolutionary War: Henry Knox's "noble train of artillery" arrives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

1785 – The University of Georgia was founded, the first public university in the United States.

1820 – A Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev discovers the Antarctic continent, approaching the Antarctic coast.

1825 – The U.S. Congress approved Indian Territory (in what is present-day Oklahoma), clearing the way for forced relocation of the Eastern Indians on the "Trail of Tears."

1880 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for his incandescent lamp.

1916 – World War I: The British government passed the Military Service Act, introducing conscription in the United Kingdom.

1924 – Six days after his death, Lenin's body is carried into a specially erected mausoleum.

1939 – First flight of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning.

1967 – Apollo program: Astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee are killed in a fire during a test of their Apollo 1 spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

2003 – The Library of Congress announces the first selections for the National Recording Registry.

2010 – Apple announces the iPad.

2017 – A naming ceremony for the chemical element Tennessine occurs in the United States.

 

Birthdays

1621 – Thomas Willis, English physician and anatomist (d. 1675)

1708 – Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna of Russia (d. 1728)

1756 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian pianist and composer (d. 1791)

1795 – Eli Whitney Blake, American engineer, invented the Mortise lock (d. 1886)

1832 – Lewis Carroll, English novelist, poet, and mathematician (d. 1898)

1901 – Art Rooney, American football player, coach, and owner (d. 1988)

1930 – Bobby "Blue" Bland, American blues singer-songwriter (d. 2013)

1944 – Mairead Maguire, Northern Irish activist, Nobel Prize laureate

1959 – Chris Collinsworth is an American football player and sportscaster.

1968 – Tracy Lawrence, American country singer

1976 – Fred Taylor, American football player

1995 – Harrison Reed, English footballer

 

 

Holiday Spotlight

  New York reporters visiting Saint Paul in the fall of 1885 made the mistake of likening it to Siberia, also calling it unfit for human habitation. And so, the Saint Paul Chamber of Commerce decided to prove their city was livable and fun. Seeing their neighbors over in Montreal hold a Winter Carnival sparked an idea. Saint Paul chose to host their carnival, basing it on their neighbors’ model. They worked with the city of Montreal, adapting their tradition of creating ice sculptures, among other activities. Saint Paul also adapted the legend of Boreas, initially written by newspaper columnist Frank Madden in 1937.

 As the legend says, the union of two gods — Astraios and Eos — produced five sons. The oldest, Boreas, was named “King of the Winds.” While traveling, Boreas chanced upon a winter wonderland called Minnesota and decided it would be the capital of his entire domain. Vulcanus Rex, aka the god of Fire, aka Boreas’s enemy, didn’t like this at all. He vowed to stop all of Boreas’s celebrations. Boreas was not afraid and declared a celebration — a carnival — to celebrate winter in Saint Paul. And so, for ten days, there were celebrations, festivities, and special guests like the Queen of Snows and a lady of song and merriment called Klondike Kate.

 All year round, volunteers dressed as characters from this legend visit local and national festivals, nursing homes, schools, and hospitals on behalf of Saint Paul’s Winter Carnival and the city of Saint Paul.

 The Saint Paul Festival and Heritage Foundation produced the festival. Hundreds of corporate and individual members and specially employed staff support the Board of Directors in pulling off this event with donations from individuals and corporate organizations.

 

 

Other Include

Auschwitz Liberation Day

Chocolate Cake Day

Holocaust Memorial Day - (United Kingdom)

International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust

Local Quilt Shop Day

National Geographic Day

National Seed Swap Day

Punch the Clock Day

Thomas Crapper Day

Vietnam Peace Day

Visit Your Local Quilt Shop Day

World Breast Pumping Day