April 27

Today in History
• 1124 - David I becomes King of Scots
• 1296 - Battle of Dunbar: The Scots are defeated by Edward I of England
• 1509 - Pope Julius II excommunicates Italian state of Venice
• 1565 - 1st Spanish settlement in the Philippines forms at Cebu City
• 1773 - British Parliament passes Tea Act
• 1805 - U.S. Marines attack shores of Tripoli
• 1838 - Fire destroys half of Charleston
• 1859 - "Pomona" sinks in North Atlantic drowning all 400 aboard


Holidays - Traditional and Obscure
• Day of Uprising Against Occupation
• Freedom Day (South Africa)
• Koningsdag
• Lapu Lapu Day
• Mantanzas Mule Day
• Morse Code Day
• Sierra Leone Independence Day
• Togo Independence Day (Togo)

Birthdays
• 1410 - Jean Van Lannoy, Flemish governor of Holland, Zealand and West Frisia
• 1701 - Charles Emanuel I, King of Sardinia
• 1718 - Thomas Lewis, Irish-American surveyor, lawyer, and a pioneer of early Virginia
• 1733 - Josef Gottlieb Kölreuter, Botanist who pioneered the study of plant hybrids
• 1759 - Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, England, writer/feminist
• 1791 - Samuel Finley Breece Morse, U.S. painter/inventor, telegraph
• 1822 - Ulysses S. Grant, Ohio, R, 18th president, 1869-77
• 1840 - Edward Whymper, 1st to climb Matterhorn, 1865