April 27th is

Babe Ruth Day *

Prime Rib Day

World Tapir Day

Record Store Day

Little Pampered Dog Day

Mantanzas Mule Day *

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MORE! Mumtaz Mahal, August Wilson and Helen Hodgman, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Netherlands, St. Eustatius and Saba, Sint Maarten –
Koningsdag (King’s Day/King Willem-Alexander’s birthday)

Finland –  kansallinen veteraanipäivä 
(National Veteran’s Day)

Mayotte – Abolition Day
(Abolition of slavery)

Russia – Russia Parliamentarism Day
(first session of State Duma in 1906)

Sierra Leone – Independence Day

Slovenia – Resistance Day
(1941 uprising against partition/annexation)

South Africa – Freedom Day
(first non-racial national elections)

Togo – Independence Day

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On This Day in HISTORY

395 – Eastern Roman Emperor Arcadius marries Aelia Eudoxia, daughter of the Frankish general Flavius Bauto, who is given the imperial title of Augusta in 400, and coins are issued with her likeness. Since her husband rarely appeared at religious ceremonies or festivals, she became the imperial presence at these functions, and soon came into conflict with John Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople, over theological matters. Chrysostom was notable for his anti-woman views: “Among all the savage beasts none is found to be so harmful as woman” and he preached that women should be totally silent, not just in church, but anywhere in public, because “God maintained the order of each sex by dividing the business of human life into two parts and assigned the more necessary and beneficial aspects to the man and the less important inferior matters to the woman.” He compared himself to John the Baptist and Aelia Eudoxia to Salome, demanding his head. She used her influence twice to get him banished, briefly in 403, and again in 404, which ended with his death in 407. He still outlasted Aelia Eudoxia, who died after a stillbirth in 404 – while performing her “divinely” assigned “less important inferior” part in “the business of human life.” 

Aelia Eudoxia mosaic- at the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Bulgaria

629 – General Shahrbaraz is crowned as Great King of the Sasanian Empire, the last kingdom of the Persian Empire before the rise of Islam. Shahrbaraz had usurped the throne from Ardashir III, executing him and many of the nobles at court, and only lasted forty days before he was killed by a spear thrown by Farrukh Hormizd, one of the remaining Sasanian nobles

711 – Moorish troops led by Tariq ibn Ziyad land at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula

1296 – Battle of Dunbar: John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey, is sent by King Edward I of England to take the castle of the Earl of March at Dunbar, which his wife was allowing her Scottish kin and others to occupy. The Scots sent an urgent message for help to the Scottish king, John Balliol, who sent part of his cavalry to their aid. But the Scots were disorganized, and the English were not. They quickly defeated the Scots, taking over 100 Scottish lords, knights and men-at-arms prisoner, all sent into captivity in England

King John Balliol and his wife

1521 – Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed in the Philippines during the Battle of Mactan with native forces led by Chief Lapu-Lapu. The Spanish do not return until conquistadors led by Miguel López de Legazpi, and accompanied by Augustinian friars, arrive at the island of Samar in 1565

1593 – Mumtaz Mahal born, favorite wife and trusted confident of Shah Jahan of the Mughal Empire. When she died during the birth of their fourteenth child in the 19 years of their marriage, he built the Taj Mahal as her final resting place

1595 – The sarcophagus and relics of Saint Sava the Enlightener are brought to Belgrade and incinerated by order of Ottoman Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha, after the failed uprising of the Serbs of Banat, who used a portrait of Saint Sava on their battle flags. The Church of Saint Sava has been in the process of being built on the site of the incineration since 1935, but has been interrupted and delayed by wars and bombings. The main structure was generally completed by 2004, but work on interior decoration was still underway as of autumn 2018

1650 – Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel born, queen-consort of Denmark and Norway; she was raised in the Reformed faith (Calvinism), and well-educated in French, Italian, geography, and philosophy. The negotiations on the marriage contract were prolonged because she insisted on the right to keep her faith, and not be required to convert to Lutheranism, the state religion of Denmark, a concession which she won.  Unlike the majority of foreign royal brides of the time, she learned to speak the Danish language very well even before the wedding, which was much appreciated by Danish people. She could not be anointed as queen because she refused to undergo a Lutheran communion. King Christian V and his mother did everything in their power to keep her out of matters of state, and isolate her, including placing a spy among her ladies-in-waiting, but she was still able to influence the king in the matter of religious tolerance. The law of 1685, which granted immigrants, including the Huguenots, some degree of religious freedom, is attributed to her efforts. She supported the foundation of a church for each of the French and German protestant immigrant communities with her own funds, and continued her financial support after they were built. She also included them in her will. After her husband’s death, as queen dowager, she gained great popularity when she helped organize the successful defense of Copenhagen during the invasion by King Charles XII of Sweden in 1700, while her son was absent from the city. She rallied the people and the garrison to protect the capital, and persuaded the commandant to arm the citizens to help with the defense of their city

1673 – Claude Gillot born, French painter, engraver and theatrical designer

The Italian Comedy: Metamorfosi D’Arlecchino by Claude Gillot

1744 – Nikolay Novikov born, Russian writer, philanthropist and social critic

1759 – Mary Wollstonecraft born, English writer and women’s rights advocate

1791 – Samuel F. B. Morse born, American inventor and artist, who invented the single wire telegraph system, and co-inventor of Morse Code

1820 – Herbert Spencer born, English sociologist and philosopher

1822 – Ulysses S. Grant born, commander of the Union armies during the American Civil War, and 18^th U.S. President

1840 – Edward Whymper born, English artist and mountaineer; first to climb the Matterhorn

1882 – Jessie Redmon Fauset born, author, poet and editor for the NAACP magazine The Crisis, part of the Harlem Renaissance

1896 – Wallace Hume Carothers born, American chemist; developed nylon

1898 – Mantanzas Mule Day * honors the only casualty when the U.S. Navy fired upon the Cuban coastal town of Matanzas: a mule.  This was during the Spanish-American war. According to an eye-witness report by Chief Officer Smails of the steamship Myrtledene, which was printed in the New York Times, a solemn funeral was held, attended by about 200 people, and the mule was buried with full military honors, with a band playing, and a volley of musketry

1899 – Walter Lantz born, American film animator; creator of “Woody Woodpecker”

1906 – Alice Dunnigan born, first African-American journalist accredited to cover Congress (1947); also covered the White House, Supreme Court and State Department, and documented Klan actions when no “white” newspaper covered them

1912 – Zorah Sehgal born, Indian dancer, choreographer and actress; danced in Uday Shankar’s troupe, made many Bollywood films; appeared in Bend It Like Beckham at the age of 90

1922 – Sheila Scott born, English aviator who broke over 100 long-distance aviation records; first person to fly over the North Pole in a small aircraft. She was a founder and the first governor of the British branch of the Ninety-Nines, a licensed women pilots association, which was started during a meeting called by Amelia Earhart, and named for the original 99 women who became members of the organization. Scott also joined the Whirly-Girls, an association for women helicopter pilots

1923 – Betty Mae Tiger Jumper born, first woman chief of the Seminole Tribe of Florida; first Florida Seminole to learn to read and write English, and the first to graduate from high school and a nursing program; co-founder and editor of the tribe’s first newspaper, The Seminole Tribune

1927 – Coretta Scott King born, civil rights, human rights, and peace activist, a leader in struggle for racial equality and became active in the Women’s and LGBT rights movements; founded the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change

1942 – Ruth Glick born, American writer who also used several pen names, but most often Rebecca York; she began writing articles for local newspapers after taking a community college class, then sold some freelance work to the Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun. Her first published book was co-authored with Nancy Baggett, a how-to on making doll furniture. She became the prolific author and co-author of cookbooks, children’s books, young adult novels and romance fiction

1945 – Helen Hodgman born in Scotland, Australian novelist; noted for Broken Words and Jack and Jill, which won the 1978 Somerset Maugham Award. In 1983 Hodgman was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, which by 2001 had deprived her of the ability to write

1945 – August Wilson born, African American playwright, nominated multiple times for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and won in 1987 for Fences, and again in 1990 for The Piano Lesson

1947 – Babe Ruth Day * launched as a tribute to the retired and ailing baseball star, the first play to hit 60 home runs in one season; he spoke briefly to a crowd of 60,00 fans at Yankee Stadium

1967 – Expo 67 officially opens in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, with a large opening ceremony broadcast around the world, then opens to the public the next day

1972 – NASA’s Apollo 16 returned to Earth after a manned voyage to the moon

1979 – In South Africa, the Internal Security Act No. 32 goes into effect, empowering the Apartheid regime to declare an organization unlawful and to control distribution of  publications

1982 – John W. Hinckley Jr. goes on trial in Washington, D.C., for shooting President Ronald Reagan, a Secret Service agent, a police officer, and nearly killing Press Secretary James Brady; he will be acquitted by reason of insanity

1987 – The Justice Department bars Austrian President Kurt Waldheim from entering the U.S., saying he aided in the deportation and execution of thousands of Jews and others as a German Army officer during World War II

1992 – The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was proclaimed in Belgrade by the Republic of Serbia and its lone ally, Montenegro

1992 – Betty Boothroyd becomes the first woman to be elected Speaker of the British House of Commons

1992 – Russia and 12 other former Soviet republics win entry into the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank

2006 – Construction begins on a 1,776-foot building on the site of the World Trade

2006 – Construction begins on a 1,776-foot building on the site of the World Trade Center in New York City

2011 – President Barack Obama produces his detailed Hawaiian birth certificate, proving he was not born in Kenya

2014 – Syria misses another extended deadline for dismantling its arsenal of chemical weapons, but international experts said the embattled government might be able to finish destroying the 7.5% of the arsenal still remaining within a few days. However, as of April 2018, questions were still being asked about whether all the chemical weapons had been destroyed, especially after an April 7 attack on the Syrian city of Douma, where rebel forces had a base. Evidence gathered after the attack detected chlorine-based gas had been used. The U.S., most NATO members and the European Union believed the attack was perpetrated by the Syrian Arab Air Force

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