July 27 is:
Bagpipe Appreciation Day
Take Your Pants for a Walk Day Today is about getting out and getting exercise.
National Scotch Day
In 1663, the English Parliament passed the second Navigation Act, requiring that all goods bound for the American colonies have to be sent in English ships from English ports.
1775 – Founding of the U.S. Army Medical Department: The Second Continental Congress passed legislation establishing “an hospital for an army consisting of 20,000 men.” The U.S. Army Medical Department Museum — or AMEDD Museum — is located at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas.
In 1789, the first U.S. federal government agency, the Department of Foreign Affairs, was established (it will be later renamed Department of State).
July 27, 1890, Vincent van Gogh shot himself and died two days later. According to Wikipedia:
“On 22 February 1890, Van Gogh suffered a new crisis that was ‘the starting point for one of the saddest episodes in a life already rife with sad events’. From February until the end of April he was unable to bring himself to write, though he did continue to draw and paint, which follows a pattern begun the previous May… For a year he ‘had fits of despair and hallucination during which he could not work, and in between them, long clear months in which he could and did, punctuated by extreme visionary ecstasy.’
On 27 July 1890, aged 37, Van Gogh is believed to have shot himself in the chest with a revolver (although no gun was ever found). There were no witnesses…. Biographer David Sweetman writes that the bullet was deflected by a rib bone and passed through his chest without doing apparent damage to internal organs—probably stopped by his spine. He was able to walk back to the Auberge Ravoux, and there was attended by two physicians; however, without a surgeon present, the bullet could not be removed. After tending to him as best they could, the two physicians left Van Gogh alone in his room, smoking his pipe. The following morning (Monday), Theo (his brother) rushed to be with Van Gogh as soon as he was notified, and found him in surprisingly good shape, but within hours Van Gogh began to fail due to an untreated infection caused by the wound. Van Gogh died in the evening, 29 hours after he supposedly shot himself. According to Theo, his brother’s last words were: “The sadness will last forever.”
See Wikiart for examples of paintings by VanGogh.
In 1921, insulin was isolated at Toronto University by Canadians Sir Frederick Banting and Charles Best. It proved an effective treatment for diabetes.
July 27, 1940 – The animated short A Wild Hare was released, introducing the character of Bugs Bunny.
per Mark Steyn, August 1, 2015:
“Bugs Bunny turned 75 earlier this week. Like the Queen, he has official and unofficial birthdays. Unofficially, Looney Tunes introduced a rabbit to the cast of characters in “Porky’s Hare Hunt” (1938), but the anthropomorphized lagomorph looked nothing like Bugs and, although he was voiced by Mel Blanc, he sounded more like Woody Woodpecker. So, officially, Bugs made his debut in the form we know him today on July 27th 1940 in Chuck Jones’ “A Wild Hare”.
July 27, 1953: The Korean War ended, though an official state of war still exists between North Korea and South Korea.