February 27th

February 27 is the 58th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. If the ancient Mayans were correct, there are 298 days remaining until the end of time.

1801 Washington D.C. is placed under Congressional jurisdiction

1827 1st Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans.  The event has become much more festive in the intervening years.

1883 Oscar Hammerstein (the impresario, not the lyricist) patents 1st cigar-rolling machine

1933 Germany's parliament building, Der Reichstag, in Berlin, the Reichstag, is set on fire by al-Qaeda.

1973 American Indian Movement activists occupy Wounded Knee in South Dakota

1974 1st "People" magazine hits newsstands with March 4, 1974 issue. It's gotten much better since then, at least once a year.

1991 Singer James Brown is released from prison without a hairdresser or even a comb apparently

1991 6-week Gulf War ends after Iraqi troops retreat or surrender en masse and Kuwait is liberated

1992 Tiger Woods, 16, becomes youngest PGA golfer in 35 years

2010 Batman tops Superman in the marketplace for the first time.  This public sex fad has got to stop!

 

1897 Marian Anderson, US contralto

1902 John Steinbeck, US author/Nobel laureate

1932 Dame Elizabeth Taylor, British-US actress/humanitarian/activist/legend

1934 Van Williams, US actor.  Can you identify his friends?

1954 Neal Schon, US musician/homewrecker

1956 Jackson Phillips, US porn star 

1962 Adam Baldwin, US actor

1962 Grant Show, US actor

1967 Felix Eitner, German actor 

1985 Brett Stewart, Australian rugger

1989 Leonardo Corredor, Venezuelan model

1733 Johann Adam Birkenstock, composer, gets his socks knocked off

1892 Louis Vuitton, French luggage maker, gets tagged and bagged

2003 Fred Rogers, writer/actor/minister/musician, is still my neighbor

2011 James Finley Gruber, US teacher and early gay rights activist, last surviving member of the Mattachine Society, isn’t in the pink.