May 27 - This Day In History

1328 – Philip VI is crowned King of France. He started the 100 Years War with England, only to see the French army all but annihilated by a much smaller English army incorporating the longbow at the Battle of Crécy.

1703 – Czar Peter the Great founded the city of Saint Petersburg, built by slave labor and prisoners of war. The city was later renamed Leningrad, reverting back to its original name after the fall of the Soviet Union.

1895 – Irish author and wit Oscar Wilde is imprisoned for sodomy.

1941 – British warships caught up with the German battleship Bismarck, sinking it after a three hour battle. .

Births

1837 – Wild Bill Hickok, American gunfighter (d. 1876)

1911 – Vincent Price, American actor (d. 1993)

1912 - Slammin' Sammie Snead, American golfer (d. 2002)

Deaths

735 – The Venerable Bede, monk and the "Father of English History." Much of our knowledge of his era dates from his many writings, the most famous of which is Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (The Ecclesiastical History of the English People).

1564 – John Calvin, the French theologian who founded Calvinism. "The Presbyterian and other Reformed churches, which look to Calvin as a chief expositor of their beliefs, have spread throughout the world. Calvin's thought exerted considerable influence over major religious figures and entire religious movements, such as Puritanism, and his ideas have been cited as contributing to the rise of capitalism, individualism, and representative democracy in the West.

1949 – Robert Ripley, showman and student of the bizarre. He has gifted/cursed us with Ripley's Believe It or Not!

Holidays and Feasts:

In Nigeria, its Children's Day. Bolivia is celebrating Mother's Day. And today is the feast day for the Roman soldier and Christian martyr, Saint Julius the Veteran.