MAY 27
1774 Sir Francis Beaufort KCB FRS FRGS FRAS MRIA (27 May 1774 â 17 December 1857) was an Irish hydrographer, rear admiral of the Royal Navy, and creator of the Beaufort cipher and the Beaufort scale. (The Beaufort scale is an empirical measure that relates wind speed to observed conditions at sea or on land. Its full name is the Beaufort wind force scale.)
1823 John Gray Foster (May 27, 1823 â September 2, 1874) was an American soldier. A career military officer in the United States Army and a Union general during the American Civil War, he served in North and South Carolina during the war. A postbellum expert in underwater demolition, he wrote a treatise on the subject in 1869. He continued with the Army after the war, using his expertise as assistant to the Chief Engineer in Washington, DC and at a post on Lake Erie.
1837 James Butler Hickok (May 27, 1837 â August 2, 1876), better known as “Wild Bill” Hickok, was a folk hero of the American Old West known for his life on the frontier as a soldier, scout, lawman, gambler, showman, and actor, and for his involvement in many famous gunfights. After the Civil War broke out in April 1861, Hickok became a teamster for the Union Army in Sedalia, Missouri. By the end of 1861, he was a wagon master, but in September 1862, he was discharged for unknown reasons. He then joined General James Henry Lane’s Kansas Brigade, and while serving with the brigade, saw his friend Buffalo Bill Cody, who was serving as a scout.
1837 Robert Frederick Hoke (May 27, 1837 â July 3, 1912) was a Confederate major general during the American Civil War. He was present at one of the earliest battles, the Battle of Big Bethel, where he was commended for coolness and judgment. Wounded at Chancellorsville, he recovered in time for the defense of Petersburg and Richmond. His brigade distinguished itself at Cold Harbor (June 1864), acknowledged by Grant as his most costly defeat. Hoke was later a businessman and railroad executive.
1923 Henry Alfred Kissinger (born Heinz Alfred Kissinger; May 27, 1923) is an American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presidential administrations of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. In 1938, when Kissinger was 15 years old, he and his family fled from Germany to the United States as a result of Nazi persecution. In 1943 he was drafted into the US Army. Kissinger underwent basic training at Camp Croft in Spartanburg, South Carolina. On June 19, 1943, while stationed in South Carolina, at the age of 20 years, he became a naturalized U.S. citizen. He was assigned to the 84th Infantry Division. There, he made the acquaintance of Fritz Kraemer, a fellow immigrant from Germany who noted Kissinger’s fluency in German and his intellect, and arranged for him to be assigned to the military intelligence section of the division. Kissinger saw combat with the division, and volunteered for hazardous intelligence duties during the Battle of the Bulge. Later Kissinger was reassigned to the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC), where he became a CIC Special Agent holding the enlisted rank of sergeant. He was given charge of a team in Hanover assigned to tracking down Gestapo officers and other saboteurs,
1939 Rick Rescorla, born as Cyril Richard Rescorla, (May 27, 1939 – Sep 11, 2001) was a United States Army officer as well as private security officer of British origin. He served in the Vietnam War as a commissioned officer of the United States Army. He also served in Northern Rhodesia where he was a member of Northern Rhodesia Police (NRP). After his military career, he became the director of security for financial services agency Morgan Stanley at the World Trade Center. In this position, Rick Rescorla anticipated attacks on the tower and implemented evacuation procedures which would ultimately save many lives during the 9/11 attacks. Unfortunately, he lost his life while leading the evacuees from the South Tower of Trade Center during the horrific attacks.
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