December 27, 1784, Kentucky County called its 1st convention in Danville , bringing together the most noted of Kentucky’s pioneers to discuss independence from Virginia. This is Kentucky by Robert A. Powell, pg: 76
December 27, 1786, a group of seven men met at the residence of Samuel McDowell in Danville to form the Danville Political Club . The group’s members debated the most heated issues of the day, the two most pressing being Kentucky’s statehood and the U.S. Constitution.
In the December 27, 1787 edition of the Kentucky Gazette , Elijah Craig solicited scholars to study at a new academy . It opened in January 1788 in Lebanon Town (Scott County) and would offer the courses taught in public seminaries. Ten years later the Rittenhouse Academy absorbed it. In 1829 Georgetown College took control.
On December 27, 1806, locals chartered $1,000,000 for the Bank of Kentucky . Kentucky in Retrospect by Lila Jones Kington, pg: 45
December 27, 1860, Governor B. Magoffin called a special session to consider succession.
December 27, 1862, General John Hunt Morgan captured Elizabethtown . Each side wrote their account of the day; one pro-Union account reported widespread looting, even by Morgan himself. Other accounts gave details of how Morgan established a headquarters and met with old friends who wanted to see the “Rebel Raider” himself. Morgan had just been promoted to Brigadier General on December 11 and was married on the 14th .
December 27, 1871, Cabell’s Dale native Robert Jefferson Breckinridge , the son of Senator John Breckinridge, passed away. A restless youth, Princeton suspended Breckinridge for fighting and following his graduation from Union College in 1819, he played the field. However, he became a lawyer in 1824 and joined the Kentucky General Assembly in 1825. A severe illness and the death of a child in 1829 prompted him to turn to religion became an ordained minister in 1832. Cabell’s Dale was located just outside Lexington.
December 27, 1875, City Marshal Thomas H. Chandler, Lebanon Police Department , died from a gunshot as his posse attempted to arrest a man. Marshal Chandler shot the man when he refused to surrender, and the suspect’s brother shot the Marshal.
December 27, 1896, Officer Charles Lacey, Cynthiana Police Department , succumbed to gunshot wounds sustained on Christmas Eve while attempting to arrest a drunk subject. Locals later acquitted the 16-year-old.
On December 27, 1900, Garrard County native Carry Nation destroyed her 1st bar , the Carey Hotel at Wichita. She demolished everything in her path, including the liquor bar. They arrested, jailed her for several days, and released her on bond.
On December 27, 1908, Deputy Jailer Logan Young, Jessamine County Sheriff’s Department , succumbed to gunshot wounds arresting a mentally ill man making threats. When deputies arrived, the man opened fire with a shotgun from behind his horse. Locals declared the subject insane and institutionalized him.
December 27, 1952, Marine Corps PFC Durward A. Ray from Lancaster died in the Korean War.
December 27, 1960, Muhammad Ali (2-0) fought Herb Siler (1-1) in Miami Beach Auditorium . Siler became Clay’s 1st knockout victim, going down in the 4th round of a scheduled eight-round fight. Twelve years later, a jury convicted Siler of manslaughter, and he served a seven-year sentence. He died in 2001 in Miami.
December 27, 1967, Marine Corps LCPL Mitchell Hughes Junior from Louisville died in the Vietnam War.
December 27, 1986, Bowling Green native Rex Chapman prepared to take a shot as Louisville’s Craig Hawley defended him. The Cats routed the Cards 85-51 in Louisville . Chapman, a freshman, lit up the Cards for 26 points, hitting 10 of his 20-shot attempts. Despite playing only two years at Kentucky, Chapman is 51st on UK’s all-time scoring list with 1,073 points.
December 27, 1990, forward John Pelphrey launched a jump shot against Eastern Kentucky at Rupp Arena . Pelphrey had 12 points in the 74-60 UK win. The Paintsville native is 32nd on UK’s all-time scoring list.
December 27, 1997, Denny Crum’s Louisville Cardinals defeated Tubby Smith’s #4 Kentucky Wildcats in Lexington 79-76 . The Cats broke a six-year winning streak against non-conference opponents at home.
December 27, 2001, Amazon.com Inc. said its holiday Delight-O-Meter counted 37.9 million orders for the holiday season as of midnight December 21 . Wall Street analysts were not impressed, and the stock continued to trade as it always had in the past. “The Delight-O-Meter number is meaningless and hard to interpret,” said an analyst. They delivered over 1.5 billion products worldwide for the 2020 holidays.
December 27, 2009, Rich Brooks coached his last game for the Kentucky Wildcat football team in a losing effort against Clemson in the Music City Bowl, 13-21.
December 27, 2013, another federal judge, appointed by former President B. Clinton, reached an opposite conclusion from another federal judge and ruled NSA’s collection of phone data was legal. Edward Snowden’s prosecution continued as Americans’ civil liberties eroded. While Obama prosecuted more whistleblowers than any previous president, he also went after journalists, most notably Julian Assange.
December 27, 2017, eight former and current Kentucky state employees sued the Kentucky Retirement System (KRS) officials , consultants, selected board members, three hedge fund firms, and their top executives. The suit claimed KRS and their partners played roles in a “civil conspiracy” that gambled a $2.1 billion investment in risky hedge funds and masked the severity of the crisis for years.
On December 27, 2019, the health insurance industry published its biannual guide , International Federation of Health Plans , analyzing medical services and costs. The report on 2017 prices showed the U.S. paid higher prices for medication, imaging tests, basic health visits, and common operations. The report concluded the U.S. made customers pay outrageous fees while it financed a politically powerful healthcare industry, making lowering prices next to impossible.
Sunday, December 27, 2020, Kentucky reported 2,555 deaths from the coronavirus since the 1st positive cases in March 2020. Twenty-one individuals died on this day, with 1,504 in the hospital, including 411 in intensive care and 217 on ventilators.
Positives: 1,509 / 257,063Deaths : 21 / 2,555 – 1st Death 3/16/2050&over : 2,493 / 49-30 : 59 / 29&under : 3
On Monday, December 27, 2021, in Frankfort, Governor A. Beshear announced for a 2nd time a 77th person (Graves County infant) died from the December 10 tornadoes . He made the “deadliest tornado” statement ten days earlier when five people died in multiple counties to reach 77. Kentucky’s deadliest tornado killed 76 which happened in 1890 in Louisville. Meanwhile, the omicron variant disrupted U.S. air travel while grocery workers across the nation claimed corporate bosses did not support their front-line predicament.
December 27, 2022, Space Force had taken over the Department of Defense’s military satellite communications functions , a major service in building the new military division. The Navy and Army transferred their space equipment operations, thus marking the 1st time military satellite communications fell under one branch.