1. In 1964, civil rights activists Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney were killed by members of the Ku Klux Klan in Neshoba County, Mississippi. The incident, known as the "Mississippi Burning" case, helped to bring attention to the issue of civil rights and played a role in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

2. On August 27, 1890, Mississippi became the 20th state to ratify the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibited the denial of voting rights based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

3. In 1965, Hurricane Betsy made landfall near Biloxi, Mississippi, causing significant damage and killing several people. The storm was one of the costliest hurricanes to strike the United States at the time.

4. On August 27, 1862, Confederate soldiers under General Sterling Price won a battle against Union troops at the Battle of Richmond in Mississippi. The battle was part of the larger Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War.

5. Mississippi's first African American female judge, Reuben V. Anderson, was born on August 27, 1942, in Jackson, Mississippi. Anderson went on to earn a law degree from the University of Mississippi and was appointed as a judge in 1985. He served as the state's first African American Chief Justice from 1994 to 2001.