1. On February 27, 1861, the South Carolina General Assembly unanimously ratified an ordinance to secede from the United States, becoming the first state to do so.

2. In 1897, the first intercollegiate basketball game in South Carolina was played on February 27 between the College of Charleston and Furman University. Furman won 20-17.

3. On February 27, 1925, the South Carolina House of Representatives passed a bill prohibiting the teaching of evolution in public schools. The law remained in effect until 1968.

4. South Carolina Governor Robert E. McNair declared a state of emergency on February 27, 1968, due to civil rights protests in Orangeburg. Three African-American college students were killed by police officers on the night of February 8, and many others were injured.

5. On February 27, 1991, Hurricane Hugo survivor Hugo Hernández was rescued by a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter crew after spending five days stranded on an overturned shrimp boat in the Atlantic Ocean. Hernández's boat had capsized during the powerful hurricane that hit South Carolina in September 1989.