1. On January 27, 1779, British forces won a tactical victory over American forces in the Battle of Beaufort. The battle was fought during the American Revolutionary War and resulted in significant damage to the town of Beaufort.

2. On January 27, 1832, the South Carolina Nullification Convention passed the Ordinance of Nullification, which declared federal tariffs on imports to be null and void in the state. The move was part of a larger sectional crisis that would ultimately lead to the Civil War.

3. On January 27, 1900, the University of South Carolina was officially reorganized as a public, coeducational institution. The school had previously been a private college, but financial difficulties led to its acquisition by the state.

4. On January 27, 1953, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Briggs v. Elliott that South Carolina's system of racially segregated public schools was unconstitutional. The decision was one of several important cases that paved the way for the eventual desegregation of American schools.

5. On January 27, 1967, the Apollo 1 spacecraft caught fire during a pre-launch test at Cape Canaveral in Florida, killing all three astronauts aboard. One of the astronauts, Roger B. Chaffee, was a native of Greenville, South Carolina, and is memorialized with a statue in the city's downtown area.