July 27 – 1054 – Siward, Earl of Northumbria invades Scotland and defeats Macbeth, King of Scotland somewhere north of the Firth of Forth.  After a half millenia, nobody would have noticed, or even cared, but for Shakespeare’s play.

Map of Scotland with Firth of Forth. Other locations Dunbar, Leith, Inverkeithing, Seton, Loch Leven, clan Kinross,  clan Lindsay, clan Bethune, Magus Muir, Cupur, St. Andrews, Firth of Tay, Abroath, Dundee, Perth, River Tay Blairgowrie, Kirriemuir, ALyth, Killiecrankie Pass, Kirriemuir.

1291 Wars of Scottish Independence.  All Scots were also required to pay homage to Edward I, King of England, (descendant from Malcolm and Duncan, King of Scots) either in person or at one of the designated centres.

1455 sometime in July.  James Hamilton, 1^st  Lord Hamilton (c. 1415–1479), Hamilton was warded at Roslin Castle, in Midlothian for a short while. As recompense for his Volte-Face, Hamilton was created Sheriff of Lanark.  (Rosslyn is a neighborhood in Arlington County Virginia.)

1511 sometime in July.  Andrew Barton, with letters of reprisals, had two strong ships, the Lion and the Jenny Pirwen, with which he cruized in the British Channel, stopping not only Portuguese vessels, but also English ships bound for Portugal. Complaints being made to King Henry 8^th , two vessels were filled with chosen men, and placed under the command of Lord Thomas Howard and Sir Edward Howard, both, sons to the Earl of Surrey (TG24-355)  [eventually uncles to Ann Bolyne and great uncles to Elizabeth 1^st – the Earl of Surrey, that same noble and knight who had formerly escorted Queen Margaret (nee Tudor), to Scotland (tg24-363) father  (sic – uncle) of Anne Bolyne, grandfather (sic – great uncle) – to Elizabeth 1^st, and  the Earl Surrey who will lead the English army at Flodden Field 1513].  Barton’s ship had a contrivance, weights or beams to drop on an enemy ship, requiring  a sailor to go aloft. English Howard had Yorkshire archer shoot the climbers, including Barton as his arm was raised with armor, and mortally wounded in the arm-pit. The captured Lion was brought up the Thames to become the 2^nd man-of-war of the English Navy.  This naval battle will lead to the battle at Flodden Field in 1513.

American military cemetery at Brookwood in west Surrey England with 458 souls. (http://blackquillandink.com/?p=15894) Surrey is now part of the Greater London Urban area 23 miles southwest of central London.

1548 sometime in July. – Queen Mary Stewart leaves Scotland on French galleys  (TG29-71) with 4 Queen’s Maries.

Scotland in the 16^th & 17^th centuries showing the principal Clans & Families, Scale and English Miles.  Graham clans which joined Montrose. Campbell Clans which actively opposed Montrose.  Red Line (with yellow) The ‘Highland Line’ division between Highlands & Lowlands.

1588 The Armada anchored off Calais.The execution of Mary Queen of Scots in 1587 was the final incentive for the invasion by the Spanish Armada.   The Armada will circle Scotland, a generation to late, as Scotland has already become a firm ally of Protestant Elizabeth for a generation.

 A merchant vessel commandeered for the Armada: print by Peter Brueghe.

1646 after a 65 day siege Wallingford Castle, the last English royalist stronghold, surrenders to Sir Thomas Fairfax.  Wallingford Connecticut is the home of Choate School (21^st century).

1669 Robert Millar 1^st, (Presbyterian) Minister of Ochiltree returned under an indulgence from the Privy Council 27^th  July 1669. Robert married (1) Margaret, daughter of Gilbert Kennedy of Girvanmains ; (2) Grizel, daughter of Colonel Hugh Cochrane, brother of William Cochrane, Earl of Dundonald, and had issue — Robert Miller (2^nd) minister of St Quivox; William, M.D. : John, minister of Neilston ; Hugh ; Margaret ; Katherine ; Mary ; Jean.”

SOURCE: Fasti ecclesiae scoticanae: the succession of ministers in the Church of Scotland from the reformation, Vol. III, page 61

www.geni.com/people/Robert-Millar/  They were ministers in the Scottish National Church (Presbyterians).

1681 – Daniel, or Donald Cargill taken by a Dumfriesshire gentleman, and executed, along with four others, all disowning the authority of the King. (Charles 2^nd) Cameronian who pronounced sentence of excommunication against the King,  (the Kings’ brother James) the Duke of York, the Dukes of Monmouth, Lauderdale, and Rothes, the Lord Advocate, and General Dalziel. (TG52-255) In retaliation, from 1680-88 Claverhouse led a general butchery known as the Killing Time; it is memorialized in many a Scottish west country cemetery.  YYMA 27

1689 The Battle of Killiecrankie – 1689. Led by Viscount Dundee (born John Graham of Claverhouse, Bonnie Dundee) the rising in support of James VII was the first of the Jacobite risings. Despite winning the battle, Dundee was killed and the rising failed soon after. Video: The Scottish Nation: Programme 3, 1972.  Married previously a Cochrane bride, granddaughter or other relation of the Earl of Dundonald.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/history/union_and_jacobites/the_battle_of_killiecrankie/

1711 – The Faculty of Advocates in Scotland, the incorporated society of lawyers entitled to practise at the bar, possessed of a noble library, and a

valuable collection of medals. To this learned  body, Elizabeth, Duchess of Gordon (by birth, a daughter of the noble house of Howard, and a keen Jacobite), sent the present of a medal for their cabinet. It bore on the one side the head of the Chevalier de St George [the old pretender James Francis Edward, Prince of Wales], with the motto, Cujus est? [TG64-203] (Whom does it represent?) and on the reverse the British Isles, with the legend, Reddite (Restore them). (TG64-203) Accepted, then refused 27^th July 1711.

1714 – Bitter dialogue, mutual recriminations, [TG65-224] passed in the Queen Anne’s [Stewart, older sister to the Old Pretender] presence betwixt Lord Treasurer Oxford on the one part, and Bolingbroke and Lady Masham on the other – all Tories – pro young pretender, Anne’s nephew.

1758 2^nd Battle of Louisburg. The French and Indian War also known as the Seven Years War (1757 to 1762). The Fortress of Louisburg on the Atlantic coast of Cape Breton Island was the fort guarding the entrance to the Saint Lawrence River and access to French Canada. Before the British could conquer the French colony in Canada, Louisburg had to be captured. It had previously been taken by British (provincial troops (i.e. Connecticut, Massachusetts and New England colonials and officers) in King George’s War (circa 1742, 1^st Battle of Louisburg) but returned to France in the peace settlement of 1748. Fraser’s Highlanders disbanded at the end of the war. 1^st  Foot now the Royal Scots.

The British Fleet and Army

French frigate ablaze in Louisburg harbour

Backstory  and significance of this little discussed 1^st Battle of Louisburg’s capture in 1742, against entrenched French defenders,   increased the confidence of New England military. The British government’s gift of Louisburg to the French in 1748, disillusioned the New Englanders, as to the respect of and need for British regulars for colonial military protection. The British recapture in 1758 reminded all in New England and northern colonies, of the earlier 1742 military victory  and the 1748 diplomatic defeat.  So that a half decade later in the  1765, when the British attempted to justify the stamp taxes as necessary to pay military troops to protect the Northern Station (i.e. American plantations or colonies), the thin justification was widely known to be a false pretext, as the Americans had and could defend themselves from Spanish and French (and Dutch, Danes, Swedes, anybody with a Navy).  The obvious and true reason for the British  stamp taxes levied on America was to replace lost revenues from other financial failures of the British in India.  The London Parliament’s adoption, American resistance, Parliament’s repeal, of new and varied British taxes was repeated for a decade.  Eventually, by 1770, the British moved troops  away from the frontier, into the Colonial cities, to enforce the collection of taxes. This showed the colonists, that the colonists were the new enemy, not the French nor Spanish. The eventual result was the War of Independence.

Ships burning in the harbour. Cape Breton and Prince Edward’s Island became British colonies and the way opened up for General Wolfe’s attack up the Saint Lawrence and Quebec the following year

1777 – Thomas Campbell, Scottish poet born (d. 1844).

• Campbell Earl of Argyll 1010 2Montgomery2Blair 2Cochrane2Miller 2Simmons2Choate to Zoë TOAG

1778 English Channel.  The British fleet of Admiral Keppel, battles the French fleet of Count d’Orvilliers.  Tytler’s Britannica.

1856 Nellie Unthank (nee Pucell) and family and the remainder of the 856 Latter Day Saints from Liverpool, have stopped for 9 weeks in Iowa City Iowa, under Captain Edward Martin.  They  await the building of handcarts. It was July 27^th  before the company was ready to depart. It is hot but late in the season to attempt a cross continent migration. Pressure builds at the first Republican National Covention to root out the twin evils of slavery and polygamy (aimed against the Mormons). Threats of closing borders to prevent migration to Utah hastens their anxiety.  Nellie will survive and marry William Unthank.

Unthank is a hamlet in Angus, Scotland. It lies approximately half a mile north-west of Brechin on the B966 Brechin to Edzell road. It was formerly a possession of the Barony of Spynie.

Brechin map in Angus. Unthank is about where the ‘I’ in  Brechin.  Other locations, Firth of Tay, Dunno, Blairgowrie, clan Lindsay, clan Farguharson, Dundee, Abroath, Perth.

1880 The Battle of Maiwand, 2^nd  Afghan War, West of Kandahar in Southern Afghanistan. Fictional Dr. John H. Watson, wing man of Sir Arthur Conan Doyles’ Sherlock Holmes, was a veteran of this battle.

Lieutenant Hector Maclaine leads his section of Royal Horse Artillery guns across the Main Ravine

Maclaine of Lochbuie Crest: A branch of laurel and a branch of cypress in saltire surmounted of a battle axe in pale all Proper. Motto: VINCERE VEL MORI.
[from Latin: “To conquer or die”].
Badge: bilberry (blaeberry), bramble, holly or black berry heath Chief: Lorne MacLaine of Lochbuie

Primrose Crest: A demi-lion rampant Gules holding in his dexter paw a primrose Or. Motto: FIDE ET FIDUCIA. 
[from Latin: “By faith and trust”] [from Latin: “By faith and confidence”]. Chief:Neil Primrose, 7^th Earl of Rosebery. When in March 1879 Lieutenant General Sir Donald Stewart marched north to Kabul with his division of Bengal Army and British regiments, Kandahar was left to the Wali, its Afghan ruler, and a replacement garrison of Bombay and British troops under Major General Primrose.

E Battery Royal Horse Artillery escaping from the 
overwhelming Afghan attack at the Battle of Maiwand.         Maiwand illustrated the battles in Afghanistan: heavily outnumbered British and Indian forces winning against much larger forces of Afghans, provided they were experienced troops led by competent commanders. Primrose appointed Brigadier Genera, who had not commanded in battle and had no experience of commanding a mixed force of infantry, cavalry and guns. Burrows permitted his force to advance into an exposed position and failed to press home the attack that might have retrieved the situation. At Ahmed Khel, General Stewart came close to disaster at the hands of an Afghan army with no guns. At Maiwand the Afghans had an overwhelming advantage in gun numbers and quality and in Jacob’s Rifles, one third of his infantry strength, Burrows had a seriously inadequate unit, insufficiently officered with many of the men almost untrained recruits.
 The battle was fought on an exposed, dusty, dry plain in excessive heat. Many of the soldiers had nothing to eat that day and the supply of water failed early in the battle. The infiltration of the Afghan cavalry between the fighting line and the baggage, up a ravine, prevented the supply of food, water and ammunition and the rescue of casualties. The crucial smooth bore guns were permitted to run out of ammunition and retire, fatally undermining the morale of the two companies of Jacob’s Rifles occupying an important position on the left of the infantry line. The experience of the 66^th, 286 dead 32 wounded, was dramatically expressed in Rudyard Kipling’s poem “That Day”. McGonigall also committed the battle to rhyme, perhaps less convincingly. The 66^th  were accompanied into battle by the dog Bobbie, owned by Sergeant Kelly. Bobbie survived the final stand of the Eleven and escaped to join the retreat, although wounded making her way to Kandahar. On the regiment’s return to England, Bobby was presented by HM Queen Victoria at Osborne House with the Afghan War campaign medal, along with other survivors of the battle.

Dogs of Scotland.

1899 Robert MacArthur Crawford born in Dawson City Yukon.  In 1938 Crawford wrote What Do You think of the Air Corps Now?, was soon officially changed to The Army Air Corps by 1941 and The U.S. Air Force song by 1947.  In the Great War, his attempt to be a military pilot officer was thwarted when it was discovered he was 19.  Princeton University class of 1925. Julliard School of Music faculty. During World War II, Crawford flew for the Air Transport Command of the U.S. Army Air Forces. In 1947, Crawford joined the University of Miami’s music faculty. Crawford remained there for ten years, until he left to focus on composing.  (clans MacArthur and Crawford).

Robert MacArthur Crawford (Hill Air Force Base). Lyrics

• OFF we go into the wild blue yonder, Climbing high into the sun

Here they come zooming to meet our thunder, At ’em boys, Give ‘er the gun!

Down we dive, spouting our flame from under, Off with one helluva roar!

We live in fame or go down in flame. Hey! Nothing can stop the Army Air Corps (chorus II)

• Minds of men fashioned a crate of thunder, Sent it high into the blue

Hands of men blasted the world a-sunder,

How they lived God only knew!

Souls of men dreaming of skies to conquer,

Gave us wings, ever to soar!

With scouts before, And bombers galore. Nothing can stop the Army Air Corps!

(verse – Air Force Academy’s alma mater)

• Here’s a toast to the host, Of those who love the vastness of the sky,

To a friend we send a message of his brother men who fly.

We drink to those who gave their all of old

Then down we roar, to score, the rainbow’s pot of gold.

A toast, to the host, of men we boast, the U.S. Air Force!

(Chorus III)

• Off we go into the wild sky yonder, Keep the wings level and true,

If you’d live to be a grey-haired wonder, Keep the nose out of the blue!

Flying men, guarding the nation’s border, we’ll be there followed by more!

In echelon, we carry on, Hey! Nothing’ll stop the Army Air Corps!

1942 – end of The 1^st  Battle of El Alamein had stalled the Axis advance. General Bernard Montgomery (of the Irish Montgomery(s)) commander.

1967 Philip St. John Basil Rathbone died. (clan Stewart) Portrayed  fictional Ebenezer Scrooge (Scotsman) in 1956 and 1958. In 1916, Basil enlisted for the remaining duration of World War I, joining the London Scottish Regiment  as a private.  Basil later transferred with a commission as a lieutenant to the Liverpool Scottish, 2^nd  Battalion, where he served as an intelligence officer and eventually attained the rank of captain. During the war, Rathbone displayed a penchant for disguise (a skill which he coincidentally shared with what would become perhaps his most memorable character, Sherlock Holmes), when on one occasion, in order to have better visibility, Rathbone convinced his superiors to allow him to scout enemy positions during daylight hours instead of during the night, as was the usual practice, in order to minimize the chance of detection by the enemy.

from the trailer for the film Tovarich (1937).

Claude Rains served in the Great War (later First World War) in the London Scottish Regiment, with fellow actors Basil Rathbone, Ronald Colman and Herbert Marshall.

1968 Timothy Stout born. Married LaNae Marie Choate (clans Stewart, Lockhart, Hunter, Cochrane, Meldrum, Semple.)

2005 – STS-114: NASA grounds the Space Shuttle, for shedding of foam insulation from the external fuel tank. During ascent, the external tank of the Space Shuttle Discovery sheds a piece of foam slightly smaller than the piece that caused the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster; this foam does not strike the spacecraft.