1. The first recorded settlement in present-day South Dakota occurred on August 27, 1743, when French explorers established Fort de la Présentation near the confluence of the Missouri and Cheyenne rivers.
2. On August 27, 1883, the town of Pierre officially became the capital of South Dakota after a controversial vote by the state legislature. Prior to that, the capital had alternated between the cities of Yankton and Bismarck.
3. The famous Wild West outlaw Jesse James reportedly passed through the town of Deadwood on August 27, 1876, just a few weeks before he was killed by Robert Ford.
4. South Dakota's famous Mount Rushmore national monument was dedicated on August 27, 1927, in front of a crowd of approximately 2,500 people. The monument features the faces of four American presidents - George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt - carved into the side of a mountain in the Black Hills.
5. On August 27, 1977, the United States Air Force launched an unmanned satellite called Solrad 11 from the Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota. The satellite was designed to monitor solar activity and provide valuable information for space weather forecasting.