French explorer and
botanist Jeanne Baret was born on July 27, 1740. An assistant botanist on Louis Antoine de Bougainville's expedition on the ships La Boudeuse and Étoile in 1766–1769 that explored the Southern Hemisphere. Baret is recognized as the first woman to have completed a voyage of circumnavigation of the globe. Because French naval regulations prohibited female crew members, she spent most of the voyage disguised as a young man, calling herself Jean Baret. She extensively collected and categorized plants during her travels.
Hilaire Belloc was born in La Celle-Saint-Cloud, France on July 27, 1870 to a French father, Louis Belloc and an English mother. After the death of his father in 1872, he was raised in West Sussex, England by his mother. A prolific poet, essayist and historian, Belloc is best known for
Cautionary Tales for Children (1907), a collection of humorous poems with satirical morals. He also wrote historical biographies and numerous travel works, including
The Path to Rome. (1902).
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| Hilaire Belloc portrait by E. O. Hoppé (1915) |
Belloc married American-born Elodie Hogan in 1896. The couple subsequently had five children before she died in 1914 of influenza — after which he wore mourning for the rest of his life. Asked why he wrote so much, he said: "Because my children are howling for pearls and caviar."
For more July 27 anniversaries, including the arrival of Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier in Japan, the proof that the hormone insulin regulates blood sugar and the longest ever prison sentence check out
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