September 27 is the birthday of American cartoonist and illustrator THOMAS NAST (1840-1902). a scathing critic of Boss Tweed and the Tammany Hall political machine, Nast came up with the symbol of the elephant for the Republican party, but he's most remembered for his many illustrations of Santa Claus, which contributed greatly to the Santa mythos. To see more samples of his art, CLICK HERE.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: On September 27, 1937, the last Balinese tiger, a female, was shot at Sumbar Kima, west Bali.

A final blow to the island's already low tiger population came during the Dutch colonial period, when shikari hunting trips were conducted by European sportsmen coming from Java, armed with high-powered rifles and a romantic but disastrous Victorian hunting mentality. Surabayan gunmaker E. Munaut is confirmed to have killed over 20 Bali tigers in only a few years. To learn more, CLICK HERE.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: ON September 27, 1822, Jean-François Champollion announced that he deciphered the Rosetta Stone, which then allowed all Egyptian hieroglyphics to be deciphered. To learn more, CLICK HERE.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: On September 27, 1590, Pope Urban VII died after serving only 13 days as pope, making his pontificate the shortest in history. Still, during his brief reign as Vicar of Christ, he was able to institute the world's first smoking ban. He threatened to excommunicate anyone who "took tobacco in the porchway of or inside a church, whether it be by chewing it, smoking it with a pipe or sniffing it in powdered form through the nose"

Happy Birthday, CHARLES BURNS!! The delightfully disturbing American illustrator and cartoonist is 69 years old today. His earliest works include illustrations for the Sub Pop fanzine, and Another Room Magazine of Oakland, but he came to prominence when his comics were published for the first time in early issues of RAW, the avant-garde comics magazine founded in 1980 by Françoise Mouly and Art Spiegelman. In 1982, Burns did a die-cut cover for RAW #4. Raw Books also published two books of Burns as RAW One-Shots: Big Baby and Hard-Boiled Defective Stories. In 1994, he was awarded a Pew Fellowships in the Arts In 1999, he showed at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. To see samples of his art, CLICK HERE.