Sunday, March 27

This Day In History

• 1512   Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon sighted Florida.
• 1625   Charles I ascended the English throne upon the death of James I.
• 1794   Congress authorizes the construction of six frigates, including the Constitution (Old Ironsides), for the U.S. Navy.
• 1841   The first steam fire engine was tested in New York City.
• 1836   The first Mormon temple was dedicated, in Kirtland, Ohio.
• 1866   President Andrew Johnson vetoed a civil rights bill which later became the 14th amendment.
• 1884   The first long-distance telephone call was made, between Boston and New York.
• 1917   The Seattle Metropolitans became the first U.S. team to win the Stanley Cup as they defeated the Montreal Canadiens.
• 1945   During World War II, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower told reporters in Paris that German defenses on the Western Front had been broken.
• 
  1958   Nikita Khrushchev became Soviet premier and first secretary of the Communist Party.
• 1964   Alaska was rocked by a powerful earthquake that killed 114 people.
• 1968   Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man to orbit Earth, died in a plane crash.
• 1977   Pan American and KLM Boeing 747s collided on a runway in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands. The 542 people killed is the highest ever for an aviation disaster.
• 1997   Dexter King, son of Martin Luther King Jr., met with James Earl Ray, the man in prison for the assassination of the civil rights leader. Ray denied having anything to do with the shooting, to which King replied, ''I believe you.''
• 1998   The Food and Drug Administration approved the drug Viagra, made by Pfizer, to fight male impotence.
• 2001   A federal judge ruled that the University of Michigan’s affirmative action policy was invalid, a ruling that later would be reversed in an appeal.
• 2001   California regulators approved electricity rate hikes of up to 46 percent.
• 2002   A suicide bomber killed 29 Israelis during a Passover Seder in Netanya, Israel.
• 2002   Comedian Milton Berle died at age 93.
• 2003   Serbian police killed two major suspects in the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.

Happy Birthday To

• 1899   Gloria Swanson (Gloria May Josephine Svensson) (actress: Airport ’75, Sadie Thompson, Sunset Boulevard, Teddy at the Throttle; author: Swanson on Swanson; died Apr 4, 1983)
• 1931   David Janssen (David Harold Meyer) (actor: The Fugitive, The Green Berets, Two Minute Warning, Francis Goes to West Point, Once is Not Enough; died Feb 13, 1980)
• 1952   Maria Schneider (actress: Last Tango in Paris, Les Nuits Fauves)