TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – MARCH 27
1350 While besieging Gibraltar, Alfonso XI of Castile dies of the black death.
1513 Spaniard Juan Ponce de León and his expedition first sight Florida
1790 The modern shoelace with an aglet patented in England by Harvey Kennedy
1794 Congress authorizes the construction of six frigates, including the Constitution (Old Ironsides), for the U.S. Navy.
1802 The Treaty of Amiens is signed, ending the French Revolutionary War.
1836 In Goliad, TX, about 350 Texan prisoners, including their commander James Fannin, were executed under orders from Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna. An estimated 30 Texans escaped execution.
1836 1st Mormon temple dedicated (Kirtland OH)
1866 President Andrew Johnson vetoes the civil rights bill, which later becomes the 14th amendment.
1866 Andrew Rankin patents the urinal
1884 The first long-distance telephone call was made, between Boston and New York.
1900 The London Parliament passes the War Loan Act, which gives 35 million pounds to the Boer War cause.
1912 The first cherry blossom trees, a gift from Japan, are planted in Washington, D.C.
1917 The Seattle Metropolitans became the first U.S. hockey team to win the Stanley Cup.
1944 Thousands of Jews are murdered in Kaunas, Lithuania. The Gestapo shoots forty Jewish policemen in the Riga, Latvia ghetto
1958 Nikita Khrushchev becomes Soviet Premier as well as First Secretary of the Communist Party
1964 The Great Alaska Earthquake (9.2 magnitude) and resulting tsunami kill 139 people in the largest US earthquake and second largest ever recorded
1976 Washington, DC, opened its subway system.
1977 583 die in aviation’s worst ever disaster when two Boeing 747s collide at Tenerife airport in Spain
1979 Supreme Court rules, 8-1, cops can’t randomly stop cars
1980 The oil rig Alexander L. Kjelland collapses in high winds in the North Sea
1984 Beginning of “tanker war”: over the next 9 months, 44 ships, including Iranian, Iraqi, Saudi Arabian and Kuwaiti tankers, are attacked by Iraqi or Iranian warplanes or damaged by mines
1997 In Australia, Governor-General William Deane signed a bill to overturn a 1996 Northern Territory act to legalize assisted suicides. The 1996 act was the first in the world to permit assisted suicides.
1998 Viagra is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
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.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
