TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

March 27, 1968

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man to orbit the Earth in 1961, died when his MiG-15jet crashed during a routine training flight near Moscow; he was 34.

ALSO ON THIS DATE

1513

Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon sighted present-day Florida.

1625

Charles I acceded to the English throne upon the death of James I.

1794

Congress approved “An Act to provide a Naval Armament” of six armed ships.

1884

The first telephone line between Boston and New York was inaugurated.

1964

Alaska was hit by a magnitude 9.2earthquake and tsunamis that together claimed about 130lives.

1977

In aviation’s worst disaster, 583people were killed when a KLM Boeing 747, attempting to take off in heavy fog, crashed into a Pan Am 747 on an airport runway on the Canary Island of Tenerife.

1998

The Food and Drug Administration approved the drug Viagra, made by Pfizer, saying it had helped about two-thirds of impotent men improve their sexual function.

2013

Lawyers for Colorado theater shooting suspect James Holmes said he would plead guilty to the attack that killed 12people and serve the rest of his life in prison to avoid the death penalty.

2017

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions warned so-called “sanctuary cities” they could lose federal money for refusing to cooperate with immigration authorities.