TODAY IN HISTORY

On March 27, 1513, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon sighted present-day Florida.

In 1933, Japan officially withdrew from the League of Nations.

In 1945, during World War II, General Dwight D. Eisenhower told reporters in Paris that German defenses on the Western Front had been broken.

In 1958, Nikita Khrushchev became Soviet premier and First Secretary of the Communist Party.

In 1968, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man to orbit the Earth in 1961, died; he was 34.

In 1973, “The Godfather” won the Academy Award for best picture of 1972. Liza Minnelli won best actress for “Cabaret.”

In 2006, al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui testified at his federal trial that he was supposed to hijack a fifth airplane on Sept. 11, 2001.