This day in history

Today is Wednesday, March 27, the 87 th day of 2024. There are 279 days left in the year.

Birthdays: Actor Michael York is 82. Rock keyboardist Tony Banks of Genesis is 74. Rock musician Andrew Farriss of INXS is 65. Movie director Quentin Tarantino is 61. Actor Pauley Perrette is 55. Singer Mariah Carey is 54. Rock musician Brendan Hill (Blues Traveler) is

54. Actor Elizabeth Mitchell is

54. Actor Emily Ann Lloyd is 40. Actor Brenda Song is 36. Pop singer-songwriter Kimbra is 34.

ºIn 1513, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon sighted present-day Florida.

ºIn 1794, Congress approved “An Act to provide a Naval Armament” of six armed ships.

ºIn 1912, first lady Helen

Herron Taft and the wife of Japan’s ambassador to the United States, Viscountess Chinda, planted the first two of 3,000 cherry trees given to the US as a gift by the mayor of Tokyo.

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

ºIn 1947, Jordan Marsh and Co. revealed that it was going to build “the greatest department store in the world” — at Downtown Crossing in Boston. Covering an area larger than Harvard Stadium, it would have two stories under ground; another 14 would rise into the air and would feature such new amenities as air-conditioning and automatic doors.

ºIn 1964, Alaska was hit by a magnitude 9.2 earthquake (the strongest on record in North America) and tsunamis that together claimed about 130 lives.

ºIn 1968, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man to orbit the Earth in 1961, died when his MiG-15 jet crashed during a routine training flight near Moscow; he was 34.

ºIn 1973, “The Godfather” won the Academy Award for best picture of 1972, but its star, Marlon Brando, refused to accept his Oscar for best actor, and in what would become one of the Oscars’ most famous moments sent in his place actor and activist Sacheen Littlefeather, who spoke out about the depiction of Native Americans in Hollywood. (In 2022, months before her death, the Academy would apologize for the “abuse” Littlefeather

received at the time.)

ºIn 1977, in aviation’s worst disaster, 583 people 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.

ºIn 1980, 123 workers died when a North Sea floating oil field platform, the Alexander Kielland, capsized in a storm.

ºIn 2019, Facebook said it was extending its ban on hate speech to prohibit the promotion and support of white nationalism and white separatism.

ºIn 2022, Will Smith slapped Chris Rock on stage at the Oscar and won best actor just minutes later. (Smith was later expelled from the movie academy and received a 10-year ban from the Oscars.)