DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Sunday, March 27, the 86th day of 2022. There are 279 days left in the year. On this date in:
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.
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 U.S. as a gift by the mayor of Tokyo.
1945: During World War II, General Dwight D. Eisenhower told reporters in Paris that German defenses on the Western Front had been broken.
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.
1968: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who in 1961 became the first man to orbit the Earth, died when his MIG-15 jet crashed during a routine training flight near Moscow; he was 34.
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. Liza Minnelli won best actress for “Cabaret.”
1975: Construction began on the Trans-alaska Pipeline, which was completed two years later.
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.
1980: A North Sea floating oil field platform, the Alexander Kielland, capsized during a storm, killing 123 workers.
2019: Facebook said it was extending its ban on hate speech to prohibit the promotion and support of white nationalism and white separatism.
2020: The House approved a $2.2 trillion coronavirus rescue package; it was immediately signed by President Donald Trump. The Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, a civil rights leader who helped the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, died at 98.
Actor Julian Glover is 87. Actor Jerry Lacy is 86. Actor-director Austin Pendleton is 82. Actor Michael York is 80. Keyboardist Tony Banks of Genesis is 72. Keyboardist Andrew Farriss (INXS) is 63. Jazz musician Dave Koz is 59.
Movie director Quentin Tarantino is 59. Bassist Johnny April of Staind is 57. Actor Talisa Soto is 55. Actor Ben Koldyke (“Masters of Sex,” “How I Met Your Mother”) is 54. Actor Pauley Perrette (“NCIS”) is 53. Singer Mariah Carey is 52. Drummer Brendan Hill of Blues Traveler is 52. Actor Elizabeth Mitchell (“V,” “Lost”) is 52. Actor Nathan Fillion (“Castle”) is 51. Singer Fergie of Black Eyed Peas is 47. Jazz saxophonist Tia Fuller is 46. Actor Emily Ann Lloyd is 38. Actor Brenda Song (“The Suite Life of Zack and Cody”) is 34. Singer Kimbra is 32. Actor Taylor Atelian (“According to Jim”) is 27. Singer Halle Bailey of Chloe X Halle is 22.