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-15 jet 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.

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.

1933

Japan officially withdrew from the League of Nations.

1942

During World War II, Congress granted American servicemen free first-class mailing privileges.

1958

Nikita Khrushchev became Soviet premier in addition to First Secretary of the Communist Party.