27 March

1513 Florida, History: Juan Ponce de León recorded sighting the coast of Florida.

1713 Gibraltar, History: Great Britain took control of The Rock from Spain by the Treaty of Utrecht. It had strategic significance thereafter, including both World Wars.

1905 London, Law: Fingerprint evidence was used to solve a murder investigation. Three years earlier a British court had accepted fingerprint evidence in a case of theft. This was the first time it was used in a capital crime.

1912 DC, Politics: A gift from Japan, the first of three thousand Yoshina cherry trees were planted along the north bank of the Potomac River’s Tidal Basin near the Jefferson Memorial. After Pearl Harbor some of the trees were hit by vandals (who no doubt did not enlist to go to war), inspiring others in Congress to call for their complete destruction. In response the Parks Department re-branded the trees as Oriental implying a connection with ally China against Japan. Whew! In 1965 the Japanese government gave another four thousand cherry trees. These latter trees were planted around the Washington Monument. They are sight in the spring.

1958 Moscow, Politics: Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Communist Party, became premier of the Soviet Union, consolidating his position still more. N.B. First Secretary of the Party is much more important than being premier of the state or president of the nation, unlike in most polities.