Today in History.....March 27

On this day in …

* 1513, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon sighted Florida

* 1794, President Washington and Congress authorized creation of the U.S. Navy

* 1884, the first long-distance call. Branch managers of the American Bell Telephone Company in Boston called their counterparts in New York City

* 1912, in Washington, D.C., Helen Taft, wife of President William Taft, and the Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, plant two Yoshina cherry trees on the northern bank of the Potomac River, near the Jefferson Memorial. The event was held in celebration of a gift, by the Japanese government, of 3,020 cherry trees to the U.S. government

* 1917, the Seattle Metropolitans became the first U.S. team to win the Stanley Cup as they defeated the Montreal Canadiens

* 1952, Singin' in the Rain, considered by many to be the greatest Hollywood musical ever made, premieres at New York's Radio City Music Hall

* 1958, Nikita Khrushchev became Soviet premier in addition to First Secretary of the Communist Party

* 1964, the strongest earthquake in American history, measuring 8.4 on the Richter scale, slams southern Alaska, creating a deadly tsunami. Some 125 people were killed and thousands injured

* 1996, an Israeli court convicted Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's confessed assassin of murder, then sentenced former law student Yigal Amir to life in prison

* 2002, President Bush signed a campaign finance reform bill into law.; ALSO, a "Palestinian" suicide bomber, a practitioner of that "religion of peace", 19 Israelis attending a Passover seder at a hotel in Netanya. More than 100 others were injured