Today in History for March 27, 2015

Major General Frederick Steele

March 27, 1513 – Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León reached the northern end of the Bahamas on his first voyage to Florida.

March 27, 1775 - Future President Thomas Jefferson was elected to the second Continental Congress. Jefferson, a Virginia delegate, quickly established himself in the Continental Congress with the publication of his paper entitled “A Summary View of the Rights of British America.” Throughout the next year, Jefferson published several more papers, most notably “Drafts and Notes on the Virginia Constitution.”

March 27, 1776 - The British left Boston and sailed for Halifax, Nova Scotia.

March 27, 1794 – The United States Congress and President George Washington established a permanent navy and authorized the building of six frigates.

March 27, 1814 – During the War of 1812, in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in Central Alabama, Andrew Jackson led a force of Americans, Creeks, and Cherokees against Red Stick Creeks which were led by Chief Menawa. Attacking the Red Stick stronghold of Tohopeka on the banks of the Tallapoosa River, Jackson's men killed more than 900 people. The victory soon led to the end of the Creek War and the cession of 23 million acres of Creek territory to the United States.

March 27, 1815 - Alabama author William Russell Smith was born in Russellville, Ky.

March 27, 1820 - English admiral and explorer Sir Edward Augustus Inglefield was born in Cheltenham, England. He led one of the searches for the missing Arctic explorer John Franklin during the 1850s. In doing so, his expedition charted previously unexplored areas along the northern Canadian coastline, including Baffin Bay, Smith Sound and Lancaster Sound.

March 27, 1825 – During his tour of the United States, the Marquis de Lafayette spent the night at the Gachet House in Lamar County, Georgia.

March 27, 1844 – American general, explorer and Medal of Honor recipient Adolphus Greely was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts.

March 27, 1862 – During the Civil War, a five-day Federal operation began on and around Santa Rosa Island, Fla.

March 27, 1865 – During the Civil War, Union Major General Frederick Steele’s column from Pensacola, Fla. reached Canoe Station near Atmore, Ala. and encamped.

March 27, 1865 – During the Civil War, Union Gen. E.R.S. Canby, with 32,000 men, laid siege to Spanish Fort. The siege would last for 13 days.

March 27, 1865 - President Abraham Lincoln met with Union generals Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman at City Point, Virginia to plot the last stages of the Civil War.

March 27, 1868 – Patty Smith Hill, who wrote the song “Happy Birthday to You,” was born in Anchorage, Ky.

March 27, 1879 – Baseball Hall of Fame second baseman and manager Miller Huggins was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He would go on to play for the Cincinnati Reds and the St. Louis Cardinals and also managed the Cardinals and the New York Yankees. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1964.

March 27, 1884 – German zoologist and explorer Richard Böhm passed away at the age of 29 in Katapana, Katanga.

March 27, 1886 – Famous Apache warrior, Geronimo, surrendered to the U.S. Army, ending the main phase of the Apache Wars.

March 27, 1899 - The first international radio transmission between England and France was achieved by the Italian inventor G. Marconi.

March 27, 1904 - On Sunday evening, while he was visiting the home of a crony, Alderman Gray, Whipple Van Buren Phillips, H.P. Lovecraft’s grandfather, was seized by a “paralytic shock,” likely a stroke. He died the following day, near midnight at his home at 454 Angell Street in Providence, R.I.

March 27, 1910 – In Lovecraftian fiction, Edith Brendall disappeared from Bonn, Germany and her body was discovered in the Rhine River on April 4 of the same year.

March 27, 1912 – President William Howard Taft’s wife, Helen Herron Taft, and the wife of the ambassador from Japan planted the first of Washington, D.C.’s cherry trees.The cuttings were scions from the most famous trees in Tokyo, the ones that grow along the banks of the Arakawa River. Workers took over, and thousands of cherry trees, all gifts from the Japanese government, were planted around the Tidal Basin.

March 27, 1915 – Conecuh County Sheriff Williams and Deputy Davis arrested Finley Cowling near Brooklyn, Ala. for the alleged theft of a horse belonging to Dr. M.M. Strickland of Minter in Dallas County. The horse was recovered and Cowling was placed in jail.

March 27, 1915 – J.D. Skinner of Belleville, Ala. reported that while traveling from his home to Bermuda a few days before he saw “quantities of boll weevils flying about. If any great number come out of hibernation this early they will die out before they get something to feed on.”

March 27, 1916 - Author Catherine Rodgers was born in Camp Hill, Ala.

March 27, 1923 – Poet Louis Simpson was born in Kingston, Jamaica.

March 27, 1928 – Confederate veteran T.S. Hagood of Evergreen, Ala. passed away.

March 27, 1943 - Aauthor Perry Lentz was born in Anniston, Ala.

March 27, 1950 - Novelist and poet Julia Alvarez was born in New York City.

March 27, 1952 – Truman Capote's stage adaptation of his novel, “The Grass Harp,” directed by Robert Lewis, opened at Broadway's Martin Beck Theatre, where it ran for 36 performances.

March 27, 1963 – Director Quentin Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tenn.

March 27, 1964 - The “Good Friday Earthquake” killed 131 people in Alaska. Lasting almost five minutes, it was the most powerful recorded quake in U.S. history-- 8.4 on the Richter scale.

March 27, 1965 – A plane crash near the Drewry community in Monroe County claimed the lives of Reuben Ludger Lapeyrouse, 33, and Keaton C. Hardy, 43, both of Mobile. A third man, Clay Medley Godwin, 22, of Mobile survived the crash, but died a short time later. Lapeyrouse was the head of the Lapeyrouse Grain Corporation, and Godwin worked in the office at Lapeyrouse Grain Corp.

March 27, 1969 – The Evergreen Courant reported that six members of Boy Scout Troop 40 in Evergreen were inducted into the Order of the Arrow during the recent Alabama-Florida Spring Camporee.

March 27, 1969 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Spec-5 Lowell Jernigan had received the Army Commendation Medal for Meritorious Service. Jernigan, a 1964 graduate of Evergreen High School and later the University of Alabama, was an instructor at the Atomic Demolition Munitions Systems Branch, Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Division, Dept. of Engineering and Military Science, U.S. Army Engineer School, at Ft. Belvoir, Va.

March 27, 1976 – The first segment of the Washington Metro opened, and some 50,000 people stood in line for hours to take a free ride on the Red Line, which ran from Rhode Island Avenue to the Farragut North underground station. The first segment ran for about four and a half miles, and the trip lasted less than 10 minutes.

March 27, 1977 - Two 747s collided on a foggy runway in the Canary Islands in the worst accident in aviation history -- 583 died.

March 27, 1981 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan hosted a luncheon honoring the members of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

March 27, 1989 - Sport Illustrated exposed Pete Rose's gambling activities. The magazine article alleged Rose bet on baseball from the Riverfront dugout using hand gestures with an associate.

March 27, 1994 - Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina were hit by a series of tornadoes that killed 42 people.

March 27, 1994 – A church in Piedmont, Ala. collapsed during a tornado, and 19 people inside were killed.

March 27, 2007 - NFL owners voted, 30-2, to make the video replay system a permanent officiating tool.

March 27, 2012 – Evergreen city officials presented local basketball star Chris Hines with a special proclamation and key to the city during a special ceremony at Evergreen City Hall.