March 27, first cherry trees planted in Washington D.C.

Today is Thursday, March 27, the 86th day of 2025. There are 279 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On March 27, 1912, in Washington D.C., 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.

Also on this date:

In 1794, Congress approved the “Act to provide a Naval Armament” of six armed ships, which provided the foundation of the permanent U.S. Navy.

In 1939, the first NCAA men’s Division I basketball championship game was held, with the University of Oregon defeating Ohio State, 46-33.

In 1964, Alaska was hit by a magnitude 9.2 earthquake (still the strongest on record in North America) and tsunamis that together claimed over 130 lives.

In 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.

In 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 and, in what would become one of the Oscars’ most famous moments, sent in his place actor and activist Sacheen Littlefeather, who spoke out about the depiction of Native Americans in Hollywood.

In 1975, construction began on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline; the 800-mile (1,290-kilometer) pipeline was completed just over two years later.

In 1977, in aviation’s deadliest 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.

In 1980, 123 workers died when a North Sea floating oil field platform, the Alexander Kielland, capsized during a storm.

In 2022, Will Smith slapped Chris Rock on stage at the 94th Academy Awards ceremony, winning the Oscar for best actor just minutes later. (Smith later resigned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and received a 10-year ban from the Oscars.)