This Day in History - March 27

1794 - President Washington and Congress authorized creation of the US Navy.

1512 - Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon sighted Florida.

1625 - Charles the First ascended the English throne upon the death of James the First.

1836 - the first Mormon temple was dedicated, in Kirtland, Ohio.

1917 - the Seattle Metropolitans became the first US team to win the Stanley Cup as they defeated the Montreal Canadiens.

1945 - during World War Two, General Dwight D. Eisenhower told reporters in Paris that German defenses on the Western Front had been broken.

1958 - Nikita Khrushchev became Soviet premier in addition to First Secretary of the Communist Party.

1964 - Alaska was rocked by a powerful earthquake that killed 114 people.

1968 - Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man to orbit the earth, died in a plane crash.

1977 - 582 people were killed when a KLM Boeing 747, attempting to take off, crashed into a Pan Am 747 on the Canary Island of Tenerife.

1998 - the Food and Drug Administration approved the drug Viagra, made by Pfizer, saying it helped about two-thirds of impotent men improve their sexual function.