March 27

1513 – Spanish Conquistador Juan Ponce de León reaches the northern end of the Bahamas on his first voyage to Florida.

1794 – The United States establishes a permanent navy and authorizes the building of 6 frigates.

1814 – During the War of 1812, U.S. forces under General Andrew Jackson defeat the Red Sticks, a part of the Creek Indian tribe, at the Battle of Horseshow Bend of Tallapoosa River in central Alabama, effectively ending the Creek nation’s involvement in the War.

1836 – During the Texas Revolution, on the orders of General Antonio López de Santa Anna, the Mexican army massacres 342 Texas prisoners of war at Goliad, Texas.

1866 – President Andrew Johnson vetoes the Civil Rights Act of 1866. His veto is overridden by Congress and the bill passes into law on April 9.

1886 – During surrender negotiations between Geronimo and U.S. Army General George Crook, photographer C. S. Fly takes several pictures of Geronimo and his band,  the only known photographs taken of American Indians while still at war with the United States.

1899 – Emilio Aguinaldo, age 30, the first and youngest President of the Philippines, leads Filipino forces for the only time during the Philippine–American War, being defeated at the Battle of Marilao River.

1915 – Typhoid Mary, the first healthy carrier of disease ever identified in the U.S. is put in quarantine for the second time, and for the rest of her life.

1943 – U.S. Navy Task Group 16.6 intercepts, engages and forces a withdrawal of Japanese ships off the Soviet Komandorski Islands that were attempting to reinforce the occupying Japanese garrison at Kiska Island.

1964 – The most powerful earthquake recorded in North American history,  at a magnitude of 9.2 strikes Southcentral Alaska, killing 125 people and inflicting massive damage to the city of Anchorage.

1975 – Construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System begins.

1976 – The first section of the Washington D.C. Metro rail system opens to the public.

1977 – On Tenerife,  in the Canary Islands, KLM Flight 4805 and Pan Am Flight 1736, both Boeing 747 airliners, collide on the airport’s main runway, killing all 248 passengers and crew aboard the KLM plane, and 335 of the 396 passengers and crew aboard the Pan Am plane. This is still the deadliest aviation accident in history.

1990 – The U.S. begins broadcasting anti-Castro propaganda to Cuba on TV Martí.

1999 – Over Kosovo, a USAF Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk, piloted by LTC. Darrell Zelko is shot down by the Yugoslav 3rd Brigade of the 250th Air Defense Missile Brigade firing a S-125 Neva SAM-3, the first and only F-117 to be lost in combat.

2000 – A Phillips Petroleum plant explosion in Pasadena, Texas kills 1 person and injures 71 other people.

2002 – A Palestinian moslem terrorist suicide bomber kills 29 people at a Passover seder in Netanya, Israel.

2020 – The nation of North Macedonia becomes the 30th member of NATO.