On this date...

Cherry Blossoms, Washington DC (VisitMontgomery image)

In 1513, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon sighted Florida.

In 1775, Future President Thomas Jefferson was elected to the second Continental Congress.

In 1776, Reports pour into Washington’s headquarters: The British fleet has finally abandoned the coast of Boston. He immediately writes John Hancock to report that “the whole of the Ministerial Fleet besides three or four Ships” has gotten underway and is “standing out for Sea.” 

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 1814, at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend (Tohopeka, Alabama) in the Creek War, Andrew Jackson and his 3,000 troops defeated the Creek Indians, slaughtering more than 800 warriors and imprisoning 500 women and children.

In 1836, in a disastrous setback for the Texans resisting Santa Anna’s regime, the Mexican army defeated and executed 417 Texas revolutionaries at Goliad.

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

In 1863, American Confederate President Jefferson Davis called for a day of fasting & prayer.

In 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.

In 1866, US President Andrew Johnson vetoed the Civil Rights Bill; it later became the 14th Amendment.

In 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.

In 1915, American domestic Mary Mallon, better known as Typhoid Mary, was placed under quarantine on North Brother Island, New York City, that lasted until her death in 1938; a typhoid carrier, she was allegedly responsible for multiple outbreaks of typhoid fever.

In 1929, President Herbert Hoover had a phone installed at his desk in the Oval Office of the White House.

In 1939, the University of Oregon defeated The Ohio State University 46–33 to win the first-ever NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

In 1945, General Eisenhower declared German defenses on the Western Front broken.

In 1948, just 11 days after being released from prison, jazz singer Billie Holiday played in front of a sold-out crowd at Carnegie Hall, NYC.

In 1964, South-central Alaska was struck by a 9.2-magnitude earthquake that was the strongest quake ever registered in the United States.

In 1973, the actor Marlon Brando declined the Academy Award for Best Actor for his career-reviving performance in The Godfather.

In 1975, Construction began on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, which spans 800 miles (1,300 km). The oil pipeline cost $8 billion and was completed in 1977.

In 1984, after a year of blazing hot sales, the company that invented Hot Pockets received a registered trademark for the gooey stuffed sandwich that kids across the U.S. can easily heat in the microwave after school.

In 1997, Martin Luther King's son met James Earl Ray, his father's killer.

In 1998, the drug Viagra from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in treating erectile dysfunction.

In 2005, the TV medical drama "Grey's Anatomy," created by Shonda Rhimes, starring Ellen Pompeo and Sandra Oh, debuted on ABC.

In 2007, NFL owners voted to make instant replay a permanent officiating tool.

In 2009. President Barack Obama launched a fresh effort to defeat al-Qaida terrorists in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, ordering 4,000 more troops.

In 2020, a $2.2 trillion stimulus package, the largest in US history, was signed into law by President Donald Trump, saying, "I never signed anything with a 'T' on it."

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.)