Tidbits of History, March 27

March 27 is National Joe Day: Celebrated in honor of all the people with the name or nickname of “Joe”. According to the Social Security Administration the name Joseph was the 5th most used in the United States.

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

Birthday of the U.S. Navy as established by President Washington in 1794. The United States Government established a permanent navy and authorized the building of six frigates.


The Navy Theme Song is “Anchors Away”

The refrain is:

Anchors Away, my boys,
Anchors Aweigh.
Farewell to foreign shores,
We sail at break of day-ay-ay-ay.
Through our last night on shore,
Drink to the foam,
Until we meet once more,
Here’s wishing you a happy voyage home.

Birthday of Nathaniel Currier (March 27, 1813), American publisher and founder of Currier & Ives, printmakers

1814 – War of 1812: In central Alabama, U.S. forces under General Andrew Jackson defeated the Creek at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend.

Texas Revolution: Goliad massacre – Antonio López de Santa Anna ordered the Mexican army to kill about 400 Texas captured prisoners at Goliad, Texas, March 27, 1836.

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

cherryblossomswashmonFirst Lady Helen Taft and Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, planted the first flowering cherry trees in Washington, D.C. in 1912.

Typhoid Mary, the first healthy carrier of disease ever identified in the United States, was put in quarantine in 1915, where she would remain for the rest of her life. She died in 1938.

1958 – Nikita Khrushchev became Premier of the Soviet Union.

The Food and Drug Administration approved Viagra for use as a treatment for male impotence, the first pill to be approved for this condition in the United States in 1998. Men with heart conditions should not use Viagara. Unfortunately when Viagra and Nitroglycerin are taken too close together they can cause an irreversible drop in bloodpressure and sudden death.

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