March 27

Guglielmo Marconi transmits the first wireless radio signal across the English Channel.

Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi successfully transmitted a wireless radio signal across the English Channel from England to France, a significant advance beyond his earlier shorter-range experiments demonstrating the practical long-distance potential of wireless telegraphy. The achievement helped secure funding and public attention for his ongoing work, which culminated years later in the first transatlantic radio transmission.

First Lady Helen Herron Taft plants the first of Washington, D.C.'s famous Japanese cherry trees, a gift from Tokyo.

First Lady Helen Herron Taft and the Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, planted the first two Japanese cherry trees along the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C., a gift from the city of Tokyo that grew into the capital's beloved annual Cherry Blossom Festival tradition.

Nikita Khrushchev becomes Premier of the Soviet Union, consolidating his leadership.

Following a period of collective leadership within the Communist Party's Presidium after Stalin's death, Nikita Khrushchev formally became Premier of the Soviet Union, consolidating the power he had been steadily accumulating since becoming First Secretary of the Communist Party years earlier. His subsequent rule brought de-Stalinization reforms alongside continued Cold War confrontation with the West.

A magnitude 9.2 earthquake, the second-strongest ever recorded, strikes Alaska, triggering deadly tsunamis.

The most powerful earthquake ever recorded in North America, magnitude 9.2, struck Prince William Sound in Alaska, triggering tsunamis that devastated coastal communities across the Pacific and killed around 130 people in one of the largest seismic events in recorded history.

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first person in space, is killed in a jet training accident.

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human to travel into space in 1961, was killed along with a flight instructor when their MiG-15 training jet crashed during a routine flight, a death whose exact circumstances remain the subject of ongoing investigation and speculation.

Two Boeing 747s collide on a foggy runway in Tenerife, killing 583 people in the deadliest accident in aviation history.

Two Boeing 747 jumbo jets, operated by Pan Am and KLM, collided on a fog-shrouded runway at Los Rodeos Airport in Tenerife after a series of miscommunications between air traffic control and the KLM crew, who began takeoff without clearance. The disaster killed 583 people and remains, decades later, the deadliest accident in the history of civil aviation.

The Alexander L. Kielland oil platform capsizes in the North Sea, killing 123 workers.

The semi-submersible oil platform Alexander L. Kielland, serving as a floating dormitory for oil workers in the Norwegian North Sea, capsized during a storm after a structural failure, killing 123 of the 212 people aboard in one of the worst offshore disasters in the industry's history.

Italian voters go to the polls in the country's first elections under a new electoral system, ushering media mogul Silvio Berlusconi to power.

Italy held its first general election under a new mostly majoritarian electoral system, resulting in victory for a center-right coalition led by media magnate Silvio Berlusconi, who became prime minister and remained one of the most dominant and controversial figures in Italian politics for two decades.

The FDA approves Viagra, the first oral drug for erectile dysfunction, for sale in the United States.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved sildenafil, marketed as Viagra, as the first oral medication for treating erectile dysfunction, a breakthrough that quickly became a cultural phenomenon and transformed the treatment of a condition previously considered difficult to discuss openly.

A Hamas suicide bomber kills 30 people at a Passover Seder in Netanya, Israel, prompting a major Israeli military response.

A Hamas suicide bomber detonated explosives at a Passover Seder in a hotel in Netanya, Israel, killing 30 people and wounding over a hundred. The attack, among the deadliest of the Second Intifada, prompted Israel to launch a major military operation in the West Bank days later.