March 27, 1912: In Washington, D.C., Helen Taft, wife of
President William Taft, and the Viscountess Chinda, wife
of the Japanese ambassador, plant two Yoshino cherry
trees on the northern bank of the Potomac River, near
the Jefferson Memorial.

The event commemorated a gift, by the Japanese of some
3,020 cherry trees to the U.S. government.

The planting of Japanese cherry trees along the Potomac
was first proposed by socialite Eliza Scidmore, who raised
money for the endeavor.

After learning of the first lady’s interest, the Japanese
consul in New York suggested making a gift of the trees
to the U.S. government from the city of Tokyo.

Helen and William Taft

The Mayor of Tokyo Yukio Ozaki gave the US capital 3,000
cherry blossom trees as a gift to celebrate the friendship between the US and Japan. The cherry blossom is the
national flower of Japan.

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed
Executive Order 9066, initiating a controversial World War II
policy with lasting consequences for Japanese Americans.

The document ordered the forced removal of resident "enemy
aliens" from parts of the West vaguely identified as military
areas.

 
MIKE GRACIA

Douglas Wilder, the first African American to be elected governor
of an American state, took office as Governor of Virginia on this
day in 1990. Wilder broke a number of color barriers in Virginia
politics and remains an enduring and controversial figure in the
state’s political scene.

Born in 1931 in Church Hill, a poor and segregated neighborhood
of Richmond, Wilder is the grandson of slaves and is named for Frederick Douglass. He grew up in the Jim Crow era, graduating
from Richmond’s Virginia Union University in 1951. Wilder fought
in the Korean War, earning the Bronze Star, before studying law
at Howard University and returning to Richmond to practice.

HONOLULU (AP) — Warren ‘Red’ Upton, the oldest living
survivor of the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and
the last remaining survivor of the USS Utah, has died. He
was 105. 

Kathleen Farley, of the California state chair of the Sons
and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors said Upton died
Wednesday at a hospital in Los Gatos, California, after
suffering a bout of pneumonia.

The Utah, a battleship, was moored at Pearl Harbor when
Japanese planes began bombing the Hawaii naval base 
in the early hours of Dec. 7, 1941, the attack propelled
the U.S. into World War II.

On June 4, 1942, the Battle of Midway—one of the most decisive
U.S. victories against Japan during World War II—began.