What Happened in History: Browse Historical Facts on Kudos 365

The U.S. first lady Helen Herron Taft and the Viscountess Iwa Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, plant the first two cherry trees from a gift of 3,020 trees from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo to Washington, D.C. The two first trees were planted on the northern bank of the Potomac River Tidal Basin. The ceremonial event is now commemorated at the annual Washington’s National Cherry Blossom Festival. After the end of the 2024 spring’s National Cherry Blossom Festival, the National Park Service will cut down 158 cherry trees from the nearly 3,700 total to reconstruct a seawall around the Tidal Basin, fortifying the area against sea level rise and extreme precipitation events. More