Today’s Highlight in History:
On March 7, 1965, a march by civil rights demonstrators was violently broken up at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, by state troopers and a sheriff’s posse in what came to be known as “Bloody Sunday.”
On this date:
In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell received a U.S. patent for his telephone.
In 1911, President William Howard Taft ordered 20,000 troops to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border in response to the Mexican Revolution.
In 1916, Bavarian Motor Works (BMW) had its beginnings in Munich, Germany, as an airplane engine manufacturer.
In 1926, the first successful trans-Atlantic radio-telephone conversations took place between New York and London.
In 1936, Adolf Hitler ordered his troops to march into the Rhineland, thereby breaking the Treaty of Versailles (vehr-SY’) and the Locarno Pact.
In 1945, during World War II, U.S. forces crossed the Rhine at Remagen, Germany, using the damaged but still usable Ludendorff Bridge.
In 1975, the U.S. Senate revised its filibuster rule, allowing 60 senators to limit debate in most cases, instead of the previously required two-thirds of senators present.
In 1985: “We Are the World” was released as a single by USA for Africa.
In 1994, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a parody that pokes fun at an original work can be considered “fair use.” (The ruling concerned a parody of the Roy Orbison song “Oh, Pretty Woman” by the rap group 2 Live Crew.)
In 1999, movie director Stanley Kubrick, whose films included “Dr. Strangelove,” “A Clockwork Orange” and “2001: A Space Odyssey,” died in Hertfordshire, England, at age 70, having just finished editing “Eyes Wide Shut.”
In 2005, President George W. Bush nominated John Bolton to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, an appointment that ran into Democratic opposition, prompting Bush to make a recess appointment.
In 2016, Peyton Manning announced his retirement after 18 seasons in the National Football League.
In 2020, health officials in Florida said two people who had tested positive for the new coronavirus had died; the deaths were the first on the East Coast attributed to the outbreak.
Ten years ago: President Barack Obama, speaking at a Daimler truck plant in Mount Holly, North Carolina, made his most urgent appeal to date for the nation to wean itself from oil, calling it a “fuel of the past” and demanding that the United States broaden its approach to energy. The Indianapolis Colts released injured quarterback Peyton Manning, who went on to play for the Denver Broncos.
Five years ago: WikiLeaks published thousands of documents described as secret files about CIA hacking tools the government employed to break into users’ computers, mobile phones and even smart TVs from companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft and Samsung. The Commerce Department reported the U.S. trade deficit jumped in January 2017 by 9.6 percent to $48.5 billion, the highest level in nearly five years as a flood of mobile phones and other consumer products widened America’s trade gap with China. A freight train smashed into a charter bus at a rail crossing in Biloxi, Mississippi, leaving four people dead.
One year ago: In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, their first since they stepped aside from royal duties, Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, spoke of racism and mistreatment from within the royal family; Meghan, who is biracial, said the palace had failed to help her when she had suicidal thoughts, and that a member of the royal family had raised “concerns” about the color of her baby’s skin when she was pregnant with her son, Archie. Pope Francis wrapped up a historic whirlwind tour of Iraq that sought to bring hope to the country’s marginalized Christian minority. Team LeBron romped to a 170-150 win over Team Durant in the NBA’s 70th All-Star Game.
Today’s Birthdays: International Motorsports Hall of Famer Janet Guthrie is 84. Actor Daniel J. Travanti is 82. Entertainment executive Michael Eisner is 80. Rock musician Chris White (The Zombies) is 79. Rock singer Peter Wolf is 76. Rock musician Matthew Fisher (Procol Harum) is 76. Pro Football Hall of Famer Franco Harris is 72. Pro and College Football Hall of Famer Lynn Swann is 70. R&B singer-musician Ernie Isley (The Isley Brothers) is 70. Rock musician Kenny Aronoff (BoDeans, John Mellencamp) is 69. Actor Bryan Cranston is 66. Actor Donna Murphy is 63. Actor Nick Searcy is 63. Golfer Tom Lehman is 63. International Tennis Hall of Famer Ivan Lendl is 62. Actor Mary Beth Evans is 61. Singer-actor Taylor Dayne is 60. Actor Bill Brochtrup is 59. Author E.L. James is 59. Author Bret Easton Ellis is 58. Opera singer Denyce Graves is 58. Comedian Wanda Sykes is 58. Actor Jonathan Del Arco is 56. Rock musician Randy Guss (Toad the Wet Sprocket) is 55. Actor Rachel Weisz (vys) is 52. Actor Peter Sarsgaard is 51. Actor Jay Duplass is 49. Classical singer Sebastien Izambard (Il Divo) is 49.
Rock singer Hugo Ferreira (Tantric) is 48. Actor Jenna Fischer is 48. Actor Tobias Menzies is 48. Actor Sarayu Blue is 47. Actor Audrey Marie Anderson is 47. Actor TJ Thyne is 47. Bluegrass singer-musician Frank Solivan is 45. Actor Laura Prepon is 42. Actor Bel Powley is 30. Poet and activist Amanda Gorman is 24. Actor Giselle Eisenberg (TV: “Life in Pieces”) is 15.
