Today in History

Today is Thursday, March 7, the 67th day of 2024. There are 299 days left in the year.

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 became 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 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 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 2013, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously for tough new sanctions to punish North Korea for its latest nuclear test; a furious Pyongyang threatened a nuclear strike against the United States.

In 2016, Peyton Manning announced his retirement after 18 seasons in the National Football League.

In 2017, the Indianapolis Colts released injured quarterback Peyton Manning, who went on to play for the Denver Broncos.

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.

In 2022, the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine deepened as Russian forces intensified their shelling and food, water, heat and medicine grew increasingly scarce in what the country condemned as a medieval-style siege by Moscow to batter it into submission.

Today’s birthdays: International Motorsports Hall of Famer Janet Guthrie is 86. Actor Daniel J. Travanti is 84. Entertainment executive Michael Eisner is 82. Rock musician Chris White (The Zombies) is 81. Rock singer Peter Wolf is 78. Rock musician Matthew Fisher (Procol Harum) is 78. Pro and College Football Hall of Famer Lynn Swann is 72. R&B singer-musician Ernie Isley (The Isley Brothers) is 72. Rock musician Kenny Aronoff (BoDeans, John Mellencamp) is 71. Actor Bryan Cranston is 68. Actor Donna Murphy is 65. Actor Nick Searcy is 65. Golfer Tom Lehman is 65. International Tennis Hall of Famer Ivan Lendl is 64. Actor Mary Beth Evans is 63. Singer-actor Taylor Dayne is 62. Actor Bill Brochtrup is 61. Author E.L. James is 61. Author Bret Easton Ellis is 60. Opera singer Denyce Graves is 60. Comedian Wanda Sykes is 60. Actor Jonathan Del Arco is 58. Rock musician Randy Guss (Toad the Wet Sprocket) is 57. Actor Rachel Weisz is 54. Actor Peter Sarsgaard is 53. Actor Jay Duplass is 51. Classical singer Sebastien Izambard (Il Divo) is 51. Rock singer Hugo Ferreira (Tantric) is 50. Actor Jenna Fischer is 50. Actor Tobias Menzies is 50. Actor Sarayu Blue is 49. Actor Audrey Marie Anderson is 49. Actor TJ Thyne is 49. Bluegrass singer-musician Frank Solivan is 47. Actor Laura Prepon is 44. Actor Bel Powley is 32. Poet and activist Amanda Gorman is 26. Actor Giselle Eisenberg (TV: “Life in Pieces”) is 17.