This day in history

[March 07, 2011]  (AP)  Today is Monday, March 7, the 66th day of 2011. There are 299 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On March 7, 1911, President William Howard Taft ordered 20,000 troops to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border in response to the Mexican Revolution.

On this date:

In 1793, during the French Revolutionary Wars, France declared war on Spain.

In 1850, in a three-hour speech to the U.S. Senate, Daniel Webster of Massachusetts endorsed the Compromise of 1850 as a means of preserving the Union.

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell received a patent for his telephone.

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 River at Remagen, Germany, using the damaged but still usable Ludendorff Bridge.

In 1960, Jack Paar returned as host of NBC's "Tonight Show," nearly a month after walking off in a censorship dispute with the network.

In 1965, a march by civil rights demonstrators was broken up in Selma, Ala., by state troopers and a sheriff's posse.

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 1981, anti-government guerrillas in Colombia executed kidnapped American Bible translator Chester Bitterman, whom they'd accused of being a CIA agent.

Ten years ago: Ariel Sharon was sworn in as Israel's prime minister.

Five years ago: The Bush administration drew a hard line on Iran, warning of "meaningful consequences" if the Islamic government did not back away from an international confrontation over its disputed nuclear program. Nobel Peace laureate Oscar Arias was declared Costa Rica's president-elect. Photographer and movie director Gordon Parks died in New York at age 93.

One year ago: The Iraq war thriller "The Hurt Locker" received six Academy Awards including best picture, with Kathryn Bigelow accepting the first directing Oscar awarded to a woman. Iraq held an election in which neither the Sunni-backed coalition nor the Shiite political bloc won a majority, spawning an eight-month deadlock and stalling formation of a new government.

Today's birthdays: Comedian Alan Sues is 85. Photographer Lord Snowdon is 81. TV personality Willard Scott is 77. Auto racer Janet Guthrie is 73. Actor Daniel J. Travanti is 71. Former Walt Disney Co. chief executive officer Michael Eisner is 69. Rock musician Chris White (The Zombies) is 68. Actor John Heard is 65. Rock singer Peter Wolf is 65. Rock musician Matthew Fisher (Procol Harum) is 65. Pro Football Hall-of-Famer Franco Harris is 61. Pro and College Football Hall-of-Famer Lynn Swann is 59. Rhythm-and-blues singer-musician Ernie Isley (The Isley Brothers) is 59. Actor Bryan Cranston is 55. Actress Donna Murphy is 52. Actor Nick Searcy is 52. Golfer Tom Lehman is 52. International Tennis Hall-of-Famer Ivan Lendl is 51. Actress Mary Beth Evans is 50. Actor Bill Brochtrup is 48. Opera singer Denyce Graves is 47. Comedian Wanda Sykes is 47. Singer-actress Taylor Dayne is 46. Rock musician Randy Guss (Toad the Wet Sprocket) is 44. Actor Peter Sarsgaard is 40. Actress Rachel Weisz (wys) is 40. Classical singer Sebastien Izambard (Il Divo) is 38. Rock singer Hugo Ferreira (Tantric) is 37. Actress Jenna Fischer is 37. Actress Audrey Marie Anderson is 36. Actor TJ Thyne (TV: "Bones") is 36. Actress Laura Prepon is 31.

Thought for today: "If you're not feeling good about you, what you're wearing outside doesn't mean a thing." -- Leontyne Price, American opera singer

[Associated Press]

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