 Today's highlight in history:
On March 7, 1912, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen arrived in
Hobart, Australia, where he dispatched telegrams announcing his
success in leading the first expedition to the South Pole the
previous December.
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 1911, President William Howard Taft ordered 20,000 troops to
patrol the U.S.-Mexico border in response to the Mexican Revolution.
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 2/3 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.
In 1994, the Supreme Court, in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.,
ruled that a parody that pokes fun at an original work can be
considered "fair use" that doesn't require permission from the
copyright holder. (The ruling concerned a parody of the song "Pretty
Woman" by the rap group 2 Live Crew.)
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 Ten years ago: The House passed, 417-3, a bill cutting taxes
and extending unemployment benefits. By a razor-thin margin, voters
in Ireland rejected a government plan to further toughen the
country's already strict anti-abortion laws. Five years ago: Sex offender John Evander
Couey was found guilty in Miami of kidnapping, raping and murdering
9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, who'd been buried alive. (Couey was
sentenced to death, but died of natural causes in September 2009.)
Ten people, most of them children, were killed in the Bronx, New
York, when fire tore through their home. A suicide attacker blew
himself up in a cafe northeast of Baghdad, killing 30 people.
One year ago: Reversing course, President Barack Obama
approved the resumption of military trials at the U.S. prison at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, ending a two-year ban. Charlie Sheen was fired
from the sitcom "Two and a Half Men" by Warner Bros. Television
following repeated misbehavior and weeks of the actor's angry,
often-manic media campaign against his studio bosses.
Today's birthdays: Photographer Lord Snowdon is 82. TV
personality Willard Scott is 78. Auto racer Janet Guthrie is 74.
Actor Daniel J. Travanti is 72. Former Walt Disney Co. chief
executive officer Michael Eisner is 70. Rock musician Chris White
(The Zombies) is 69. Actor John Heard is 66. Rock singer Peter Wolf
is 66. Rock musician Matthew Fisher (Procol Harum) is 66. Pro
Football Hall-of-Famer Franco Harris is 62. Pro and College Football
Hall-of-Famer Lynn Swann is 60. Rhythm-and-blues singer-musician
Ernie Isley (The Isley Brothers) is 60. Actor Bryan Cranston is 56.
Actress Donna Murphy is 53. Actor Nick Searcy is 53. Golfer Tom
Lehman is 53. International Tennis Hall-of-Famer Ivan Lendl is 52.
Actress Mary Beth Evans is 51. Singer-actress Taylor Dayne is 50.
Actor Bill Brochtrup is 49. Opera singer Denyce Graves is 48.
Comedian Wanda Sykes is 48. Rock musician Randy Guss (Toad the Wet
Sprocket) is 45. Actor Peter Sarsgaard is 41. Actress Rachel Weisz (wys)
is 41. Classical singer Sebastien Izambard (Il Divo) is 39. Rock
singer Hugo Ferreira (Tantric) is 38. Actress Jenna Fischer is 38.
Actress Audrey Marie Anderson is 37. Actor TJ Thyne (TV: "Bones") is
37. Actress Laura Prepon is 32.
Thought for today: "In a democracy dissent is an act of
faith. Like medicine, the test of its value is not in its taste, but
in its effects." -- J. William Fulbright, U.S. senator
(1905-1995)
[Associated Press]
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