TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Sunday, March 7, the 66th day of 2021

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, Ala., 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 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.

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. Navy issued its first permanent orders assigning women to regular duty on a combat ship — in this case, the aircraft carrier Eisenhower.

In 2001, Ariel Sharon was sworn in as Israel’s prime minister, serving until he suffered a stroke in 2006.

In 2010, 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.

Ten years 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.

Five years ago: Peyton Manning announced his retirement after 18 seasons in the National Football League. A jury awarded sports reporter Erin Andrews $55 million in her lawsuit against a stalker who rented a hotel room next to hers and secretly recorded her, finding that the hotel companies and the stalker shared in the blame. Stephen Curry scored 41 points and became the first player in NBA history to make 300 3pointers in a season as the Golden State Warriors held off the Orlando Magic 119-113 for their 45th straight home victory.

One year ago: 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. A hotel in southeastern China that was being used to quarantine suspected coronavirus patients collapsed, killing 29 people.

Today’s birthdays

TV personality Willard Scott is

87. Race car driver Janet Guthrie is 83. Actor Daniel J. Travanti is

81. Musician Chris White (The Zombies) is 78. Singer Peter Wolf is 75. Pro Football Hall of Famer Franco Harris is 71. Pro Football Hall of Famer Lynn Swann is 69. Musician Ernie Isley is 69. Actor Bryan Cranston is 65. Singer Taylor Dayne is 59. Author E.L. James is 58. Author Bret Easton Ellis is 57. Actor Wanda Sykes is 57. Actor Rachel Weisz is 51. Actor Peter Sarsgaard is 50. Actor Jay Duplass is

48. Actor Jenna Fischer is 47. Actor Laura Prepon is 41.