Today in History

Today is Monday, March 7, the 67th day of 2016. There are 299 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On March 7, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell received a U.S. patent for his telephone.

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 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 1955, the first TV production of the musical "Peter Pan" starring Mary Martin aired on NBC.

In 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."

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.

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

Ten 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.

Five 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.

One year ago: President Barack Obama joined tens of thousands of people in Selma, Alabama, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the "Bloody Sunday" march of 1965, saying that America's racial history "still casts its long shadow upon us." Nigeria's home-grown Boko Haram Islamic extremists pledged formal allegiance to the Islamic State group as they battled a multinational force that had dislodged them from a number of towns in the north. Izola Ware Curry, who had stabbed the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the chest with a letter opener at a Harlem book signing in 1958, died at a nursing home in Queens, New York, at age 98.

Today's Birthdays: Photographer Lord Snowdon is 86. TV personality Willard Scott is 82. International Motorsports Hall of Famer Janet Guthrie is 78. Actor Daniel J. Travanti is 76. Entertainment executive Michael Eisner is 74. Rock musician Chris White (The Zombies) is 73. Actor John Heard is 70. Rock singer Peter Wolf is 70. Rock musician Matthew Fisher (Procol Harum) is 70. Pro Football Hall-of-Famer Franco Harris is 66. Pro and College Football Hall-of-Famer Lynn Swann is 64. Rhythm-and-blues singer-musician Ernie Isley (The Isley Brothers) is 64. Rock musician Kenny Aronoff (BoDeans, John Mellencamp) is 63. Actor Bryan Cranston is 60. Actress Donna Murphy is 57. Actor Nick Searcy is 57. Golfer Tom Lehman is 57. International Tennis Hall-of-Famer Ivan Lendl is 56. Actress Mary Beth Evans is 55. Singer-actress Taylor Dayne is 54. Actor Bill Brochtrup is 53. Opera singer Denyce Graves is 52. Comedian Wanda Sykes is 52. Actor Jonathan Del Arco is 50. Rock musician Randy Guss (Toad the Wet Sprocket) is 49. Actor Peter Sarsgaard is 45. Actress Rachel Weisz is 45. Actor Jay Duplass is 43. Classical singer Sebastien Izambard (Il Divo) is 43. Rock singer Hugo Ferreira (Tantric) is 42. Actress Jenna Fischer is 42. Actor Tobias Menzies is 42. Actress Sarayu Rao is 41. Actress Audrey Marie Anderson is 41. Actor TJ Thyne is 41. Actress Laura Prepon is 36. Actress Bel Powley (Film: "Diary of a Teenage Girl") is 24.

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).