Today is Tuesday, March 7, the 66th day of 2017. There are 299 days left in the year.
Today’s highlight: On March 7, 1967, the musical “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” based on the “Peanuts” comic strips by Charles M. Schulz with Gary Burghoff in the title role, opened in New York’s Greenwich Village, beginning an off-Broadway run of 1,597 performances.
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 U.S. patent for his telephone.
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.)
Ten years ago: A sex offender was found guilty in Miami of kidnapping, raping and murdering 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, who was buried alive. (John Evander 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.
Five years ago: President Barack Obama, speaking at a Daimler truck plant in Mount Holly, North Carolina, made his most urgent appeal to date for the nation to wean itself from oil, calling it a “fuel of the past” and demanding that the United States broaden its approach to energy. The Indianapolis Colts released injured quarterback Peyton Manning, who went on to play for the Denver Broncos.
One year ago: Peyton Manning announced his retirement after 18 seasons in the National Football League. A jury in Nashville, Tennessee, 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 3-pointers in a season as the Golden State Warriors held off the Orlando Magic 119-113 for their 45th straight home victory.
Today’s birthdays: TV personality Willard Scott is 83. International Motorsports Hall of Famer Janet Guthrie is 79. Actor Daniel J. Travanti is 77. Entertainment executive Michael Eisner is 75. Rock musician Chris White (The Zombies) is 74. Actor John Heard is 71. Rock singer Peter Wolf is 71. Rock musician Matthew Fisher (Procol Harum) is 71. Pro Football Hall-of-Famer Franco Harris is 67. Pro and College Football Hall-of-Famer Lynn Swann is 65. Rhythm-and-blues singer-musician Ernie Isley (The Isley Brothers) is 65. Rock musician Kenny Aronoff (BoDeans, John Mellencamp) is 64. Actor Bryan Cranston is 61. Actress Donna Murphy is 58. Actor Nick Searcy is 58. Golfer Tom Lehman is 58. International Tennis Hall-of-Famer Ivan Lendl is 57. Actress Mary Beth Evans is 56. Singer-actress Taylor Dayne is 55. Actor Bill Brochtrup is 54. Author E.L. James (“Fifty Shades of Grey”) is 54. Author Bret Easton Ellis (“American Psycho”) is 53. Opera singer Denyce Graves is 53. Comedian Wanda Sykes is 53. Actor Jonathan Del Arco is 51. Rock musician Randy Guss (Toad the Wet Sprocket) is 50. Actress Rachel Weisz is 47. Actor Peter Sarsgaard is 46. Actor Jay Duplass is 44. Classical singer Sebastien Izambard (Il Divo) is 44. Rock singer Hugo Ferreira (Tantric) is 43. Actress Jenna Fischer is 43. Actor Tobias Menzies is 43. Actress Sarayu Rao is 42. Actress Audrey Marie Anderson is 42. Actor TJ Thyne is 42. Bluegrass singer-musician Frank Solivan is 40. Actress Laura Prepon is 37. Actress Bel Powley is 25.
Thought for today: “All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” — Charles M. Schulz, American cartoonist (1922-2000).
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