Page One

Today is Thursday, March 7, the 66th day of 2002. There are 299 days left in the year. 

Today’s Highlight in History: 

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

On this date: 

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

In 1911, the United States sent 20,000 troops to the Mexican border as a precaution in the wake of the Mexican Revolution. 

In 1926, the first successful transatlantic radio-telephone conversation 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 River at Remagen, Germany, using the damaged but still usable Ludendorff Bridge. 

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 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 Allen Bitterman, whom they accused of being a CIA agent. 

In 1994, the Supreme Court ruled that parodies that poke fun at an original work can be considered “fair use” that doesn’t require permission from the copyright holder. 

In 1999, movie director Stanley Kubrick died in Hertfordshire, England, at age 70. 

Ten years ago: Democrat Bill Clinton picked up additional victories in the South Carolina primary and the Wyoming caucuses, while fellow Democrat Paul Tsongas won the Arizona caucuses. President George H.W. Bush won the Republican primary in South Carolina. 

Five years ago: After a week of embarrassing disclosures about White House fund raising, President Clinton told a news conference, “I’m not sure, frankly,” whether he’d also made calls for campaign cash. But he insisted that nothing had undercut his pledge to have the highest ethical standards ever. 

One year ago: Ariel Sharon was sworn in as Israel’s prime minister. 

Today’s Birthdays: Photographer Lord Snowdon is 72. TV weatherman Willard Scott is 68. Auto racer Janet Guthrie is 64. Actor Daniel J. Travanti is 62. Walt Disney Co. chairman Michael Eisner is 60. Rock musician Chris White (The Zombies) is 59. Actor John Heard is 56. Rock singer Peter Wolf is 56. Rock musician Matthew Fisher (Procol Harum) is 56. Singer Peggy March is 54. Football Hall-of-Famer Franco Harris is 52. Football Hall-of-Famer Lynn Swann is 50. Rhythm-and-blues singer-musician Ernie Isley (The Isley Brothers) is 50. Actor Bryan Cranston (“Malcolm in the Middle”) is 46. Tennis Hall-of-Famer Ivan Lendl is 42. Actor Bill Brochtrup (“NYPD Blue”) is 39. Singer-actress Taylor Dayne is 37. Rock musician Randy Guss (Toad the Wet Sprocket) is 35. Actress Rachel Weisz is 31. Rock singer Hugo Ferreira (Tantric) is 28.  

Actress Laura Prepon (“That 70’s Show”) is 22.