Today in history

On March 8, 1965, the United States landed its first combat troops in South Vietnam as 3,500 Marines arrived to defend the U.S. air base at Da Nang.

On this date:

In 1618, German astronomer Johannes Kepler devised his third law of planetary motion.

In 1817, the New York Stock & Exchange Board, which had its beginnings in 1792, was formally organized; it later became known as the New York Stock Exchange.

In 1948, the Supreme Court, in McCollum v. Board of Education, struck down voluntary religious education classes in Champaign, Illinois, public schools, saying the program violated separation of church and state.

In 1971, Joe Frazier defeated Muhammad Ali by decision in what was billed as “The Fight of the Century” at Madison Square Garden in New York. Silent film comedian Harold Lloyd died in Beverly Hills, California, at age 77.

In 1983, in a speech to the National Association of Evangelicals convention in Orlando, Florida, President Ronald Reagan referred to the Soviet Union as an “evil empire.”

In 1988, 17 soldiers were killed when two Army helicopters from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, collided in mid-flight.

In 1999, baseball Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio died in Hollywood, Florida, at age 84.

In 2000, President Bill Clinton submitted to Congress legislation to establish permanent normal trade relations with China. (The U.S. and China signed a trade pact in November 2000.)

In 2004, Iraq’s Governing Council signed a landmark interim constitution.

In 2008, President George W. Bush vetoed a bill that would have banned the CIA from using simulated drowning and other coercive interrogation methods to gain information from suspected terrorists.

In 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, a Boeing 777 with 239 people on board, vanished during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, setting off a massive and ultimately unsuccessful search.

In 2016, Sir George Martin, the Beatles’ urbane producer who guided the band’s swift, historic transformation from rowdy club act to musical and cultural revolutionaries, died at age 90.

Ten years ago: The government reported the jobless rate dropped to 7.7 percent the previous month, the lowest level since President Barack Obama took office. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel arrived in Afghanistan for his first visit as Pentagon chief. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was lauded at his state funeral as a modern-day reincarnation of Latin American liberator Simon Bolivar and a disciple of Cuba’s Fidel Castro.

Five years ago: U.S. and South Korean officials said President Donald Trump had agreed to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jung Un by the end of May to negotiate an end to North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. Mississippi lawmakers passed one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation, making the procedure illegal in most cases after 15 weeks of pregnancy; a federal judge later struck down the law as unconstitutional. Serena Williams beat Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan, 7-5, 6-3, in the first round of a tournament in Indian Wells, California; it was Williams’ first match following a 14-month layoff for the birth of her daughter.

One year ago: President Joe Biden announced that the U.S. would ban all Russian oil imports, toughening the toll on Russia’s economy in retaliation for its invasion of Ukraine as a humanitarian crisis unfolded in the port city of Mariupol. Guy Wesley Reffitt of Texas was convicted of storming the U.S. Capitol with a holstered handgun, a milestone victory for federal prosecutors in the first trial among hundreds of cases arising from the Jan. 6 riots.

Today’s birthdays: Jazz musician George Coleman is 88. Actor Sue Ane (correct) Langdon is 87. College Football Hall of Famer Pete Dawkins is 85. Songwriter Carole Bayer Sager is 79. Actor-director Micky Dolenz (The Monkees) is 78. Singer-musician Randy Meisner is 77. Pop singer Peggy March is 75. Baseball Hall of Famer Jim Rice is 70. Jazz musician Billy Childs is 66. Singer Gary Numan is 65. NBC News anchor Lester Holt is 64. Actor Aidan Quinn is 64. Actor Camryn Manheim is 62. Actor Leon (no last name) is 62. Country-rock singer Shawn Mullins is 55. Neo-soul singer Van Hunt is 53. Actor Andrea Parker is 53. Actor Boris Kodjoe is 50. Actor Freddie Prinze Jr. is 47. Actor Laura Main is 46. Actor James Van Der Beek is 46. R&B singer Kameelah Williams (702) is 45. Actor Nick Zano is 45. Rock singer Tom Chaplin (Keane) is 44. Rock musician Andy Ross (OK Go) is 44. Actor Jessica Collins is 40. R&B singer Kristinia (kris-teh-NEE’-ah) DeBarge is 33.

Tuesday, March 7, the 66th day of 2023. There are 299 days left in the year.

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, Alabama, 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 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 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. 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 1999, movie director Stanley Kubrick, whose films included “Dr. Strangelove,” “A Clockwork Orange” and “2001: A Space Odyssey,” died in Hertfordshire, England, at age 70, having just finished editing “Eyes Wide Shut.”

In 2005, President George W. Bush nominated John Bolton to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, an appointment that ran into Democratic opposition, prompting Bush to make a recess appointment.

In 2016, Peyton Manning announced his retirement after 18 seasons in the National Football League.

In 2020, 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.

Ten years ago: The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously for tough new sanctions to punish North Korea for its latest nuclear test; a furious Pyongyang threatened a nuclear strike against the United States. The Senate confirmed John Brennan to be CIA director, 63-34, after the Obama administration bowed to demands from Republicans blocking the nomination and stated explicitly there were limits to the president’s power to use drones against U.S. terror suspects on American soil. Sybil Christopher, 83, the wife Richard Burton left in 1963 to marry Elizabeth Taylor, and who became a theater producer and nightclub founder, died in New York.

Five years ago: The White House said Mexico, Canada and other countries could be spared from President Donald Trump’s planned steel and aluminum tariffs under national security “carve-outs.” For the second time in less than a week, a storm rolled into the Northeast with as much as two feet of wet, heavy snow that grounded flights, closed schools and knocked out power.

One year ago: The humanitarian crisis in Ukraine deepened as Russian forces intensified their shelling and food, water, heat and medicine grew increasingly scarce in what the country condemned as a medieval-style siege by Moscow to batter it into submission. The Supreme Court says it would not take up the sexual assault case against comedian Bill Cosby, leaving in place a decision by Pennsylvania’s highest court to throw out his conviction and set him free from prison.

Today’s birthdays: International Motorsports Hall of Famer Janet Guthrie is 85. Actor Daniel J. Travanti is 83. Entertainment executive Michael Eisner is 81. Rock musician Chris White (The Zombies) is 80. Rock singer Peter Wolf is 77. Rock musician Matthew Fisher (Procol Harum) is 77. Pro and College Football Hall of Famer Lynn Swann is 71. R&B singer-musician Ernie Isley (The Isley Brothers) is 71. Rock musician Kenny Aronoff (BoDeans, John Mellencamp) is 70. Actor Bryan Cranston is 67. Actor Donna Murphy is 64. Actor Nick Searcy is 64. Golfer Tom Lehman is 64. International Tennis Hall of Famer Ivan Lendl is 63. Actor Mary Beth Evans is 62. Singer-actor Taylor Dayne is 61. Actor Bill Brochtrup is 60. Author E.L. James is 60. Author Bret Easton Ellis is 59. Opera singer Denyce Graves is 59. Comedian Wanda Sykes is 59. Actor Jonathan Del Arco is 57. Rock musician Randy Guss (Toad the Wet Sprocket) is 56. Actor Rachel Weisz is 53. Actor Peter Sarsgaard is 52. Actor Jay Duplass is 50. Classical singer Sebastien Izambard (Il Divo) is 50. Rock singer Hugo Ferreira (Tantric) is 49. Actor Jenna Fischer is 49. Actor Tobias Menzies is 49. Actor Sarayu Blue is 48. Actor Audrey Marie Anderson is 48. Actor TJ Thyne is 48. Bluegrass singer-musician Frank Solivan is 46. Actor Laura Prepon is 43. Actor Bel Powley is 31. Poet and activist Amanda Gorman is 25. Actor Giselle Eisenberg (TV: “Life in Pieces”) is 16.