PROGRESS
1876 the first successful voice transmission over Alexander Graham Bell's telephone took place in Boston as his assistant heard Bell say, "Mr. Watson — come here — I want to see you." (The words were recounted by Bell in his lab notebook.)
WAR!
1848 The Senate ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending the war with Mexico.
2003 Facing almost certain defeat, the United States and Britain delayed a vote in the U.N. Security Council to give Saddam Hussein an ultimatum to disarm.
2007 President Bush, in Uruguay as part of his Latin America tour, asked Congress for $3.2 billion to pay for 8,200 more U.S. troops needed in Afghanistan and Iraq on top of the 21,500-troop buildup he had announced in January 2007.
TERRORISM
1982 President Reagan proclaims economic sanctions against Libya.
1995 Car bomb explodes in Karachi at shiite mosque, 17+ killed.
2007 In their first direct talks since the Iraq war began, U.S. and Iranian envoys traded harsh words and blamed each other for Iraq's crisis at a one-day international conference.
DISASTER
1902 Earthquake destroys Turkish city of Tochangri.
1906 Coal dust explosion kills 1,060 at Courrieres France.
1939 17 villages damaged by hailstones in Hyderabad India.
1946 Train derailment kills 185 near Aracaju Brazil.
CANCEL
1893 New Mexico State University cancels its 1st graduation ceremony, its only graduate Sam Steele was robbed & killed the night before
PATENTS
1849 Abraham Lincoln applies for a patent; only US President to do so.
1975 Dog spectacles patented in England.
WHAT IF?
1951 FBI director J Edgar Hoover declines post of baseball commissioner.
NANNY STATE
1933 Nevada becomes 1st US state to regulate narcotics.
MAINSTREAM MEDIA
1980 Willard Scott becomes the weather forecaster on the Today Show.
FUNERALS
1994 1 million Greeks attend Melina Mercouri's funeral.
CHIX R DIX
2003 Natalie Maines, lead singer of the Dixie Chicks, told a London audience: "Just so you know ... we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas."
BOWLING
1913 William Knox, becomes 1st in American Bowling Congress to bowl 300.
FINANCE
1995 Dow-Jones hits record 4035.64.
DIPLOMACY
1785 Thomas Jefferson was appointed minister to France, succeeding Benjamin Franklin.
ARMY
1880 the Salvation Army arrived in the United States from England.
TREASON
1949 Nazi wartime broadcaster Mildred E. Gillars, also known as "Axis Sally," was convicted in Washington, D.C., of treason. (She served 12 years in prison.)
MURDER
1948 The body of the anti-communist foreign minister of Czechoslovakia, Jan Masaryk, was found in the garden of Czernin Palace in Prague. Authorities said that his death was a suicide, but others continue to claim that he was murdered.
1980 "Scarsdale Diet" author Dr. Herman Tarnower was shot to death in Purchase, N.Y. (Tarnower's former lover, Jean Harris, was convicted of murder; she served nearly 12 years in prison before being released in January 1993.)
JEWS
418 Jews are excluded from public office in the Roman Empire.
BORN
1888 Barry Fitzgerald Dublin Ireland, actor (Academy Award-Going My Way).
1918 Heywood Hale Broun journalist.
1920 Jethro Burns country singer (Homer & Jethro).
1923 Ara Parseghian football coach (Northwestern, Notre Dame).
BIRTHDAYS
Talk show host Ralph Emery is 75. Bluegrass/country singer-musician Norman Blake is 70. Actor Chuck Norris is 68. Playwright David Rabe is 68. Singer Dean Torrence (Jan and Dean) is 68. Actress Katharine Houghton is 63. Rock musician Tom Scholz (Boston) is 61. Producer-director-writer Paul Haggis is 55. Actress Shannon Tweed is 51. Actress Sharon Stone is 50. Rock musician Gail Greenwood is 48. Magician Lance Burton is 48. Actress Jasmine Guy is 46. Rock musician Jeff Ament (Pearl Jam) is 45. Music producer Rick Rubin is 45. Britain's Prince Edward is 44. Singer Edie Brickell is 42. Actor Stephen Mailer is 42. Actress Paget Brewster is 39. Country singer Daryle Singletary is 37. Rapper-producer Timbaland is 36. Actor Cristian de la Fuente is 34. Singer Robin Thicke is 31. Actress Bree Turner is 31. Olympic gold-medal gymnast Shannon Miller is 31. Country singer Carrie Underwood is 25. Actress Emily Osment is 16.
DEATH
1985 Konstantin U. Chernenko, who was the Soviet Union's leader for just 13 months, died at age 73.
1988 Pop singer Andy Gibb died in Oxford, England, at age 30 of heart inflammation.
1998 Actor Lloyd Bridges died in Westwood, Calif., at age 85.
2007 Standup comedian Richard Jeni, 49, died at a Los Angeles hospital of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
March 10, the 70th day of 2008. There are 296 days left in the year.
compiled by Mondoreb
image: dkimages
Sources:
* Today in History
* Today in History
DBKP.com - Bigger, Better!.
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.
State of Emergency a coup? The Constitution is now suspended: is this an Army take-over? Though the Washington Post and others are saying President Musharraf is declaring a state of emergency, other sources are saying that Musharraf is not fully in charge here. It's the Chief of Army Staff who declared the State of Emergency, not President Musharraf.
UPDATE at 15:43 GMT from the BBC:Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has declared emergency rule and suspended the country's constitution.
So apparently at this moment, it was President Musharraf who's in charge and declaring the state of emergency. Events are moving fast in Pakistan. First it was the Red Mosque; last month it was an attempt on the life of candidate Bhutto. Now it's a state of emergency has been declared.
Troops have been deployed inside state-run TV and radio stations, while independent channels have gone off air.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, who condemned the moves, has reportedly been sacked and is being confined to the Supreme Court with 10 other judges.
It comes as the court was due to rule on the legality of Gen Musharraf's re-election victory in October.
The Court was to decide whether Gen Musharraf was eligible to run for election last month while remaining army chief.
Now comes news from Noblesse Oblige that the state of emergency is coming from the Chief of Army Staff. Coup-time anyone?UPDATE: The Chief of Army Staff declared the state of emergency, not President Musharraf — this could be a Coup in the shaping; or it could be a ploy to get the court to finish the deliberations on the challenges prior to the November 15th date when Musharraf’s holding of two offices definitely becomes unconstitutional.
The Washington Post is reporting that Musharraf is still in charge and has declared the state of emergency, but other sources dispute this. From the Washington Post:Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf declared emergency rule Saturday, suspending the constitution amid a heavy security presence including armored personnel carriers on the streets of the capital.
Musharraf, who instituted a provisional constitution, was expected to address the nation later and cite continuing fighting in the turbulent Swat Valley as his reason.
We'll let the sources sort themselves out over the day. Major news channels are off the air, at last report, so news may be slow coming.
by Mondoreb
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