On This Day In History March 7th

1876

Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone

Following the development of his prototype ‘harmonic telegraph’ device, Scotland-born Alexander Graham Bell receives a US patent on a revolutionary new form of instantaneous communication, the telephone.

1965

Selma civil rights march becomes ‘Bloody Sunday’

Marching for civil rights for African Americans, hundreds of unarmed and peaceful protesters cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, and are set upon by state troopers wielding billy clubs and tear gas. Public disgust at the incident will help galvanize support for passage of the Voting Rights Act.

2010

Kathryn Bigelow becomes the first female director to win an Oscar

On this day in 2010, Kathryn Bigelow becomes the first woman to win an Academy Award for best director, for her movie “The Hurt Locker,” about an American bomb squad that disables explosives in Iraq in 2004. Prior to Bigelow, only three women had been nominated for a best director Oscar: Lina Wertmueller for 1975’s “Seven Beauties,” Jane Campion for 1993’s “The Piano” and Sofia Coppola for 2003’s “Lost in Translation.”

1988

Writers Guild of America strike begins

After rejecting what the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) said was a final offer, representatives of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) called a strike for all the union’s members to begin at 9 a.m. Pacific Time on this day in 1988.

BIRTHDAYS

1896 Philip Showalter Hench, American physician (Nobel Prize 1950 for cortisone), born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (d. 1965)

1906 Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, American gangster who created casinos in Las Vegas, born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 1947)

1915 Samuel Joel “Zero” Mostel, American comedian and actor (Fiddler on the Roof, The Producers), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 1977)

1929 Frank O Gehry, architect (Galleria-Oklahoma City)

1940 Mario Andretti, Italian American race-car driver (1969 Indianapolis 500, 1978 Formula One World Champion), born in Montona, Italy