Today in History for March 7, 2016

Ford Frick

March 7, 1774 - King George III gave a speech in which he charged that the American colonists with attempting to injure British commerce and subvert the Constitution. The British also closed the port of Boston to all commerce.

March 7, 1776 - British General William Howe decided to leave Boston upon the realization that it was indefensible because of the American positions around the city. The eight-year British occupation ended 10 days later.

March 7, 1777 - Continental Congressman John Adams wrote three letters to and received two letters from his wife, Abigail. He was with Congress in Philadelphia, while she maintained their farm in Braintree, Massachusetts.

March 7, 1857 – The National Association of Baseball Players wisely decided that a baseball game would be made up of nine innings instead of 21 “aces” or runs.

March 7, 1861 – During the Civil War, Camp Verde and Ringgold Barracks, Texas was abandoned by Federal forces.

March 7, 1862 – During the Civil War, Union General Samuel Curtis defeated Confederate General Earl Van Dorn at the Battle of Pea Ridge (Elkhorn Tavern) in northwestern Arkansas. Confederate General Ben McCulloch and his immediate successor (General James McIntosh) were both killed in the battle. The Confederates retreated minutes after the deaths of their leaders. The Yankees suffered some 1,380 men killed, wounded, or captured out of 10,000 engaged; the Confederates suffered a loss of about 2,000 out of 14,000 engaged.

March 7, 1862 – During the Civil War, Federal reconnaissance up the Savannah River and to Elba Island, Ga. was conducted.

March 7, 1863 – During the Civil War, Federal operations in and around Port Hudson, La. began. A seven-day Federal operation in the vicinity of New Berne, N.C. began. A three-day Federal operation between Newport Barracks and Cedar Point, N.C. began.

March 7, 1863 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Green Spring Run, West Virginia and near Windor, Va. A two-day Federal operation encompassing Isle of Wright Courthouse, Smithfield, Benn’s Church, Chuckatuck and Windsor, Va. began.

March 7, 1863 – During the Civil War, Admiral S. P. Lee, commander of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, had a problem necessitating writing his boss. His difficulty? The blockade ships were capturing blockade runners at a tremendous pace. Every time a blockade runner was captured, an officer from the capturing ship had to be put aboard in command of the confiscated vessel until legalities could be worked out. Lee was running out of officers and had to write for more.

March 7, 1864 – During the Civil War, a skirmish occurred at Decatur, Ala. Two days of skirminsing began at Brownville, Miss.

March 7, 1865 – During the Civil War, a skirmish occurred at Elyton, Ala.

March 7, 1865 – During the Civil War, a five-day Federal operation from Jacksonville into Marion County, Fla. began. Skirmishes were also fought with Indians 80 miles west of Fort Larned, Kansas; and near Flint Hill and near Mount Jackson, Va. An 18-day Federal operation from Glasgow to the Perche Hills, Mo. began.

March 7, 1866 – German entomologist and explorer Hans Fruhstorfer was born in Passau, Germany.

March 7, 1876 - Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone.

March 7, 1893 – Greenville, Ala. attorney and former U.S. Representative Hilary Abner Herbert began serving as the 33rd Secretary of the Navy after being appointed to the position by President Grover Cleveland. He would serve as Secretary of the Navy until March 4, 1897.

March 7, 1895 – Dr. William Wallace McMillan, a native of Old Scotland, passed away in Monroeville, Ala. He attended Tulane University and Mobile Medical College and practiced medicine at Claiborne, Stockton, Mobile, Old Scotland and Monroeville.

March 7, 1896 – Railroad Bill (aka Bill McCoy, Morris Slater) was shot to death by Constable J.L. McGowin near the Tidmore & Ward Store on Ashley Street in Atmore, Ala.

March 7, 1899 - Alabama author Lucile Vernon Stevens was born in St. Paul, Minn.

March 7, 1904 – German SS officer Reinhard Heydrich was born in Halle an der Saale, German Empire.

March 7, 1905 – The “Tucker old homestead,” two miles west of Monroeville, Ala. burned down along with all outbuildings and a nearby gin house. The house had been “for some years unoccupied,” but had “been a familiar landmark for more than half a century.”

March 7, 1912 – Roald Amundsen announced that his expedition had reached the South Pole on December 14, 1911.

March 7, 1916 – The Conecuh County Commission was in session in Evergreen, Ala. on this Tuesday.

March 7, 1916 - F.N. Amos of the Amos Mercantile Co. at Brooklyn was a business visitor to Evergreen, Ala. on this Tuesday.

March 7, 1916 - Bankers in the states of Alabama, Florida and Louisiana closed on this Tuesday in observance of Mardi Gras which was being held in the three states mentioned.

March 7, 1923 – Robert Frost’s poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” was first published in The New Republic magazine.

March 7, 1929 – Heavy rains on this day caused Vredenburgh, Ala. to flood.

March 7, 1930 – A “Stunt Night” was scheduled to be presented by Agriculutral School students at the Evergreen (Ala.) City School auditorim on this Friday night. Proceeds from the event were to be used to help finance the publishing of the school’s first annual, “The Broadcaster.”

March 7, 1933 - The game of Monopoly was invented.

March 7, 1941 – A tornado on this night damaged two homes near Brooklyn, Ala. No one was injured.

March 7, 1944 – Townes Van Zandt, one of the great Texas troubadours and a legend in songwriting circles, was born in Fort Worth, Texas.

March 7, 1944 – English soldier and explorer Ranulph Fiennes was born in Windsor, Berkshire, United Kingdom.

March 7, 1950 – Pro Football Hall of Fame fullback Franco Harris was born in Fort Dix, N.J. He would go on to play for Penn State, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Seattle Seahawks. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1990.

March 7, 1951 - Alabama author Lillian Hellman's play “The Autumn Leaves” opened on Broadway.

March 7, 1952 – Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver Lynn Swann was born in Alcoa, Tenn. He would go on to play for Southern Cal and the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2001.

March 7, 1952 – Army Sgt. Vivian D. Bryant of Escambia County, Ala. was killed in action in Korea.

March 7, 1953 – Canadian mountaineer and explorer Bernard Voyer was born in Rimouski, Quebec.

March 7, 1955 – Major League Baseball commissioner Ford Frick said that he was in favor of legalizing the spitball.

March 7, 1957 – Novelist Robert Harris was born in Nottingham, England. He is best known for his 1991 novel, “Fatherland.”

March 7, 1959 - Melvin C. Garlow became the first pilot to fly more than a million miles in a jet.

March 7, 1965 – Six hundred demonstrators made the first of three attempts to march from Selma, Ala. to the capitol in Montgomery to demand removal of voting restrictions on black Americans. Attacked by state and local law enforcement officers as they crossed Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge, the marchers fled back into the city. The dramatic scene was captured on camera and broadcast across the nation later that Sunday, causing a surge of support for the protesters.

March 7, 1966 - In the heaviest air raids since the bombing began in February 1965, U.S. Air Force and Navy planes flew an estimated 200 sorties against North Vietnam. The objectives of the raids included an oil storage area 60 miles southeast of Dien Bien Phu and a staging area 60 miles northwest of Vinh.

March 7, 1967 - The largest South Korean operation to date started, forming a link-up of two Korean division areas of operations along the central coastal area of South Vietnam.

March 7, 1968 – Major League Baseball second baseman Jeff Kent was born in Bellflower, Calif. He would go on to play for the Toronto Blue Jays, the New York Mets, the Cleveland Indians, the San Francisco Giants, the Houston Astros and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

March 7, 1968 – During the Vietnam War, the United States and South Vietnamese military began Operation Truong Cong Dinh to root out Viet Cong forces from the area surrounding Mỹ Tho.

March 7, 1972 - In the biggest air battle in Southeast Asia in three years, U.S. jets battled five North Vietnamese MiGs and shot one down 170 miles north of the Demilitarized Zone. The 86 U.S. air raids over North Vietnam in the first two months of this year equaled the total for all of 1971.

March 7, 1978 – The Evergreen (Ala.) City Council approved a new lease with the U.S. Navy for use of Middleton Field Municipal Airport. Under the new lease, the city assumed maintenance of the field, and the Navy was to pay the city $15,000 per year to use the field. In the past, the Navy maintained the field and paid the city $1 per year.

March 7, 1980 – The Conecuh County Rescue Squad was scheduled to sponsor a championship wrestling fundraiser event on this Friday night at 8 p.m. at Evergreen (Ala.) High School’s Memorial Gymnasium. The card was to give local fans a chance to see some of the wrestlers that competed on Channel 5 TV’s Saturday “Championship Wrestling” program. The feature event was to be a special, six-man tag team match with Ron (Tennessee Stud) Fuller, Robert Fuller and Georgia Jaw Cracker vs. Jimmy Golden, Norvel Austin and Big “C.” Joe Leduc was to meet Charlie Cook in a big challenge match.

March 7, 1983 - ESPN televised the first live professional football game on cable. The game was between the USFL's Birmingham Stallions and the Michigan Panthers.

March 7, 1985 – The Hawthorne House (also known as the Col. J.R. Hawthorne House) in Pine Apple in Wilcox County, Ala. was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

March 7, 1987 – During what is now known as the “Lieyu Massacre,” Taiwanese military massacred 19 unarmed Vietnamese refugees at Donggang, Lieyu, Kinmen.

March 7, 1989 – Iran and the United Kingdom broke diplomatic relations after a row over Salman Rushdie and his controversial novel, “The Satanic Verses.”

March 7, 1991 – National Baseball Hall of Fame center fielder James Thomas “Cool Papa” Bell died at the age of 87 in St. Louis, Mo. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1974.

March 7, 1993 – Rodney Lanier, 18, of Brewton, Ala. was shot to death in the parking lot of a “local nightclub” in Conecuh County between 1:30 a.m. and 1:45 a.m. He was shot in the left arm and left side and was pronounced dead at the scene.

March 7, 1994 – The Supreme Court ruled that parody could be protected by the fair-use clause of the Copyright Act of 1976. The ruling came about when the rap group 2 Live Crew used elements from "Oh Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison in their song "Pretty Woman."

March 7, 1995 – French ethnologist and explorer Paul-Émile Victor died at the age of 87 in Bora Bora.

March 7, 1996 - The first surface photos of Pluto are taken by Hubble Space Telescope.

On March 7, 1999 - American filmmaker Stanley Kubrick died in Hertfordshire, England, at the age of 70. One of the most acclaimed film directors of the 20th century, Kubrick’s 13 feature films explored the dark side of human nature.

March 7, 2002 – The Julian and Betty McGowin House near Georgiana, Ala. was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage.

March 7, 2008 – Hillcrest High School opened the 2008 baseball season with a double header against Escambia County High School in Atmore, Ala. Escambia County won the first game, 15-2, and won the second game, 8-1.

March 7, 2015 – President Barak Obama celebrated the 50th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” by leading a march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.