1876

Alexander Graham Bell received a U.S. patent for his telephone.

1911

President William Howard Taft ordered 20,000 troops to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border in response to the Mexican Revolution.

1916

Bavarian Motor Works (BMW) had its beginnings in Munich, Germany, as an airplane engine manufacturer.

1926

The first successful trans-Atlantic radio-telephone conversations took place between New York and London.

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.”

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.

Birthdays:

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. International Tennis Hall of Famer Ivan Lendl is 63. 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.