Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

March 7

1960
The Tonight Show host Jack Paar returns to the show. He had walked out a month earlier after a water closet joke had been censored.

1953
Christine Jorgensen is selected "Woman of the Year" by the Scandinavian Societies of Greater New York. She was previously George Jorgensen before a sex-change operation.

1927
A Texas law prohibiting blacks from voting in primary elections is ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.

1926
First radio conversation between New York and London.

1917
First jazz record: The Original Dixieland Jazz Band releases Livery Stable Blues. It sold a million copies.

1912
First non-stop flight from Paris to London: French aviator Henri Seimet makes the journey in three hours.

1911
U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Richard Ballinger, resigns after charges of favoritism in granting claims to Alaskan coal lands.

1894
First commercial motion picture production: A Kinetoscope film by Edison Laboratories of strongman Eugene Sandow.

1876
Alexander Graham Bell receives a patent for his telephone.

1960
Ivan Lendl, tennis player.

1950
Franco Harris, American Football Hall of Famer.

1947
Richard Lawson (Rickey Lee Lawson), African-American actor. TV: Dynasty (1986-1987, Nick Kimball), The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd (1989-1991, Det. Nathaniel Hawthorne), and All My Children (1992-1994, Lucas Barnes).

1946
Peter Wolf (Peter Blankfield), American singer, with J. Geils Band. Music: Must Have Got Lost (1974), Freeze-Frame (1981), and Centerfold (1981, #1).

1945
John Heard, American actor. Film: Head Over Heels (1979) and Home Alone (1990).

1940
Daniel J. Travanti, American Emmy-winning actor. TV: Hill Street Blues (Capt. Frank Furillo).

1938
Janet Guthrie, American auto racer, aerospace engineer.  She was the first woman to compete in the Indianapolis 500 (1977).

1930     d. 1982
James Broderick, American actor. TV: Family (father Doug Lawrence). He is the real-life father of Matthew Broderick.

1875     d. 1937
Joseph-Maurice Ravel, French composer. Music: Boléro (1928).

1849     d. 1926
Luther Burbank, American naturalist. He created hundreds of new breeds of flowers, plants, and trees.

1802     d. 1873
Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, British artist. He was the first to portray St. Bernard dogs carrying brandy casks around their necks, although the real rescue dogs never did.

1765     d. 1833
Joseph Nicéphore Niepce, French inventor. He created the first true photographs (1826).

1707     d. 1785
Stephen Hopkins, American politician, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and three-time governor of Rhode Island (1755-68).

1693     d. 1769
Clement XIII, Italian religious leader, 248th Pope (1758-69).

1988     b. ????
Divine (Harris Glen Milstead), American transvestite actor. Film: Pink Flamingos and Polyester.

1985     b. 1889
Robert Winship Woodruff, American businessman. As president of Coca-Cola (1923-55), he changed it from a faltering debt-ridden business into a multi-million dollar empire. Six weeks after his death Coca-Cola announced it was changing its 99-year-old formula.

1809     b. 1753
Jean Pierre Francois Blanchard, French balloonist, first to cross the English Channel in a balloon (1785) and is credited with inventing the parachute.

1767     b. 1680
Jean Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, French governor of Louisiana (1701-13, 1718-26, 1733-43) and founder of New Orleans (1717).

1724     b. 1655
Innocent XIII, Italian religious leader, 244th Pope (1721-24).

161     b. 86 A.D.
Antonius Pius, Roman emperor (138-161 A.D.).

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