This Dat trivia - March 7

Events

1960 Jack Paar The Tonight Show host 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.

Births

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

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

1849 Luther Burbank d. 1926 American naturalist. He created hundreds of new breeds of flowers, plants, and trees, including the Russet Burbank Potato (1872), which launched the Idaho potato industry.

1802 Sir Edwin Henry Landseer d. 1873 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 Joseph Nicéphore Niepce d. 1833 French inventor. He created the first true photographs (1826).

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

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

Deaths

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

1985 Robert Winship Woodruff b. 1889 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 Jean Pierre Francois Blanchard b. 1753 French balloonist, first to cross the English Channel in a balloon (1785) and is credited with inventing the parachute.

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

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

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