@rh18bold:Today in History

Today is Monday, March 10, the 70th day of 2008. There are 296 days left in the year.

On this date

In 1876, the first successful voice transmission over Alexander Graham Bell's telephone took place in Boston as his assistant heard Bell say, "Mr. Watson — come here — I want to see you." The words were recounted by Bell in his lab notebook.

In 1922, Mahatma Gandhi, Indian nationalist leader, was arrested by the British Government of India, tried for sedition and sentenced to six years imprisonment.

In 1945, three hundred US B-29 bombers devastated Japan's capital in what became known as the Great Tokyo Air Raid. The resulting firestorm killed 100,000 people.

In 1948, the body of the anti-communist foreign minister of Czechoslovakia, Jan Masaryk, was found in the garden of Czernin Palace in Prague. Authorities said that his death was a suicide, but others continue to claim that he was murdered.

In 1949, Nazi wartime broadcaster Mildred E. Gillars, also known as "Axis Sally," was convicted in Washington, D.C., of treason. She served 12 years in prison, taught Roman Catholic schoolgirls and died in 1988, aged 87.

In 1988, prior to the 50th anniversary of the Anschluss, Austrian President Kurt Waldheim apologised on his country's behalf for atrocities committed by Austrian Nazis. Waldheim served in the notorious Waffen SS during the war.

Thought for Today

"We must not waste life in devising means. It is better to plan less and do more." — William Ellery Channing, American clergyman (1780-1842).