Here’s a brief look back in time on this day, March 7.
In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell receives his first patent for a method of transmitting “speech by telegraphy”, aka the telephone. Heavily inspired by the telegraph, Bell strived to make line-by-line transmission more efficient by introducing simultaneous two-way communication. Communication via telegram was one-way, and required knowledge of morse code. However, whoever invented the telephone remains disputed. According to archives, another inventor by the name of Elisha Gray was also finding ways to make telephony possible. Bell was tipped off about this from patent lawyer and financier Gardiner Greene Hubbard to apply for a patent as soon as possible.
In 1965, civil rights leader John Lewis, along with around 600 marchers, are attacked by police and state troopers in Dallas County, AL, in the midst of the 1965 Civil Rights Movement. This was during the first march from Selma to Montgomery. It happened on the Edmund Pettus Bridge crossing the Alabama River, where the attackers staged an ambush on the other side. In total, 17 marchers were hospitalized as officers bludgeoned, sprayed, and whipped the peaceful marchers. Lewis was among them, having endured a skull fracture that left permanent scars. He would be elected in the U.S. House of Representatives representing Georgia’s 5th congressional district. Lewis passed away in 2020 from complications related to his stage IV pancreatic cancer diagnosis.