Today is Saturday, March 7, the 66th day of 2009. There are 299 days left in the year.
1857 _ Baseball decides nine innings constitutes an official game, not nine runs
1876 _ Alexander Graham Bell patents telephone
1902 _ Boers beat British troop in Tweebosch, Transvaal
1917 _ First jazz record ``Dixie Jazz Band One Step," recorded by Nick LaRocca Original Dixieland Jazz Band, released by RCA Victor in Camden, N.J.
1925 _ American Negro Congress organizes
1936 _ Hitler breaks Treaty of Versailles, sends troops to Rhineland
1944 _ Japans begins offensive in Burma
1945 _ Yugoslavia government of Tito forms
1989 _ Iran drops diplomatic relations with Britain over Salman Rushdie's book ``The Satanic Verses"
1997 _ Five sue Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, because his smoking has violated the country's constitution guaranteeing a wholesome life