Uberazzi

IT WAS ON THIS DAY (10 MARCH) IN HISTORY:

- in 1876 ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL transmitted the first words over a telephone to assistant THOMAS WATSON at a house in Boston, Massachusetts, they were "Come here Watson, I want you".

- in 1880 The Salvation Army arrived in the United States from England.

- in 1906 the Bakerloo line opened on the London Underground railway system in England.

- in 1914 one of the England's most important paintings, THE ROKEBY VENUS, in London's National Gallery, was slashed by suffragette MARY RICHARDSON who wanted "to destroy the most beautiful woman in mythological history".

- in 1933 an earthquake in Long Beach, California kills 120 people.

- in 1952 FULGENCIO BATISTA leads a successful coup in Cuba.

- in 1968 200 people were drowned when a New Zealand car ferry capsized in a severe storm at Wellington Harbour.

- in 1969 JAMES EARL RAY pleaded guilty to the murder of American civil rights leader MARTIN LUTHER KING and was sentenced to 99 years in jail.

- in 1974 a Japanese soldier was discovered on Lubang Island in the Philippines. He still believed World War II was being fought, and was waiting to be relieved by his own forces.

- in 1980 JEAN HARRIS, an American headmistress shot the inventor of The Scarsdale Diet, DR HERMAN TARNOWER, four times in the back after a long and passionate affair ended.

- in 1988 ANDY GIBB, youngest brother of THE BEE GEES, died, aged 30.

- in 1990 in Haiti, PROSPER AVRIL is ousted 18 months after seizing power in a coup.

- in 1991 540,000 American troops begin to leave the Persian Gulf during the Gulf War.

- in 1993 authorities announced the arrest of NIDAL AYYAD, a second suspect in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City.

- in 1998 LLOYD BRIDGES, American actor and father of actors BEAU and JEFF, died.

- in 2002 Israeli helicopters destroyed Palestinian leader YASSER ARAFAT's office in Gaza City, hours after 11 Israelis were killed in a suicide bombing in a cafe across the street from Prime Minister ARIEL SHARON's residence in Jerusalem.

- in 2004 a terrorist attack on a restaurant in Istanbul, Turkey, kills one and injures five.