On This Day: March 3

Updated March 3, 2014, 6:06 pm

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On March 3, 1991, in a case that sparked a national outcry, motorist Rodney King was severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers in a scene captured on amateur video.

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On March 3, 1847, Alexander Graham Bell, the Scottish-born American inventor of the telephone, was born. Following his death on Aug. 2, 1922, his obituary appeared in The Times.

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1845	Florida became the 27th state.
1847	Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland.
1849	Congress created the Minnesota Territory.
1887	Anne Sullivan arrived at the Alabama home of Capt. and Mrs. Arthur H. Keller to become the teacher of their blind and deaf 6-year-old daughter, Helen.
1923	Time magazine, founded by Briton Hadden and Henry R. Luce, debuted.
1931	President Herbert Hoover signed into law a bill making "The Star-Spangled Banner" the national anthem.
1969	Apollo 9 was launched on a mission to test the lunar module that was used in the moon landings.
1991	Motorist Rodney King was severely beaten by Los Angeles police in a scene captured on amateur video.
2002	Voters in Switzerland approved joining the United Nations, abandoning almost 200 years of formal neutrality.

Historic Birthdays

33	Thomas Otway 3/3/1652 - 4/14/1685 English dramatist and poet
80	William Macready 3/3/1793 - 4/27/1873 English actor, manager and diarist
66	George Pullman 3/3/1831 - 10/19/1897 American industrialist and inventor
73	Sir John Murray 3/3/1841 - 3/16/1914 Scottish naturalist
79	William Green 3/3/1873 - 11/21/1952 American labor leader who headed the A.F.L.
67	Leopold Jessner 3/3/1878 - 10/30/1945 German Expressionist theatrical producer and director
58	Damaskinos 3/3/1891 - 5/20/1949 Greek archbishop of Athens
98	Matthew Ridgway 3/3/1895 - 7/26/1993 American army general
26	Jean Harlow 3/3/1911 - 6/7/1937 American movie actress
68	James Merrill 3/3/1926 - 2/6/1995 American poet