On March 10, 1785, Thomas Jefferson was appointed minister to France, succeeding Benjamin Franklin.
In 1862 the U.S. government issued its first paper money.
In 1876 the first successful voice transmission over Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone took place as his assistant heard Bell say, “Mr. Watson, come here. I want you.”
In 1969 James Earl Ray pleaded guilty in Memphis to the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (Ray later repudiated that plea, maintaining his innocence until his death.)
In 1985 Konstantin Chernenko, Soviet leader for just 13 months, died at age 73.
In 1987 the Vatican issued a 40-page document on scientific techniques involving procreation, condemning such practices as surrogate motherhood, test-tube births and cloning.
In 1998 actor Lloyd Bridges died in Westwood, Calif.; he was 85.
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 Jerusalem.
