Today:
161: Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius died and was succeeded by his adoptive sons Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus.
321: Emperor Constantine I decreed that the dies Solis (Sunday) would be the day of rest throughout the Roman Empire.
1876: Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for his invention of the telephone.
1906: Finland became the first European country to give women the right to vote.
1912: Roald Amundsen announced that his expedition had reached the South Pole the previous December.
1936: Nazi Germany reoccupied the Rhineland, violating the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Treaties.
1945: During World War II, U.S. forces captured the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine River at Remagen.
1965: Civil rights demonstrators were attacked by state troopers in Selma, Alabama, an event known as Bloody Sunday.
1985: The song We Are the World was released internationally to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia.
1999: Stanley Kubrick, the acclaimed director of films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, passed away in England.