This week marks anniversary of Beatle busts

Wed., March 12, 2008

The History Channel King Features Syndicate

• On March 10, 1876, the first discernible speech is transmitted over a telephone system when inventor Alexander Graham Bell summons his assistant in another room by saying, “Mr. Watson, come here; I want you.”

• On March 11, 1888, in one of the worst blizzards in U.S. history, New York City grinds to a near halt, with elevated trains blocked by snow drifts and unable to move. Up to 15,000 people were stranded on the elevated trains.

• On March 14, 1914, stock-car racer Lee Arnold Petty (father of Richard Petty) is born near Randleman, N.C. In 1959, he won the Daytona 500. Lee Petty never lost a race on account of being too kind to his competitors, even if those competitors were family.

• On March 12, 1969, the London drug squad appears at the house of Beatle George Harrison and wife Pattie Boyd with a warrant and drug-sniffing canines. Sergeant Norman Pilcher, the man behind the raid, was convicted of planting drugs in other cases and went to jail in 1972.

• On March 15, 1954, the Chords record “Sh-boom.” The song’s lighthearted melody and nonsensical lyrics kicked off a new era of “doo-wop” music.

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