By The Associated Press
Today is Wednesday, March 10, the 69th day of 2010. There are 296 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:
On March 10, 1876, the first successful voice transmission over Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone took place in Boston as his assistant heard Bell say, “Mr. Watson — come here — I want to see you.”

On this date:
In 1496, Christopher Columbus concluded his second visit to the Western Hemisphere as he left Hispaniola for Spain.

In 1785, Thomas Jefferson was appointed America’s minister to France, succeeding Benjamin Franklin.

In 1848, the Senate ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War.

In 1880, the Salvation Army arrived in the United States from England.

In 1910, luggage maker Samsonite Corp. had its beginnings as the Shwayder Trunk Manufacturing Co. was founded in Denver by Jesse Shwayder.

In 1948, the body of the anti-Communist foreign minister of Czechoslovakia, Jan Masaryk, was found in the garden of Czernin Palace in Prague.

In 1949, Nazi wartime broadcaster Mildred E. Gillars, also known as “Axis Sally,” was convicted in Washington, D.C. of treason. (She served 12 years in prison.)

In 1969, James Earl Ray pleaded guilty in Memphis, Tenn., to assassinating civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. (Ray later repudiated that plea, maintaining his innocence until his death.)

In 1980, “Scarsdale Diet” author Dr. Herman Tarnower was shot to death at his home in Purchase, N.Y. (Tarnower’s former lover, Jean Harris, was convicted of his murder; she served nearly 12 years in prison before being released in January 1993.)

In 1985, Konstantin U. Chernenko, who was the Soviet Union’s leader for just 13 months, died at age 73.

Ten years ago: Pope John Paul II approved sainthood for Katharine Drexel, a Philadelphia socialite who had taken a vow of poverty and devoted her fortune to helping poor blacks and American Indians. (Drexel, who died in 1955, was canonized in Oct. 2000.)

Five years ago: Lebanon’s president reappointed staunchly pro-Syrian politician Omar Karami as prime minister.

One year ago: A gunman, 28-year-old Michael McLendon, killed 10 people, including his mother, four other relatives and the wife and child of a local sheriff’s deputy across two rural Alabama counties before committing suicide.

Today’s Birthdays: Talk show host Ralph Emery is 77. Actor Chuck Norris is 70. Actress Sharon Stone is 52. Actress Jasmine Guy is 48. Rock musician Jeff Ament (Pearl Jam) is 47. Britain’s Prince Edward is 46. Country singer Carrie Underwood is 27.

Thought for Today: “Show me a man who claims he is objective and I’ll show you a man with illusions.” — Henry R. Luce, American magazine publisher (1898-1967).