On this date in . . .

1876: Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone. He envisioned it as a device that could make it possible to communicate with deaf people.

1897: The world's first corn flakes were served to Dr. John Kellogg's patients at a Battle Creek, Michigan, mental hospital.

1954: In a regular NBA game the Minneapolis Lakers edged the Milwaukee Hawks 65-63. There were fewer slam-dunks because, in this one-game experiment, the baskets were raised to 12 feet.

1955: For the first time in history a country & western artist made the Billboard Rhythm & Blues chart. It was Carl Perkins with "Blue Suede Shoes."

1973: A new group, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, performed at Max’s Kansas City club in New York City. Columbia talent scout John Hammond was in the audience.

1976: A wax Elton John went on display at Madame Tussaud’s in London, the first rocker to appear there since the Beatles 12 years earlier.

1983: TNN, The Nashville Network, set a basic cable service record when it debuted to more than 7-million cable households with a 5-hour live show.

1987: Mike Tyson became the youngest heavyweight boxing champion when he beat James Smith in a 12-round fight in Las Vegas. Tyson was only 20 years old.

1992: History’s largest crepe was baked and flipped in Bloemfontein, South Africa. It was 41 feet 2 inches in diameter, an inch and-a-half deep, and weighed 5,908 pounds.

1994: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that parodies poking fun at an original work can be considered "fair use" and do not require permission from the copyright holder.

1998: A Minnesota judge ordered tobacco companies to release 39,000 secret documents that might contain information on how the industry studied ways to lure children as young as five years old to smoke cigarettes.

2001: A Kenyan businessman who lost his cell phone rang the number from his house telephone - and heard his German Shepherd ringing. Kamal Shah said he did not expect to hear the phone ringing inside his dog. The dog underwent surgery to remove the phone.

2002: A federal judge awarded Anna Nicole Smith more than $88 million in the latest legal battle over the estate of Smith's late husband, J. Howard Marshall II.

2007: A British movie theater allowed a man to propose to his girlfriend with a three-minute home film inserted among the trailers before the main feature. Tina Kilford of Weymouth, England, was sitting there with two friends and a tub of ice cream, watching the trailers, when she suddenly saw Tom Lane on the screen, holding a card saying, "Hi Tina!" As a finale, Lane appeared, kneeling by Kilford's seat with a ring. The audience cheered when she yelled "Yes!"