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Today is Wednesday, March 31st.

The 91st day of 2004.

There are 275 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On March 31, 1968, President Johnson stunned the country by announcing he would not seek another term in office.



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On this date:



In 1596, French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, René ("I think, therefore I am") Descartes, sometimes called the father of modern philosophy, was born in La Haye, Touraine (a region and former province of France). He died in 1650.



In 1774, The British Parliament responds to the Boston Tea Party by passing the Boston Port Act, which closes the port of Boston; Americans regard this as the first of the so-called "Intolerable Acts."



In 1831, Quebec and Montreal are incorporated as cities in Canada.



In 1870, Thomas Peterson Mundy of New Jersey becomes the first black man to cast a ballot after the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gives blacks the right to vote.



In 1880, Wabash, Indiana becomes the first town to have a complete electric street lighting system.



In 1889, French engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel unfurled the French tricolor from atop the Eiffel Tower, officially marking its completion.



In 1913, Financier, Industrialist, founder of U.S. Steel Corp., J. P. (John Pierpont) Morgan died at the age of 75.



In 1917, The US purchases Danish West Indies for $25M & renames them Virgin Islands



In 1918, Daylight Saving Time (NOT "Savings" Time) went into effect throughout the United States for the first time. Folks would "spring ahead" an hour allowing for longer early evenings. The time change left enough light for many activities, especially in farming areas. Planting and such could best be done with the sun up an extra hour. Folks would "fall back" an hour to Standard Time in the fall, to save an hour and gain an extra hour of sleep. Supposedly, it was a way to save energy, but many contend that this idea is foolish and that the country should do away with "Standard Time all the time" and keep the sun shining an hour later all year long.



In 1927, American labor leader (United Farm Workers) César Estrada Chávez was born near Yuma, AZ. He died in 1993.



In 1932, The Ford Motor Company publicly unveiled its "V-8" engine.



In 1933, Congress authorized the Civilian Conservation Corps.



In 1940, La Guardia airport in New York officially opened to the public.



In 1943, the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "Oklahoma!" opened on Broadway.



In 1945, U.S. forces begin landings on the Pacific island of Okinawa.



In 1945, Tennessee Williams' "Glass Menagerie" premieres in New York NY



In 1948, The Soviets in Germany began controlling the Western trains headed toward Berlin.



In 1949, Newfoundland entered confederation as Canada's 10th province.



In 1951, US tanks cross the 38th Parrallel in Korea.



In 1953, Stanley Kubrick's first feature film, a war drama titled "Fear and Desire," premiered in New York.



In 1953, A new federal government department, Health Education and Welfare, is established.



In 1954, The US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs CO, is established.



In 1959, The Dalai Lama, fleeing Chinese repression of an uprising in Tibet, arrived at the Indian border and was granted political asylum.



In 1963, Los Angeles ends streetcar service after nearly 90 years.



In 1965, the U.S. orders the first commitment of combat troops to Vietnam to protect Danang Air Base.



In 1967, Jimi Hendrix begins his tradition of burning his guitar.



In 1976, The New Jersey Supreme Court sets a precedent, ruling that coma patient Karen Anne Quinlan can be taken off life support so she can "die with dignity."



In 1980, U.S. President Carter deregulated the banking industry.



In 1982, The rock group Doobie Brothers split up.



In 1985, ABC-TV aired the 200th episode of "The Love Boat."



In 1986, 167 people died when a Mexicana Airlines Boeing 727 crashed in a remote mountainous region of Mexico.



In 1987, the State Department ordered home all 28 remaining U.S. Marine guards at the Moscow embassy after two Marines were charged with espionage.



In 1990, Hundreds of people were injured when rioting erupted in London over Britain's so-called "poll tax."



In 1991, the Warsaw Pact spent the last day of its existence as a military alliance.



In 1993, actor Brandon Lee, 28, was accidentally killed during the filming of a movie in Wilmington, N.C., by a prop gun.



In 1995, Mexican-American singer Selena Quintanilla-Perez, 23, was shot to death in Corpus Christi, Texas, by Yolanda Saldivar, the founder of her fan club. (Saldivar was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.)



In 1998, For the first time in U.S. history the federal government's detailed financial statement was released. This occurred under the Clinton administration.



Ten years ago (1994):



The PLO and Israel agreed to resume talks on Palestinian autonomy, more than a month after the Hebron mosque massacre.



Five years ago (1999):



Three U.S. Army soldiers were captured by Serb forces near the Yugoslav-Macedonia border. (Staff Sgt. Andrew Ramirez, Staff Sgt. Christopher Stone and Spc. Steven M. Gonzales were released more than a month later.)



Four New York City police officers were charged with murder for killing Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant, in a hail of bullets (the officers were acquitted in February 2000).



One year ago (2003):



American forces battled Iraqi defenders in fierce street fighting 50 miles south of Baghdad, pointing toward a drive on the capital.



Seven Iraqi women and children were killed at an Army checkpoint when their van refused orders to stop.



U.S. military officials accused Geraldo Rivera of disclosing unauthorized military movements. Rivera had outlined military movements in the dirt while embedded with the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq.



NBC fired Peter Arnett after he gave an unauthorized interview with state-run Iraqi TV. During the interview Arnett said that the American-led war effort had initially failed because of Iraqi resistance.



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Today's Birthdays:



Actor William Daniels (Knight Rider's voice of KITT, St. Elsewhere's Dr. Mark Craig) is 77.



Hockey Hall-of-Famer Gordie Howe is 76.



Actor (George) Richard Chamberlain is 70.



Actress Shirley Jones is 70.



Country singer-songwriter John D. Loudermilk is 70.



Musician Herb Alpert is 69.



Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., is 64.



Actor Christopher Walken is 61.



Comedian Gabriel "Gabe" Kaplan is 59.



Former Vice President Al Gore, Jr. is 56.



David Eisenhower is 56.



Actress Rhea Perlman is 56.



Actor, NFL Runningback Ed Marinaro (Hill St. Blues) is 53.



Rock musician Angus Young (AC/DC) is 49.



Actor Marc McClure is 47.



Actor William McNamara is 39.



Actor Ewan McGregor is 33.



Actor Colin Farrell is 28.



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Thought for Today:

"It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well." -

- Rene Descartes, French philosopher (1596-1650).

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Today is Tuesday, March 30th

The 90th day of 2004.

There are 276 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On March 30, 1981, President Reagan was shot and seriously injured outside a Washington, D.C. hotel by John W. Hinckley Jr. Also wounded were White House press secretary James Brady, a Secret Service agent and a District of Columbia police officer.



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On this date:



In 239, B.C.E., was the first recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.



In 1814, Britain and its allies against Napoleon marched triumphantly into Paris.



In 1822, Florida became a United States territory.



In 1842, Dr. Crawford W. Long of Jefferson, Ga., first used ether as an anesthetic during a minor operation.



In 1843, the Egg Incubator was patented by Napoleon E, Guerin.



In 1853, Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh was born. He died in 1890.



In 1858, Hyman L. Lipman of Philadelphia patents his idea of attaching an eraser to the top of a lead pencil.



In 1867, U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward reached agreement with Russia to purchase the territory of Alaska for $7.2 million, a deal roundly ridiculed as "Seward's Folly."



In 1870, the 15th amendment to the Constitution, giving black men the right to vote, was declared in effect.



In 1870, Texas was readmitted to the Union.



In 1893, Thomas Francis Bayard was named first American ambassador to Great Britain. The United States previously had a lower-level diplomatic presence in London.



In 1909, The Queensboro Bridge opens, linking Manhattan & Queens. It was the first double decker bridge.



In 1916, Pancho Villa killed 172 at the Guerrero garrison in Mexico.



In 1932, Amelia Earhart is 1st woman to fly solo cross the Atlantic



In 1935, Newfoundland changes time to 3 1/2 hrs W of Greenwich.



In 1941, The German Afrika Korps under General Erwin Rommel began its first offensive against British forces in Libya.



In 1942, a directive from Washington, D.C. decrees that men's suits be manufactured without trouser cuffs, pleats and patch pockets for the duration of the war.



In 1944, The U.S. fleet attacked Palau, near the Philippines.



In 1945, the Soviet Union invaded Austria during World War II.



In 1946, The Allies seized 1,000 Nazis attempting to revive the Nazi party in Frankfurt.



In 1948, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin ordered all road and rail access to Berlin, Germany blocked, marking the beginning of what would become a complete blockade of the German city three months later -- on June 24.



In 1950, the invention of the Phototransistor was announced at Murray Hill, NJ.



In 1950, U.S. President Truman denounced Senator Joe McCarthy as a saboteur of U.S. foreign policy.



In 1953, Einstein announces revised unified field theory



In 1964, John Glenn withdrew from the Ohio race for U.S. Senate because of injuries suffered in a fall.



In 1964, "Jeopardy" debuted on NBC-TV.



In 1970. American Thoroughbred racehorse Secretariat was born at Meadow Stud in Doswell, Virginia. In 1973 he became the first Triple Crown winner since 1948. He was retired to stud at Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky. In 16 years he sired 663 foals. Secretariat was euthanized in 1989 because of complications from laminitis, an incurable hoof disease, and is buried at the farm.



In 1979, Airey Neave, a leading member of the British parliament, was killed by a bomb planted by the Irish National Liberation Army.



In 1984, The U.S. ended its participation in the multinational peace force in Lebanon.



In 1986, actor James Cagney died at his farm in Stanfordville, N.Y., at age 86.



In 1987, Vincent van Gogh's "Sunflowers" sells for record £22.5M ($39.7 million)



In 1993, after 43 years, the unthinkable happened on the comic pages, Charlie Brown was a hero when he hit a homerun and his baseball team won for the first time.



In 1998, Rolls-Royce was purchased by German automaker BMW in a $570 million deal.



In 2000, In the midst of the 2000 presidential campaign, Vice President Al Gore broke with the Clinton administration, saying he supported legislation to allow six-year-old Elian Gonzalez to remain in the country while the courts resolved his custody case.



In 2002, the Queen Mother Elizabeth of England died in her sleep at Royal Lodge, Windsor, outside London; she was 101 years old.



Ten years ago (1994):



Serbs and Croats signed a cease-fire to end their war in Croatia while Bosnian Muslims and Serbs continued to battle each other.



The Clinton administration announced it was lifting virtually all export controls on non-military products to China and the former Soviet bloc.



Five years ago (1999):



Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic insisted that NATO attacks stop before he moved toward peace, declaring his forces ready to fight "to the very end." NATO answered with new resolve to wreck his military with a relentless air assault.



A jury in Portland, Ore., ordered Philip Morris to pay $81 million to the family of a man who died of lung cancer after smoking Marlboros for four decades. (The Supreme Court threw out the verdict in October 2003, saying it should be reviewed by lower courts to ensure it was not unconstitutionally excessive.)



One year ago (2003):



A Palestinian suicide bomber wounded some 30 people outside a packed cafe in northern Israel, an attack the Islamic Jihad called "Palestine's gift to the heroic people of Iraq."



An Iraqi official announced that 4,000 Arab volunteers had arrived to carry out more suicide attacks against U.S. and British forces.



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Today's Birthdays:



Singer Frankie Laine is 91.



Actor Richard Dysart is 75.



Actor John Astin is 74.



Game show host Peter Marshall (Pierre LaCock) is 74.



Actor-director Warren Beatty is 67.



Rock musician Graeme Edge (The Moody Blues) is 63.



Rock musician Eric (Patrick) Clapton is 59.



Actor Robbie Coltrane is 54.



Actor Paul Reiser is 47.



Rap artist MC Hammer is 41.



Singer Tracy Chapman is 40.



Actor Ian Ziering is 40.



Singer Celine Dion is 36.



Actor Mark Consuelos is 34.



Singer Norah Jones is 25.



Singer-musician Scott Moffatt (The Moffatts) is 21.



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Thought for Today:

"All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are moveable, and those that move." -

- Arab proverb.

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-------------------------------------------------

Today is Monday, March 29th

The 89th day of 2004

There are 277 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On March 29, 1973, the last United States combat troops left South Vietnam, ending America's direct military involvement in the Vietnam War.



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On this date:



In 1139, Pope Innocent II grants the Templars 'every best gift' and makes them an independent unit within the Church



In 1626, the Plymouth Colony enacts forestry legislation requiring approval for the exportation of lumber.



In 1638, Swedish colonists settled in present-day Delaware.



In 1790, the 10th president of the United States, John Tyler, was born in Charles City County, Va.



In 1798, Republic of Switzerland formed.



In 1812, the first wedding was performed in the White House. Mrs. Lucy Payne Washington, sister-in-law of President James Madison, married Supreme Court Justice Thomas Dodd.



In 1847, victorious forces led by General Winfield Scott occupied the city of Vera Cruz after Mexican defenders capitulated.



In 1848, Niagara Falls stops flowing for 30 hours due to an ice jam



In 1867, the British Parliament passed the North America Act to create the Dominion of Canada.



In 1867, Major league pitcher Denton True "Cy" Young was born in Gilmore, OH. During his 22 years in the major leagues he pitched in 906 games and won 511 (a record which still stands) and had three perfect "no-hit" games. He retired from baseball in 1911. In 1937 he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He died in 1955. In his honor, the Cy Young Award for the best major league pitcher of the year was established in 1956; since 1967 the award has been given to the best pitcher in each league.



In 1882, the Knights of Columbus was chartered in Connecticut.



In 1886, the first batch of Coca Cola was brewed over a fire in a backyard in Atlanta, GA. Dr. John Pemberton created the concoction as a "hangover" cure and a stomach ache/headache remedy. He advertised it as a "brain tonic and intellectual beverage". Cocaine was an ingredient of Coke until 1904 when Congress banned it. It went on sale to the public on May eighth that year.



In 1903, A regular news service began between New York and London on Marconi's wireless.



In 1927, Major Henry O. de Hane becomes the first person to drive a car over 200 miles per hour.



In 1932, American comedian Jack Benny makes his radio debut.



In 1943, World War II meat, butter and cheese rationing began.



In 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. (They were executed in June 1953.)



In 1961, The 23rd Amendment is ratified, giving residents of Washington, D.C. the right to vote in presidential elections.



In 1962, Jack Paar hosted NBC's "Tonight" show for the final time.



In 1971, Army Lt. William L. Calley Jr. was convicted of murdering at least 22 Vietnamese civilians in the My Lai massacre. (Calley ended up spending three years under house arrest.)



In 1974, In Los Angeles, a jury recommended the death penalty for Charles Manson and three female followers -- Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkle and Leslie Van Houten -- for the August 1969 Tate-La Bianca murders. Their sentences were later commuted to life in prison when the state's death penalty of the day was ruled unconstitutional.



In 1974, eight Ohio National Guardsmen were indicted on charges stemming from the shooting deaths of four students at Kent State University. (The guardsmen were later acquitted.)



In 1974, The Mariner 10 spacecraft, launched by NASA in November, is the first spacecraft to visit Mercury and take close-up pictures of the planet.



In 1979, The Committee on Assassinations Report issued by U.S. House of Representatives stated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy was the result of a conspiracy.



In 1984, The 100th episode of "Knots Landing" aired.



In 1988, leaders of the Assemblies of God ordered Rev. Jimmy Swaggart to stop preaching for at least a year because of "moral failure."



In 1991, Former President Ronald Reagan reverses his position by coming out in favor of seven day waiting periods for purchases of handguns.



In 1992, Bill Clinton said "I didn't inhale" in reference to when he had used marijuana.



In 1993, The South Korean government agreed to pay financial support to women who had been forced to have sex with Japanese troops during World War II.



In 1996, the House Ethics Committee said Speaker Newt Gingrich violated House rules by having close dealings with a wealthy GOP giver who had business interests affected by congressional legislation. It was the third time in two months the panel had notified Gingrich that he'd broken the rules.



In 2000, Cuba's Fidel Castro announced that the father of 6-year-old refugee Elian Gonzalez was ready to fly to the United States to take custody of his son.



In 2334, Dr. Beverley Crusher (Star Fleet - USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-D/E) will be born in Copernicus Luna.



In 2336, Ship Counsellor Deanna Troi (Star Fleet - USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-D/E) will be born on Betazed.



Ten years ago (1994):



Mexico's ruling party picked Ernesto Zedillo to be its new presidential candidate, replacing the assassinated Luis Donaldo Colosio.



Dallas Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson resigned, capping a longstanding feud with team owner Jerry Jones.



Five years ago (1999):



NATO air strikes against Yugoslavia continued for a sixth night.



The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 10,000 for the first time, ending the day at 10,006.78.



Connecticut beat top-ranked Duke, 77-74, for its first NCAA basketball championship.



Legendary jazz singer Joe Williams died in Las Vegas at age 80.



One year ago (2003):



In Iraq, a bomber posing as a taxi driver blew up his vehicle, killing himself and four American soldiers



A Turkish man who had hijacked a Turkish Airlines flight the day before was persuaded by Turkey's prime minister to release his 204 hostages after the plane landed in Athens, Greece.



Michelle Kwan became only the third American to win five World Figure Skating Championships, after Dick Button and Carol Heiss.



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Today's Birthdays:



Former U.S. Sen. Eugene McCarthy is 88.



Political commentator John McLaughlin is 77.



Former British Prime Minister John Major is 61.



Comedian Eric Idle is 61.



Composer Vangelis is 61.



Singer Bobby Kimball (Toto) is 57.



Actor Bud Cort is 54.



Actor Chris Lawford is 49.



Olympic gymnast Kurt Thomas is 48.



Actor Christopher Lambert is 47.



Rock singer Perry Farrell (Porno for Pyros; Jane's Addiction) is 45.



Actress Kelly LeBrock is 44.



Model Elle Macpherson is 41.



Rock singer-musician John Popper (Blues Traveler) is 37.



Actress Lucy Lawless (Xena) is 36.



Country singer Regina Leigh (Regina Regina) is 36.



Country singer Brady Seals is 35.



Tennis player Jennifer Capriati is 28.



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Thought for Today:

"Materialists and madmen never have doubts." -

- G.K. Chesterton, English author (1874-1936).

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Today is Sunday, March 28th.

The 88th day of 2004.

There are 278 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On March 28, 1979, America's worst commercial nuclear accident occurred inside the Unit Two reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Middletown, Pa.



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On this date:



In 1380, Gunpowder first used in Europe, by the Venetians against the Genoese



In 1797, Nathaniel Briggs of New Hampshire patented the washing machine.



In 1799, New York State abolished slavery.



In 1804, Ohio passed law restricting movement of Blacks



In 1834, the U.S. Senate voted to censure President Jackson for the removal of federal deposits from the Bank of the United States.



In 1848, a Pennsylvania law decrees that no child under twelve could engage in commercial labor.



In 1854, during the Crimean War, Britain and France declared war on Russia.



In 1865, Outdoor advertising legislation was enacted in New York State. The law banned "painting on stones, rocks and trees."



In 1885, The Salvation Army was officially organized in the U.S.



In 1898, the Supreme Court ruled that a child born in the United States to Chinese immigrants was a U.S. citizen. This meant that they could not be deported under the Chinese Exclusion Act.



In 1899, Budwiser beer magnate August Anheuser Busch, jr. was born. He died September 29, 1989.



In 1910, Mickey Mouse Club host Jimmie Dodd was born. He died in 1964.



In 1917, During World War I the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) was founded.



In 1930, the names of the Turkish cities of Constantinople and Angora were changed to Istanbul and Ankara.



In 1933, In Germany, the Nazis ordered a ban on all Jews in businesses, professions and schools.



In 1939, the Spanish Civil War ended as Madrid fell to the forces of Francisco Franco.



In 1941, novelist and critic Virginia Woolf died in Lewes, England.



In 1941, The Italian fleet was defeated by the British at the Battle of Matapan.



In 1942, during World War II, British naval forces raided the Nazi-occupied French port of St. Nazaire.



In 1943, composer Sergei Rachmaninoff died in Beverly Hills, Calif.



In 1953, Olympic Gold Medal athlete James Francis "Jim" Thorpe died in Lomita, Calif., at the age of 64.



In 1962, Jack Paar made his final appearance on the "Tonight" show.



In 1967, Raymond Burr starred in a TV movie titled "Ironside." The movie was later turned into a television series.



In 1969, the 34th president of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, died in Washington at age 78.



In 1969, In London, Ringo Starr announces that there will be no more public appearances by the Beatles.



In 1972, Wilt Chamberlain plays his last pro basketball game



In 1974, A streaker ran onto the set of "The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson."



In 1979, The King of Clowns, Emmett Kelly died at the age of 80.



In 1982, The soap opera "Search for Tomorrow" changed from CBS to NBC.



In 1986, More than 6,000 radio stations of all format varieties played "We are the World" simultaneously at 10:15 a.m. EST.



In 1990, In Britain, a joint Anglo-U.S. "sting" operation ended with the seizure of 40 capacitors, which can be used in the trigger mechanism of a nuclear weapon.



In 1991, The 100th episode of "L.A. Law" aired.



In 1997, a medical examiner revealed that some members of the Heaven's Gate cult who'd committed suicide in a California mansion had also been castrated in apparent pursuit of the group's ideal of androgynous immortality.



In 2000, In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court sharply curtailed police power to rely on anonymous tips to stop and search people.



Ten years ago (1994):



More than 50 people were killed in violence that erupted in Johannesburg, South Africa, during a march by Zulu nationalists.



Absurdist playwright Eugene Ionesco died in Paris at age 81.



Five years ago (1999):



NATO broadened its attacks on Yugoslavia to target Serb military forces in Kosovo in the fifth straight night of airstrikes; thousands of refugees flooded into Albania and Macedonia from Kosovo.



The Baltimore Orioles beat a Cuban all-star team 3-2 in Havana.



Venus Williams beat kid sister Serena 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 to win the Lipton Championships in the first all-sister women's final in 115 years.



Paraguay's President Raúl Cubas Grau resigned after protests inspired by the assassination of Vice-President Luis María Argaña on March 23. The nation's Congress had accused Cubas and his political associate, Gen. Lino César Oviedo, for Cubas' murder. Senate President Luis González Macchi took office as Paraguay's new chief executive.



One year ago (2003):



American-led forces in Iraq dropped 1,000-pound bombs on Republican Guard units guarding the gates to Baghdad and battled for control of the strategic city of Nasiriya.



President Bush warned of "further sacrifice" ahead in the face of unexpectedly fierce fighting.



Japan launched its first spy satellites to monitor communist neighbor North Korea's missile development and suspected nuclear weapons programs.



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Today's Birthdays:



Former White House national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski is 76.



Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski is 71.



Country musician Charlie McCoy is 63.



Movie director Mike Newell is 62.



Actress Conchata Ferrell is 61.



Actor Ken Howard is 60.



Actress Dianne Wiest is 56.



Rhythm and blues musician Milan Williams (The Commodores) is 56.



Olympian gold medalist Ronnie Ray Smith is 55.



Country singer Reba McEntire is 49.



American Gymnast and three-time Olympian Bart Conner is 46.



Actress Tracey Needham is 37.



Actor Max Perlich is 36.



Rapper Salt (Salt-N-Pepa) is 35.



Actor Vince Vaughn is 34.



Rapper Mr. Cheeks (Lost Boyz) is 33.



Actor Ken L. is 31.



Actress Julia Stiles is 23.



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Thought for Today:

"If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people." -

- Virginia Woolf (1882-1941).

--------------------------------------------------

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Today is Saturday, March 27th.

The 87th day of 2004.

There are 279 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On March 27, 1977, 582 people were killed when a KLM Boeing 747, attempting to take off, crashed into a Pan Am 747 on the Canary Island of Tenerife.



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On this date:



In 1512, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon sighted Florida.



In 1625, Charles I ascended the English throne upon the death of James I.



In 1790, The Shoelace was invented.



In 1794, President Washington and Congress authorized creation of the U.S. Navy.



In 1836, the first Mormon temple was dedicated, in Kirtland, Ohio.



In 1855, Abraham Gesner patents Kerosene



In 1866, President Andrew Johnson vetoes the civil rights bill; it later becomes the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.



In 1866, Andrew Rankin received a patent for the urinal.



In 1884, The very first long-distance call is made. The call is between The American Bell Telephone Company in Boston and New York.



In 1912, First lady Helen Taft plants the first Japanese cherry trees in Washington, D.C.



In 1917, the Seattle Metropolitans became the first U.S. team to win the Stanley Cup as they defeated the Montreal Canadiens.



In 1933, About 55,000 people staged a protest against Hitler in New York City.



In 1955, Steve McQueen made his network TV debut on "Goodyear Playhouse."



In 1958, Nikita Khrushchev became Soviet premier in addition to First Secretary of the Communist Party.



In 1958, CBS Labs announce new stereophonic records



In 1964, Southern Alaska is hit with the strongest earthquake in American history. The earthquake measures 9.2 on the Richter scale. Adding to the disaster is a tidal wave that measures over 100 feet at certain points.



In 1968, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man to orbit the earth, died in a plane crash.



In 1968, The windsurfer is patented.



In 1973, Marlon Brando refuses his Oscar for The Godfather in protest of Hollywood's treatment of Native Americans.



In 1979, The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 8-to-1, that police could not stop motorists at random to check licenses and registrations unless there was reason to believe a law had been broken.



In 1980, 137 workers died when a North Sea floating oil field platform, the Alexander I. Keilland, capsized during a storm.



In 1980, After 123 years of remaining inactive, Mount St. Helens in Washington becomes active once more when it begins to shoot out ash and steam. The most distructive eruption in U.S. history will later occur on May 18th... when Mount St. Helens erupts at the power of 10,000,000 tons of dynamite.



In 1985, the Supreme Court rules that police could not shoot fleeing criminal suspects who are unarmed and not considered dangerous.



In 1998, the Food and Drug Administration approved the anti-impotence drug Viagra, made by Pfizer.



In 1997, Russian workers staged a nationwide strike to demand overdue wages.



In 1998, Top civilian aircraft makers in France, Spain, Germany and Britain agreed to create single European aerospace and defense company.



In 2000, DaimlerChrysler AG announced it would buy 34 percent of Japan's Mitsubishi Motors Corporation.



In 2001, California regulators approved electricity rate hikes of up to 46 percent.



Ten years ago (1994):



More than 40 people were killed as violent thunderstorms tore across the Southeast.



Italians went to the polls in general elections that resulted in big gains for a right-wing coalition.



Ukraine held its first parliamentary elections since the collapse of the Soviet Union.



Five years ago (1999):



NATO expanded its air assault on Yugoslavia in the fourth straight day of attacks.



Maria Butyrskaya of Russia won the World Figure Skating Championships in Helsinki, Finland; defending champion Michelle Kwan of the United States finished second.



One year ago (2003):



Serbian police killed two major suspects in the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic



Russia's Evgeni Plushenko won his second World Figure Skating Championships title, edging American Tim Goebel.



Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paul Zindel died in New York at age 66.



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Today's Birthdays:



Lord Callaghan, former British prime minister, is 92.



Blues musician Robert "Junior" Lockwood is 89.



Former newspaper columnist Anthony Lewis is 77.



Dance company director Arthur Mitchell is 70.



Actor Julian Glover is 69.



Actor Jerry Lacy is 68.



Actor Austin Pendleton is 64.



Actor Michael York is 62.



Rock musician Tony Banks (Genesis) is 54.



Actress Maria Schneider is 52.



Rock musician Andrew Farriss (INXS) is 45.



Movie director Quentin Tarantino is 41.



Singer, Variety Show Hostess, Movie Actress, Xuxa (pronounced SHOO-SHAW)(Maria da Graca Meneghel) is 41.



Rock musician Derrick McKenzie (Jamiroquai) is 40.



Actress Talisa Soto is 37.



Actress Pauley Perrette is 35.



Singer Mariah Carey is 34.



Rock musician Brendan Hill (Blues Traveler) is 34.



Actress Elizabeth Mitchell is 34.



Hip-hop singer Fergy (Black Eyed Peas) is 29.



Actress Emily Ann Lloyd is 21.



Actress Taylor Atelian is 9.



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Thought for Today:

"Men travel faster now, but I do not know if they go to better things." -

- Willa Cather, American author (1873-1947).

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Today is Friday, March 26th.

The 86th day of 2004.

There are 280 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On March 26, 1982, groundbreaking ceremonies took place in Washington, D.C., for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.



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On this date:



In 1150, Tichborne family of Hampshire England started tradition of giving a Gallon of flour to each resident to keep deathbed promise.



In 1388, Construction begins on St. Mary's College, Oxford, England



In 1668, Bombay, India was transferred to England.



In 1790, The Naturalization Act is passed by Congress and requires a two-year residency for new citizens.



In 1804, the Louisiana Purchase was divided into the Territory of Orleans and the District of Louisiana.



In 1827, composer Ludwig van Beethoven died in Vienna.



In 1859, astronomers reported sighting a new planet in an orbit near that of Mercury. They named it Vulcan. It's now believed to have been a "rogue asteroid" making a one-time pass close to the sun.



In 1874, poet Robert Frost was born in San Francisco.



In 1885, Eastman Kodak produces the first commercial moving-picture film.



In 1892, poet Walt Whitman died in Camden, N.J.



In 1909, Russian troops invaded Persia to support Muhammad Ali as shah in place of the constitutional government.



In 1911, playwright Tennessee Williams was born in Columbus, Miss.



In 1917 At the start of the battle of Gaza, the British cavalry withdrew when 17,000 Turks blocked their advance.



In 1934, Driving tests were introduced in Britain.



In 1938, Herman Goering warned all Jews to leave Austria.



In 1942, The Germans began sending Jews to Auschwitz in Poland.



In 1943, Elsie S. Ott is the first woman awarded the U.S. Air Force Medal at Bowman Field, Kentucky.



In 1945, Generals Eisenhower/Bradley/Patton attack at Remagen the Rhine.



In 1945, Kamikazes attack US battle fleet near Kerama Retto.



In 1945, US seventh Army crosses Worms on the Rhine.



In 1945, The Battle of Iwo Jima ended. During the battle about 22,000 Japanese troops were killed or captured and more than 4,500 U.S. troops died.



In 1945, The Japanese attempted to reinforce a garrison at Kiska in the Aleutians but were intercepted by a U.S. naval force at the battle of Komandorski Islands.



In 1951, The United States Air Force Flag is approved. The design, which is laid out on a blue background, includes the coat of arms, thirteen white stars, and the Air Force Seal.



In 1953, Dr. Jonas Salk announces a new vaccine to prevent polio, an infectious viral disease of the central nervous system that sometimes results in permanent paralysis.



In 1955, "Ballad of Davy Crockett" becomes the #1 record in US



In 1956, Red Buttons made his debut as a television actor in "Studio One" on CBS television.



In 1958, the U.S. Army launched America's third successful satellite, Explorer III.



In 1960, The TV special "Welcome Home Elvis" was recorded in Miami Beach, FL. The show was hosted by Frank Sinatra.



In 1962, the U.S. Supreme Court gave federal courts the power to order reapportionment of seats in a state legislature, a decision that eventually led to the doctrine of "one man, one vote."



In 1962, American poet Robert Frost publishes his first new collection of poems in 15 years, In the Clearing.



In 1964, the musical play "Funny Girl," starring Barbra Streisand, opened on Broadway.



In 1969, The TV movie "Marcus Welby" was seen on ABC-TV. It was later turned into a series.



In 1971, East Pakistan proclaimed its independence, taking the name Bangladesh.



In 1971, "Cannon" premiered on CBS-TV as a movie. It was turned into a series later in the year.



In 1973, Women were allowed on to the floor of the London Stock Exchange for the first time. Susan Shaw was the first.



In 1973, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat took over the premiership and said "the stage of total confrontatation (with Israel) has become inevitable."



In 1975, the city of Hue in South Vietnam fell to the North Vietnamese army.



In 1979, the Camp David peace treaty was signed by Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat at the White House.



In 1980, Mount St. Helens in Washington State begins emitting steam, ash, and the odd boulder. The volcano will blow its lid two months later.



In 1989, Boris Yeltsin becomes the first popularly elected president of Russia during the first free elections in the history of the Soviet Union.



In 1989, The first episode of "Quantum Leap" aired on NBC.



In 1991, The Bush administration indicated it would not aid rebels seeking to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.



In 1991, a divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled that criminal defendants whose coerced confessions were improperly used as evidence are not always entitled to a new trial.



In 1993, a "frustrated" taxpayer blasted his way into the IRS state headquarters in Sacramento, Calif., taking several workers hostage before a police SWAT team killed him.



In 1993, a man armed with a small-caliber rifle opened fire along a rural highway outside Seattle, killing one man and wounding six others before police shot and critically wounded him.



In 1995, "Johnny Bravo" was aired for the first time on the Cartoon Network.



In 1997, Police enter a mansion in Santa Fe, California, and discover thirty-nine bodies from a mass suicide. The victims were all members of the religious cult, "Heaven’s Gate," who believed that by committing suicide, they would be picked up by an alien spacecraft following behind the Hale-Bopp comet.



In 1998, In the U.S., the Federal government endorses new HIV test that yields instant results.



In 1998, Unisys Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. pay a $3.15 million fine for selling spare parts at inflated prices to the U.S. federal government.



In 1998, President Clinton stood with President Nelson Mandela in a racially integrated South African parliament to salute a country that was "truly free and democratic at last." Clinton, accompanied by his wife Hillary, became the first U.S. head of state to visit the former British colony.



In 2000, The Seattle Kingdome was imploded to make room for a new football arena.



In 2000, In Russia, acting President Vladimir Putin was elected president outright. He won a sufficient number of votes to avoid a runoff election.



In 2002, Chief executive Joseph Berardino of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm resigned, bowing to mounting pressure as a result of the accounting firm's role in the Enron scandal.



Ten years ago (1994):



U.N. peacekeepers in Bosnia-Herzegovina destroyed a Serb bunker following a seven-hour exchange of fire.



The Senate passed President Clinton's education reform measure, the "Goals 2000" bill, 63-22.



Five years ago (1999):



American-led NATO forces launched a third night of airstrikes against Yugoslavia.



Dr. Jack Kevorkian was convicted in Pontiac, Mich., of second-degree murder for giving a patient with Lou Gehrig's disease a lethal injection, an action videotaped and broadcast on television.



A cunning computer virus named "Melissa" began infecting computers across the country.



One year ago (2003):



The Senate approved a $2.2 trillion budget that provided less than half the $726 billion in tax cuts President Bush wanted.



Former Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., died in Washington, D.C., at age 76.



Interpol issued an international call for the arrest of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori on charges of murder and kidnapping in Peru.



It was announced by the U.S. Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that Iraq had executed American prisoners of war.



It was announced by a U.S. general that 3,000 chemical suits had been discovered in a hospital in central Iraq.



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Today's Birthdays:



Retired Army Gen. William C. Westmoreland is 90.



Comedian, Radio Disc Jock, TV/Radio Actor Bob Elliott (Bob & Ray) is 81.



Jazz musician James Moody is 79.



Conductor-composer Pierre Boulez is 79.



Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is 74.



Actor-director Leonard Nimoy is 73.



Actor Alan Arkin is 70.



Actor James Caan is 64.



Author Erica Jong is 62.



Journalist Robert "Bob" Woodward is 61.



Singer Diana Ross is 60.



Actor Johnny Crawford ("Mark McCain" - The Rifleman) is 58.



Rock singer Steven Tyler (Aerosmith) is 56.



Singer and TV personality Vicki Lawrence is 55.



Singer Teddy Pendergrass is 54.



Comedian Martin Short is 54.



Country singer Ronnie McDowell is 54.



Founder of the Guardian Angels, Curtis Sliwa is 50.



Country singer Dean Dillon is 49.



Country singer Charly McClain is 48.



TV personality Leeza Gibbons is 47.



Actress Jennifer Grey is 44.



NFLer Marcus Allen is 44.



Basketball player John Stockton is 42.



Actor Michael Imperioli is 38.



Rock musician James Iha is 36.



Country singer Kenny Chesney is 36.



Rapper Juvenile is 29.



Actress Amy Smart is 28.



Actress Keira Knightley is 19.



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Thought for Today:

"The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it." -

- Walt Whitman (1819-1892).

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Today is Thursday, March 25th.

The 85th day of 2004.

There are 281 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On March 25, 1965, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led 25,000 marchers to the state capitol in Montgomery, Ala., to protest the denial of voting rights to blacks.



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On this date:



In 1, Roman Church historian Dionysius Exiguus (ca.500_550), in calculating his history of the Christian Church, took this day as the supposed date of the Annunciation. March 25th afterward became the first day of the calendar year, until the Gregorian Calendar Reform of 1753 changed the day to January 1st.



In 1634, The Catholic Church gained a foothold in colonial America when the ships "Dove" and "Ark" arrived in Maryland with 128 Catholic colonists, selected by Cecilius Calvert, second Lord Baltimore. The colony was under the leadership of Leonard Calvert, Lord Baltimore's brother. They named their community the Town of Saint Mary.



In 1776, The Continental Congress authorized a medal for General George Washington.



In 1807, the first railway passenger service begins in England.



In 1807, Britain abolishes the African slave trade.



In 1821, Greece gained independence from Turkey.



In 1863, the first Army Medal of Honor was awarded.



In 1894, Jacob S. Coxey began leading an "army" of unemployed from Massillon, Ohio, to Washington, D.C., to demand help from the federal government.



In 1896, The Modern Olympic Games begin in Athens Greece



In 1901, The Mercedes is introduced by Daimler at the five-day "Week of Nice" in Nice, France.



In 1911, in a tragedy that galvanized America's labor movement, 146 immigrant workers, almost all teenage girls and young women, were killed when fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York.



In 1913, the home of vaudeville, the Palace Theatre, opened in New York City.



In 1915, The first submarine disaster in history occurs when a U.S. F-4 sinks off the Hawaiian coast. Twenty-one people are killed.



In 1947, a coal mine explosion in Centralia, Ill., claimed 111 lives.



In 1954, RCA announced it had begun producing color television sets at its plant in Bloomington, Ind. (The sets, with 12 1/2-inch picture tubes, cost $1,000 each.)



In 1954, at the Academy Awards, "From Here to Eternity" won eight Oscars, including best picture, best director (Fred Zinnemann), best supporting actor (Frank Sinatra) and best supporting actress (Donna Reed). Audrey Hepburn won best actress for "Roman Holiday" and William Holden best actor for "Stalag 17."



In 1957, the Treaty of Rome established the European Economic Community.



In 1966, The United States Supreme Court rules that the "poll tax," a tax that is levied on an individual as a prerequisite for voting, is unconstitutional.



In 1968, The 58th and final episode of "The Monkees" TV show was aired.



In 1970, The Concorde makes its first supersonic flight.



In 1972, The final episode of "Bewitched" was aired on ABC.



In 1975, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was shot to death by a nephew with a history of mental illness. (The nephew was beheaded the following June.)



In 1977, The final episode of "Sanford and Son" was aired.



In 1978, the oil tanker Amoco Cadiz, aground in the English Channel since March 16, split in two, spilling the last of its 1.6 million barrels of oil.



In 1982, Wayne Gretzky becomes the first player in NHL history to score 200 points in a season.



In 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Air Force could ban the wearing of yarmulkes by Jewish military personnel in uniform.



In 1988, Robert Chambers Jr. pleads guilty to first-degree manslaughter in the death of 18 year-old Jennifer Levin in what came to be known as the "preppy murder case."



In 1989, In Paris, the Louvre reopened with I.M. Pei's new courtyard pyramid.



In 1990, A fire in Happy Land, an illegal New York City social club, killed 87 people.



In 1990, Estonia voted for independence from the Soviet Union.



In 1991, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein launched a major counter-offensive to recapture key towns from Kurds in northern Iraq.



In 1992, Soviet cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, who'd spent ten months aboard the orbiting "Mir" space station, thereby missing the upheaval in his homeland, finally returned to earth. He had originally been scheduled for a five-month mission, but to cut costs his superiors scrapped another flight and doubled his time. He was amazed upon returning that the Soviet Union no longer existed.



In 1995, Boxer Mike Tyson was released from jail after serving 3 years.



In 1996, An 81-day standoff by the antigovernment Freemen began at a ranch near Jordan, MT.



In 1996, The U.S. issued a newly redesigned $100 bill for circulation.



In 1997, Former President George H. W. Bush parachuted from a plane over the Arizona desert. He was 73 years old at the time.



In 1998, A cancer patient was the first known to die under Oregon's doctor-assisted suicide law.



In 1998, The FCC nets $578.6 million at auction for licenses for new wireless technology.



In 1998, Quinn Pletcher was found guilty on charges of extortion. He had threatened to kill Bill Gates unless he was paid $5 million.



In 2002, An earthquake that registered 5.9 on the Richter Scale hit Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. At least 1,800 people were killed and 2,000 injured.



In 2002, The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) dismissed complaints against Walt Disney Co.'s ABC network broadcast of a Victoria's Secret fashion show in November 2001.



Ten years ago (1994):



American troops completed their withdrawal from Somalia.



The Senate approved a $1.51 trillion budget.



Five years ago (1999):



NATO aircraft and missiles blasted targets in Yugoslavia for a second night, directing much of their fire on Kosovo, where fighting raged between Serbs and ethnic Albanians.



Alexei Yagudin won the men's title for the second time at the World Figure Skating Championships held in Helsinki, Finland.



One year ago (2003):



The Senate voted to slash President Bush's proposed $726 billion tax-cutting package in half, handing the president a defeat on the foundation of his plan to awaken the nation's slumbering economy.



Former Waterbury, Conn., Mayor Philip Giordano was convicted by a federal jury of violating the civil rights of two preteen girls by sexually abusing them. (Giordano was later sentenced to 37 years in federal prison.)



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Today's Birthdays:



Modeling agency founder Eileen Ford is 82.



Former astronaut James Lovell is 76.



Movie reviewer Gene Shalit is 72.



Feminist author Gloria Steinem is 70.



Singer Anita Bryant is 64.



Singer Aretha Franklin is 62.



Actor Paul Michael Glaser is 61.



Puppeteer, Movie Director, Actor Frank Oz (Oznowicz) is 60.



Singer Elton John is 57.



Actress Bonnie Bedelia is 56.



Singer Nick Lowe is 55.



Actress-comedian Mary Gross is 51.



Actor James McDaniel is 46.



Actor-writer-director John Stockwell is 43.



Actress Lisa Gay Hamilton is 40.



Actress Sarah Jessica Parker is 39.



Singer-musician Jeff Healey is 38.



Olympic bronze medal figure skater Debi Thomas is 37.



Singer Melanie Blatt (All Saints) is 29.



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Thought for Today:

"Uninterpreted truth is as useless as buried gold." -

- Lytton Strachey, English biographer (1880-1932).

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Today is Wednesday, March 24th.

The 84th day of 2004.

There are 282 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On March 24, 1765, Britain enacted the Quartering Act, requiring American colonists to provide temporary housing to British soldiers.



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On this date:



In 1629, The first game law was passed in the American colonies, by Virginia.



In 1664, Roger Williams was granted a charter to colonize Rhode Island.



In 1837, Canada gives blacks the right to vote.



In 1868, The Metropolitan Life Insurance Co forms.



In 1874, Magician/Illusionist Harry Houdini was born in Budapest, Hungary. He died October 31st, 1926 at the age of 52.



In 1882, German scientist Robert Koch announced in Berlin that he had discovered the bacillus responsible for tuberculosis.



In 1883, Long-distance telephone service was inaugurated between Chicago and New York.



In 1887, Actor, Director, Comedian, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle was born in Conkling, MN. He died June 29th., 1933, at the age of 46.



In 1898, The first US automobile was sold. Alexander Winton sold the first automobile that he built in Cleveland to mining engineer Robert Allison for $1000.



In 1900, Mayor Van Wyck of New York breaks ground for a subway tunnel that will link Manhattan and Brooklyn.



In 1909, Outlaw Clyde Barrow (Bonnie & Clyde) was born. He died May 23, 1934 at the age of 25.



In 1920, The first United States coast guard air station is established at Morehead City, North Carolina.



In 1923, The Twin Cities are the first cities in the world to have the noiseless roller-bearing street cars.



In 1924, Greece became a republic.



In 1926, Safeway Stores is incorporated by M.B. Skaggs.



In 1930, TV/Movie actor Steve McQueen was born in Beech Grove, IN. He died November 7, 1980, at the age of 50.



In 1930, the recently discovered ninth planet is given the name Pluto.



In 1934, President Franklin Roosevelt signed a bill granting future independence to the Philippines.



In 1935, Major Bowes' Original Amateur Hour goes national on NBC Radio Network. He was later convicted for being a Nazi spy and for sending coded messages to German submarines by making sage quips at the end of the show.



In 1938, The U.S. asked that all powers help refugees fleeing from the Nazis.



In 1940, The New York City NBC station W2XBS became the first to televise religious services.



In 1944, in occupied Rome, the Nazis executed more than 300 civilians in reprisal for an attack by Italian partisans the day before that killed 32 German soldiers.



In 1944, The greatest mass escape of World War II occurred at Stalag Luft III when 76 allied airmen tunneled out. Only three made it home.



In 1945, 600 transports and 1300 gliders stretching for over 300 miles carry the First Allied Airborne Army, comprised of 40,000 British and American paratroopers (17th Airborne Div.), across the Rhine near Wesel, Germany in Operation Varsity, the largest one-day airborne drop in history.



In 1946, The Soviet Union announced that it was withdrawing its troops from Iran.



In 1947, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. donates the East River site in N.Y. to the United Nations.



In 1947, The United States Congress proposes limiting the presidency to two terms.



In 1955, the Tennessee Williams play "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" opened on Broadway.



In 1955, the first seagoing oil drill rig was placed in service.



In 1958, rock-and-roll singer Elvis Presley was inducted into the Army in Memphis, Tenn.



In 1960, A United States appeals court rules that the novel, Lady Chatterly’s Lover, is not obscene and can be sent through the mail.



In 1965, white civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo of Detroit was shot and killed on a road near Selma, Ala.



In 1966, the Selective Service announces college deferments based on performance.



In 1967, The first "Teach-in" after the bombing of North Vietnam was held at the University of Michigan.



In 1972, Great Britain imposes direct rule over Northern Ireland.



In 1976, the president of Argentina, Isabel Peron, was deposed by her country's military.



In 1980, one of El Salvador's most respected Roman Catholic Church leaders, Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, was shot to death by gunmen as he celebrated Mass in San Salvador.



In 1981, ABC's nightly Iran Hostage crisis program "America Held Hostage, Day #XXX" renamed "Nightline with Ted Koppel"



In 1986, NASA publishes "Strategy for Safely Returning the Space Shuttle to Flight Status"



In 1988, Former national security aides Oliver L. North and John M. Poindexter and businessmen Richard V. Secord and Albert Hakim pleaded innocent to Iran-Contra charges.



In 1989, the nation's worst oil spill occurred as the supertanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on a reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound and began leaking 11 million gallons of crude.



In 1993, Ezer Weizman was elected Israel's seventh president.



In 1993, South African President F.W. de Klerk admitted for the first time that his country had built six nuclear bombs, but that the weapons had been dismantled.



In 1994, 10 years ago, A 36-inch underground natural gas pipeline ruptured and exploded in Edison, New Jersey, sending shock waves throughout the area. The disaster left a crater over 120 feet wide and 40 feet deep. One hundred were injured and one related death was reported.



In 1998, A former FBI agent said papers found in James Earl Ray's car supports a conspiracy theory in the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.



In 1998, In Jonesboro, Arkansas, two boys, ages 11 and 13, pull a fire alarm at Westside Middle School and open fire on students from nearby woods. Four students and one teacher are killed in the ambush.



In 2002, Thieves stole five 17th century paintings from the Frans Hals Museum in the Dutch city of Haarlem. The paintings were worth about $2.6 million. The paintings were works by Jan Steen, Cornelis Bega, Adriaan van Ostade and Cornelis Dusart.



Ten years ago (1994):



President Clinton held a news conference in which he acknowledged he had significantly overstated the loss in his Whitewater land investment and promised to release late 1970s tax returns to answer questions on the land deal.



Five years ago (1999):



NATO launched airstrikes against Yugoslavia, marking the first time in its 50-year existence that it had ever attacked a sovereign country.



Thirty-nine people were killed when fire erupted in the Mont Blanc tunnel in France and burned for two days.



In Kenya, at least 31 people were killed when a passenger train derailed. Hundreds were injured.



The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that Boeing 737 rudder problems caused two fatal airline crashes and nearly triggered a third.



One year ago (2003):



Iraqi state television showed two men said to have been the U.S. crew of an Apache helicopter forced down during heavy fighting in central Iraq. (Chief Warrant Officer David Williams and Chief Warrant Officer Ronald D. Young Junior spent three weeks in captivity before they were released along with five other POWs.)



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Today's Birthdays:



Animator Joseph Barbera is 93.



Fashion and costume designer Bob Mackie is 64.



Actor R. Lee Ermey is 60.



Movie director Curtis Hanson is 59.



Rock musician Lee Oskar is 56.



Rock musician Dougie Thomson (Supertramp) is 53.



Comedian Louie Anderson is 51.



Actress Donna Pescow is 50.



Actor Robert Carradine is 50.



Actress Kelly LeBrock is 44.



Rhythm and blues DJ Rodney "Kool Kollie" Terry (Ghostown DJs) is 43.



TV personality Star Jones ("The View") is 42.



Actress Annabella Sciorra is 40.



Rock singer-musician Sharon Corr (The Corrs) is 34.



Actress Lara Flynn Boyle is 34.



Rapper P.A. Pasemaster Mase (De La Soul) is 34.



Actress Alyson Hannigan ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer") is 30.



Actress Keisha Castle-Hughes ("The Whale Rider") is 14.



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Thought for Today:

"Not to be able to grow old is just as ridiculous as to be unable to outgrow childhood." -

- Carl G. Jung, psychiatrist (1875-1961).

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whoever rows the boat doesn't have time to rock it.



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Main's Law: For every action there is an equal and opposite government program.



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Death benefits = oxymoron



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Patience abused becomes fury



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I'm terribly sorry, but I'm afraid you're just a mirage.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Will Rogers, who died in a plane crash with Wylie Post in 1935, was probably the greatest political sage the United States has ever known.



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Enjoy the following quotes:



1. Never slap a man who's chewing tobacco.



2. Never kick a cow chip on a hot day.



3. There are 2 theories to arguing with a woman,

.......neither works.



4. Never miss a good chance to shut up.



5. Always drink upstream from the herd.



6. If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.



7. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it and put it back in your pocket.



8. There are three kinds of men:

.....The ones who learn by reading.

.....The few who learn by observation.

.....The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence.



9. Good judgment comes from experience and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.



10. If you're riding ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it's still there.



11. Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier'n puttin' it back.



12. After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him. The moral: When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut.

1. Eventually you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it.



2. The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.



3. Some people try to turn back their odometers.

Not me. I want people to know "why" I look this way.

I've traveled a long way and some of the roads weren't paved.



4. When you are dissatisfied and would like to go back to youth, think of Algebra.



5. You know you are getting old when everything either dries up or leaks.



6. I don't know how I got over the hill without getting to the top.



7. One of the many things no one tells you about aging is that it is such a nice change from being young.



8. One must wait until evening to see how splendid the day has been.



9. Being young is beautiful, but being old is comfortable.



10. Long ago when men cursed and beat the ground with sticks, it was called witchcraft.

........Today its called golf.



11. If you don't learn to laugh at trouble, you won't have anything to laugh at when you are old.

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Today is Tuesday, March 23rd

The 83rd day of 2004.

There are 283 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry made his famous call for American independence from Britain, telling the Virginia Provincial Convention, "Give me liberty, or give me death!"



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On this date:



In 1066, 18th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.



In 1792, Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 94 in G Major (the "Surprise" symphony) was performed publicly for the first time, in London.



In 1794, U.S.A.'s first patent was granted to Joseph G. Pierson for a riveting machine.



In 1806, explorers Lewis and Clark, having reached the Pacific coast, began their journey back east.



In 1868, The University of California is founded in Oakland, California.



In 1889, U.S. President Harrison opened Oklahoma for white colonization.



In 1908, Academy Award actress Joan Crawford (Lucille LeSueur) was born in San Antonio, TX. She appeared in more than 70 films. She died in 1977.



In 1912, Scientist and engineer Wernher Von Braun was born. He died Jun 16, 1977 at the age of 65.



In 1912, the Dixie Cup was invented.



In 1919, Benito Mussolini founded his Fascist political movement in Milan, Italy.



In 1925, Tennessee bans the teaching of evolution in schools; teacher John Scopes ignores the ban and is later prosecuted in the so-called "Monkey Trial."



In 1929, The first telephone is installed in the White House.



In 1933, the German Reichstag adopted the Enabling Act, which effectively granted Adolf Hitler dictatorial legislative powers.



In 1940, The 1st radio broadcast of "Truth or Consequences" on CBS



In 1942, during World War II, the U.S. government began evacuating Japanese-Americans from their West Coast homes to detention centers.



In 1950, "Beat the Clock" premiered on CBS-TV.



In 1956, Pakistan became an independent republic within the British Commonwealth.



In 1956, Sudan became independent.



In 1965, America's first two-person space flight began as Gemini III blasted off from Cape Kennedy with astronauts Virgil I. Grissom and John W. Young aboard.



In 1967, The 100th episode of "Bewitched" was aired on ABC.



In 1972, Evil Knievel breaks 93 bones after successfully jumping 35 cars on his motorcycle.



In 1973, The last airing of "Concentration" took place. The show had been on NBC for 15 years.



In 1983, President Reagan first proposed developing technology to intercept enemy missiles -- a proposal that came to be known as the Strategic Defense Initiative, as well as "Star Wars."



In 1983, Dr. Barney Clark, recipient of a permanent artificial heart, died at the University of Utah Medical Center after 112 days with the device.



In 1998, Germany's largest bank pledged $3.1 million to Jewish foundations as restitution for Nazi looting.



In 1998, The U.S. Supreme Court allowed term limits for state lawmakers.



In 2001, Russia's orbiting Mir space station ended its 15-year odyssey with a fiery plunge into the South Pacific.



Ten years ago (1994):



Luis Donaldo Colosio, Mexico's leading presidential candidate, was assassinated in Tijuana.



Twenty-three paratroopers were killed when a F-16 fighter jet and C-130 transport collided while landing at Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina and the F-16 skidded into another transport on the ground.



Wayne Gretzky broke Gordie Howe's National Hockey League career record with his 802nd goal.



Actress Giulietta Masina died in Rome at age 73.



Five years ago (1999):



NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana gave the formal go-ahead for airstrikes against Serbian targets following the failure of Kosovo peace talks.



One year ago (2003):



A U.S. Army maintenance convoy was ambushed in Iraq; 11 soldiers were killed, seven were captured, including Pfc. Jessica Lynch.



A U.S. Air Force helicopter crashed in Afghanistan, killing all six people on board.



Grenades exploded at the 101st Airborne command center in Kuwait, killing two officers; a U.S. soldier was detained as a suspect.



At the Academy Awards, "Chicago" won best picture; "The Pianist" won best director for Roman Polanski and best actor for Adrien Brody; Nicole Kidman won best actress for "The Hours."



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Today's Birthdays:



Comedian Marty Allen is 82.



Movie director Mark Rydell is 70.



Singer-producer Ric Ocasek is 55.



Actress Corrine Clery is 54.



Singer Chaka Khan is 51.



Comedian (?) Louie Anderson is 51.



Actress Amanda Plummer is 47.



Actress Hope Davis is 40.



Comedian John Pinnett is 40.



Actor Richard Grieco is 39.



Country musician Kevin Griffin (Yankee Grey) is 39.



Rock singer-musician Damon Albarn (Blur) is 36.



Actress-singer Melissa Errico is 34.



Rock musician John Humphrey (The Nixons) is 34.



Actress Keri Russell is 28.



Actress Nicholle Tom is 26.



Country singer Paul Martin (Marshall Dyllon) is 26.



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Thought for Today:

"A conscience which has been bought once will be bought twice." -

- Norbert Wiener, American mathematician (1894-1964).

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Today is Monday, March 22nd

The 82nd day of 2004.

There are 284 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On March 22, 1765, Britain enacted the Stamp Act to raise money from the American colonies. (The Act was repealed the following year.)



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On this date:



In 1457, the Gutenberg Bible was the first book printed.



In 1621, Massasoit & Pilgrims agree on league of friendship. This treaty is made by Plymouth Colony with the Indians , and is kept, by both sides, for 50 years



In 1622, Powhattan's brother led a massacre of some settlements near Jamestown, Va. It was the first Indian massacre.



In 1638, Religious dissident Anne Hutchinson is banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.



In 1673, The first regular mail service between New York and Boston is established.



In 1733, Joseph Priestly invented carbonated water, a basic ingredient in soda pops.



In 1794, Congress bans US vessels from supplying slaves to other countries



In 1820, U.S. naval hero Stephen Decatur was killed in a duel with Commodore James Barron near Washington, D.C.



In 1822, New York Horticultural Society founded.



In 1857, The first department store elevator was installed in N.Y.; the invention is by Elisha Graves Otis.



In 1861, The first U.S. nursing school is chartered.



In 1873, Slavery was abolished in Puerto Rico.



In 1882, Congress outlawed polygamy.



In 1895, Auguste and Louis Lumiere showed their first movie to an invited audience in Paris.



In 1902, Great Britain and Persia agreed to link Europe and India by telegraph.



In 1903, Due to drought the US side of Niagara Falls runs short of water.



In 1904, The London Daily Illustrated Mirror publishes the first color photograph.



In 1914, The world's first airline starts operation in St. Petersburg, Florida and is called the St. Petersburg Tampa Airboat Line.



In 1929, 75 years ago, A U.S. Coast Guard vessel sank a Canadian-registered schooner, the "I'm Alone," in the Gulf of Mexico. (The schooner was suspected of carrying bootleg liquor.)



In 1933, during Prohibition, President Franklin Roosevelt signed a measure to make wine and beer containing up to 3.2 percent alcohol legal.



In 1941, the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington state went into operation.



In 1944, 600+ 8th Air Force bombers attack Berlin.



In 1945, the Arab League was formed with the adoption of a charter in Cairo, Egypt.



In 1946, the first U.S.-built rocket to leave the earth's atmosphere reaches a height of 50 miles.



In 1954, the first shopping mall opened in Southfield, Michigan.



In 1956, Perry Como became the first major TV variety-show host to book a rock and roll act on his program. The act was Carl Perkins.



In 1960, The first patent for lasers is granted to Arthur Schawlow and Charles Townes.



In 1963, The Beatles' first album Please Please Me is released in Britain; it is soon number one on the pop charts.



In 1965, The United States confirms that its troops used chemical warfare against the Vietcong.



In 1972, Congress sent the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution to the states for ratification. (It fell three states short of the 38 needed for approval.)



In 1977, The John Denver TV special "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" was aired on ABC.



In 1978, Karl Wallenda, the 73-year-old patriarch of The Flying Wallendas high-wire act, fell to his death while attempting to walk a cable strung between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico.



In 1981, First Class Postage was raised from 15 cents to 18 cents.



In 1988, both houses of Congress overrode President Reagan's veto of a sweeping civil rights bill.



In 1989, Oliver North began two days of testimony at his Iran-Contra trial in Washington, DC.



In 1990, Microsoft Windows 3.0 was shipped



In 1990, President Geroge Bush declared "I do not like broccoli and I haven't liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it and I'm the President of the United States and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli".



In 1992, Twenty-seven people were killed and fourteen are injured when a USAir jetliner ran off the runway and into the bay at New York's LaGuardia Airport.



In 1993, a U.S. nuclear submarine collided with a Russian nuclear sub in a Russian training area in the Barents Sea. There were no casualties.



In 1995, Convicted Long Island Rail Road gunman Colin Ferguson was sentenced to life in prison for killing six people.



In 1997, Tara Lipinski, at 14 years and 10 months, became the youngest women's world figure skating champion.



In 1998, Eleven young campers died in a mountain cabin fire in Centre County, Pennsylvania. The fire started after a gas heater exploded inside the cabin on Madisonburg Mountain.



In 2000, Some 1,100 women denied jobs with the now-defunct US Information Agency and its broadcast branch, the Voice of America, won $508 million dollars from the government in the largest-ever settlement of a federal sex discrimination case.



In 2001 The Palestinian Authority closed the Gaza and West Bank offices of the Arabic news agency al-Jazeera. The claim was that the agency's coverage had been insulting to Yasser Arafat.



In 2001, An 18-year-old student opened fire at Granite Hills High School in El Cajon, California, wounding three classmates and two teachers before he was shot and wounded by a police officer; the suspect, Jason Hoffman, later hanged himself while in jail.



In 2002, The U.S. Postal Rate Commission announced approval of higher postal rates, including a three-cent boost for first-class letters, to 37 cents.



Ten years ago (1994):



The Federal Reserve announced it was raising short-term interest rates from 3.25 percent to 3.5 percent, the second such boost of the year.



"Woody Woodpecker" creator Walter Lantz died in Burbank, Calif., at age 93.



Five years ago (1999):



Acting as his own lawyer, Dr. Jack Kevorkian went on trial on murder charges for the first time, telling a jury in Pontiac, Mich., he was merely carrying out his professional duty in a videotaped assisted death shown on "60 Minutes." (Kevorkian was convicted of second-degree murder.)



One year ago (2003):



Tens of thousands of people marched in cities around the world or demonstrated outside U.S. military bases, but the demonstrations were far smaller than earlier protests.



U.S. forces reported seizing a large weapons cache in Afghanistan.



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Today's Birthdays:



Actor Karl Malden is 92.



Pantomimist Marcel Marceau is 81.



USA Today founder Allen H. Neuharth is 80.



Composer-lyricist Stephen Joshua Sondheim is 74.



Religious broadcaster and politician Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson is 74



Actor William Shatner is 73.



Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is 70.



Actor M. (Michael) Emmet Walsh is 69.



Singer-guitarist George Benson is 61.



Singer Jeremy Clyde (Chad and Jeremy) is 60.



Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber is 56.



Correspondent Wolf Blitzer is 56



Actress Fanny Ardant is 55.



Sportscaster Bob Costas is 52.



Country singer James House is 49.



Actress Lena Olin is 49.



Singer-actress Stephanie Mills is 47.



Actor Matthew Modine is 45.



Actor Cole Hauser is 29.



Actress Kellie Williams is 28.



Actress Reese Witherspoon is 28.



Rock musician John Otto (Limp Bizkit) is 27.



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Thought for Today:

"All that is not eternal is eternally out of date." -

- C.S. Lewis, British author (1898-1963).

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Today is Sunday, March 21st

The 81st day of 2004.

There are 285 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



Two hundred years ago, on March 21, 1804, the French civil code, or the "Code Napoleon" as it was later called, was adopted.



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On this date:



In 1349, 3,000 Jews were killed in Black Death riots in Efurt Germany.



In 1617, Pocahontas died in England at about age 22. Three years earlier, she had converted to Christianity, taken the name Rebecca and married Englishman John Rolfe.



In 1685, composer Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany.



In 1788, Fire destroyed 856 buildings in New Orleans.



In 1790, Thomas Jefferson reported to President Washington in New York as the new secretary of state.



In 1806, Mexican statesman Benito Juarez was born in Oaxaca.



In 1851, Yosemite Valley was discovered in California.



In 1871, journalist Henry M. Stanley began his famous expedition to Africa to locate the missing Scottish missionary David Livingstone.



In 1871, Otto von Bismarck opened the first Reichstag, or Parliament, in the newly created German Reich.



In 1891, a Hatfield married a McCoy, which ended a long family feud in West Virginia between the families. The last of the original feuding families died in 1984. The feud started with an accusation of pig-stealing and it lasted 20 years. Outsiders claimed at least a half-a-dozen vicious murders.



In 1910, The U.S. Senate granted ex-President Teddy Roosevelt a yearly pension of $10,000.



In 1917, Czar Nicholas II and his family were arrested by the revolutionary forces in Russia.



In 1918, Howard Cosell was born in Winston-Salem, NC.



In 1933, The first Reichstag under Hitler's rule was opened in Germany on the same day the first one of all was opened in 1871.



In 1935, Persia was officially renamed Iran



In 1944, Charles Chaplin went on trial in Los Angeles, accused of transporting former protegee Joan Barry across state lines for immoral purposes. (Chaplin was acquitted, but later lost a paternity suit despite tests showing he wasn't the father of Barry's child.)



In 1945, during World War II, Allied bombers began four days of raids over Germany.



In 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenburg were convicted of spying for the Soviet Union.



In 1955, NBC-TV presented the first "Colgate Comedy Hour".



In 1960, some 70 people were killed in Sharpeville, South Africa, when police fired on demonstrators.



In 1963, the Alcatraz federal prison island in San Francisco Bay was emptied of its last inmates at the order of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.



In 1965, more than 3,000 civil rights demonstrators led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. began their march in Alabama from Selma to Montgomery.



In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states may not require one-year residency for voting eligibility.



In 1979, the Egyptian Parliament unanimously approved a peace treaty with Israel.



In 1980, President Jimmy Carter announces to the U.S. Olympic Team that they will not compete in the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow as a boycott against Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.



In 1980, On the TV show "Dallas", J.R. Ewing was shot.



In 1982, The movie "Annie" premieres.



In 1989, Dick Clark announced that he would no longer be hosting the show "American Bandstand." He had been the host for 33 years.



In 1993, seven more adults left the besieged Branch Davidian compound as federal authorities continued negotiations with cult leader David Koresh to end the standoff



In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the FDA never received congressional authority to regulate tobacco products.



In 2228, James T. Kirk (Capt. USS Enterprise, NCC-1701) will be born in Riverside, IA (some say March 22, 2233).



Ten years ago (1994):



"Schindler's List" won best picture at the 66th Academy Awards; Holly Hunter was named best actress for "The Piano" while Tom Hanks was named best actor for "Philadelphia."



Actor Macdonald Carey died in Beverly Hills, Calif., at age 81.



Five years ago (1999):



Israel's Supreme Court rejected a final effort to have American teenager Samuel Sheinbein returned to the United States to face murder charges. (Under a plea agreement with Israeli prosecutors, Sheinbein was later sentenced to 24 years in prison for the murder of Alfred Tello Jr.)



At the Academy Awards, "Shakespeare in Love" won seven Oscars, including best picture and best actress for Gwyneth Paltrow; Roberto Benigni won best actor for "Life is Beautiful," while Steven Spielberg won best director for "Saving Private Ryan."



One year ago (2003):



The United States launched a ferocious, around-the-clock aerial assault on military targets in Baghdad and other cities.



The House approved a $2.2 trillion budget embracing President Bush's tax-cutting plan.



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Today's Birthdays:



Violinist-conductor Joseph Silverstein is 72.



Actor Al Freeman Jr. is 70.



Actress Kathleen Widdoes is 65.



Singer Solomon Burke is 64.



Actor Timothy Dalton is 60.



Actress Marie-Christine Barrault is 60.



Singer-musician Rose Stone (Sly and the Family Stone) is 59.



Singer Eddie Money is 55.



Rock singer-musician Roger Hodgson (Supertramp) is 54.



Rock musician Conrad Lozano (Los Lobos) is 53



Rhythm and blues singer Russell Thompkins Jr. (The Stylistics) is 53.



Actress Sabrina LeBeauf is 46.



Actor Gary Oldman is 46.



Actor Matthew Broderick is 42.



Comedian Rosie O'Donnell is 42.



Rock musician Jonas "Joker" Berggren (Ace of Base) is 37.



Rock M-C Maxim (Prodigy) is 37.



Rock musician Andrew Copeland (Sister Hazel) is 36.



"Hip-hop DJ" DJ Premier (Gang Starr) is 35.



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Thought for Today:

"The heaviest baggage for a traveler is an empty purse." -

- German proverb.

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