Paradise Driver

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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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