Paradise Driver

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Today is Monday, April 5th.

The 96th day of 2004.

There are 270 days left in the year.

The Jewish holiday Passover begins at sunset.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On April 5, 1964, Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur died in Washington at age 84.



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On this date:



In 2348, B.C.E., according to tradition, Noah's Ark landed on Mt. Ararat



In 1614, American Indian princess Pocahontas married English colonist John Rolfe in Virginia.



In 1621, The Mayflower sailed from Plymouth, Mass., on a return trip to England.



In 1722, Jacob Roggeveen discovers Easter Island.



In 1768, The first U.S. Chamber of Commerce is formed in New York City.



In 1792, George Washington cast the first presidential veto, rejecting a congressional measure for apportioning representatives among the states.



In 1806, Isaac Quintard of Stanfield, CT, patented the Apple Cider mill



In 1843, Queen Victoria proclaimed Hong Kong to be a British crown colony.



In 1856, Educator, Social Reformer, Booker Taliaferro Washington was born in Franklin County, Virginia. He died November 14, 1915 at age 59.



In 1869, Daniel Bakeman, the last surviving soldier of the Revolutionary War, died at the age of 109.



In 1887, British historian Lord Acton wrote, "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely."



In 1887, In Tuscumbia, Alabama, teacher Anne Sullivan achieved a major breakthrough with her blind and deaf pupil, Helen Keller, by conveying to her the meaning of the word "water" in the manual alphabet.



In 1892, Walter H. Coe of Providence, RI, patented gold leaf in rolls.



In 1895, Playwright Oscar Wilde lost his criminal libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry, who had accused the writer of homosexual practices.



In 1896, 1st modern Olympic Games officially open in Athens



In 1900, Actor Spencer Tracy was born in Milwaukee, WI. He died June 10, 1967 at age 67.



In 1908, Actress Bette Davis was born in Lowell, MA. She died October 6, 1989 at age 81.



In 1916, Actor Gregory Peck was born in San Diego, CA. He died June 11, 2003 at age 87.



In 1923, Firestone Tire and Rubber Company of Akron, OH began the first regular production of balloon tires



In 1949, Astronaut Dr. Judith Arlene Resnik was born. She died January 28, 1986 at age 36 in the Challenger explosion.



In 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death following their conviction in New York on charges of conspiring to commit espionage for the Soviet Union; co-defendant Morton Sobell was sentenced to 30 years in prison (he was released in 1969).



In 1955, Winston Churchill resigns as British PM.



In 1961, Barbra Streisand appears on "The Jack Paar Show" (forerunner of the Tonight Show).



In 1962, NASA civilian pilot Neil A. Armstrong takes the X-15 to an altitude of 54,600 meters (179,133 feet or 33.9 miles)



In 1968, Violence erupted in several American cities in response to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.



In 1971, Mount Etna erupts in Sicily Italy.



In 1971, Fran Phipps is 1st woman to reach North Pole



In 1973, Pioneer 11 launched to Jupiter



In 1974, The then tallest building, the World Trade Center, opened in New York City with 110 stories.



In 1975, Nationalist Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek died at age 87.



In 1976, Reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes died in Houston at age 72.



In 1980, The final episode of "Hawaii Five-O" aired.



In 1983, The Beach Boys were banned from the Fourth of July concert at the White House. President Ronald Reagan overturned the ban two days later.



In 1987, The United States observed daylight saving time on the first Sunday in April beginning this year. Up until the last year, it was the last Sunday in April.



In 1987, The Fox Broadcasting Company makes its prime time television debut with Married…with Children.



In 1992, Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton died in Little Rock, Ark., at age 74.



In 1997, Allen Ginsberg, the counterculture guru who'd shattered conventions as poet laureate of the Beat Generation, died in New York City at age 70.



In 1997, The 100th episode of "Walker, Texas Ranger" aired on CBS.



In 1998, The world's longest suspension bridge, Japan's Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, opened for public use.



In 2063, Earth's 1st contact by extra-terrestrials (Vulcan) according to Star Trek.



Ten years ago (1994):



President Clinton presided over a 90-minute town hall meeting in Charlotte, N.C., in which he called himself the victim of "false charges" in connection with the Whitewater controversy.



Five years ago (1999):



NATO missiles and aircraft blasted Serbian targets inside Yugoslavia for a 13th straight day.



The United Nations suspended sanctions against Libya after Moammar Gadhafi surrendered two suspected Libyan intelligence agents for trial in the 1988 Pan Am bombing.



In Laramie, Wyo., Russell Henderson pleaded guilty to kidnapping and felony murder in the death of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student.



One year ago (2003):



U.S. officials declared a near chokehold on the Iraqi capital Baghdad even while warning that many other parts of Iraq were not yet under allied control.



A prison riot in northern Honduras left 69 inmates dead and dozens injured.



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Today's Birthdays:



Novelist Arthur Hailey is 84.



Actress Gale Storm (Josephine Owaissa Cottle) is 82.



Movie producer Roger Corman is 78.



Country music producer Cowboy Jack Clement is 73.



Impressionist-actor Frank Gorshin is 71.



Secretary of State Colin Luther Powell is 67.



Country singer Tommy Cash is 64.



Actor Michael Moriarty is 63.



Writer-director Peter Greenaway is 62.



Actor Max Gail is 61.



Rocker Dave Holland (Judas Priest) is 60.



Actress Jane Asher is 58.



Singer Agnetha Faltskog (ABBA) is 54.



Rock musician Mike McCready (Pearl Jam) is 39.



Country singer Troy Gentry is 37.



Singer Paula Cole is 36.



Country singer Pat Green is 32.



Rapper-producer Pharrell Williams is 31.



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Thought for Today:

"In war, you win or lose, live or die -- and the difference is just an eyelash." -

- Douglas MacArthur, Army general (1880-1964).

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