Paradise Driver

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Today is Saturday, April 3rd.

The 94th day of 2004.

There are 272 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



OnApril 3, 1860, the legendary Pony Express began service between St. Joseph, Mo., and Sacramento, Calif.



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On this date:



In 33, Christ was crucified.



In 1776, Harvard College conferred the first honorary Doctor of Laws degree to George Washington.



In 1783, American writer Washington Irving was born in New York City. He died in 1859.



In 1790, The Revenue Marine Service is created and will later become the U.S. Coast Guard.



In 1829, James Carrington of Wallingford, Connecticut, patented the coffee mill.



In 1862, Slavery was abolished in Washington, D.C.



In 1865, Union forces occupied the Confederate capital of Richmond, Va.



In 1868, A Hawaiian surfs on the highest wave ever, a 50' tsunami.



In 1882, Outlaw Jesse James was shot to death in St. Joseph, Mo., by Robert Ford, a member of James' gang.



In 1882, The wood block alarm was invented; it was suspended over your bed; when the alarm went on, it dropped 20 wooden blocks over your head to wake you up.



In 1898, "America's Toastmaster General" George Jessel was born. He died May 23, 1981 at the age of 83.



In 1910, Alaska's Mt. McKinley, the highest mountain in North America was climbed.



In 1921, Actress Jan Sterling (Adriance) was born. Topper's "ghostest with the mostest" died March 26th, 2004 at the age of 82.



In 1926, Astronaut Virgil "Gus" Grissom was born. He died in the tragic Apollo I fire on January 27, 1967, at the age of 40.



In 1927, The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) transfers Ohio to the Eastern time zone.



In 1933, The first flight over the peak of Mount Everest in the Himalayas was made by four Britons in two Westland biplanes.



In 1933, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt informed newspaper reporters that beer would be served at the White House. This followed the March 22nd legislation that legalized "3.2" beer.



In 1936, Bruno Hauptmann was electrocuted in Trenton, N.J., for the kidnap-murder of the Lindbergh child.



In 1941, Singer Jan Berry (Jan and Dean) was born. He died last month (March 26, 2004) at the age of 62.



In 1942, The Japanese began their all-out assault on the U.S. and Filipino troops at Bataan.



In 1946, Lt. Gen. Masaharu Homma, the Japanese commander responsible for the Bataan Death March, was executed outside Manila.



In 1948, President Truman signed the Marshall Plan, which allocated more than $5 billion in aid for 16 European countries.



In 1949, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis debuted on radio in an NBC program that ran until 1952.



In 1953, "TV Guide" was published for the first time, price per issue - 15 cents. The cover was a photo of Lucille Ball's infant Desiderio Alberto Arnaz IV (aka: Desi, Jr.).



In 1955, Fred Astaire appeared on television for the first time on "The Toast of the Town," with host, Ed Sullivan.



In 1956, Elvis Presley performed on "The Milton Berle Show." The show was broadcast live from the aircraft carrier USS Hancock. Elvis played the songs "Heartbreak Hotel," "Money, Honey," and "Blue Suede Shoes."



In 1958, Fidel Castro's rebels attacked Havana.



In 1966, USSR's Luna 10 becomes the first craft to orbit the Moon.



In 1968, The day before he was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "mountaintop" speech to a rally of striking sanitation workers.



In 1968, North Vietnam agreed to meet with U.S. representatives to set up preliminary peace talks.



In 1974, U.S. President Nixon announced that he would pay $432,787 in back taxes.



In 1974, Deadly tornadoes struck wide parts of the South and Midwest before jumping across the border into Canada; more than 300 fatalities resulted.



In 1979, Jane M. Byrne was elected mayor of Chicago, defeating Republican Wallace D. Johnson.



In 1980, The final episode of "Barnaby Jones" aired.



In 1982, John Chancellor stepped down as anchor of the "The NBC Nightly News." Roger Mudd and Tom Brokaw became the co-anchors of the show.



In 1985, The U.S. charged that Israel violated the Geneva Convention by deporting Shiite prisoners.



In 1991, The U.N. Security Council passes a cease-fire resolution to end the Persian Gulf War.



In 1996, Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski was arrested.



Ten years ago (1994):



In his Easter Sunday address, Pope John Paul II expressed hope that the joy of Christianity would overwhelm the din of violence and hate.



A memorial service was held at the site of the Goshen United Methodist Church in Alabama for the 20 people who were killed when a tornado leveled the building a week earlier.



Five years ago (1999):



NATO missiles struck downtown Belgrade for the first time, destroying the headquarters of security forces accused of waging a campaign against Kosovo Albanians.



One year ago (2003):



Moving with a sense of wartime urgency, the House and Senate separately agreed to give President Bush nearly $80 billion to carry out the battle against Iraq and meet the threat of terrorism.



Cuban security forces arrested the hijackers of a passenger ferry, rescuing nearly 50 hostages.



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Today's Birthdays:



Actor Marlon Brando is 80.



Actress-singer Doris Day is 80.



Actor Kevin Hagen is 76.



Actress Miyoshi Umeki is 75.



Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl is 74.



British ethologist and authority on wild chimpanzees, Jane Goodall is 70.



Jazz musician Jimmy McGriff is 68.



Actor William Gaunt is 67.



Actress Marsha Mason is 62.



Singer Wayne Newton is 62.



Singer Billy Joe Royal is 62.



Singer Tony Orlando is 60.



Comedy writer Pat Proft is 57.



Singer Richard Thompson is 55.



Country musician Curtis Stone (Highway 101) is 54.



Rock musician Mick Mars [Bob Allen Dale] (Motley Crue) is 48.



Actor Alec Baldwin is 46.



Actor David Hyde Pierce is 45.



Comedian-actor Eddie Murphy is 43.



Rock singer-musician Mike Ness (Social Distortion) is 42.



Rock singer Sebastian Bach is 36.



Olympic Skier Picabo Street (gold-1994) is 33.



Actress Jennie Garth is 32.



Actress Amanda Bynes is 18.



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Thought for Today:

"I didn't invent the world I write about -- it's all true." -

- Graham Greene, British author (1904-1991).

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