Paradise Driver

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Today is Tuesday, April 13th

The 104th day of 2004.

There are 262 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On April 13, 1970, Apollo 13, four-fifths of the way to the moon, was crippled when a tank containing liquid oxygen burst. (The astronauts managed to return safely.)



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On this date:



In 1059, Pope Nicholas II decreed that future popes could be elected by cardinals only.



In 1436, The French drive the English out of Paris (100 Year War)



In 1598, King Henry IV of France endorsed the Edict of Nantes, which granted rights to the Protestant Huguenots. (The edict was abrogated in 1685 by King Louis XIV, who declared France entirely Catholic again.)



In 1742, Handel's "Messiah" was first performed publicly, in Dublin, Ireland.



In 1743, The third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, was born in Shadwell (present-day Albemarle County), VA. He died July 4, 1826.



In 1775, Lord North extends the New England Restraining Act to South Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland. The act forbids trade with any country other than Britain and Ireland.



In 1782, Washington, NC, was incorporated as the first town to be named for George Washington.



In 1796, The first known elephant brought to the United States arrives from Bengal, India.



In 1829, English Emancipation Act grants freedom of religion to Catholics



In 1852, American merchant F. W. (Frank Winfield) Woolworth was born in Rodman, New York. He died in 1919.



In 1861, After 34 hours of bombardment, Union-held Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederates.



In 1870, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in New York.



In 1902, JC Penney opens his 1st store in Kemmerer WY



In 1912, The Royal Flying Corps forms (later RAF)



In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the Jefferson Memorial.



In 1957, Due to lack of funds, Saturday mail delivery in the U.S. was halted.



In 1958, Van Cliburn became the first American to win the Tchaikovsky International Piano Contest in Moscow.



In 1960, France becomes the fourth nuclear nation exploding an A-Bomb in Sahara.



In 1964, Sidney Poitier became the first black performer in a leading role to win an Academy Award, for "Lilies of the Field."



In 1981, Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke received a Pulitzer Prize for her feature about an 8-year-old heroin addict named "Jimmy"; however, Cooke relinquished the prize two days later, admitting she'd fabricated the story.



In 1986, Pope John Paul II visited a Rome synagogue in the first recorded papal visit of its kind.



In 1990, The Soviet Union accepted responsibility for the World War II murders of thousands of imprisoned Polish officers in the Katyn Forest. The Soviets had previously blamed the massacre on the Nazis.



In 1992, the Great Chicago Flood took place as the city's century-old tunnel system and adjacent basements filled with water from the Chicago River.



In 1992, A 5.5 earthquake hits Netherlands



In 1997, Golfer Tiger Woods, 21, becomes the youngest person to win the Masters and the first African American and Asian American champion. He finished 18 under par.



In 1998, Dolly, the world's first cloned sheep, gave natural birth to a healthy baby lamb.



Ten years ago (1994):



Islamic militants bombed an Israeli bus, killing six people and wounding 28.



Five years ago (1999):



Right-to-die advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian was sentenced in Pontiac, Mich., to 10 to 25 years in prison for second-degree murder in the lethal injection of a Lou Gehrig's disease patient.



One year ago (2003):



U.S.-led forces announced the capture of Watban Ibrahim Hasan, a half-brother of and adviser to Saddam Hussein.



After three weeks of captivity, seven U.S. POW's, including Army Specialist Shoshana Johnson, were released by Iraqi troops near Tikrit, Iraq.



Mike Weir became the first Canadian to win the Masters after the first sudden-death playoff in 13 years.



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Today's Birthdays:



Actor Howard Keel is 87.



Movie director Stanley Donen is 80.



Actor Don Adams is 78.



Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., is 71.



Actor Lyle Waggoner is 69.



Actor Edward Fox is 67.



Playwright Lanford Wilson is 67.



Actor Paul Sorvino is 65.



Movie and TV composer Bill Conti is 62.



Rock musician Jack Casady is 60.



Actor Tony Dow is 59.



Singer Al Green is 58.



Actor Ron Perlman is 54.



Actor William Sadler is 54.



Singer Peabo Bryson is 53.



Rock musician Max Weinberg is 53.



Bluegrass singer-musician Sam Bush is 52.



Rock musician Jimmy Destri (Blondie) is 50.



Singer-musician Louis Johnson (The Brothers Johnson) is 49.



Comedian Gary Kroeger is 47.



Actress Saundra Santiago is 47.



Rock musician Joey Mazzola (Sponge) is 43.



Chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov is 41.



Actress Page Hannah is 40.



Rock musician Lisa Umbarger is 39.



Actor Rick Schroder is 34.



Singer Lou Bega is 29.



Actress Courtney Peldon is 23.



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Thought for Today:

"I cannot give you the formula for success but I can give you the formula for failure -- which is: Try to please everybody." -

- Herbert Bayard Swope, American journalist (1882-1958 ).

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