Paradise Driver

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Today is Monday, June 14th.

The 166th day of 2004.

There are 200 days left in the year.

This is Flag Day.



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Today's Highlight in History



On June 14th, 1777, The Continental Congress in Philadelphia adopted the "Stars and Stripes" replacing the "Grand Union" as the national flag (effective Sept. 3).



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On this date:



In 1381, The Peasant’s Revolt, led by Wat Tyler, climaxed when rebels marched on London. They plundered, burned and captured the Tower of London and killed the Archbishop of Canterbury. The revolt was in response to a statute intended to hold down wages during a labor shortage.



In 1642, Massachusetts passed the first compulsory education law.



In 1775, The United States Army was founded.



In 1789, Captain Bligh and 18 others, cast adrift after a mutiny aboard HMS Bounty, eventually reached Timor in the East Indies after a voyage of nearly 4,000 miles in an open boat.



In 1834, Hardhat (submarine) diving suit patented by Leonard Norcross, Dixfield, Maine.



In 1834, Sandpaper was patented by Isaac Fischer Jr. of Springfield, Vermont.



In 1841, The first Canadian parliament opened in Kingston.



In 1846, In the "Bear Flag Revolt", during the Mexican War, American settlers capture Sonoma from Mexican forces and declare an independent Republic of California. Mexico cedes the territory to the United States in 1848.



In 1864, Congress rules Black soldiers must receive equal pay.



In 1864, Alois Alzheimer was born. He was a psychiatrist/pathologist, and in 1907 he wrote an article describing the disease that is named for him.



In 1877, "Flag Day" was observed for the first time (presidential proclamation to mark the centennial).



In 1881, Player piano patented by John McTammany, Jr, Cambridge, MA



In 1900, The Hawaiian Republic was reorganized as the U.S. Territory of Hawaii.



In 1916, "Flag Day" was first observed as a holiday



In 1922, President Warren G. Harding became the first president heard on radio, as Baltimore station WEAR broadcast his speech dedicating the Francis Scott Key memorial at Fort McHenry.



In 1928, The Republican National Convention nominated Herbert Hoover for president on the first ballot.



In 1937, Pennsylvania became the first state in the United States to observe "Flag Day" as a legal holiday. PA is still the only state doing so today



In 1940, German troops entered Paris. As Paris became occupied loud speakers announced the implementation of a curfew being imposed for 8 p.m. A Swastika was raised on the Eiffel Tower. France will surrender in three days.



In 1940, In German-occupied Poland, the Nazis opened their concentration camp at Auschwitz, where an estimated three to four million people, many of them Jews, were exterminated as part of Adolf Hitler's "Final Solution"



In 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the freezing of all German and Italian assets in the U.S.



In 1942, The first bazooka rocket gun was produced at Bridgeport CT



In 1942, Walt Disney's "Bambi" is released



In 1943, The Supreme Court ruled schoolchildren could not be compelled to salute the flag of the United States if doing so conflicted with their religious beliefs.



In 1944, Sixty U.S. B-29 Superfortress' attacked an iron and steel works factory on Honshu Island. It was the first U.S. raid against "mainland" Japan.



In 1946, Canadian Library Association established



In 1951, Univac 1, designed by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, was unveiled by the Remington Rand company in Washington DC. Billed as the world's first commercial computer, Univac was designed for the U.S. Census Bureau. The massive computer was 8 feet high, 7-1/2 feet wide and 14-1/2 feet long. It has lots and lots of tubes that dimmed lights all over Washington when it cranked out information. Compared to today's computers, Univac was painfully slow.



In 1952, The keel is dedicated for first nuclear powered submarine, the "Nautilus," at Groton, Conn.



In 1953, President Eisenhower condemns Senator McCarthy's book burning proposal.



In 1953, Elvis Presley graduates from LC Humes High School in Memphis TN



In 1954, President Eisenhower signed an order adding the words "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance.



In 1954, America partakes in a nation-wide civil defense test against an atomic attack. "Duck & Cover!"



In 1968, U.S. childcare expert Dr. Benjamin Spock and three others were convicted of inciting draft-dodging.



In 1974, The "Heimlich Maneuver" was announced by Dr. Henry Heimlich.



In 1974, It was reported that the U.S. would supply Egypt with nuclear reactors.



In 1982, Argentine forces surrendered to British troops on the disputed Falkland Islands.



In 1984, President Reagan is asked at a press conference whether he supports federal civil rights legislation prohibiting job discrimination against gays and lesbians, and almost delivers an answer."Well.... I just have to say that I am opposed to discrimination period." "But would you support the measure?" "What?" "Would you support the measure?" "I want to see what else they have there." Reagan then decides its time to take another question.



In 1989, Former President Reagan received an honorary knighthood from Britain's Queen Elizabeth II.



In 1989, Zsa Zsa Gabor was arrested in Beverly Hills for slapping a motorcycle policeman.



In 1990, The U.S. Supreme Court upheld, by a 6-3 vote, police checkpoints that examine drivers for signs of intoxication.



In 1993, President Clinton chose Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg to serve on the Supreme Court.



Ten years ago (1994):



President Clinton unveiled a $9.3 billion-dollar welfare reform plan.



Academy Award-winning composer Henry Mancini died in Beverly Hills, California, at age 70. He was born in Cleveland OH on April 16, 1924.



The New York Rangers won hockey's Stanley Cup for the first time in 54 years as they defeated the Vancouver Canucks at Madison Square Garden.



Five years ago (1999):



About 15-thousand NATO peacekeepers spread out across Kosovo, including a convoy of about 12-hundred U-S Marines.



The Supreme Court opened the door to full broadcast advertising of casino gambling, ruling a federal ban aimed at protecting compulsive gamblers violated free-speech rights.



One year ago (2003):



A wave estimated at about 20 feet tall capsized the charter fishing boat "Taki-Tooo" off the northern Oregon coast; nine people were killed, two others are missing and presumed dead; eight survived by swimming to shore.



A car driven by Phoenix Bishop Thomas O'Brien struck and killed pedestrian Jim Reed; O'Brien was later convicted of leaving the scene of an accident and sentenced to probation.



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Today's Birthdays:



Actor Gene Barry (Eugene Klass) is 81.



Former White House news secretary Pierre Salinger is 79.



Actress Marla Gibbs is 73.



Actor Jack Bannon is 64.



Rock singer Rod Argent (The Zombies; Argent) is 59.



Real estate developer Donald Trump is 58.



Singer Janet Lennon (The Lennon Sisters) is 58.



Rock musician Alan White (Yes) is 55.



Actor Eddie Mekka ("Laverne & Shirley"'s Carmine Ragusa 'The Big Ragu') is 52.



Actor Will Patton is 50.



Olympic gold-medal speed skater Eric Heiden is 46.



Singer Boy George (George Alan O'Dowd) is 43.



Rock musician Chris DeGarmo is 41.



Actress Yasmine Bleeth is 36.



Tennis player Steffi Graf is 35.



Actress Traylor Howard is 33.



Actor Daryl Sabara is 12.



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Thought for Today:

"Think like a man of action, and act like a man of thought." -

- Henri Bergson, French philosopher (1859-1941).

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