Paradise Driver

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Today is Monday, June 28th.

The 180th day of 2004.

There are 186 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On June 28, 1914, Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife, Sofia, were assassinated in Sarajevo by a Serb nationalist -- the event which triggered World War I.



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On this date:



In 1778, Molly Pitcher (Mary Ludwig Hays) carried water to American soldiers at the Revolutionary War Battle of Monmouth, N.J.



In 1820, The tomato is proved to be non-poisonous.



In 1836, The fourth president of the United States, James Madison, died in Montpelier VA at age 85. He was born in Port Conway VA on March 16, 1751.



In 1838, Britain's Queen Victoria was crowned in Westminster Abbey.



In 1894, President Grover Cleveland signed an act of Congress, making Labor Day a federal holiday in the U.S.; the first Monday of September was set aside to salute the working men and women across the country.



In 1902, Playwright/Composer Richard Rodgers was born in New York NY. He died December 30, 1979 at age 77.



In 1904, Blind-deaf student Helen Keller graduated with honors from Radcliffe College.



In 1911, Samuel J. Battle became the first African-American policeman in New York City.



In 1918, The first inter-island flight between the Hawaiian Islands occurred.



In 1919, Future President Harry S Truman marries Elizabeth Virginia Wallace in Independence MO.



In 1919, The Treaty of Versailles was signed in France, ending World War I.



In 1935, President Franklyn D. Roosevelt ordered a federal gold vault to be built at Fort Knox, Kentucky.



In 1944, The Republican national convention in Chicago nominated New York Gov. Thomas E. Dewey for president and Ohio Gov. John W. Bricker for vice president.



In 1946, Actress/Comedienne Gilda Radner was born in Detroit MI. She died May 20, 1989 at age 42.



In 1950, North Korean forces captured Seoul, South Korea.



In 1951, A T.V. version of the radio program "Amos 'N' Andy" premiered on CBS. (While criticized for racial stereotyping, it was the first network T.V. series to feature an all-black cast.)



In 1956, The first atomic reactor built for private research began operations in Chicago, Ill.



In 1965, The first US ground combat forces in Vietnam are authorized by President Lyndon B. Johnson



In 1967, Israel formally declared Jerusalem reunified under its sovereignty following its capture of the Arab sector in the June 1967 "6-Day War".



In 1968, Daniel Ellsberg is indicted for leaking the Pentagon Papers



In 1971, The Supreme Court overturns the draft evasion conviction of Muhammad Ali



In 1971, The Supreme Court declared that state underwriting of nonreligious instruction in parochial schools was unconstitutional.



In 1976, The U.S. Air Force Academy and the Coast Guard Academy went coed at the same time.



In 1977, The Supreme Court allows Federal control of Nixon tapes/papers



In 1978, The Supreme Court ordered the University of California at Davis Medical School to admit Allan Bakke, a white man who'd argued he was a victim of reverse racial discrimination.



In 1983, A 100-foot section of bridge along Interstate 95 in Greenwich CT, collapsed, killing three people.



In 1991, Two people were killed when an earthquake of magnitude 6 shook Southern California.



In 1992, Southern California was rocked by a pair of earthquakes, that killed one person and injured 402. At 4:57A.M. (PDT), a quake hit, which was centered in Landers CA. Magnitude 7.4. One killed. That same day at 8:05P.M.(PDT), another quake on another faultline occurred, and was centered in Big Bear CA. Magnitude: 6.2. No one killed in that one.



In 1996, The Citadel voted to admit women, ending a 153-year-old men-only policy at the South Carolina military school.



In 1998, Poland, suffering from a shortage of funds, is allowed to lease U.S. aircraft to bring its military force up to NATO standards.



In 2000, Six-year-old Elián González returned to Cuba from the U.S. with his father. The child had been the center of an international custody dispute.



In 2001, A unanimous federal appeals court reversed the court-ordered breakup of Microsoft, but ruled that the software giant had violated antitrust laws, and appointed another judge to determine a new punishment.



In 2001, Slobodan Milosevic was taken into custody and was handed over to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. The indictment charged Milosevic and four other senior officials, with crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war in Kosovo.



In 2002, WorldCom Inc. began laying off 17,000 employees worldwide after disclosing accounting irregularities that later forced it into bankruptcy protection.



In 2002, Xerox Corporation announced it had improperly reported $1.9 billion in revenue over the previous five years and would restate those financial results.



Ten years ago (1994):



North and South Korea set July 25-27 as the dates for a historic summit between the leaders of both countries (the summit was derailed by the death of North Korean President Kim Il Sung the following month.)



President Clinton became the first chief executive in U.S. history to set up a personal legal defense fund and ask Americans to contribute to it.



Five years ago (1999):



Announcing even bigger projected budget surpluses, President Clinton said the government could drastically reduce the national debt while still buttressing Social Security and Medicare.



One year ago (2003):



After days of intense searching by ground and air, U.S. forces found the bodies of two soldiers missing north of Baghdad, as the toll of American dead since the start of war topped the grim milestone of 200.



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Today's Birthdays:



Comedian-movie director Mel Brooks is 78.



Actor Noriyuki "Pat" Morita is 72.



Senator Carl Levin, D-Mich., is 70.



Former White House chief of staff Leon Panetta is 66.



Rock musician Dave Knights (Procul Harum) is 59.



Actor Bruce Davison is 58.



Actress Kathy Bates is 56.



Actress Sonia Braga is 54.



Actress Alice Krige is 50.



Football Hall of Fame electee John Elway is 44.



Record company chief executive Tony Mercedes is 42.



Actress Jessica Hecht is 39.



Rock musician Saul Davies (James) is 39.



Actress Mary Stuart Masterson is 38.



Actor John Cusack is 38.



Actor Gil Bellows is 37.



Actress-singer Danielle Brisebois is 35.



Jazz musician Jimmy Sommers is 35.



Actor Alessandro Nivola is 32.



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Thought for Today:

"The secret of a man who is universally interesting is that he is universally interested." -

- William Dean Howells, American author (1837-1920).

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