Paradise Driver

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Today is Sunday, June 27th.

The 179th day of 2004.

There are 187 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On June 27, 1950, President Truman ordered the Air Force and Navy into the Korean conflict following a call from the U.N. Security Council for member nations to help South Korea repel an invasion from the North.



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On this date:



In 1652, New Amsterdam (now N.Y.C.) imposes the first speed limit in the U.S., specifying that it is illegal for traffic within the city limits to proceed at a gallop.



In 1776, Thomas Hickey, one of George Washington's guards, went into the history books for all the wrong reasons. He was convicted of plotting to deliver George Washington to the British and became the first person to be executed by the army of the U.S.



In 1787, In Lausanne, Switzerland, Edward Gibbon completes the sixth and final volume of his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, one of the great works of history in the English language.



In 1844, Mormon leader Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, were killed by a mob in Carthage, Ill.



In 1847, New York and Boston were linked by telegraph wires.



In 1880, Author/Educator Helen Adams Keller was born in Tuscumbia AL. Blind and deaf from the age of 19 months, her early life is best remembered from the movie "The Miracle Worker". She died in Westport CT on June 1, 1968 at age 87.



In 1893, The New York stock market crashed. By the end of the year 600 banks and 74 railroads had gone out of business.



In 1927, Actor/Author Robert "Bob" Keeshan was born in Lynbrook NY. The original "Clarabell the Clown" on the "Howdy Doody Show" on NBC-TV (1947-1952), he was most famous at "Captain Kangaroo" on the CBS-TV show of the same name from 1955 to 1985. He died January 23, 2004 at age 76.



In 1942, The FBI announced the capture of eight Nazi saboteurs who had been put ashore from a submarine on New York's Long Island.



In 1950, The US sends 35 military advisers to South Vietnam



In 1951, "Amos ’n’ Andy" moved to CBS-TV from CBS radio.



In 1954, The world's first atomic power station begins producing electricity in Obninsk, U.S.S.R, near Moscow.



In 1955, The nation's first automobile seat belt legislation is enacted in Illinois.



In 1957, More than 500 people were killed when Hurricane Audrey slammed through coastal Louisiana and Texas.



In 1959, The play, "West Side Story," with music by Leonard Bernstein, closed after 734 performances on Broadway.



In 1964, Jan & Dean's "Little Old Lady From Pasadena" was released.



In 1969, Patrons at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York's Greenwich Village, clashed with police in an incident considered the birth of the gay rights movement.



In 1973, Former White House counsel John W. Dean told the Senate Watergate Committee about an "enemies list" kept by the Nixon White House.



In 1976, Palestinian extremists hijacked an Air France plane in Greece with 246 passengers and 12 crew. They eventually took it to Entebbe, Uganda, where Israeli commandos rescued over 100 hostages from a terminal building on July 4.



In 1977, The Supreme Court struck down state laws and bar association rules that had prohibited lawyers from advertising their fees for routine services.



In 1980, President Carter signed legislation reviving draft registration.



In 1984, The Supreme Court ended the National Collegiate Athletic Association's monopoly on controlling college football telecasts, ruling such control violated antitrust law.



In 1985, The legendary Route 66, which originally stretched from Chicago to Santa Monica, Calif., passed into history as officials decertified the road.



In 1986, The World Court ruled that the U.S. had broken international law by aiding Nicaraguan rebels.



In 1987, The Rev. Jerry Falwell denied that he had "hoodwinked" Jim Bakker into giving up control of the PTL ministry.



In 1995, Actor Hugh Grant was arrested in Los Angeles for engaging in "lewd behavior" with a prostitute in a rented BMW.



In 1997, The Supreme Court threw out a key part of the Brady gun-control law, saying the federal government could not make local police decide whether people are fit to buy handguns. However, the court left intact the five-day waiting period for gun purchases.



In 1998, An English woman was impregnated with her dead husband's sperm after two-year legal battle over her right to the sperm.



In 1998, In a live joint news conference in China U.S. President Clinton and President Jiang Zemin offered an uncensored airing of differences on human rights, freedom, trade and Tibet.



In 2002, In the U.S., the Securities and Exchange Commission required companies with annual sales of more than $1.2 billion to submit sworn statements backing up the accuracy of their financial reports.



Ten years ago (1994):



U.S. Coast Guard cutters intercepted 1,330 Haitian boat people on the high seas in one of the busiest single days since refugees began leaving Haiti following a 1991 military coup.



President Clinton replaced White House chief of staff Mack McLarty with budget director Leon Panetta.



The dollar dropped below 100 yen in Tokyo for the first time since the modern exchange rate system was established a half-century ago.



Five years ago (1999):



George Papadopoulos, the head of Greece's 1967-74 military dictatorship, died of cancer in Athens at age 80.



Juli Inkster shot a 6-under 65 to win the LPGA Championship, becoming the second woman to win the modern career Grand Slam (the first was Pat Bradley).



The Seattle Mariners beat the Texas Rangers 5-2 in the final game at the Kingdome.



One year ago (2003):



More than 735,000 phone numbers were registered on the first day of a national do-not-call list aimed at blocking unwelcome solicitations from telemarketers.



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Today's Birthdays:



Business executive (Ray) H. (Henry) "Ross" Perot is 74.



The former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired Army Gen. John Shalikashvili, is 68.



Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is 66.



Singer-musician Bruce Johnston (The Beach Boys) is 62.



Actress Julia Duffy is 53.



Actress Isabelle Adjani is 49.



Country singer Lorrie Morgan is 45.



Actor Brian Drillinger is 44.



Actor Yancey Arias is 33.



Actor Tobey Maguire is 29.



Gospel singer Leigh Nash is 28.



Actress Madylin Sweeten is 13.



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Thought for Today:

"If a man cannot be a Christian in the place where he is, he cannot be a Christian anywhere." -

- Henry Ward Beecher, American clergyman (1813-1887).

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