Paradise Driver

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Today is Thursday, June 3rd.

The 155th day of 2004.

There are 211 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On June 3, 1963, Pope John XXIII died at age 81. He was succeeded by Pope Paul VI.



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On this date:



In 1098, Christian forces took Antioch (in modern Syria) after a five-month siege in the First Crusade (1096-99).



In 1539, Hernando De Soto claims Florida for Spain.



In 1540, Hernando de Soto, during his quest for gold, becomes the first European to cross the Appalachian Mountains.



In 1621, The Dutch West India Company received a charter for New Netherlands -- now known as New York.



In 1770, Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo is founded in California.



In 1789, Alexander Mackenzie began his exploration of the Mackenzie River in Canada.



In 1800, John Adams moved to Washington, DC. He was the first President to live in what later became the capital of the United States.



In 1808, Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederacy was born in Christian County, Ky.



In 1818, The last of the Maratha Wars between the British and the Maratha Confederacy in India ended, securing British supremacy in India.



In 1856, Cullen Whipple, of Providence, RI, patented the screw machine.



In 1875, The first transmission by voice was by Alexander Graham Bell. His "harmonic telegraph" instrument send a twanging sound from a reed vibrated by Bell's voice along wires to Watson. Although the instrument transmitted voicelike sounds, the words were not recognizable.



In 1888, The poem "Casey at the Bat" was first published, in the San Francisco Daily Examiner. Writer Ernest L. Thayer was paid $5.00 for his poem.



In 1916, The ROTC was established by the National Defense Act.



In 1937, the Duke of Windsor (formerly King Edward VIII), who had abdicated the British throne, married American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson in a civil ceremony in Monts, France. The King became the Duke of Windsor when he wed a commoner and had to give up his England throne.



In 1940, The evacuation of allied troops from Dunkirk was completed; over 335,000 British, French and Belgian troops were rescued.



In 1942, In WWII, the Battle of Midway Island begins. It was the first major battle won by airpower and Japan's first major defeat in WW II, the turning point in the war in Pacific.



In 1948, The 200-inch reflecting telescope at the Palomar Mountain Observatory in California was dedicated.



In 1948, Korczak Ziolkowski begins sculpture of Crazy Horse near Mt Rushmore



In 1949, Wesley Anthony Brown becomes the first black midshipman to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy.



In 1949, "Dragnet" is first broadcast on radio (KFI in Los Angeles)



In 1959, Singapore becomes self governing under British supervision.



In 1959, The first class to graduate from the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, held their commencement ceremony.



In 1965, Gemini IV is launched, the second 2-man flight (McDivitt & White); astronaut Edward White became the first American to walk in space for 22 minutes, during the flight. The Russians were first in the world with a spacewalk on March 18, 1965. White was later killed when a fire broke out aboard Apollo 1.



In 1966, Gemini IX is launched; the seventh U.S. 2-man flight (Stafford & Cernan).



In 1968, Pop artist Andy Warhol was shot and critically wounded in his New York film studio, known as "The Factory," by Valerie Solanas, an actress and self-styled militant feminist.



In 1968, Canada announces it will replace silver with nickel in coins.



In 1969, The final episode of "Star Trek" aired on NBC.



In 1972, The Eagles' "Take It Easy" was released



In 1973, A Soviet Tupolev 144, the supersonic airliner dubbed "Concordski" because it closely resembled the Anglo-French Concorde plane, crashed at the Paris air show, killing 15.



In 1981, Pope John Paul II left a Rome hospital and returned to the Vatican three weeks after the attempt on his life.



In 1983, Gordon Kahl was killed in a gun battle with law enforcement officials near Smithville, AR. Kahl was wanted for the slayings of two U.S. marshals in North Dakota.



In 1989, Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, died.



In 1989, Chinese army troops began their sweep of Beijing to crush student-led pro-democracy demonstrations. They kill hundreds of pro-democracy students.



In 1989, In the Ural Mountains: LPG (liquified petroleum gas) leaking from a pipeline running alongside the Trans-Siberian railway near Uta, 720 miles east of Moscow, exploded and destroyed two passing passenger trains. About 500 travelers were killed and 723 injured of an estimated 1,200 passengers on both trains.



In 1991, The Mount Unzen volcano in southern Japan erupted, killing about 40 people. The worst eruption in Japanese history.



In 1992, Joan Lunden (Blunden) was ordered to pay her ex-husband $18,000 a month support.



In 1992, In one of the landmark moments of the 1992 presidential campaign, Democratic candidate Bill Clinton plays his saxophone on "The Arsenio Hall Show," wailing his way through "Heartbreak Hotel" and "God Bless The Child."



In 1998, A high-speed train derailed in Eschede, Germany, killing 101 people.



Ten years ago (1994):



President Clinton, continuing his tour of Italy, visited the graves of American soldiers killed in the Anzio landing during World War II.



The United States began consultations with South Korea, Japan and Russia on how to retaliate for North Korea's removal of vital evidence about its nuclear weapons capability.



Five years ago (1999):



Caving in to Russian and Western demands, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic accepted a peace plan for Kosovo designed to end mass expulsions of ethnic Albanians and 11 weeks of NATO airstrikes.



One year ago (2003):



World leaders closed out a summit in Evian, France, by pledging to rebuild Iraq and combat the threat of nuclear weapons in Iran and North Korea.



Arab leaders pledged to renounce terror and help end violence against Israel, standing in solidarity with President G. W. Bush at a summit in Egypt.



Eric Robert Rudolph pleaded innocent in a deadly 1998 abortion clinic bombing in Birmingham, Ala.



Sammy Sosa was ejected in the first inning of Chicago's 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays after umpires found cork in his shattered bat.



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Today's Birthdays:



Actor Tony Curtis is 79.



Musician Boots Randolph is 77.



TV producer Chuck Barris is 75.



Actress Irma P. Hall ("The Ladykillers") is 69.



Rock singer Ian Hunter (Mott The Hoople) is 65.



Singer Eddie Holman is 58.



Musician Too Slim (Riders in the Sky) is 56.



Singer Suzi Quatro is 54.



Singer Deneice Williams is 53.



Rock musician Billy Powell (Lynyrd Skynyrd) is 52.



Singer Dan Hill is 50.



Actor Scott Valentine is 46.



Country singer Jamie O'Neal is 36.



Singers Gabriel and Ariel Hernandez (No Mercy) are 33.



Actress Lalaine DuPree ("Lizzie McGuire") is 17.



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Thought for Today:

"Today's shocks are tomorrow's conventions." -

- Carolyn Heilbrun, American educator and writer (1926-2003).

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