Paradise Driver

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Today is Saturday, March 6th.

The 66th day of 2004.

There are 300 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On March 6, 1857, in its Dred Scott decision, the Supreme Court held that Scott, a slave, could not sue for his freedom in federal court.



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On this date:



In 1475, Italian painter, sculptor, architect, and poet Michelangelo Buonarroti (Michelangelo) was born.



In 1806, English poet, political thinker, and feminist Elizabeth Barrett Browning was born at Coxhoe Hall, Durham, England. She died in 1861.



In 1808, At Harvard University, the first college orchestra was founded.



In 1820, The Missouri Compromise is enacted by the U.S. Congress. It admits Missouri into the Union as a slave state, but prohibits slavery in the rest of the northern Louisiana Purchase Territory.



In 1834, the city of York in Upper Canada was incorporated as Toronto.



In 1836, The thirteen-day siege of the Alamo by Santa Anna and his army ended. The Mexican army of three thousand men defeated the 189 Texas volunteers.



In 1853, Verdi's opera "La Traviata" premiered in Venice, Italy.



In 1906, Comedian and actor Lou Costello (Louis Francis Cristillo)(Abbott & Costello) was born in Paterson, NJ. He died March 3, 1959 in East Los Angeles, CA.



In 1930, Clarence Birdseye, food expert, industrialist, and inventor, introduces prepackaged, quick-frozen food to American consumers.



In 1932, Composer and band leader John Philip Sousa died at the age of 77.



In 1933, a nationwide bank holiday declared by President Franklin Roosevelt went into effect.



In 1935, retired Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. died in Washington.



In 1944, U.S. heavy bombers staged the first American raid on Berlin during World War II.



In 1945, The Dutch Resistance hijacked a truck in Apledoorn, Holland. The following week the German SS executed 263 Dutch in retaliation.



In 1957, the former British African colonies of the Gold Coast and Togoland became the independent state of Ghana.



In 1960, The United States announces that it will deploy 3,500 troops to Vietnam.



In 1966, Barry Sadlers' "Ballad of the Green Berets" becomes #1 (13 weeks)



In 1967, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announced his plan to establish a draft lottery.



In 1973, U.S. President Richard Nixon imposed price controls on oil and gas.



In 1978, The 100th episode of "The Six Million Dollar Man" aired.



In 1978, Hustler publisher Larry Flynt shot & crippled by a sniper in Georgia



In 1980, Islamic militants in Tehran said that they would turn over American hostages to the Revolutionary Council.



In 1981, Walter Cronkite signed off for the last time as principal anchorman of "The CBS Evening News."



In 1981, U.S. President Reagan announced a plan to cut 37,000 federal jobs.



In 1983, in a case that drew much notoriety, a woman in New Bedford, Mass., reported being gang-raped atop a pool table in a tavern called Big Dan's; four men were later convicted of the attack. This incident was the basis for the 1988 movie The Accused starring Kelly McGillis and Jodie Foster (who won an "Oscar" for her performance).



In 1985, Yul Brynner appears in his 4,500th performance of "King & I"



In 1986, The 100th episode of "Simon & Simon" aired on CBS.



In 1987, 189 people died when the British ferry Herald of Free Enterprise capsized off the Belgian port of Zeebrugge.



In 1988, 3 IRA suspects were killed in Gibraltar by SAS officers



In 1988, The first episode of "In the Heat of the Night" aired.



In 1990, An SR-71 Blackbird sets a transcontinental record, flying 2,404 miles in 1:08:17



In 1990, In Afghanistan, an attempted coup to remove President Najibullah from office failed.



In 1992, The last episode of "The Cosby Show" aired. The show had been on since September of 1984.



In 1997, A gunman stole "Tete de Femme," a million-dollar Picasso portrait, from a London gallery. The painting was recovered a week later.



In 1997, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II launched the first official royal Web site.



In 1998, A Connecticut state lottery accountant gunned down three supervisors and the lottery chief before killing himself.



Ten years ago (1994):



Two top Clinton administration officials, Vice President Al Gore and White House adviser George Stephanopoulos, appeared on the Sunday TV talk shows to blame Republican sniping for much of the furor over Whitewater.



Greek actress-turned-politician Melina Mercouri died in New York.



Five years ago (1999):



The emir of Bahrain (Sheik Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa), a key Western ally who had ruled for nearly four decades, died shortly after a meeting with Defense Secretary William Cohen; he was 65.



One year ago:



A somber President Bush readied the nation for war against Saddam Hussein, hurling some of his harshest invectives yet at the Iraqi leader during a prime-time news conference.



The United States ratified a treaty on cutting active U.S. and Russian long-range nuclear warheads by two-thirds.



Democrats blocked President Bush's nomination of Miguel Estrada to a federal appeals court.



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Today's Birthdays:



TV personality Ed McMahon is 81.



Conductor Sarah Caldwell is 80.



Former FBI and CIA director William Webster is 80.



Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan is 78.



Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova (the first woman to travel in space) is 67.



Country singer Doug Dillard is 67.



Sen. Christopher Bond, R-Mo., is 65.



Actress-writer Joanna Miles is 64.



Actor Ben Murphy is 62.



Opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is 60.



Singer Mary Wilson (The Supremes) is 60.



Rock musician Hugh Grundy (The Zombies) is 59.



Rock singer-musician David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) is 58.



Actor-director Rob Reiner is 57.



Olympic gold medalist (high jump - 1968 ) Dick Fosbury (the "Fosbury Flop") is 57.



Singer Kiki Dee is 57.



Rock singer-musician Phil Alvin (The Blasters) is 51.



Actor Tom Arnold is 45.



Actor D.L. Hughley is 40.



Country songwriter Skip Ewing is 40.



Actress Yvette Wilson is 40.



Actress Connie Britton is 36.



Actress Moira Kelly is 36.



Actress Amy Pietz is 35.



Basketball player Shaquille O'Neal is 32.



Country musician Shan Farmer (Ricochet) is 30.



Rapper Bubba Sparxxx is 27.



Actor Jimmy Galeota is 18.



Actor Eli Marienthal is 18.



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Thought for Today:

"To have doubted one's own first principles, is the mark of a civilized man." -

— Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., U.S. Supreme Court justice (1841-1935).

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