Paradise Driver

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Today is Saturday, March 27th.

The 87th day of 2004.

There are 279 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On March 27, 1977, 582 people were killed when a KLM Boeing 747, attempting to take off, crashed into a Pan Am 747 on the Canary Island of Tenerife.



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On this date:



In 1512, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon sighted Florida.



In 1625, Charles I ascended the English throne upon the death of James I.



In 1790, The Shoelace was invented.



In 1794, President Washington and Congress authorized creation of the U.S. Navy.



In 1836, the first Mormon temple was dedicated, in Kirtland, Ohio.



In 1855, Abraham Gesner patents Kerosene



In 1866, President Andrew Johnson vetoes the civil rights bill; it later becomes the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.



In 1866, Andrew Rankin received a patent for the urinal.



In 1884, The very first long-distance call is made. The call is between The American Bell Telephone Company in Boston and New York.



In 1912, First lady Helen Taft plants the first Japanese cherry trees in Washington, D.C.



In 1917, the Seattle Metropolitans became the first U.S. team to win the Stanley Cup as they defeated the Montreal Canadiens.



In 1933, About 55,000 people staged a protest against Hitler in New York City.



In 1955, Steve McQueen made his network TV debut on "Goodyear Playhouse."



In 1958, Nikita Khrushchev became Soviet premier in addition to First Secretary of the Communist Party.



In 1958, CBS Labs announce new stereophonic records



In 1964, Southern Alaska is hit with the strongest earthquake in American history. The earthquake measures 9.2 on the Richter scale. Adding to the disaster is a tidal wave that measures over 100 feet at certain points.



In 1968, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man to orbit the earth, died in a plane crash.



In 1968, The windsurfer is patented.



In 1973, Marlon Brando refuses his Oscar for The Godfather in protest of Hollywood's treatment of Native Americans.



In 1979, The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 8-to-1, that police could not stop motorists at random to check licenses and registrations unless there was reason to believe a law had been broken.



In 1980, 137 workers died when a North Sea floating oil field platform, the Alexander I. Keilland, capsized during a storm.



In 1980, After 123 years of remaining inactive, Mount St. Helens in Washington becomes active once more when it begins to shoot out ash and steam. The most distructive eruption in U.S. history will later occur on May 18th... when Mount St. Helens erupts at the power of 10,000,000 tons of dynamite.



In 1985, the Supreme Court rules that police could not shoot fleeing criminal suspects who are unarmed and not considered dangerous.



In 1998, the Food and Drug Administration approved the anti-impotence drug Viagra, made by Pfizer.



In 1997, Russian workers staged a nationwide strike to demand overdue wages.



In 1998, Top civilian aircraft makers in France, Spain, Germany and Britain agreed to create single European aerospace and defense company.



In 2000, DaimlerChrysler AG announced it would buy 34 percent of Japan's Mitsubishi Motors Corporation.



In 2001, California regulators approved electricity rate hikes of up to 46 percent.



Ten years ago (1994):



More than 40 people were killed as violent thunderstorms tore across the Southeast.



Italians went to the polls in general elections that resulted in big gains for a right-wing coalition.



Ukraine held its first parliamentary elections since the collapse of the Soviet Union.



Five years ago (1999):



NATO expanded its air assault on Yugoslavia in the fourth straight day of attacks.



Maria Butyrskaya of Russia won the World Figure Skating Championships in Helsinki, Finland; defending champion Michelle Kwan of the United States finished second.



One year ago (2003):



Serbian police killed two major suspects in the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic



Russia's Evgeni Plushenko won his second World Figure Skating Championships title, edging American Tim Goebel.



Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paul Zindel died in New York at age 66.



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Today's Birthdays:



Lord Callaghan, former British prime minister, is 92.



Blues musician Robert "Junior" Lockwood is 89.



Former newspaper columnist Anthony Lewis is 77.



Dance company director Arthur Mitchell is 70.



Actor Julian Glover is 69.



Actor Jerry Lacy is 68.



Actor Austin Pendleton is 64.



Actor Michael York is 62.



Rock musician Tony Banks (Genesis) is 54.



Actress Maria Schneider is 52.



Rock musician Andrew Farriss (INXS) is 45.



Movie director Quentin Tarantino is 41.



Singer, Variety Show Hostess, Movie Actress, Xuxa (pronounced SHOO-SHAW)(Maria da Graca Meneghel) is 41.



Rock musician Derrick McKenzie (Jamiroquai) is 40.



Actress Talisa Soto is 37.



Actress Pauley Perrette is 35.



Singer Mariah Carey is 34.



Rock musician Brendan Hill (Blues Traveler) is 34.



Actress Elizabeth Mitchell is 34.



Hip-hop singer Fergy (Black Eyed Peas) is 29.



Actress Emily Ann Lloyd is 21.



Actress Taylor Atelian is 9.



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Thought for Today:

"Men travel faster now, but I do not know if they go to better things." -

- Willa Cather, American author (1873-1947).

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