Paradise Driver

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Today is Thursday, April 1st.

The 92nd day of 2004.

There are 274 days left in the year.

This is April Fool's Day.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On April 1, 1945, American forces invaded Okinawa during World War II.



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On this date:



In 374, Comet 1P/374 E1 (Halley's Comet) approaches within 0.0884 AUs (8,221,000 miles) of Earth.



In 1621, Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoags, and John Carver, governor of Plymouth Colony, sign the first peace treaty between Native Americans and Pilgrims.



In 1634, the Massachusetts General Court authorized Israel Stoughton to build a bridge across the Neponset River from Milton to Dorchester.



In 1748, The Ruins of Pompeii were found.



In 1775, Daniel Boone establishes the settlement and fort of Boonesborough on the Kentucky River.



In 1778, Oliver Pollock, a New Orleans Businessman, created the dollar "$" symbol.



In 1789, The newly established U.S. House of Representatives holds its first full meeting.



In 1793, The volcano Unsen on Japan erupts killing about 53,000.



In 1826, Samuel Morey of Oxford, New Hampshire, patented the internal combustion engine.



In 1853, Cincinnati, Ohio, became the first U.S. city to pay its firefighters a regular salary.



In 1863, The first wartime conscription law in U.S. went into effect.



In 1873, The British White Star steamship Atlantic sinks off Nova Scotia, 550+ die



In 1875, The Times of London became the first newspaper to print a daily weather chart.



In 1883, Actor Lon Chaney (Alonso Chaney) was born in Colorado Springs, CO. Known as “The Man of a Thousand Faces,” Chaney was a brilliant innovator in makeup techniques, although many of his most arcane makeup secrets died with him. He died in 1930 at the age of 47.



In 1889, the first dishwashing machine was marketed in Chicago.



In 1891, The London-Paris telephone connection opened.



In 1904, The Antarctic Plateau was discovered by Captain R.F. Scott.



In 1918, the Royal Air Force was established in Britain.



In 1924, Adolf Hitler was sentenced to five years in prison for high treason in relation to the "Beer Hall Putsch."



In 1929, Inventor Louie Marx introduced the YO YO. He was thereafter referred to as "Yo Yo Marx", which made people think he was related to Groucho, Harpo and Chico.



In 1931, An earthquake devastates Managua Nicaragua, killing 2,000.



In 1933, Nazi Germany began persecuting Jews with a boycott of Jewish-owned businesses.



In 1938, The Baseball Hall of Fame opened in Cooperstown, New York.



In 1938, The "Superman" comic strip debuted in newspapers.



In 1940, The APRIL 1940 issue of "DETECTIVE" COMICS features the first appearance of BATMAN's sidekick ROBIN



In 1942, Mexico changed from 3 time zones to 2. Today it has the same four as the continental U.S.



In 1945, U.S. forces launched the invasion on the Pacific island of Okinawa during World War II. What followed was the bloodiest battle of the Pacific conflict, claiming the lives of more than 12,000 Americans and over 110,000 Japanese soldiers before U.S. forces secured the island in June.



In 1946, Tsunamis (seismic ocean waves) generated by a 7.3 magnitude earthquake in the Aleutian Trench near Unimak Is., AK, struck the Hawaiian islands, resulting in more than 170 deaths.



In 1948, U.S. President Truman vetoed an income tax reduction act. The bill was passed by the U.S. Congress, over the president's veto, the following day.



In 1948, The Berlin Airlift began.



In 1952, The "Big Bang" theory was proposed in Physical Review by Alpher, Bethe & Gamow.



In 1954, The first army helicopter battalion formed at Fort Bragg, NC.



In 1954, WQED TV channel 13 in Pittsburgh PA (PBS) begins broadcasting



In 1960, the first weather satellite, TIROS-One, was launched from Cape Canaveral.



In 1963, most of New York City's daily newspapers resumed publishing after settlement was reached in a 114-day strike.



In 1969, The final episode of "The Andy Griffith Show" aired.



In 1970, President Nixon signed a measure banning cigarette advertising on radio and television, to take effect after January 1, 1971.



In 1976, Apple Computer Inc. was founded by Stephen Wozniak and Steven Jobs.



In 1978, The final episode of "The Bob Newhart Show" aired.



In 1979, Following a referendum, Iran is declared an Islamic Republic by the Shiite Muslim leader Ayatollah Khomeini.



In 1982, US formally transfers Canal Zone to Panamá



In 1983, tens of thousands of anti-nuclear demonstrators linked arms in a 14-mile human chain spanning three defense installations in rural England.



In 1984, recording star Marvin Gaye was shot to death by his father, Marvin Gay Sr., in Los Angeles. (The elder Gay pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, and received probation.)



In 1987, in his first major speech on the AIDS epidemic, President Reagan told doctors in Philadelphia, "We've declared AIDS public health enemy No. 1."



In 1991, US minimum wage goes from $3.80 to $4.25 per hour



In 1991, The Warsaw Pact officially dissolves



In 1997, In the first of two reports, the Justice Department concluded the FBI had erred seriously in its investgation into the July 1996 bombing at Olympic Park in Atlanta.



In 1998, A federal judge dismissed the Paula Jones' sexual harassment lawsuit against U.S. President Clinton saying that the claims fell "far short" of being worthy of a trial.



In 2001, Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was arrested on corruption charges after a 26-hour armed standoff with the police at his Belgrade villa.



In 2001, China began holding 24 crewmembers of a U.S. surveillance plane. The EP-3E U.S. Navy crew had made an emergency landing after an in-flight collision with a Chinese fighter jet. The Chinese pilot was missing and presumed dead. The U.S. crew was released on April 11, 2001.



Ten years ago (1994):



The government reported the nation's unemployment rate for March remained unchanged from February, at 6.5 percent.



Five years ago (1999):



The United States branded as an illegal abduction the capture of three U.S. Army soldiers near the Macedonian-Yugoslav border; President Clinton demanded their immediate release.



A New Jersey man was arrested and charged with originating the "Melissa" e-mail virus. (David L. Smith later pleaded guilty to various state and federal charges.)



Nunavut becomes the third independent territory in Canada; it is the homeland of Canada's Inuit, who comprise the vast majority of the population of Nunavut.



One year ago (2003):



American troops entered a hospital in Nasiriyah, Iraq, and rescued Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch, who had been held prisoner since her unit was ambushed on March 23.



A Cuban plane hijacked the day before with 32 people aboard landed at Key West, Fla., where the hijacker surrendered.



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Today's Birthdays:



Author William Manchester is 82.



Actor George Grizzard is 76.



Actress Jane Powell is 75.



Actress Grace Lee Whitney is 74.



Actress Debbie Reynolds is 72.



Country singer Jim Ed Brown is 70.



Actor Don Hastings is 70.



Blues singer Eddie King is 66.



Actress Ali MacGraw is 66.



Rhythm and blues singer Rudolph Isley is 65.



Reggae singer Jimmy Cliff is 56.



Jazz musician Gil Scott-Heron is 55.



Rock musician Billy Currie (Ultravox) is 52.



Actress Annette O'Toole is 51.



Movie director Barry Sonnenfeld is 51.



Actress Jennifer Runyon is 44.



Country singer Woody Lee is 36.



Movie directors Albert and Allen Hughes are 32.



Tennis player Magdalena Maleeva is 29.



Singer Bijou Phillips is 24.



Pop singer Hannah Spearritt (S CLUB 7) is 23.



Actor Sam Huntington is 22.



Actor Josh Zuckerman is 19.



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Thought for Today:

"Life is short. Live it up." -

- Nikita S. Khrushchev, Soviet leader (1894-1971).

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