Paradise Driver

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Today is Sunday, May 2nd.

The 123rd day of 2004.

There are 243 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On May 2, 1863, Confederate Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was accidentally wounded by his own men at Chancellorsville, Va.; he died eight days later.



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On this date:



In 1507, Two years after entering the Augustinian monastery at Erfurt, future German reformer Martin Luther, 23, was consecrated a priest. (Luther remained in the order until 1521, when he was excommunicated from the Catholic Church.)



In 1519, Artist Leonardo da Vinci died at Cloux, France.



In 1670, The Hudson Bay Company was chartered by England's King Charles II.



In 1776, France & Spain agree to donate arms to American rebels



In 1780, William Herschel discovers the first binary star, Xi Ursae Majoris.



In 1798, The black General Toussaint L’ouverture forced British troops to agree to evacuate the port of Santo Domingo.



In 1865, The first fire department with paid firemen is established in New York City by an act of the state legislature.



In 1865, President Andrew Johnson offered $100,000 reward for the capture of former CSA President Jefferson Davis.



In 1885, "Good Housekeeping" magazine was first published by Clark W. Bryan in Holyoke, Massachusetts.



In 1887, Hannibal W Goodwin patents celluloid photographic film



In 1890, The Oklahoma Territory was organized.



In 1902, The 1st science fiction film, "A Trip To The Moon", is released



In 1903, Doctor/Author/Activist Benjamin McLane Spockwas born in New Haven, CT. He died March 15, 1998 at the age of 94.



In 1926, U.S. Marines landed in Nicaragua to put down a revolt and to protect U.S. interests. They did not depart until 1933.



In 1932, Jack Benny's first radio show made its debut on the NBC "Blue" Network.



In 1932, Pulitzer prize awarded to Pearl S Buck (The Good Earth)



In 1936, "Peter and the Wolf," a symphonic tale for children by Sergei Prokofiev, had its world premiere in Moscow.



In 1937, Actor/Comedian Lorenzo Music ("Rhoda"'s Carlton the doorman, the voice of Garfield the cat) was born. He died August 4, 2001 at the age of 64



In 1938, Pulitzer prize awarded to Thornton Wilder (Our Town).



In 1939, Lou Gehrig set a new major-league baseball record when he played in his 2,130th game.



In 1941, FCC approves regular scheduled commercial TV broadcasts to begin July 1



In 1944, Ted Williams was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marine Air Corps and was awarded his wings.



In 1944, WABD (WNEW, now WNYW) TV channel 5 in New York NY (DUM/MET/FOX) 1st broadcast



In 1945, The Soviet Union announced the fall of Berlin, and the Allies announced the surrender of Nazi troops in Italy and parts of Austria.



In 1946, Prisoners revolted at California's Alcatraz prison.



In 1949, Pulitzer prize awarded to Arthur Miller (Death of a salesman).



In 1952, Ted Williams again reported for active duty as a Marine fighter pilot.



In 1955, Tennessee Williams won a Pulitzer prize for "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."



In 1955, WGBH TV channel 2 in Boston MA (PBS) begins broadcasting



In 1957, Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, the controversial Republican senator from Wisconsin, died at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland.



In 1960, Convicted sex offender and best-selling author Caryl Chessman was executed at San Quentin Prison in California.



In 1963, Peter, Paul and Mary performed "Puff the Magic Dragon" on American Bandstand.



In 1965, The Early Bird satellite was used to transmit television pictures across the Atlantic.



In 1969, The British passenger liner Queen Elizabeth 2, left on her maiden voyage to New York.



In 1970, Student anti-war protesters at Ohio's Kent State University burn down the campus ROTC building. The National Guard took control of the campus.



In 1972, After serving 48 years as head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover died in Washington at age 77.



In 1974, Former Vice President Spiro T. Agnew was disbarred by the Maryland Court of Appeals, effectively preventing him from practicing law anywhere in the United States.



In 1975, Apple Records closes down



In 1977, The nation's first major anti-nuclear protest is staged at the Seabrook Facility in New Hampshire.



In 1981 Radio Shack re-releases Model III TRSDOS 1.3 with 2 fixes



In 1982, In the Falklands War, the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano was sunk by the British submarine Conqueror; more than 350 men were killed.



In 1983, A 6.7 earthquake injures 487 in Coalinga CA



In 1986, Soviet official Boris N. Yeltsin told West German television that water reservoirs near the crippled Chernobyl nuclear power plant were contaminated with radioactivity.



In 1996, President Clinton vetoed a cap on punitive damage awards.



In 1997, Police arrest transsexual hooker Atisone Seiuli with Eddie Murphy



In 1997, Tony Blair became Britain's youngest prime minister in 185 years. He was 44 years old.



In 1998, In separate radio addresses, President Clinton and congressional Republicans lambasted the Internal Revenue Service and promised more reforms to prevent abuses of the tax-collecting agency in the future.



Ten years ago (1994):



Nelson Mandela claimed victory in the wake of South Africa's first democratic elections; President F.W. de Klerk acknowledged defeat.



Five years ago (1999):



Yugoslav authorities handed over to the Rev. Jesse Jackson three American prisoners of war who'd been held for a month.



Actor Oliver Reed died in Malta at age 61.



One year ago (2003):



A federal court struck down most of the new campaign finance law's ban on the use of large corporate and union contributions by political parties. (However, the Supreme Court later ruled that rooting out corruption, or even the appearance of it, justified limitations on the free speech and free spending of contributors, candidates and political parties.)



India and Pakistan agreed to hold talks on settling a half-century of disputes that had drawn them into three wars.



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Today's Birthdays:



Actor Theodore Bikel is 80.



Actor Roscoe Lee Browne is 79.



Rock musician Link Wray is 75.



Bianca Jagger is 59.



Country singer R.C. Bannon is 59.



Singer Lesley Gore is 58.



Singer-songwriter Larry Gatlin is 56.



Rock singer Lou Gramm (Foreigner) is 54.



Actress Christine Baranski is 52.



Singer Angela Bofill is 50.



Actress Elizabeth Berridge is 42.



Country singer Ty Herndon is 42.



Rock musician Todd Sucherman (Styx) is 35.



Wrestler-actor The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) is 32.



Actress Jenna Von Oy is 27.



Olympic gold medal figure skater Sarah Hughes is 19.



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Thought for Today:

"What experience and history teach is this: that people and governments have never learned anything from history." -

- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, German philosopher (1770-1831).

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