Paradise Driver

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Today is Thursday, May 6th.

The 127th day of 2004.

There are 239 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On May 6, 1937, the hydrogen-filled German dirigible Hindenburg burned and crashed in Lakehurst, N.J., killing 35 of the 97 people on board and a Navy crewman on the ground.



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On this date:



In 1527, German troops began sacking Rome, bringing about the end of the Renaissance.



In 1626, Dutch settler Peter Minuit allegedly purchases what is now New York's Manhattan Island from Native Americans for goods worth $24.



In 1833, John Deere makes the 1st steel plow



In 1840, The first adhesive postage stamps, the Penny Black and the Twopenny Blue, went on sale in Britain.



In 1851, Linus Yale patents the Yale-lock



In 1856, Psychiatrist Sigmund Freud was born in Czechoslovakia. He died September 23, 1939 at the age of 83 in London.



In 1861, Arkansas seceded from the Union.



In 1877, The Sioux (Lakota) chief Crazy Horse surrenders and gives up all claim to Nebraska.



In 1882, Congress passed, over President Arthur's veto, the Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred Chinese immigrants from the U.S. for 10 years.



In 1889, The Paris Exposition formally opened, featuring the just-completed Eiffel Tower.



In 1890, The Mormon Church renounces polygamy



In 1895, Actor Rudolph Valentino (Rudolpho Alfonzo Rafaello Pietro Filiberto Guglieimi Di Valentino d'Antonguolla) was born in Castellaneta Italy. He died August 23, 1926 at the age of 31 in New York.



In 1906, a "Temporary" permit to erect overhead wires on Market Street is issued, allowing United Railroads to run electric streetcars in San Francisco.



In 1910, Britain's King Edward VII died. He was succeeded by his second son, George V.



In 1914, The British House of Lords rejects women suffrage



In 1915, Actor/Producer/Director Orson Welles was born in Kenosha, WI. He died Oct 10, 1985 at the age of 70 in Los Angeles CA.



In 1915, Boston Red Soxer Babe Ruth made his pitching debut and hit his first homerun, but loses to the New York Yankees 4-3 in 15



In 1935, The Works Progress Administration began operating.



In 1940, Pulitzer prize awarded to John Steinbeck (Grapes of Wrath)



In 1941, Joseph Stalin assumed the Soviet premiership.



In 1942, During World War II, some 15,000 Americans and Filipinos on Corregidor surrendered to the Japanese.



In 1950, U.S. President Harry Truman asked that Hawaii and Alaska be admitted as states in the interest of national security.



In 1950, Liz Taylor's 1st marriage (Conrad Hilton Jr)



In 1954, Medical student Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile during a track meet in Oxford, England, in 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds.



In 1957, Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy of Massachusetts was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his book "Profiles In Courage".



In 1957 Last broadcast of "I Love Lucy" on CBS-TV



In 1960, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1960.



In 1962, In the first test of its kind, the submerged submarine USS "Ethan Allen" fired a Polaris missile armed with a nuclear warhead that detonated above the Pacific Ocean.



In 1976, An earthquake struck the town of Udine in northern Italy, killing 973 people and leaving over 100,000 homeless.



In 1981, Yale architecture student Maya Ying Lin was named winner of a competition to design the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.



In 1987, CIA Director William J. Casey died at age 74.



In 1987, Democratic presidential candidate Gary Hart held a news conference in Hanover, New Hampshire, in which he denied ever having an affair with Miami model Donna Rice, but declined to say whether he'd ever committed adultery.



In 1996, The body of former CIA director William E. Colby was found washed up on a riverbank in southern Maryland, eight days after he'd disappeared.



In 1998, Astronomers announced the detection of a gamma ray burst in a galaxy 12 billion light years away that was equal to the energy expended by the sun in one trillion years.



In 2001, Chandra Levy's parents reported her missing to police in Washington, DC. Levy's body was found on May 22, 2002 in Rock Creek Park.



Ten years ago (1994):



Former Arkansas state worker Paula Jones filed suit against President Clinton, alleging he'd sexually harassed her in 1991. (Jones reached a settlement with Clinton in November 1998.)



Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and French President Francois Mitterrand formally opened the Channel Tunnel between their countries.



The House passed the assault weapons ban 216-214.



Five years ago (1999):



Russia and the major Western powers set aside their differences over NATO airstrikes and drafted a joint plan to end the Kosovo conflict.



President Clinton met with Kosovo refugees in Germany, listening to chilling stories of murder, rape and terror and promising them, "You will go home again in safety and in freedom."



Reversing decades of overwhelming loyalty to Britain's governing Labor Party, Scottish and Welsh voters elected strong nationalist oppositions to their first separate assemblies of modern times.



One year ago (2003):



Florida Senator Bob Graham launched his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination by accusing President Bush of retreating from the war on terrorism to "settle old scores" between the Bush family and Iraq's Saddam Hussein.



White House budget chief Mitchell Daniels announced his resignation.



Kmart Corporation emerged from bankruptcy after more than 15 months of Chapter 11 protection.



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Today's Birthdays:



Baseball Hall-of-Famer Willie Mays is 73.



Senate Banking Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) is 70.



Rock singer Bob Seger is 59.



Singer Jimmie Dale Gilmore is 59.



Actor Ben Masters is 57.



Actor Gregg Henry is 52.



British Prime Minister Tony Blair is 51.



TV game show host Tom Bergeron is 49.



Rock singer John Flansburgh (They Might Be Giants) is 44.



Actor George Clooney is 43.



Actor Clay O'Brien is 43.



Actress Roma Downey is 41.



Rock singer-musician Tony Scalzo (Fastball) is 40.



Rock musician Mark Bryan (Hootie and the Blowfish) is 37.



Rock musician Chris Shiflett (Foo Fighters) is 33.



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Thought for Today:

"How glorious it is -- and also how painful -- to be an exception." -

- Alfred de Musset, French author (1810-1857).

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