Paradise Driver

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Today is Sunday, May 16th.

The 137th day of 2004.

There are 229 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On May 16, 1929, the first Academy Awards were presented during a banquet at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The movie "Wings" won "best production" while Emil Jannings and Janet Gaynor were named best actor and best actress.



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On this date:



In 1639, The town of Newport, Rhode Island, was founded



In 1760, The French were forced to evacuate Quebec



In 1763, The English lexicographer, author and wit Samuel Johnson first met his future biographer, James Boswell.



In 1770, Marie Antoinette, age 14, married the future King Louis VI of France, who was 15.



In 1804, The French Senate declared Napoleon Bonaparte emperor.



In 1817, The Mississippi River steamboat service began as it took passengers from New Orleans, La, to Louisville, Ky.



In 1862, The Automobile was first built by Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir.



In 1866, Charles Elmer Hires invents root beer



In 1866, Congress authorized the minting of the 5-cent piece called the nickel, minted with not more than 25% nickel; the silver half-dime was used up to this point.



In 1868, The Senate failed by one vote to convict President Andrew Johnson as it took its first ballot on one of 11 articles of impeachment against him.



In 1879, The Treaty of Gandamak between Russia and England set up the Afghan state.



In 1881, World's 1st electric tram goes into service in Lichterfelder (near Berlin)



In 1888, Canadian Pacific Railroad opens Hotel Vancouver, Vancouver British Columbia



In 1888, The first demonstration of recording on a flat disc was demonstrated by Emile Berliner.



In 1888, The capitol of Texas was dedicated in Austin.



In 1891, Spam was introduced by George A. Hormel & Co.



In 1905, Actor Henry Jaynes Fonda was born in Grand Island, NE. He died August 12, 1982 at the age of 77.



In 1910, The U.S. Bureau of Mines is established as part of the Department of the Interior.



In 1919, Pianist Liberace (Wladziu Valentino Liberace) was born a twin in West Allis, WI. He died February 4, 1987 at the age of 67.



In 1920, Joan of Arc was canonized in Rome.



In 1927, The U.S. Supreme Court rules that even though the manufacturing of liquor is illegal, all bootleggers must pay income tax.



In 1946, The Irving Berlin musical, "Annie Get Your Gun," opened at New York’s Imperial Theatre for the first of 1,147 performances.



In 1946, The world's first magnetic tape recorder is demonstrated for the first time by Jack Mullin.



In 1954, WGAN (now WGME) TV channel 13 in Portland, ME (CBS) 1st broadcast



In 1960, A "Big Four" summit conference in Paris collapsed on its opening day as the Soviet Union leveled spy charges against the U.S. in the wake of the U2 incident.



In 1965, Spaghetti-O's is first marketed.



In 1975, Japanese climber Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.



In 1977, Five people were killed when a New York Airways helicopter, idling atop the Pan Am Building in midtown Manhattan, toppled over, sending a huge rotor blade flying.



In 1981, "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes hits #1 for next 9 weeks



In 1986, "Top Gun" premieres



In 1988, US Supreme Court rules trash may be searched without a warrant



In 1990. Actor/Singer/Dancer Sammy Davis Jr. died at the age of 64. He was born In New York City NY on December 8, 1925.



In 1992, The space shuttle Endeavour completed its maiden voyage with a safe landing in the California desert.



In 1995, Japanese police arrested doomsday cult leader Shoko Asahara, holding him in connection with the nerve-gas attack on Tokyo's subways two months earlier.



In 1996, Admiral Jeremy "Mike" Boorda, the nation's top Navy officer, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after some of his military awards were called into question.



In 2000, U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was nominated to run for U.S. Senator in New York. She was the first U.S. first lady to run for public office.



Ten years ago (1994):



Israel began its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, shutting down the prison and military headquarters where Israeli soldiers had been in charge since the 1967 Middle East War.



Five years ago (1999):



The Justice Department said preliminary figures from the FBI indicated a decline in serious crime in 1998 for the seventh consecutive year.



One year ago (2003):



President Bush launched his re-election campaign.



The Senate committed $15 billion to fight global AIDS.



In Casablanca, Morocco, five simultaneous suicide attacks claimed the lives of 33 victims, in addition to a dozen suicide bombers.



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Today's Birthdays:



Author Studs Terkel is 92.



Actor George Gaynes is 87.



Actor Harry Carey Jr. is 83.



Actress Yvonne Craig is 67.



Jazz musician Billy Cobham is 60.



Actor Pierce Brosnan is 51.



Actress Debra Winger is 49.



Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut is 49.



Actress Mare Winningham is 45.



Singer Janet Jackson is 38.



Rhythm and blues singer Ralph Tresvant (New Edition) is 36.



Actress Tracey Gold is 35.



Tennis player Gabriela Sabatini is 34.



Country singer Rick Trevino is 33.



Actor David Boreanaz is 33.



Musician Simon Katz is 33.



Actress Tori Spelling is 31.



Actor Marc John Jefferies is 14.



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Thought for Today:

"Ideas won't keep; something must be done about them." -

- Alfred North Whitehead, English philosopher-mathematician (1861-1947).

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