Paradise Driver

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Today is Wednesday, May 26th.

The 147th day of 2004.

There are 219 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On May 26, 1940, the evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk, France, began during World War II. The evacuation was known as "Operation Dynamo. "



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On this date:



In 1521, Martin Luther was banned by the Edict of Worms because of his religious beliefs and writings.



In 1637, The first battle of Pequot at New Haven CT kills 500 Indians.



In 1647, A new law banned Catholic priests from the colony of Massachusetts. The penalty was banishment or death for a second offense.



In 1790, Tennessee is organized as a territory



In 1805, Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned king of Italy.



In 1805, Lewis and Clark, after a year of exploration, spot the snow-capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains.



In 1864, The Territory of Montana is formed from a portion of the Territory of Idaho.



In 1865, Arrangements were made in New Orleans for the surrender of Confederate forces west of the Mississippi.



In 1868, The impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson ended with his acquittal on all remaining charges.



In 1896, The Dow Jones Industrial Average, co-founded by Charles Dow, first appeared in the Wall Street Journal. The Dow Jones Industrial 12-stock average opened and posted a 40.94 for the day.



In 1898, San Fransisco approves City Charter, allows Municipal ownership of utiliies.



In 1906, Archaeological Institute of America forms.



In 1908, In Persia (now Iran), the first oil strike was made in the Middle East.



In 1913, Actors' Equity Association was organized.



In 1927, The Ford Motor Company manufactures its 15 millionth Model T automobile.



In 1937, San Francisco Bay's Golden Gate Bridge opened.



In 1946, A patent was filed in the United States for an H-bomb.



In 1952, The border between East and West Germany and between East Germany and West Berlin were closed. The border between East and West Berlin remained open.



In 1954, In Egypt, archeologists found the 4,800-year-old Cheops' "Ship of the Dead".



In 1959, The word "Frisbee" became a registered trademark of Wham-O.



In 1960, U.N. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge accused the Soviets of hiding a microphone inside a wood carving of the Great Seal of the United States that had been presented to the U.S. embassy in Moscow.



In 1966, A Buddhist monk sets himself on fire at US consulate in Hue South-Vietnam.



In 1967, "Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band," by The Beatles, was released.



In 1969, The Apollo 10 astronauts returned to Earth after a successful eight-day dress rehearsal for the first manned moon landing.



In 1970, The final episode of "I Dream of Jeannie" aired.



In 1977, George H. Willig scaled the outside of the South Tower of New York's World Trade Center; he was arrested at the top of the 110-story building.



In 1978, The first legal casino in the eastern U.S. opened in Atlantic City, N.J.



In 1989, Danish parliament allows legal marriage among homosexuals.



In 1991, A Lauda Air Boeing 767 crashed in Thailand, killing all 223 people aboard.



In 1994, The United States and Vietnam resumed diplomatic relations.



In 1998, The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Ellis Island was mainly in New Jersey, not New York.



In 1998, The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police officers in high-speed chases are liable for bystander injuries only if their "actions shock the conscience."



In 2002, Fourteen people were killed when barges being pushed by a towboat crashed into the piers of the Interstate 40 bridge in Oklahoma, causing part of the structure to fall into the Arkansas River.



Ten years ago (1994):



President Clinton renewed trade privileges for China, and announced his administration would no longer link China's trade status with its human rights record.



Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley were married in the Dominican Republic. (The marriage, however, ended in 1996.)



Five years ago (1999):



House Republicans pushed through legislation that would put new obstacles in the way of spending government surpluses that came from Social Security taxes.



Indian aircraft fired on separatist guerrillas in Kashmir province and Pakistan threatened retaliation; it was the first use of air power in years in the long-running conflict over the Himalayan border region.



One year ago (2003):



Angering hard-liners, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared in a speech to his Likud Party that he was determined to reach a peace deal and end 36 years of rule over the Palestinians.



An airplane carrying Spanish peacekeepers returning from Afghanistan crashed in Turkey, killing all 75 people aboard.



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Today's Birthdays:



Actor James Arness is 81.



Actor Alec McCowen is 79.



Sportscaster Brent Musberger is 65.



Rock singer-musician Levon Helm (The Band) is 64.



Country musician Gates Nichols (Confederate Railroad) is 60.



Rock musician Garry Peterson (Guess Who) is 59.



Singer Stevie Nicks is 56.



Actor Philip Michael Thomas is 55.



Actress Pamela Suzette "Pam" Grier is 55.



Country singer Hank Williams Jr. is 55.



Astronaut/Astrophisicist Dr. Sally Kristen Ride is 53.



Actress Margaret Colin is 47.



Country singer-songwriter Dave Robbins (BlackHawk) is 45.



Actor Doug Hutchison is 44.



Actress Genie Francis is 42.



Comedian Bobcat Goldthwait is 42.



Singer Lenny Kravitz is 40.



Actress Helena Bonham Carter is 38.



Rock musician Phillip Rhodes is 36.



Actor Joseph Fiennes is 34.



Rhythm and blues singer Joey Kibble (Take 6) is 33.



Actor-producer-writer Matt Stone is 33.



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Thought for Today:

"Love, I find, is like singing. Everybody can do enough to satisfy themselves, though it may not impress the neighbors as being very much." -

- Zora Neale Hurston, American anthropologist (1903-1960).

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