Paradise Driver

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Today is Friday, May 28th.

The 149th day of 2004.

There are 217 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On May 28, 1934, the Dionne quintuplets -- Annette Lilianne Marie, Cecile Marie Emilda, Emile Marie Jeanne (died 1954), Marie Reine Alma (died 1970), Yvonne Edouilda Marie (died 6-23-01)-- were born to Elzire Dionne at the family farm in Ontario, Canada.



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On this date:



In 585, B.C.E., Lydians and Medes fought a battle in Mesopotamia (Iraq) in the first ever battle for which a date was established. The battle stopped at its height as there was a total solar eclipse on this day, as predicted by Thales Miletus.



In 1533, England's Archbishop declared the marriage of King Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn valid.



In 1664, The first Baptist Church was organized in Boston.



In 1672, Boston MA declared war on the Dutch.



In 1774, The first Continental Congress convened in Virginia.



In 1818, The "Walk-in-the-Water", the first steam-vessel to sail the Great Lakes, is launched from Black Rock N.Y.



In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signs into law the Removal Act, which mandates that all Indians resettle west of the Mississippi River.



In 1863, The first black regiment from the North left Boston to fight in the Civil War.



In 1888, The greatest American athlete of the half-century, James Francis "Jim" Thorpe, a full blooded Cherokee indian, was bprn in Prague OK. He was the first president of the NFL. He died March 28, 1953 at the age of 64.



In 1892, The Sierra Club was organized in San Francisco by John Muir.



In 1897, Jell-o is introduced.



In 1908, James Bond creator/author Ian Lancaster Fleming was born in London, England. He died August 12, 1964 at the age of 56.



In 1915, John B Gruelle patents Raggedy Ann doll



In 1923, The U.S. Attorney General decides it is legal for women to wear trousers where and when they please.



In 1928, Automobile builder Walter P. Chrysler merged his Chrysler Corporation with Dodge Brothers, Inc., founded by John and Horace Dodge; the merger was the largest automobile industry merger in history at the time, placing the newly consolidated firm third in production and sales, just behind General Motors and Ford Motor Company.



In 1929, The first all-color talking picture, "On with the Show," opened in New York City at the Winter Garden theater. .



In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt pushed a button in Washington, D.C., signaling that vehicular traffic could cross the just-opened Golden Gate Bridge in California.



In 1937, Neville Chamberlain became prime minister of Britain.



In 1940, During World War II, the Belgian army surrendered to invading German forces; King Leopold III gave himself up.



In 1945, William Joyce known in Britain as "Lord Haw Haw," a traitor who had broadcast from Nazi Germany throughout World War Two, was captured near Hamburg.



In 1951, After going 0-for-12, Willie Mays connects for his 1st homerun (also his 1st major league hit)



In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill which added the words "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance.



In 1955, "Billboard" reported that "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" was the most popular song in the U.S.



In 1956, President Dwight David Eisenhower signs a farm bill that allows the government to store agricultural surplus



In 1959, Monkeys Able & Baker zoom 300 miles (500 km) into space on board a Jupiter missile, and became the first animals retrieved from a space mission



In 1961, Amnesty International is founded (Nobel Peace Prize 1977) by lawyer Peter Berenson.



In 1964, The unmanned Apollo 2/Saturn test was launched into Earth orbit



In 1964, The Palestine National Congress met to form the PLO.



In 1972, King Edward VIII Of Great Britian, who became The Duke of Windsor after he had abdicated the English throne to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson, died in Paris at age 77.



In 1977, 165 people were killed when fire raced through the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Ky.



In 1979, The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund held a news conference to announce plans for a memorial honoring those who served in the war.



In 1982, The legendary train, "Orient Express", made popular through Agatha Christie's thrilling mystery novel, "Murder on the Orient Express", was reborn this day. The 26-hour train trip resumed across the European continent after a long respite.



In 1984, President Reagan led a state funeral at Arlington National Cemetery for an unidentified American soldier killed in the Vietnam War. (However, the remains were later identified as those of Air Force First Lieutenant Michael J. Blassie, and were sent to St. Louis for hometown burial.)



In 1985, The first issue of "Vanity Fair" magazine went on sale. The issue had a picture of U.S. President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy smooching on the cover.



In 1987, Mathias Rust (mah-TEE'-uhs rust), a 19-year-old West German pilot, stunned the world as he landed a private plane undetected in Moscow's Red Square after evading Soviet air defenses. Three days later, the Soviet defense minister and his deputy were fired. He was sentenced to four years of hard labor but was released after 11 months.



In 1991, U.S. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and other NATO defense chiefs agreed to create a rapid reaction corps as part of a broad plan to reshape the Western alliance in the post-Cold War era.



In 1998, Actor Phil Hartman was slain by his wife, Brynn, who also commited suicide. He was 49 years old. He was born in Brantford, Ontario, Canada on September 24, 1948.



Ten years ago (1994):



Palestine Liberation Organization officials announced that Yasser Arafat had named himself interior minister of the autonomous zones as part of an interim government; 14 other prominent Palestinians, mostly Arafat allies, were appointed to other positions.



Five years ago (1999):



Russia's Balkan envoy, Viktor Chernomyrdin, met face-to-face with Slobodan Milosevic for nine hours, declaring the Yugoslav president key to a Kosovo peace plan despite complications caused by Milosevic's indictment for war crimes.



One year ago (2003):



President Bush signed a 10-year, $350 billion package of tax cuts, saying they already were "adding fuel to an economic recovery."



Amnesty International released a report saying the U.S.-led war on terror had made the world a more dangerous and repressive place, a finding dismissed by Washington as "without merit."



Actress Martha Scott died in Southern California at age 90.



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Today's Birthdays:



Actress Carroll Baker is 73.



Actor John Karlen is 71.



Basketball Hall-of-Famer Jerry West is 66.



Singer Gladys Knight is 60.



Singer Billy Vera is 60.



Singer John Fogerty is 59.



Actress-director Sondra Locke is 57.



Singer Roland Gift is 42.



Actor Brandon Cruz ("The Courtship of Eddie's Father") is 42.



Country singer Phil Vassar is 42.



Rapper Chubb Rock is 36.



Singer Kylie Minogue is 36.



Television personality Elisabeth Hasselbeck ("The View") is 27.



Actor Jesse Bradford is 25.



Actress Monica Keena is 25.



Actor Joseph Cross is 18.



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Thought for Today:

"Like other spurious things, fastidiousness is often inconsistent with itself, the coarsest things are done, and the cruelest things said by the most fastidious people." -

- Caroline Matilda Stansbury Kirkland, American author (1801-1864).

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