Paradise Driver

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Today is Wednesday, June 2nd.

The 154th day of 2004.

There are 212 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On June 2, 1953, Queen Elizabeth II of Britain was crowned in Westminster Abbey, 16 months after the death of her father, King George VI.



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On this date:



In 455, Gaiseric and the Vandals sack Rome.



In 1537, Pope Paul III banned the enslavement of Indians in the Americas.



In 1635, The first Italian immigrant arrives New York



In 1740, Writer/General Marquis de Sade (Donatien Alphonse Francois, Comte de Sade) was born in France. He died on December 2, 1814 at age 74. The word sadism is derived from his name.



In 1774, A new "Quartering Act", known as one of the "Intolerable Acts" by the Colonists, is authorized by England, calling for billeting of troops in private homes.



In 1835, P.T. Barnum and his circus begin their first tour of US



In 1851, Maine became the first state to enact a law prohibiting alcohol.



In 1857, James E.A. Gibbs of Va. patented the first practical chain-stitch single-thread, twist-loop, rotary hook sewing machine.



In 1873, Ground was broken on San Francisco's Clay Street for the world's first cable-powered railroad.



In 1883, The first night baseball to be played under lights, Ft Wayne Indiana.



In 1883, Chicago's "El" opens



In 1886, President Cleveland married Frances Folsom in a White House ceremony.



In 1896, Guglieimo Marconi's radio was patented in the U.S.



In 1897, Mark Twain, 61, was quoted by the New York Journal as saying from London that "the report of my death was an exaggeration."



In 1904, Actor/Olympian Peter John "Johnny" Weissmuller was born in Chicago IL. He died in Acapulco Mexico on January 20, 1984 at age 79.



In 1910, Pygmies are discovered in Dutch New Guinea.



In 1924, Congress granted U.S. citizenship to all American Indians.



In 1928, Kraft's Velveeta Cheese was invented.



In 1933, A swimming pool was installed at The White House.



In 1935, George Herman "Babe" Ruth announced that he was retiring from baseball.



In 1941, Lou Gehrig died in New York of the degenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.



In 1944, The United States began "shuttle bombing" in "Operation Frantic". The operation was created soley to destroy Germany's war economy.



In 1946, Italians voted by referendum to form a republic instead of of a monarchy, leading to the abdication of King Humbert II.



In 1949, Transjordan renamed Jordan.



In 1954, U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy charged that there were communists working in the CIA and atomic weapons plants.



In 1964, The PLO is formed in Jerusalem.



In 1964, The Rolling Stones first US concert tour debuts in Lynn, MA



In 1966, The U.S. space probe Surveyor 1 soft landed on the moon and began transmitting detailed photographs of the lunar surface.



In 1967, Race riots in the Roxbury section of Boston



In 1969, The National Arts Center in Canada opened its doors to the public.



In 1969, The Australian aircraft carrier Melbourne sliced the destroyer USS Frank E. Evans in half off the shore of South Vietnam.



In 1977, New Jersey legalized casino gambling in Atlantic City.



In 1979, Pope John Paul II arrived in his native Poland on the first visit by a pope to a Communist country.



In 1986, For the first time, the public could watch the proceedings of the U.S. Senate on television as a six-week experiment of televised sessions began.



In 1987, President Reagan announced he was nominating economist Alan Greenspan to succeed Paul Volcker as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.



In 1989, 10,000 Chinese soldiers are blocked by 100,000 citizens protecting students demonstrating for democracy in Tiananmen Square, Beijing.



In 1995, A U.S. Air Force F16C was shot down by a Bosnian Serb surface-to-air missile while on a NATO air patrol in northern Bosnia; the pilot, Capt. Scott F. O'Grady, was rescued six days later.



In 1997, Timothy McVeigh was convicted of murder and conspiracy in the Oklahoma City bombing.



In 1998, Voters in California passed Proposition 227. The act abolished the state's 30-year-old bilingual education program by requiring that all children be taught in English.



Ten years ago (1994):



The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. atomic watchdog, reported it could no longer verify the status of North Korea's nuclear program, prompting the United States to seek economic sanctions.



President Clinton met at the Vatican with Pope John Paul II.



Five years ago (1999):



South Africans went to the polls in their second post-apartheid election, giving the African National Congress a decisive victory; retiring president Nelson Mandela was succeeded by Thabo Mbeki.



Japanese women finally won the right to use the birth control pill, more than three decades after it first appeared in the West.



The final episode of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" aired.



One year ago (2003):



President Bush, visiting the Middle East, pledged to work unstintingly for the goal of Israel and a Palestinian state living side by side without bloodshed.



The Federal Communications Commission eased limits on media ownership.



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Today's Birthdays:



Actor Milo O'Shea is 79.



Actress Sally Kellerman is 67.



Actor Stacy Keach is 63.



Rock musician Charlie Watts is 63.



Singer William Guest (Gladys Knight & The Pips) is 63.



Actor Charles Haid is 61.



Composer Marvin Hamlisch is 60.



Movie director Lasse Hallstrom is 58.



Actor Gerald Patrick "Jerry" Mathers ("The Beaver") is 56.



Actress Joanna Gleason is 54.



Actor Butch Patrick (Patrick Allan Lilley) ("Edward Wolfgang 'Eddie' Munster") is 51.



Actor Dennis Haysbert ("24") is 50.



Comedian Dana Carvey is 49.



Actor Gary Grimes is 49.



Singer Merril Bainbridge is 36.



Rapper B-Real (Cypress Hill) is 34.



Actress Paula Cale is 34.



Actor-comedian Wayne Brady is 32.



Actress Nikki Cox is 26.



Actor Justin Long is 26.



Actor Deon Richmond is 26.



Rhythm and blues singer Irish Grinstead (702) is 24.



Rock musician Fabrizio Moretti (The Strokes) is 24.



Country singer Dan Cahoon (Marshall Dyllon) is 21.



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Thought for Today:

"Experience isn't interesting till it begins to repeat itself -- in fact, till it does that, it hardly is experience." -

- Elizabeth Bowen, Irish-born author (1899-1973).

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