Paradise Driver

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Today is Saturday, June 5th.

The 157th day of 2004.

There are 209 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On June 5, 1968, At 12:16 a.m. PDT, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was shot and mortally wounded at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles shortly after claiming victory in California's Democratic presidential primary. Five other people were wounded. Gunman Sirhan Bishara Sirhan was immediately arrested. Kennedy died the next day. Kennedy appeared headed for a showdown with Republican Richard Nixon for the White House.



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On this date:



In 469, B.C.E., Socrates was born.



In 70, Titus & his Roman legions breach the middle wall of Jerusalem.



In 1752, Benjamin Franklin flew a kite for the first time to demonstrate that lightning was a form of electricity.



In 1783, Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier publicly demonstrated their hot-air balloon in a ten-minute flight over Annonay, France.



In 1794, Congress passed the Neutrality Act, which prohibited Americans from enlisting in the service of a foreign power.



In 1846, A telegraph line is opened between Philadelphia and Baltimore.



In 1854, The Canadian Reciprocity Treaty is signed, opening the U.S. to Canadian products in return for freedom of operation on the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River.



In 1862, The Treaty of Saigon permits the French to occupy the three eastern provinces of Cochin China.



In 1895, Actor William Lawrence Boyd was born in Cambridge, OH. He died September 12, 1972 at age 77. You might remember him better as "Hopalong Cassidy".



In 1917, About 10 million American men began registering for the draft in World War I.



In 1920, The Merchant Marine Act is passed by Congress, specifying that government-owned ships be sold to U.S. shipping companies.



In 1933, The United States went off the gold standard.



In 1940, The Battle of France began during World War II.



In 1944, Allies march into Rome.



In 1944, Fieldmarshal Rommel goes on vacation.



In 1944, General Eisenhower decides invasion set for June 6.



In 1944, The first B-29 bombing raid; 1 plane lost due to engine failure. The target was the Japanese rail line in Bangkok, Thailand.



In 1944, In World War Two the first British gliders touched down on French soil in preparation for D-Day.



In 1946, The first medical sponges were first offered for sale in Detroit, MI.



In 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall gave a speech at Harvard University in which he outlined an aid program for Europe that came to be known as "The Marshall Plan."



In 1956, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev denounced Josef Stalin to the Soviet Communist Party Congress.



In 1967, War erupted in the Mideast as Israel raided Egyptian military targets. Syria, Jordan and Iraq entered the conflict.



In 1975, Egypt reopened the Suez Canal to international shipping, eight years after it was closed because of the 1967 war with Israel.



In 1976, The Teton River Dam in Idaho collapsed as it was being filled for the first time, sending 80 billion gallons of water churning down the Upper Snake River Valley, killing 14 people, flooding 300 square miles and causing an estimated $1 billion damage.



In 1981, The Centers for Disease Control reported that five homosexuals in Los Angeles had come down with a rare kind of pneumonia; they were the first recognized cases of what later became known as AIDS.



In 1989, Chinese soldiers slaughter pro-democracy students at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China.



In 1993, Country star Conway Twitty died in Springfield, Mo., at age 59.



In 1995, Carl Weiman and Eric Cornell cooled atoms of ribidium gas to a temperature so low (2 nanokelvin, or 2-billionths of a degree above absolute zero) that they acted as if they were a single atom, creating a new form of matter - dubbed a "superatom."



In 1998, Volkswagen AG won approval to buy Rolls-Royce Motor Cars for $700 million, outbidding BMW's $554 million offer.



In 2000, Ukraine officials announced that the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, site of the worst radiation accident in history, would be closed.



In 2002, Elizabeth Smart, 14, disappeared from her Salt Lake City home. She was found alive in a Salt Lake suburb the following March; two people are accused of abducting her.



Ten years ago (1994):



President Clinton headed across the English Channel aboard the USS George Washington, en route to the 50th anniversary commemoration of D-Day in Normandy.



At least 264 Indonesian villagers in East Java were killed by an earthquake.



Five years ago (1999):



Jazz and pop singer Mel Torme died in Los Angeles at age 73.



Pope John Paul II began a 13-day pilgrimage to his native Poland.



Charismatic failed in his bid to win racing's Triple Crown, finishing third behind Lemon Drop Kid and Vision and Verse in the Belmont Stakes.



Steffi Graf won her sixth French Open title, beating top-ranked Martina Hingis 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.



One year ago (2003):



Speaking to U.S. soldiers in Qatar, President Bush argued the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was justified and pledged that "we'll reveal the truth" on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.



The United States agreed to pull its ground troops away from the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea.



The New York Times' top two editors resigned in the wake of the Jayson Blair scandal.



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Today's Birthdays:



Broadcast journalist Bill Moyers is 70.



Actress Connie Hines ("Mr. Ed") is 68.



Rhythm and blues singer Floyd Butler (Friends of Distinction) is 63.



Country singer Don Reid (The Statler Brothers) is 59.



Rock musician Fred Stone (Sly and the Family Stone) is 58.



Rock singer Laurie Anderson is 57.



Country singer Gail Davies is 56.



Rock musician Nicko McBrain (Iron Maiden) is 50.



Jazz musician Kenny G (Gorelick) is 48.



Rock singer Richard Butler (Psychedelic Furs) is 48.



Actor Jeff Garlin is 42.



Actress Karen Sillas is 39.



Actor Ron Livingston is 37.



Singer Brian McKnight is 35.



Rock musician Claus Norreen (Aqua) is 34.



Actor Mark Rpbert Wahlberg (Marky Mark) is 33.



Actor Chad Allen is 30.



Rock musician P-nut (311) is 30.



Actress Liza Weil is 27.



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Thought for Today:

"In a dream you are never eighty." -

- Anne Sexton, American poet (1928-1974).

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