Paradise Driver

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Today is Monday, June 7th.

The 159th day of 2004.

There are 207 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed to the Continental Congress a resolution calling for a Declaration of Independence.



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On this date:



In 1753, Britain's King George II gave his assent to an Act of Parliament establishing the British Museum.



In 1769, Frontiersman Daniel Boone first began to explore present-day Kentucky.



In 1791, The Bank of the United States -- precursor to today's Federal Reserve Banks -- was estabablished...in Philadelphia.



In 1839, The Hawaiian Declaration of Rights is signed.



In 1848, French postimpressionist painter Paul Gauguin was born in Paris.



In 1864, Abraham Lincoln was nominated for another term as president at his party's convention in Baltimore.



In 1917, Singer/Actor Dean Martin (Dino Crocetti) was born in Steubenville, Ohio. He died December 25, 1995 at age 78.



In 1929, The sovereign state of Vatican City came into existence as copies of the Lateran Treaty were exchanged in Rome.



In 1942, The Battle of Midway ended. The sea and air battle lasted 4 days. Japan lost four carriers, a cruiser, and 292 aircraft, and suffered 2,500 casualties. The U.S. lost the Yorktown, the destroyer USS Hammann, 145 aircraft, and suffered 307 casualties.



In 1942 Japan landed troops on the islands of Attu and Kiska in the Aleutians. The U.S. invaded and recaptured the Alutians one year later.



In 1948, The Communists completed their takeover of Czechoslovakia with the resignation of President Eduard Benes.



In 1965, An 1879 Connecticut law banning the use of contraceptives is ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.



In 1966, Movie actor Ronald Reagan wins California's Republican Primary, sending him up against Gov. Pat Brown in that fall's campaign



In 1967, Author-critic Dorothy Parker, famed for her caustic wit, died in New York.



In 1972, The musical "Grease" opened on Broadway.



In 1975, New Hampshire legislators "accidentally" repeal their state laws against homosexuality, courtesy of an ambiguously worded bill concerning rape penalties. It's not until the local gay press starts trumpeting the bills passage that the lawmakers realize their "error." Says one pundit, "Gays throughout the nation may well win their freedom through the fault and stupidity of straights." While the local conservative press pushes for even tougher anti-sodomy laws, the repeal stands.



In 1981, Israeli military planes destroyed a nuclear power plant in Iraq, a facility the Israelis charged could have been used to make nuclear weapons.



In 1998, In a crime that shocked the nation, James Byrd Jr., a 49-year-old black man, was dragged to his death behind a pickup truck in Jasper, Texas. (Two white men were later sentenced to death for the crime; a third received life in prison.)



Ten years ago (1994):



President Clinton addressed the French National Assembly, challenging his generation of Allied leaders to strive for greater European unity or face "the grim alternative" of violence like that rending Bosnia.



Twelve-year-old Vicki Van Meter of Meadville, Pa., completed a trans-Atlantic flight, landing in Glasgow, Scotland.



Five years ago (1999):



The FBI put alleged terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden and anti-abortion activist and accused doctor killer James Charles Kopp on the bureau's list of the Ten Most Wanted fugitives. (Kopp was arrested in 2001 and later convicted of killing Dr. Barnett Slepian.)



Gunmen killed popular Mexican television host Francisco "Paco" Stanley.



One year ago (2003):



In a national first, New Hampshire Episcopalians elected the Reverend V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay man, as their next bishop.



A suicide bomber in Afghanistan killed four German peacekeepers; the blast also killed a teenage Afghan bystander.



Justine Henin-Hardenne beat Kim Clijsters 6-0, 6-4 at the French Open, in the first all-Belgian Grand Slam final.



Empire Maker beat Kentucky Derby-Preakness winner Funny Cide in the Belmont Stakes.



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Today's Birthdays:



Movie director James Ivory is 76.



Actress Virginia McKenna is 73.



Singer Tom Jones is 64.



Poet Nikki Giovanni is 61.



Actor/ret'd LAPD officer Ken Osmond ("Leave It to Beaver"'s Eddie Haskell) is 61.



Talk show host Jenny Jones is 58.



Actress Anne Twomey is 53.



Actor Liam Neeson is 52.



Actress Colleen Camp is 51.



Singer-songwriter Johnny Clegg is 51.



Actor William Forsythe is 49.



Record producer L.A. Reid is 48.



Singer-songwriter Prince (Prince Rogers Nelson, the artist formerly known as the artist formerly known as Prince) is 46.



Rock singer-musician Gordon Gano (The Violent Femmes) is 41.



Rapper Ecstacy (Whodini) is 40.



Rock musician Eric Kretz (Stone Temple Pilots) is 38.



Rock musician David Navarro is 37.



Actress Helen Baxendale is 34.



Actress Larisa Oleynik is 23.



Tennis player Anna Kournikova is 23.



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Thought for Today:

"Some seek bread; and some seek wealth and ease; and some seek fame, but all are seeking rest." -

- Frederick Langbridge, English clergyman and author (1849-1922).

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