Paradise Driver

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Today is Friday, June 18th.

The 170th day of 2004.

There are 196 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On June 18th, 1983, 32 year old astronaut Dr. Sally Kristen Ride became America's first woman in space as she and four colleagues blasted off aboard the space shuttle Challenger.



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On this date:



In 1178 Proposed time of origin of lunar crater Giordano Bruno. Five Canterbury monks reported an explosion on the moon. This is the only such observation in known history.



In 1621, The first duel in America took place in the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts.



In 1682, William Penn founded the city of Philadelphia and dubbed it the "City of Brotherly Love."



In 1778, American forces entered Philadelphia as the British withdrew during the Revolutionary War.



In 1812, The United States declared war against Britain.



In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte met his Waterloo as British and Prussian troops defeated the French in Belgium.



In 1822, London unveils its first public statue of a nude subject, in Hyde Park. The figure of Achilles soon acquires a bronze fig leaf in deference to offended parkgoers.



In 1829, The Metropolitan Police of London were first organized.



In 1861, The first American fly-casting tournament was held in Utica, NY.



In 1892, Macademia nuts were first planted in Hawaii.



In 1898, Atlantic City, NJ opened its ocean pier. Miles of family entertainment.



In 1928, Aviator Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean as she completed a flight from Newfoundland to Wales in about 21 hours.



In 1939, The CBS radio network aired "Ellery Queen" for the first time.



In 1940, During World War II, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill urged his countrymen to conduct themselves in a manner that would prompt future generations to say, "This was their finest hour."



In 1941, The Colorado Aqueduct begins supplying Colorado River water to Los Angeles and other southern California cities.



In 1942, The U.S. Navy commissioned its first black officer, Harvard University medical student Ensign Bernard Whitfield Robinson.



In 1945, William Joyce, known as "Lord Haw-Haw," was charged in London with high treason for his English-language wartime broadcasts on German radio. (He was hanged the following January.)



In 1948, The United Nations Commission on Human Rights adopted its International Declaration of Human Rights.



In 1948, Columbia Records publicly unveiled its new long-playing (33-1/3 RPM) phonograph record in New York.



In 1959, A Federal Court annulled the Arkansas law allowing school closings to prevent integration.



In 1959, The first telecast received from England was broadcast in the U.S. over NBC-TV



In 1961, "Gunsmoke" was broadcast for the last time on CBS radio.



In 1967, The Jimi Hendrix Experience made its debut performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in California.



In 1968, The US Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional to deny housing on the basis of race.



In 1979, President Carter and Soviet President Leonid I. Brezhnev signed the SALT Two strategic arms limitation treaty in Vienna.



In 1980, "Blues Brothers" with Dan Akwoyd & John Belushi premiers



In 1984, Alan Berg, a Denver radio talk show host, was shot to death outside his home. (Two white supremacists were later convicted of civil rights violations in the slaying.)



In 1990, A man entered a GMAC loan office in Jacksonville, Florida, and opened fire...killing eight people and wounding five more before turning the gun on himself. Police said the man was upset because his car had been repossessed.



In 1992, The U.S. Supreme Court ruled criminal defendants could not use race as a basis for excluding potential jurors from their trials.



In 1996, Federal prosecutors in California charged Theodore Kaczynski in four of the Unabomber attacks.



In 1996, Richard Allen Davis was convicted in San Jose, Calif., of the 1993 kidnap-murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas of Petaluma.



In 1998, "The Boston Globe" asked Patricia Smith to resign after she admitted to inventing people and quotes in four of her recent columns.



In 2001, A judge in Golden, Colorado, sentenced two therapists to 16 years in prison each in the death of a 10-year-old girl who had suffocated while wrapped in blankets during a simulated "rebirthing" session; Connell Watkins and Julie Ponder were convicted of reckless child abuse in the death of Candace Newmaker in the incident.



Ten years ago (1994):



The presidents of North Korea and South Korea agreed to hold a historic summit (however, plans for the summit were disrupted by the death of North Korean leader Kim Il Sung on July 8 ).



Five years ago (1999):



The House rejected gun control legislation, 280-147, with many Democrats rebelling against National Rifle Association-backed provisions in the bill.



The Group of Seven nations opened a three-day summit in Cologne, Germany.



Arsonists struck three synagogues in the Sacramento, Calif., area. (Two white supremacist brothers were later convicted of federal charges and received sentences of 21 to 30 years in prison.)



Walt Disney's "Tarzan" opened.



One year ago (2003):



Convicted rapist Andrew Luster, heir to the Max Factor fortune, was arrested in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, after five months on the run.



Baseball Hall-of-Famer Larry Doby, who broke the American League's color barrier in 1947, died in Montclair, N.J.; he was believed to be 79.



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Today's Birthdays:



Oilman/firefighter Paul Neal "Red" Adair is 89.



Actor Ian Carmichael is 84.



Columnist Tom Wicker is 78.



Rock singer-composer-musician Sir James Paul McCartney is 62.



Movie critic Roger Joseph Ebert is 62.



Actress Constance McCashin is 57.



Actress Linda Thorson is 57.



Actress Isabella Rossellini is 52.



Actress Carol Kane is 52.



Actor Brian Benben is 48.



Singer Tom Bailey (The Thompson Twins) is 47.



Rock singer Alison Moyet is 43.



Country singer-musician Tim Hunt is 37.



Rock singer-musician Sice (The Boo Radleys) is 35.



Rhythm and blues singer Nathan Morris (Boyz II Men) is 33.



Actress Mara Hobel is 33.



Country singer Blake Shelton is 28.



Actress Renee Olstead ("Still Standing") is 15.



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Thought for Today:

"Neither beg of him who has been a beggar, nor serve him who has been a servant." -

- Anonymous.

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