Paradise Driver

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Today is Sunday, March 21st

The 81st day of 2004.

There are 285 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



Two hundred years ago, on March 21, 1804, the French civil code, or the "Code Napoleon" as it was later called, was adopted.



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On this date:



In 1349, 3,000 Jews were killed in Black Death riots in Efurt Germany.



In 1617, Pocahontas died in England at about age 22. Three years earlier, she had converted to Christianity, taken the name Rebecca and married Englishman John Rolfe.



In 1685, composer Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany.



In 1788, Fire destroyed 856 buildings in New Orleans.



In 1790, Thomas Jefferson reported to President Washington in New York as the new secretary of state.



In 1806, Mexican statesman Benito Juarez was born in Oaxaca.



In 1851, Yosemite Valley was discovered in California.



In 1871, journalist Henry M. Stanley began his famous expedition to Africa to locate the missing Scottish missionary David Livingstone.



In 1871, Otto von Bismarck opened the first Reichstag, or Parliament, in the newly created German Reich.



In 1891, a Hatfield married a McCoy, which ended a long family feud in West Virginia between the families. The last of the original feuding families died in 1984. The feud started with an accusation of pig-stealing and it lasted 20 years. Outsiders claimed at least a half-a-dozen vicious murders.



In 1910, The U.S. Senate granted ex-President Teddy Roosevelt a yearly pension of $10,000.



In 1917, Czar Nicholas II and his family were arrested by the revolutionary forces in Russia.



In 1918, Howard Cosell was born in Winston-Salem, NC.



In 1933, The first Reichstag under Hitler's rule was opened in Germany on the same day the first one of all was opened in 1871.



In 1935, Persia was officially renamed Iran



In 1944, Charles Chaplin went on trial in Los Angeles, accused of transporting former protegee Joan Barry across state lines for immoral purposes. (Chaplin was acquitted, but later lost a paternity suit despite tests showing he wasn't the father of Barry's child.)



In 1945, during World War II, Allied bombers began four days of raids over Germany.



In 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenburg were convicted of spying for the Soviet Union.



In 1955, NBC-TV presented the first "Colgate Comedy Hour".



In 1960, some 70 people were killed in Sharpeville, South Africa, when police fired on demonstrators.



In 1963, the Alcatraz federal prison island in San Francisco Bay was emptied of its last inmates at the order of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.



In 1965, more than 3,000 civil rights demonstrators led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. began their march in Alabama from Selma to Montgomery.



In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states may not require one-year residency for voting eligibility.



In 1979, the Egyptian Parliament unanimously approved a peace treaty with Israel.



In 1980, President Jimmy Carter announces to the U.S. Olympic Team that they will not compete in the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow as a boycott against Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.



In 1980, On the TV show "Dallas", J.R. Ewing was shot.



In 1982, The movie "Annie" premieres.



In 1989, Dick Clark announced that he would no longer be hosting the show "American Bandstand." He had been the host for 33 years.



In 1993, seven more adults left the besieged Branch Davidian compound as federal authorities continued negotiations with cult leader David Koresh to end the standoff



In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the FDA never received congressional authority to regulate tobacco products.



In 2228, James T. Kirk (Capt. USS Enterprise, NCC-1701) will be born in Riverside, IA (some say March 22, 2233).



Ten years ago (1994):



"Schindler's List" won best picture at the 66th Academy Awards; Holly Hunter was named best actress for "The Piano" while Tom Hanks was named best actor for "Philadelphia."



Actor Macdonald Carey died in Beverly Hills, Calif., at age 81.



Five years ago (1999):



Israel's Supreme Court rejected a final effort to have American teenager Samuel Sheinbein returned to the United States to face murder charges. (Under a plea agreement with Israeli prosecutors, Sheinbein was later sentenced to 24 years in prison for the murder of Alfred Tello Jr.)



At the Academy Awards, "Shakespeare in Love" won seven Oscars, including best picture and best actress for Gwyneth Paltrow; Roberto Benigni won best actor for "Life is Beautiful," while Steven Spielberg won best director for "Saving Private Ryan."



One year ago (2003):



The United States launched a ferocious, around-the-clock aerial assault on military targets in Baghdad and other cities.



The House approved a $2.2 trillion budget embracing President Bush's tax-cutting plan.



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Today's Birthdays:



Violinist-conductor Joseph Silverstein is 72.



Actor Al Freeman Jr. is 70.



Actress Kathleen Widdoes is 65.



Singer Solomon Burke is 64.



Actor Timothy Dalton is 60.



Actress Marie-Christine Barrault is 60.



Singer-musician Rose Stone (Sly and the Family Stone) is 59.



Singer Eddie Money is 55.



Rock singer-musician Roger Hodgson (Supertramp) is 54.



Rock musician Conrad Lozano (Los Lobos) is 53



Rhythm and blues singer Russell Thompkins Jr. (The Stylistics) is 53.



Actress Sabrina LeBeauf is 46.



Actor Gary Oldman is 46.



Actor Matthew Broderick is 42.



Comedian Rosie O'Donnell is 42.



Rock musician Jonas "Joker" Berggren (Ace of Base) is 37.



Rock M-C Maxim (Prodigy) is 37.



Rock musician Andrew Copeland (Sister Hazel) is 36.



"Hip-hop DJ" DJ Premier (Gang Starr) is 35.



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Thought for Today:

"The heaviest baggage for a traveler is an empty purse." -

- German proverb.

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