Paradise Driver

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today is Thursday, March 4th.

The 64th day of 2004.

There are 302 days left in the year.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Today's Highlight in History:



On March 4, 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated president, pledging to lead the country out of the Great Depression. “We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.” (The start of President Roosevelt's first administration brought with it the first woman to serve in the Cabinet: Labor Secretary Frances Perkins.)



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



On this date:



In 1193, Saladin, the Muslim warrior who opposed the Crusades, died.



In 1634, Samuel Cole opened the first tavern in Boston, MA.



In 1681, King Charles II of England grants Quaker landowner William Penn a vast tract of land between New York and Maryland, including the last uncommitted piece of the Atlantic seaboard south of Massachusetts.



In 1766, The British Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, which had caused bitter and violent opposition in the U.S. colonies.



In 1789, the Constitution of the United States went into effect as the first Federal Congress met in New York. (The lawmakers then adjourned for lack of a quorum.)



In 1791, Vermont became the 14th state.



In 1837, the Illinois state legislature granted a city charter to Chicago.



In 1849, The US had no President. Polk's term ended on a Sunday, Taylor couldn't be sworn-in, Senator David Atchison's (pres pro tem) term had ended March 3rd.



In 1861, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated president.



In 1861, The Confederate States of America adopted the "Stars and Bars" flag.



In 1877, Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake premieres at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, Russia.



In 1888, American football player and coach at the University of Notre Dame, Knute Kenneth Rockne was born in Voss, Norway. He led Notre Dame to three national collegiate championships (1924, 1929, 1930). In his 13 years as head coach, Notre Dame won 105 games, lost 12, and tied 5, and scored 2847 points while conceding only 667 points to its opponents. He died in 1931.



In 1902, the American Automobile Association (Triple A) was founded in Chicago.



In 1908, The New York board of education banned the act of whipping students in school.



In 1913, Department of Commerce & Labor split into separate departments



In 1917, Jeanette Rankin of Montana took her seat as the first woman elected to the House of Representatives.



In 1925, President Calvin Coolidge's inauguration was broadcast live on 21 radio stations nationwide.



In 1936, The airship Hindenburg makes its 1st flight.



In 1944, The U.S. Eighth Air Force launched the first American bombing raid against the Berlin, Germany.



In 1950, Walt Disney’s Cinderella was released.



In 1952, actors Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis were married in San Fernando Valley, Calif.



In 1955, The first radio facsimile transmission is sent across the continent.



In 1960, Lucille Ball files for divorce from Desi Arnaz



In 1966, London's "Evening Standard" newspaper published an interview with Beatle John Lennon in which he remarked: 'Christianity will... vanish and shrink... We're more popular than Jesus Christ right now.' The quote touched off a storm of international protest, resulting in burnings and boycotts of the Beatles' records.



In 1968, Joe Frazier defeats Buster Mathis for the heavyweight boxing championship title.



In 1977, The first CRAY super-computer is shipped to Los Alamos Laboratories in New Mexico.



In 1978, The Chicago Daily News, founded in 1875, publishes its last issue.



In 1979, The 100th episode of "The Waltons" aired.



In 1979, The 200th episode of "All in the Family" aired.



In 1981, a jury in Salt Lake City convicted Joseph Paul Franklin, an avowed racist, of violating the civil rights of two black men who were shot to death.



In 1986, "Today" debuted in London as England’s newest, national, daily newspaper.



In 1987, President Reagan addressed the nation on the Iran-Contra affair, acknowledging his overtures to Iran had "deteriorated" into an arms-for-hostages deal.



In 1989, Time, Inc. and Warner Communications Inc. announced a plan to merge.



In 1989, Actress Phoebe Cates marries actor Kevin Kline



In 1991, Sheik Saad al-Jaber al-Sabah, the prime minister of Kuwait, returned to his country for the first time since Iraq's invasion.



In 1993, Authorities announced the arrest of Mohammad Salameh. He was later convicted for his role in the World Trade Center Bombing in New York City.



In 1997, U.S. President Clinton barred federal spending on human cloning.



In 1998, Microsoft repaired software that apparently allowed hackers to shut down computers in government and university offices nationwide.



In 1998, The U.S. Supreme Court said that federal law banned on-the-job sexual harassment even when both parties are the same sex.



In 2002, Canada banned human embryo cloning but permitted government-funded scientists to use embryos left over from fertility treatment or abortions.



Ten years ago (1994):



In New York, four extremists were convicted of the World Trade Center bombing that killed six people and injured more than 1,000.



Bosnia's Croats and Moslems signed an agreement to form a federation in a loose economic union with Croatia.



The space shuttle Columbia blasted off on a two-week mission.



Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell announced he would not seek re-election.



Actor-comedian John Candy died in Durango, Mexico, at age 43.



Five years ago (1999):



Outraging Italian authorities, a military jury in North Carolina cleared a Marine pilot of charges he was flying recklessly when his jet sliced through a ski gondola cable in the Alps, sending 20 people plunging to their deaths.



Retired Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun, who wrote the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide, died in Arlington, Va., at age 90.



Monica Lewinsky's book about her affair with U.S. President Clinton went on sale in the U.S.



One year ago (2003):



The Army's oldest armored division, "Old Ironsides," got orders to head for the Persian Gulf as the total of U.S. land, sea and air forces arrayed against Iraq or preparing to go neared 300,000.



A bomb in a backpack killed 22 at an airport terminal in the southern Philippines.



In the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, at least 9 people were killed and 52 were injured when a bus fell into a deep gorge.



The deployment of Patriot missile systems began in Israel. The systems were put in place to back up the Arrow missile systems already in place. The Patriot systems were manned by U.S. soldiers.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Today's Birthdays:



Folk singer Miriam Makeba is 72.



Actress-singer Barbara McNair is 70.



Actress Paula Prentiss is 65.



Movie director Adrian Lyne is 63.



Singer Bobby Womack is 60.



Rock musician Chris Squire (Yes) is 56.



Singer Shakin' Stevens is 56.



Singer Chris Rea is 53.



Actor Ronn Moss is 52.



Actress Kay Lenz is 51.



Musician Emilio Estefan is 51.



Movie director Scott Hicks is 51.



Actress Catherine O'Hara is 50.



Actress Patricia Heaton is 46.



Actress Kelly Lynch is 45.



Actor Mykelti Williamson is 44.



Actor Steven Weber is 43.



Rock musician Jason Newsted is 41.



Actress Stacy Edwards is 39.



Rapper Grand Puba is 38.



Rock musician Patrick Hannan (The Sundays) is 38.



Rock singer Evan Dando (Lemonheads) is 37.



Actress Patsy Kensit is 36.



Chastity Bono is 35.



Actor Nick Stabile is 34.



Rock musician Fergal Lawler (The Cranberries) is 33.



Country singer Jason Sellers is 33.



Jazz musician Jason Marsalis is 27.



Actress Jenna Boyd is 11.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Thought for Today:

"The world fears a new experience more than it fears anything. Because a new experience displaces so many old experiences." -

- D.H. Lawrence, English author (1885-1930).

--------------------------------------------------------------------