Paradise Driver

Today is Monday, Feb. 23rd.

The 54th day of 2004.

There are 312 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On Feb. 23, 1945, during World War II, U.S. Marines on Iwo Jima captured Mount Suribachi, where they raised the American flag.



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On this date:



In 1792, The Humane Society of Massachusetts was incorporated.



In 1822, Boston was granted a charter to incorporate as a city.



In 1836, Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna begins his military siege of the Alamo in San Antonio.



In 1847, 5,000 U.S. troops under Gen. Zachary Taylor defeated Mexican Gen. Santa Anna, commanding 15,000 troops, at the Battle of Buena Vista in Mexico.



In 1848, the sixth president of the United States, John Quincy Adams, died of a stroke at age 80.



In 1861, President-elect Lincoln arrived secretly in Washington to take office, an assassination plot having been foiled in Baltimore.



In 1870, Mississippi was readmitted to the Union.



In 1896, The Tootsie Roll was introduced by Leo Hirshfield.



In 1904, The U.S. acquired control of the Panama Canal Zone for $10 million.



In 1905, The Rotary Club is founded in Chicago, Illinois.



In 1915, Nevada began enforcing convenient divorce law.



In 1924, The twenty-eighth president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, died.



In 1934, Casey Stengel, who had previously been the team's coach, becomes the manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers.



In 1940, The Walt Disney animated motion picture "Pinocchio", about a wooden puppet who longs to become human, is released.



In 1942, the first shelling of the U.S. mainland during World War II occurred as a Japanese submarine fired on an oil refinery in Ellwood (just west of Santa Barbara), California. No one is hurt and the damage caused by the 20-minute attack is approximately $500.



In 1945, During World War II, Turkey declared war on Germany and Japan.



In 1954, the first mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine began in Pittsburgh.



In 1966, The Bitar government in Syria was ended with a military coup.



In 1968, Wilt Chamberlain, of the Philadelphia 76ers, became the first pro basketball player to score 25,000 career points.



In 1980, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini declared that Iran's new parliament would have to decide the fate of the hostages taken on November 4, 1979, at the U.S. embassy in Tehran.



In 1981, an attempted coup began in Spain as 200 members of the Civil Guard invaded the Parliament, taking lawmakers hostage. (However, the attempt collapsed 18 hours later.)



In 1987, Astronomer Ian Shelton spots an exploding star in the sky - the first supernova visible with the naked eye since 1604.



In 1991, During the Persian Gulf War, ground forces crossed the border of Saudi Arabia into the country of Iraq. Less than four days later the war was over due to the surrender or withdraw of Iraqi forces.



In 1997, scientists in Scotland announced they had succeeded in cloning an adult mammal, producing a lamb named "Dolly." (Dolly, however, was put down Feb. 14, 2003, after a short life marred by premature aging and disease.)



Ten years ago (1994):



The military chiefs of Bosnia's Muslim-led government and their second-strongest foes, Bosnia's Croats, signed a truce.



Russia's new parliament took a swipe at President Boris Yeltsin by granting amnesty to leaders of the 1991 Soviet coup and the hard-liners who'd fought him in 1993.



Nancy Kerrigan led the women's figure skating short program at the Winter Olympics in Norway, while Tonya Harding placed 10th.



Five years ago (1999):



A jury in Jasper, Texas, convicted white supremacist John William King of murder in the gruesome dragging death of a black man, James Byrd Jr.; King was sentenced to death two days later.



Serbs agreed in principle to give limited self-rule to majority ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, thereby avoiding for the time being threatened NATO air strikes, but the two sides failed to conclude a deal for ending their yearlong conflict during talks in Rambouillet, France.



In Ankara, Turkey, Abdullah Ocalan was charged with treason. The prosecutors were seeking the death penalty for the Kurdish rebel leader.



The first of two avalanches that claimed 38 lives over two days struck in Austria.



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One year ago (2003):



In West Warwick, R.I., relatives of the victims of a deadly nightclub fire were allowed to walk up to the charred rubble to pray and say goodbye.



Norah Jones won five Grammys, including album and record of the year, at the Grammy Awards in New York.



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Today's Birthdays:



Songwriter Bob Willis is 70.



Actor Peter Fonda is 64.



Author John Sandford is 60.



Singer-musician Johnny Winter is 60.



Country-rock musician Rusty Young is 58.



Actress Patricia Richardson is 53.



Rock musician Brad Whitford (Aerosmith) is 52.



Singer Howard Jones is 49.



Rock musician Michael Wilton (Queensryche) is 42.



Country singer Dusty Drake is 40.



Actress Kristin Davis is 39.



Tennis player Helena Sukova is 39.



Actor Marc Price is 36.



Rock musician Jeff Beres (Sister Hazel) is 33.



Country singer Steve Holy is 32.



Rock musician Lasse Johansson (The Cardigans) is 31.



Actress Dakota Fanning is 10.



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Thought for Today:

"Men are more often bribed by their loyalties and ambitions than by money." -

- Robert H. Jackson, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (1892-1954).