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Today is Friday, March 26th.

The 86th day of 2004.

There are 280 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On March 26, 1982, groundbreaking ceremonies took place in Washington, D.C., for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.



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On this date:



In 1150, Tichborne family of Hampshire England started tradition of giving a Gallon of flour to each resident to keep deathbed promise.



In 1388, Construction begins on St. Mary's College, Oxford, England



In 1668, Bombay, India was transferred to England.



In 1790, The Naturalization Act is passed by Congress and requires a two-year residency for new citizens.



In 1804, the Louisiana Purchase was divided into the Territory of Orleans and the District of Louisiana.



In 1827, composer Ludwig van Beethoven died in Vienna.



In 1859, astronomers reported sighting a new planet in an orbit near that of Mercury. They named it Vulcan. It's now believed to have been a "rogue asteroid" making a one-time pass close to the sun.



In 1874, poet Robert Frost was born in San Francisco.



In 1885, Eastman Kodak produces the first commercial moving-picture film.



In 1892, poet Walt Whitman died in Camden, N.J.



In 1909, Russian troops invaded Persia to support Muhammad Ali as shah in place of the constitutional government.



In 1911, playwright Tennessee Williams was born in Columbus, Miss.



In 1917 At the start of the battle of Gaza, the British cavalry withdrew when 17,000 Turks blocked their advance.



In 1934, Driving tests were introduced in Britain.



In 1938, Herman Goering warned all Jews to leave Austria.



In 1942, The Germans began sending Jews to Auschwitz in Poland.



In 1943, Elsie S. Ott is the first woman awarded the U.S. Air Force Medal at Bowman Field, Kentucky.



In 1945, Generals Eisenhower/Bradley/Patton attack at Remagen the Rhine.



In 1945, Kamikazes attack US battle fleet near Kerama Retto.



In 1945, US seventh Army crosses Worms on the Rhine.



In 1945, The Battle of Iwo Jima ended. During the battle about 22,000 Japanese troops were killed or captured and more than 4,500 U.S. troops died.



In 1945, The Japanese attempted to reinforce a garrison at Kiska in the Aleutians but were intercepted by a U.S. naval force at the battle of Komandorski Islands.



In 1951, The United States Air Force Flag is approved. The design, which is laid out on a blue background, includes the coat of arms, thirteen white stars, and the Air Force Seal.



In 1953, Dr. Jonas Salk announces a new vaccine to prevent polio, an infectious viral disease of the central nervous system that sometimes results in permanent paralysis.



In 1955, "Ballad of Davy Crockett" becomes the #1 record in US



In 1956, Red Buttons made his debut as a television actor in "Studio One" on CBS television.



In 1958, the U.S. Army launched America's third successful satellite, Explorer III.



In 1960, The TV special "Welcome Home Elvis" was recorded in Miami Beach, FL. The show was hosted by Frank Sinatra.



In 1962, the U.S. Supreme Court gave federal courts the power to order reapportionment of seats in a state legislature, a decision that eventually led to the doctrine of "one man, one vote."



In 1962, American poet Robert Frost publishes his first new collection of poems in 15 years, In the Clearing.



In 1964, the musical play "Funny Girl," starring Barbra Streisand, opened on Broadway.



In 1969, The TV movie "Marcus Welby" was seen on ABC-TV. It was later turned into a series.



In 1971, East Pakistan proclaimed its independence, taking the name Bangladesh.



In 1971, "Cannon" premiered on CBS-TV as a movie. It was turned into a series later in the year.



In 1973, Women were allowed on to the floor of the London Stock Exchange for the first time. Susan Shaw was the first.



In 1973, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat took over the premiership and said "the stage of total confrontatation (with Israel) has become inevitable."



In 1975, the city of Hue in South Vietnam fell to the North Vietnamese army.



In 1979, the Camp David peace treaty was signed by Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat at the White House.



In 1980, Mount St. Helens in Washington State begins emitting steam, ash, and the odd boulder. The volcano will blow its lid two months later.



In 1989, Boris Yeltsin becomes the first popularly elected president of Russia during the first free elections in the history of the Soviet Union.



In 1989, The first episode of "Quantum Leap" aired on NBC.



In 1991, The Bush administration indicated it would not aid rebels seeking to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.



In 1991, a divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled that criminal defendants whose coerced confessions were improperly used as evidence are not always entitled to a new trial.



In 1993, a "frustrated" taxpayer blasted his way into the IRS state headquarters in Sacramento, Calif., taking several workers hostage before a police SWAT team killed him.



In 1993, a man armed with a small-caliber rifle opened fire along a rural highway outside Seattle, killing one man and wounding six others before police shot and critically wounded him.



In 1995, "Johnny Bravo" was aired for the first time on the Cartoon Network.



In 1997, Police enter a mansion in Santa Fe, California, and discover thirty-nine bodies from a mass suicide. The victims were all members of the religious cult, "Heaven’s Gate," who believed that by committing suicide, they would be picked up by an alien spacecraft following behind the Hale-Bopp comet.



In 1998, In the U.S., the Federal government endorses new HIV test that yields instant results.



In 1998, Unisys Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. pay a $3.15 million fine for selling spare parts at inflated prices to the U.S. federal government.



In 1998, President Clinton stood with President Nelson Mandela in a racially integrated South African parliament to salute a country that was "truly free and democratic at last." Clinton, accompanied by his wife Hillary, became the first U.S. head of state to visit the former British colony.



In 2000, The Seattle Kingdome was imploded to make room for a new football arena.



In 2000, In Russia, acting President Vladimir Putin was elected president outright. He won a sufficient number of votes to avoid a runoff election.



In 2002, Chief executive Joseph Berardino of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm resigned, bowing to mounting pressure as a result of the accounting firm's role in the Enron scandal.



Ten years ago (1994):



U.N. peacekeepers in Bosnia-Herzegovina destroyed a Serb bunker following a seven-hour exchange of fire.



The Senate passed President Clinton's education reform measure, the "Goals 2000" bill, 63-22.



Five years ago (1999):



American-led NATO forces launched a third night of airstrikes against Yugoslavia.



Dr. Jack Kevorkian was convicted in Pontiac, Mich., of second-degree murder for giving a patient with Lou Gehrig's disease a lethal injection, an action videotaped and broadcast on television.



A cunning computer virus named "Melissa" began infecting computers across the country.



One year ago (2003):



The Senate approved a $2.2 trillion budget that provided less than half the $726 billion in tax cuts President Bush wanted.



Former Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., died in Washington, D.C., at age 76.



Interpol issued an international call for the arrest of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori on charges of murder and kidnapping in Peru.



It was announced by the U.S. Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that Iraq had executed American prisoners of war.



It was announced by a U.S. general that 3,000 chemical suits had been discovered in a hospital in central Iraq.



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Today's Birthdays:



Retired Army Gen. William C. Westmoreland is 90.



Comedian, Radio Disc Jock, TV/Radio Actor Bob Elliott (Bob & Ray) is 81.



Jazz musician James Moody is 79.



Conductor-composer Pierre Boulez is 79.



Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is 74.



Actor-director Leonard Nimoy is 73.



Actor Alan Arkin is 70.



Actor James Caan is 64.



Author Erica Jong is 62.



Journalist Robert "Bob" Woodward is 61.



Singer Diana Ross is 60.



Actor Johnny Crawford ("Mark McCain" - The Rifleman) is 58.



Rock singer Steven Tyler (Aerosmith) is 56.



Singer and TV personality Vicki Lawrence is 55.



Singer Teddy Pendergrass is 54.



Comedian Martin Short is 54.



Country singer Ronnie McDowell is 54.



Founder of the Guardian Angels, Curtis Sliwa is 50.



Country singer Dean Dillon is 49.



Country singer Charly McClain is 48.



TV personality Leeza Gibbons is 47.



Actress Jennifer Grey is 44.



NFLer Marcus Allen is 44.



Basketball player John Stockton is 42.



Actor Michael Imperioli is 38.



Rock musician James Iha is 36.



Country singer Kenny Chesney is 36.



Rapper Juvenile is 29.



Actress Amy Smart is 28.



Actress Keira Knightley is 19.



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Thought for Today:

"The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it." -

- Walt Whitman (1819-1892).

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Today is Thursday, March 25th.

The 85th day of 2004.

There are 281 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On March 25, 1965, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led 25,000 marchers to the state capitol in Montgomery, Ala., to protest the denial of voting rights to blacks.



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On this date:



In 1, Roman Church historian Dionysius Exiguus (ca.500_550), in calculating his history of the Christian Church, took this day as the supposed date of the Annunciation. March 25th afterward became the first day of the calendar year, until the Gregorian Calendar Reform of 1753 changed the day to January 1st.



In 1634, The Catholic Church gained a foothold in colonial America when the ships "Dove" and "Ark" arrived in Maryland with 128 Catholic colonists, selected by Cecilius Calvert, second Lord Baltimore. The colony was under the leadership of Leonard Calvert, Lord Baltimore's brother. They named their community the Town of Saint Mary.



In 1776, The Continental Congress authorized a medal for General George Washington.



In 1807, the first railway passenger service begins in England.



In 1807, Britain abolishes the African slave trade.



In 1821, Greece gained independence from Turkey.



In 1863, the first Army Medal of Honor was awarded.



In 1894, Jacob S. Coxey began leading an "army" of unemployed from Massillon, Ohio, to Washington, D.C., to demand help from the federal government.



In 1896, The Modern Olympic Games begin in Athens Greece



In 1901, The Mercedes is introduced by Daimler at the five-day "Week of Nice" in Nice, France.



In 1911, in a tragedy that galvanized America's labor movement, 146 immigrant workers, almost all teenage girls and young women, were killed when fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York.



In 1913, the home of vaudeville, the Palace Theatre, opened in New York City.



In 1915, The first submarine disaster in history occurs when a U.S. F-4 sinks off the Hawaiian coast. Twenty-one people are killed.



In 1947, a coal mine explosion in Centralia, Ill., claimed 111 lives.



In 1954, RCA announced it had begun producing color television sets at its plant in Bloomington, Ind. (The sets, with 12 1/2-inch picture tubes, cost $1,000 each.)



In 1954, at the Academy Awards, "From Here to Eternity" won eight Oscars, including best picture, best director (Fred Zinnemann), best supporting actor (Frank Sinatra) and best supporting actress (Donna Reed). Audrey Hepburn won best actress for "Roman Holiday" and William Holden best actor for "Stalag 17."



In 1957, the Treaty of Rome established the European Economic Community.



In 1966, The United States Supreme Court rules that the "poll tax," a tax that is levied on an individual as a prerequisite for voting, is unconstitutional.



In 1968, The 58th and final episode of "The Monkees" TV show was aired.



In 1970, The Concorde makes its first supersonic flight.



In 1972, The final episode of "Bewitched" was aired on ABC.



In 1975, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was shot to death by a nephew with a history of mental illness. (The nephew was beheaded the following June.)



In 1977, The final episode of "Sanford and Son" was aired.



In 1978, the oil tanker Amoco Cadiz, aground in the English Channel since March 16, split in two, spilling the last of its 1.6 million barrels of oil.



In 1982, Wayne Gretzky becomes the first player in NHL history to score 200 points in a season.



In 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Air Force could ban the wearing of yarmulkes by Jewish military personnel in uniform.



In 1988, Robert Chambers Jr. pleads guilty to first-degree manslaughter in the death of 18 year-old Jennifer Levin in what came to be known as the "preppy murder case."



In 1989, In Paris, the Louvre reopened with I.M. Pei's new courtyard pyramid.



In 1990, A fire in Happy Land, an illegal New York City social club, killed 87 people.



In 1990, Estonia voted for independence from the Soviet Union.



In 1991, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein launched a major counter-offensive to recapture key towns from Kurds in northern Iraq.



In 1992, Soviet cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, who'd spent ten months aboard the orbiting "Mir" space station, thereby missing the upheaval in his homeland, finally returned to earth. He had originally been scheduled for a five-month mission, but to cut costs his superiors scrapped another flight and doubled his time. He was amazed upon returning that the Soviet Union no longer existed.



In 1995, Boxer Mike Tyson was released from jail after serving 3 years.



In 1996, An 81-day standoff by the antigovernment Freemen began at a ranch near Jordan, MT.



In 1996, The U.S. issued a newly redesigned $100 bill for circulation.



In 1997, Former President George H. W. Bush parachuted from a plane over the Arizona desert. He was 73 years old at the time.



In 1998, A cancer patient was the first known to die under Oregon's doctor-assisted suicide law.



In 1998, The FCC nets $578.6 million at auction for licenses for new wireless technology.



In 1998, Quinn Pletcher was found guilty on charges of extortion. He had threatened to kill Bill Gates unless he was paid $5 million.



In 2002, An earthquake that registered 5.9 on the Richter Scale hit Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. At least 1,800 people were killed and 2,000 injured.



In 2002, The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) dismissed complaints against Walt Disney Co.'s ABC network broadcast of a Victoria's Secret fashion show in November 2001.



Ten years ago (1994):



American troops completed their withdrawal from Somalia.



The Senate approved a $1.51 trillion budget.



Five years ago (1999):



NATO aircraft and missiles blasted targets in Yugoslavia for a second night, directing much of their fire on Kosovo, where fighting raged between Serbs and ethnic Albanians.



Alexei Yagudin won the men's title for the second time at the World Figure Skating Championships held in Helsinki, Finland.



One year ago (2003):



The Senate voted to slash President Bush's proposed $726 billion tax-cutting package in half, handing the president a defeat on the foundation of his plan to awaken the nation's slumbering economy.



Former Waterbury, Conn., Mayor Philip Giordano was convicted by a federal jury of violating the civil rights of two preteen girls by sexually abusing them. (Giordano was later sentenced to 37 years in federal prison.)



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Today's Birthdays:



Modeling agency founder Eileen Ford is 82.



Former astronaut James Lovell is 76.



Movie reviewer Gene Shalit is 72.



Feminist author Gloria Steinem is 70.



Singer Anita Bryant is 64.



Singer Aretha Franklin is 62.



Actor Paul Michael Glaser is 61.



Puppeteer, Movie Director, Actor Frank Oz (Oznowicz) is 60.



Singer Elton John is 57.



Actress Bonnie Bedelia is 56.



Singer Nick Lowe is 55.



Actress-comedian Mary Gross is 51.



Actor James McDaniel is 46.



Actor-writer-director John Stockwell is 43.



Actress Lisa Gay Hamilton is 40.



Actress Sarah Jessica Parker is 39.



Singer-musician Jeff Healey is 38.



Olympic bronze medal figure skater Debi Thomas is 37.



Singer Melanie Blatt (All Saints) is 29.



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Thought for Today:

"Uninterpreted truth is as useless as buried gold." -

- Lytton Strachey, English biographer (1880-1932).

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Today is Wednesday, March 24th.

The 84th day of 2004.

There are 282 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On March 24, 1765, Britain enacted the Quartering Act, requiring American colonists to provide temporary housing to British soldiers.



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On this date:



In 1629, The first game law was passed in the American colonies, by Virginia.



In 1664, Roger Williams was granted a charter to colonize Rhode Island.



In 1837, Canada gives blacks the right to vote.



In 1868, The Metropolitan Life Insurance Co forms.



In 1874, Magician/Illusionist Harry Houdini was born in Budapest, Hungary. He died October 31st, 1926 at the age of 52.



In 1882, German scientist Robert Koch announced in Berlin that he had discovered the bacillus responsible for tuberculosis.



In 1883, Long-distance telephone service was inaugurated between Chicago and New York.



In 1887, Actor, Director, Comedian, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle was born in Conkling, MN. He died June 29th., 1933, at the age of 46.



In 1898, The first US automobile was sold. Alexander Winton sold the first automobile that he built in Cleveland to mining engineer Robert Allison for $1000.



In 1900, Mayor Van Wyck of New York breaks ground for a subway tunnel that will link Manhattan and Brooklyn.



In 1909, Outlaw Clyde Barrow (Bonnie & Clyde) was born. He died May 23, 1934 at the age of 25.



In 1920, The first United States coast guard air station is established at Morehead City, North Carolina.



In 1923, The Twin Cities are the first cities in the world to have the noiseless roller-bearing street cars.



In 1924, Greece became a republic.



In 1926, Safeway Stores is incorporated by M.B. Skaggs.



In 1930, TV/Movie actor Steve McQueen was born in Beech Grove, IN. He died November 7, 1980, at the age of 50.



In 1930, the recently discovered ninth planet is given the name Pluto.



In 1934, President Franklin Roosevelt signed a bill granting future independence to the Philippines.



In 1935, Major Bowes' Original Amateur Hour goes national on NBC Radio Network. He was later convicted for being a Nazi spy and for sending coded messages to German submarines by making sage quips at the end of the show.



In 1938, The U.S. asked that all powers help refugees fleeing from the Nazis.



In 1940, The New York City NBC station W2XBS became the first to televise religious services.



In 1944, in occupied Rome, the Nazis executed more than 300 civilians in reprisal for an attack by Italian partisans the day before that killed 32 German soldiers.



In 1944, The greatest mass escape of World War II occurred at Stalag Luft III when 76 allied airmen tunneled out. Only three made it home.



In 1945, 600 transports and 1300 gliders stretching for over 300 miles carry the First Allied Airborne Army, comprised of 40,000 British and American paratroopers (17th Airborne Div.), across the Rhine near Wesel, Germany in Operation Varsity, the largest one-day airborne drop in history.



In 1946, The Soviet Union announced that it was withdrawing its troops from Iran.



In 1947, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. donates the East River site in N.Y. to the United Nations.



In 1947, The United States Congress proposes limiting the presidency to two terms.



In 1955, the Tennessee Williams play "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" opened on Broadway.



In 1955, the first seagoing oil drill rig was placed in service.



In 1958, rock-and-roll singer Elvis Presley was inducted into the Army in Memphis, Tenn.



In 1960, A United States appeals court rules that the novel, Lady Chatterly’s Lover, is not obscene and can be sent through the mail.



In 1965, white civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo of Detroit was shot and killed on a road near Selma, Ala.



In 1966, the Selective Service announces college deferments based on performance.



In 1967, The first "Teach-in" after the bombing of North Vietnam was held at the University of Michigan.



In 1972, Great Britain imposes direct rule over Northern Ireland.



In 1976, the president of Argentina, Isabel Peron, was deposed by her country's military.



In 1980, one of El Salvador's most respected Roman Catholic Church leaders, Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, was shot to death by gunmen as he celebrated Mass in San Salvador.



In 1981, ABC's nightly Iran Hostage crisis program "America Held Hostage, Day #XXX" renamed "Nightline with Ted Koppel"



In 1986, NASA publishes "Strategy for Safely Returning the Space Shuttle to Flight Status"



In 1988, Former national security aides Oliver L. North and John M. Poindexter and businessmen Richard V. Secord and Albert Hakim pleaded innocent to Iran-Contra charges.



In 1989, the nation's worst oil spill occurred as the supertanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on a reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound and began leaking 11 million gallons of crude.



In 1993, Ezer Weizman was elected Israel's seventh president.



In 1993, South African President F.W. de Klerk admitted for the first time that his country had built six nuclear bombs, but that the weapons had been dismantled.



In 1994, 10 years ago, A 36-inch underground natural gas pipeline ruptured and exploded in Edison, New Jersey, sending shock waves throughout the area. The disaster left a crater over 120 feet wide and 40 feet deep. One hundred were injured and one related death was reported.



In 1998, A former FBI agent said papers found in James Earl Ray's car supports a conspiracy theory in the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.



In 1998, In Jonesboro, Arkansas, two boys, ages 11 and 13, pull a fire alarm at Westside Middle School and open fire on students from nearby woods. Four students and one teacher are killed in the ambush.



In 2002, Thieves stole five 17th century paintings from the Frans Hals Museum in the Dutch city of Haarlem. The paintings were worth about $2.6 million. The paintings were works by Jan Steen, Cornelis Bega, Adriaan van Ostade and Cornelis Dusart.



Ten years ago (1994):



President Clinton held a news conference in which he acknowledged he had significantly overstated the loss in his Whitewater land investment and promised to release late 1970s tax returns to answer questions on the land deal.



Five years ago (1999):



NATO launched airstrikes against Yugoslavia, marking the first time in its 50-year existence that it had ever attacked a sovereign country.



Thirty-nine people were killed when fire erupted in the Mont Blanc tunnel in France and burned for two days.



In Kenya, at least 31 people were killed when a passenger train derailed. Hundreds were injured.



The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that Boeing 737 rudder problems caused two fatal airline crashes and nearly triggered a third.



One year ago (2003):



Iraqi state television showed two men said to have been the U.S. crew of an Apache helicopter forced down during heavy fighting in central Iraq. (Chief Warrant Officer David Williams and Chief Warrant Officer Ronald D. Young Junior spent three weeks in captivity before they were released along with five other POWs.)



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Today's Birthdays:



Animator Joseph Barbera is 93.



Fashion and costume designer Bob Mackie is 64.



Actor R. Lee Ermey is 60.



Movie director Curtis Hanson is 59.



Rock musician Lee Oskar is 56.



Rock musician Dougie Thomson (Supertramp) is 53.



Comedian Louie Anderson is 51.



Actress Donna Pescow is 50.



Actor Robert Carradine is 50.



Actress Kelly LeBrock is 44.



Rhythm and blues DJ Rodney "Kool Kollie" Terry (Ghostown DJs) is 43.



TV personality Star Jones ("The View") is 42.



Actress Annabella Sciorra is 40.



Rock singer-musician Sharon Corr (The Corrs) is 34.



Actress Lara Flynn Boyle is 34.



Rapper P.A. Pasemaster Mase (De La Soul) is 34.



Actress Alyson Hannigan ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer") is 30.



Actress Keisha Castle-Hughes ("The Whale Rider") is 14.



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Thought for Today:

"Not to be able to grow old is just as ridiculous as to be unable to outgrow childhood." -

- Carl G. Jung, psychiatrist (1875-1961).

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whoever rows the boat doesn't have time to rock it.



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Main's Law: For every action there is an equal and opposite government program.



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Death benefits = oxymoron



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Patience abused becomes fury



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I'm terribly sorry, but I'm afraid you're just a mirage.

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Will Rogers, who died in a plane crash with Wylie Post in 1935, was probably the greatest political sage the United States has ever known.



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Enjoy the following quotes:



1. Never slap a man who's chewing tobacco.



2. Never kick a cow chip on a hot day.



3. There are 2 theories to arguing with a woman,

.......neither works.



4. Never miss a good chance to shut up.



5. Always drink upstream from the herd.



6. If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.



7. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it and put it back in your pocket.



8. There are three kinds of men:

.....The ones who learn by reading.

.....The few who learn by observation.

.....The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence.



9. Good judgment comes from experience and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.



10. If you're riding ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it's still there.



11. Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier'n puttin' it back.



12. After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him. The moral: When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut.

1. Eventually you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it.



2. The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.



3. Some people try to turn back their odometers.

Not me. I want people to know "why" I look this way.

I've traveled a long way and some of the roads weren't paved.



4. When you are dissatisfied and would like to go back to youth, think of Algebra.



5. You know you are getting old when everything either dries up or leaks.



6. I don't know how I got over the hill without getting to the top.



7. One of the many things no one tells you about aging is that it is such a nice change from being young.



8. One must wait until evening to see how splendid the day has been.



9. Being young is beautiful, but being old is comfortable.



10. Long ago when men cursed and beat the ground with sticks, it was called witchcraft.

........Today its called golf.



11. If you don't learn to laugh at trouble, you won't have anything to laugh at when you are old.

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Today is Tuesday, March 23rd

The 83rd day of 2004.

There are 283 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry made his famous call for American independence from Britain, telling the Virginia Provincial Convention, "Give me liberty, or give me death!"



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On this date:



In 1066, 18th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.



In 1792, Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 94 in G Major (the "Surprise" symphony) was performed publicly for the first time, in London.



In 1794, U.S.A.'s first patent was granted to Joseph G. Pierson for a riveting machine.



In 1806, explorers Lewis and Clark, having reached the Pacific coast, began their journey back east.



In 1868, The University of California is founded in Oakland, California.



In 1889, U.S. President Harrison opened Oklahoma for white colonization.



In 1908, Academy Award actress Joan Crawford (Lucille LeSueur) was born in San Antonio, TX. She appeared in more than 70 films. She died in 1977.



In 1912, Scientist and engineer Wernher Von Braun was born. He died Jun 16, 1977 at the age of 65.



In 1912, the Dixie Cup was invented.



In 1919, Benito Mussolini founded his Fascist political movement in Milan, Italy.



In 1925, Tennessee bans the teaching of evolution in schools; teacher John Scopes ignores the ban and is later prosecuted in the so-called "Monkey Trial."



In 1929, The first telephone is installed in the White House.



In 1933, the German Reichstag adopted the Enabling Act, which effectively granted Adolf Hitler dictatorial legislative powers.



In 1940, The 1st radio broadcast of "Truth or Consequences" on CBS



In 1942, during World War II, the U.S. government began evacuating Japanese-Americans from their West Coast homes to detention centers.



In 1950, "Beat the Clock" premiered on CBS-TV.



In 1956, Pakistan became an independent republic within the British Commonwealth.



In 1956, Sudan became independent.



In 1965, America's first two-person space flight began as Gemini III blasted off from Cape Kennedy with astronauts Virgil I. Grissom and John W. Young aboard.



In 1967, The 100th episode of "Bewitched" was aired on ABC.



In 1972, Evil Knievel breaks 93 bones after successfully jumping 35 cars on his motorcycle.



In 1973, The last airing of "Concentration" took place. The show had been on NBC for 15 years.



In 1983, President Reagan first proposed developing technology to intercept enemy missiles -- a proposal that came to be known as the Strategic Defense Initiative, as well as "Star Wars."



In 1983, Dr. Barney Clark, recipient of a permanent artificial heart, died at the University of Utah Medical Center after 112 days with the device.



In 1998, Germany's largest bank pledged $3.1 million to Jewish foundations as restitution for Nazi looting.



In 1998, The U.S. Supreme Court allowed term limits for state lawmakers.



In 2001, Russia's orbiting Mir space station ended its 15-year odyssey with a fiery plunge into the South Pacific.



Ten years ago (1994):



Luis Donaldo Colosio, Mexico's leading presidential candidate, was assassinated in Tijuana.



Twenty-three paratroopers were killed when a F-16 fighter jet and C-130 transport collided while landing at Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina and the F-16 skidded into another transport on the ground.



Wayne Gretzky broke Gordie Howe's National Hockey League career record with his 802nd goal.



Actress Giulietta Masina died in Rome at age 73.



Five years ago (1999):



NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana gave the formal go-ahead for airstrikes against Serbian targets following the failure of Kosovo peace talks.



One year ago (2003):



A U.S. Army maintenance convoy was ambushed in Iraq; 11 soldiers were killed, seven were captured, including Pfc. Jessica Lynch.



A U.S. Air Force helicopter crashed in Afghanistan, killing all six people on board.



Grenades exploded at the 101st Airborne command center in Kuwait, killing two officers; a U.S. soldier was detained as a suspect.



At the Academy Awards, "Chicago" won best picture; "The Pianist" won best director for Roman Polanski and best actor for Adrien Brody; Nicole Kidman won best actress for "The Hours."



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Today's Birthdays:



Comedian Marty Allen is 82.



Movie director Mark Rydell is 70.



Singer-producer Ric Ocasek is 55.



Actress Corrine Clery is 54.



Singer Chaka Khan is 51.



Comedian (?) Louie Anderson is 51.



Actress Amanda Plummer is 47.



Actress Hope Davis is 40.



Comedian John Pinnett is 40.



Actor Richard Grieco is 39.



Country musician Kevin Griffin (Yankee Grey) is 39.



Rock singer-musician Damon Albarn (Blur) is 36.



Actress-singer Melissa Errico is 34.



Rock musician John Humphrey (The Nixons) is 34.



Actress Keri Russell is 28.



Actress Nicholle Tom is 26.



Country singer Paul Martin (Marshall Dyllon) is 26.



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Thought for Today:

"A conscience which has been bought once will be bought twice." -

- Norbert Wiener, American mathematician (1894-1964).

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Today is Monday, March 22nd

The 82nd day of 2004.

There are 284 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On March 22, 1765, Britain enacted the Stamp Act to raise money from the American colonies. (The Act was repealed the following year.)



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On this date:



In 1457, the Gutenberg Bible was the first book printed.



In 1621, Massasoit & Pilgrims agree on league of friendship. This treaty is made by Plymouth Colony with the Indians , and is kept, by both sides, for 50 years



In 1622, Powhattan's brother led a massacre of some settlements near Jamestown, Va. It was the first Indian massacre.



In 1638, Religious dissident Anne Hutchinson is banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.



In 1673, The first regular mail service between New York and Boston is established.



In 1733, Joseph Priestly invented carbonated water, a basic ingredient in soda pops.



In 1794, Congress bans US vessels from supplying slaves to other countries



In 1820, U.S. naval hero Stephen Decatur was killed in a duel with Commodore James Barron near Washington, D.C.



In 1822, New York Horticultural Society founded.



In 1857, The first department store elevator was installed in N.Y.; the invention is by Elisha Graves Otis.



In 1861, The first U.S. nursing school is chartered.



In 1873, Slavery was abolished in Puerto Rico.



In 1882, Congress outlawed polygamy.



In 1895, Auguste and Louis Lumiere showed their first movie to an invited audience in Paris.



In 1902, Great Britain and Persia agreed to link Europe and India by telegraph.



In 1903, Due to drought the US side of Niagara Falls runs short of water.



In 1904, The London Daily Illustrated Mirror publishes the first color photograph.



In 1914, The world's first airline starts operation in St. Petersburg, Florida and is called the St. Petersburg Tampa Airboat Line.



In 1929, 75 years ago, A U.S. Coast Guard vessel sank a Canadian-registered schooner, the "I'm Alone," in the Gulf of Mexico. (The schooner was suspected of carrying bootleg liquor.)



In 1933, during Prohibition, President Franklin Roosevelt signed a measure to make wine and beer containing up to 3.2 percent alcohol legal.



In 1941, the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington state went into operation.



In 1944, 600+ 8th Air Force bombers attack Berlin.



In 1945, the Arab League was formed with the adoption of a charter in Cairo, Egypt.



In 1946, the first U.S.-built rocket to leave the earth's atmosphere reaches a height of 50 miles.



In 1954, the first shopping mall opened in Southfield, Michigan.



In 1956, Perry Como became the first major TV variety-show host to book a rock and roll act on his program. The act was Carl Perkins.



In 1960, The first patent for lasers is granted to Arthur Schawlow and Charles Townes.



In 1963, The Beatles' first album Please Please Me is released in Britain; it is soon number one on the pop charts.



In 1965, The United States confirms that its troops used chemical warfare against the Vietcong.



In 1972, Congress sent the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution to the states for ratification. (It fell three states short of the 38 needed for approval.)



In 1977, The John Denver TV special "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" was aired on ABC.



In 1978, Karl Wallenda, the 73-year-old patriarch of The Flying Wallendas high-wire act, fell to his death while attempting to walk a cable strung between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico.



In 1981, First Class Postage was raised from 15 cents to 18 cents.



In 1988, both houses of Congress overrode President Reagan's veto of a sweeping civil rights bill.



In 1989, Oliver North began two days of testimony at his Iran-Contra trial in Washington, DC.



In 1990, Microsoft Windows 3.0 was shipped



In 1990, President Geroge Bush declared "I do not like broccoli and I haven't liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it and I'm the President of the United States and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli".



In 1992, Twenty-seven people were killed and fourteen are injured when a USAir jetliner ran off the runway and into the bay at New York's LaGuardia Airport.



In 1993, a U.S. nuclear submarine collided with a Russian nuclear sub in a Russian training area in the Barents Sea. There were no casualties.



In 1995, Convicted Long Island Rail Road gunman Colin Ferguson was sentenced to life in prison for killing six people.



In 1997, Tara Lipinski, at 14 years and 10 months, became the youngest women's world figure skating champion.



In 1998, Eleven young campers died in a mountain cabin fire in Centre County, Pennsylvania. The fire started after a gas heater exploded inside the cabin on Madisonburg Mountain.



In 2000, Some 1,100 women denied jobs with the now-defunct US Information Agency and its broadcast branch, the Voice of America, won $508 million dollars from the government in the largest-ever settlement of a federal sex discrimination case.



In 2001 The Palestinian Authority closed the Gaza and West Bank offices of the Arabic news agency al-Jazeera. The claim was that the agency's coverage had been insulting to Yasser Arafat.



In 2001, An 18-year-old student opened fire at Granite Hills High School in El Cajon, California, wounding three classmates and two teachers before he was shot and wounded by a police officer; the suspect, Jason Hoffman, later hanged himself while in jail.



In 2002, The U.S. Postal Rate Commission announced approval of higher postal rates, including a three-cent boost for first-class letters, to 37 cents.



Ten years ago (1994):



The Federal Reserve announced it was raising short-term interest rates from 3.25 percent to 3.5 percent, the second such boost of the year.



"Woody Woodpecker" creator Walter Lantz died in Burbank, Calif., at age 93.



Five years ago (1999):



Acting as his own lawyer, Dr. Jack Kevorkian went on trial on murder charges for the first time, telling a jury in Pontiac, Mich., he was merely carrying out his professional duty in a videotaped assisted death shown on "60 Minutes." (Kevorkian was convicted of second-degree murder.)



One year ago (2003):



Tens of thousands of people marched in cities around the world or demonstrated outside U.S. military bases, but the demonstrations were far smaller than earlier protests.



U.S. forces reported seizing a large weapons cache in Afghanistan.



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Today's Birthdays:



Actor Karl Malden is 92.



Pantomimist Marcel Marceau is 81.



USA Today founder Allen H. Neuharth is 80.



Composer-lyricist Stephen Joshua Sondheim is 74.



Religious broadcaster and politician Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson is 74



Actor William Shatner is 73.



Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is 70.



Actor M. (Michael) Emmet Walsh is 69.



Singer-guitarist George Benson is 61.



Singer Jeremy Clyde (Chad and Jeremy) is 60.



Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber is 56.



Correspondent Wolf Blitzer is 56



Actress Fanny Ardant is 55.



Sportscaster Bob Costas is 52.



Country singer James House is 49.



Actress Lena Olin is 49.



Singer-actress Stephanie Mills is 47.



Actor Matthew Modine is 45.



Actor Cole Hauser is 29.



Actress Kellie Williams is 28.



Actress Reese Witherspoon is 28.



Rock musician John Otto (Limp Bizkit) is 27.



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Thought for Today:

"All that is not eternal is eternally out of date." -

- C.S. Lewis, British author (1898-1963).

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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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Today is Saturday, March 20th

The 80th day of 2004.

There are 286 days left in the year.

Spring arrives.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On March 20, 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte entered Paris, beginning his "Hundred Days" rule.



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On this date:



In 1413, England's King Henry IV died; he was succeeded by Henry V.



In 1549, Sir Thomas Seymour, Lord High Admiral of the English Navy, fell in love with a girl named Elizabeth, who happened to be the princess, later to become the Queen of England. She didn't reciprocate his love, yet he kept pestering the girl. He became so much of an annoyance that he was charged with treason and beheaded on this day.



In 1602, The Dutch East India Company is chartered to establish bases and fortifications against Spain and Portugal, in return for a monopoly of trade in the Indian and Pacific oceans.



In 1727, physicist, mathematician and astronomer Sir Isaac Newton died in London.



In 1780, The firm of James Watt & Co. was formed for the manufacture of the first duplicating machines, invented by Watt to cope with the large amount of copying involved in his steam engine business.



In 1800, French army defeated the Turks at Helipolis, Turkey, and advanced into Cairo.



In 1828, Norwegian poet-dramatist Henrik Ibsen was born.



In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe's influential novel about slavery, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," was first published.



In 1865, A plan by John Wilkes Booth to abduct U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was ruined when Lincoln changed his plans and did not appear at the Soldier’s Home near Washington, DC.



In 1886, the first AC power plant in the U.S. began commercial operation in Mass.



In 1896, U.S. Marines landed in Nicaragua to protect U.S. citizens in the wake of a revolution.



In 1899, At Sing Sing prison, Martha M. Place becomes the first woman to be executed in the electric chair. She was sentenced to death for the murder of her stepdaughter.



In 1906, TV/Radio Actor, Producer/Director, Bandleader, Attorney/Lawyer, Songwriter, Multi-instrumentalist Oswald "Ozzie" Nelson was born in Jersey City, NJ. He died on June 3, 1975 at the age of 69



In 1908, British stage and motion-picture actor Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave was born in Bristol, England. Father of actors Vanessa Redgrave, Lynn Redgrave and Corin Redgrave. He was knighted in 1959. He died on March 21, 1985 at the age of 77.



In 1922, The first United States Navy aircraft carrier, the USS Langley, is commissioned.



In 1922, U.S. President Warren G. Harding ordered U.S. troops back from the Rhineland.



In 1933, The first German concentration camp is completed at Dachau.



In 1940, The British Royal Air Force conducted an all-night air raid on the Nazi airbase at Sylt, Germany.



In 1943, The Allies attacked Field Marshall Erwin Rommel's forces on the Mareth Line in North Africa.



In 1952, The United States Senate ratifies a peace treaty with Japan.



In 1956, France recognizes the independence of its protectorate of Tunisia. The bey of Tunis is head of state with Habib ben Ali Bourguiba as prime minister.



In 1965, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson orders 4,000 troops to protect the Selma-Montgomery civil rights marchers.



In 1968, President Johnson signed a bill removing gold backing from U.S. paper money.



In 1969, John Lennon married Yoko Ono in Gibraltar.



In 1974, The White House announces the ban on Sunday Gasoline Sales will be lifted, with the end of the Arab oil embarge.



In 1976, kidnapped newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was convicted of armed robbery for her part in a San Francisco bank holdup.



In 1980 The U.S. made an appeal to the International Court concerning the American Hostages in Iran.



In 1984, The United States Senate rejects an amendment to allow spoken prayer in public schools.



In 1987, the Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of AZT, a drug shown to prolong the lives of some AIDS patients.



In 1989, The news media announces that Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose is under investigation for betting on Major League Baseball games.



In 1990, The Los Angeles Lakers retire Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s number 33.



In 1990, Namibia became an independent nation as the former colony marked the end of 75 years of South African rule.



In 1992, Congress passed, and President Bush immediately vetoed, a Democratic tax cut for the middle class that would have been funded by a tax hike on the rich.



In 1995, In Tokyo, 12 people were killed and more than 5,500 others were sickened when packages containing the nerve gas Sarin was released on five separate subway trains. The terrorists belonged to a doomsday cult in Japan.



In 1995, About 35,000 Turkish troops crossed the northern border of Iraq in pursuit of the separatist rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).



In 2000, Former Black Panther Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, once known as H. Rap Brown, was captured in Alabama; he was wanted in the fatal shooting of a Fulton County, Georgia, sheriff's deputy. (Al-Amin maintains his innocence.)



In 2001, Power-strapped California saw a second day of rolling blackouts.



In 2002, Arthur Andersen plead innocent to charges that it had shredded documents and deleted computer files related to the energy company Enron.



In 2002, The final Whitewater report was issued by Independent Counsel Robert Ray. The five-volume report cost $70 million over six years. The conclusion was that former U.S. President Clinton and first lady Hillary Clinton had given factually inaccurate testimony, but there was not enough evidence to prove any wrongdoing.



In 2002, The U.S. Congress passed a campaign finance reform bill. U.S. President George W. Bush said that he would sign the bill even though he thought it was "flawed in some areas."



Ten years ago (1994):



El Salvador held its first presidential election following the country's 12-year-old civil war. Armando Calderon Sol of the ARENA party led the vote but needed to win a run-off to achieve the presidency.



Five years ago (1999):



Bertrand Piccard of Switzerland and Brian Jones of Britain became the first aviators to fly a hot-air balloon around the world nonstop.



The Yugoslav army, taking advantage of the departure of international monitors from Kosovo, launched a furious offensive against outgunned ethnic Albanian rebels.



One year ago (2003):



A subdued Saddam Hussein appeared on state-run television after the initial U.S. air strike on Baghdad, accusing the United States of a "shameful crime" and urging his people to "draw your sword" against the invaders. American combat units rumbled across the desert into Iraq from the south and U.S. and British forces bombed limited targets in Baghdad. The start of war in Iraq triggered one of the heaviest days of anti-government protesting in years, leading to thousands of arrests across the United States and prompting pro-war counter-demonstrations.



The New York Stock Exchage opened with 2 minutes of silence to show support for U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf.



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Today's Birthdays:



Producer-director-comedian Carl Reiner is 82.



Actor Hal Linden is 73.



Singer Jerry Reed is 67.



Former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney is 65.



Country singer Don Edwards is 65.



TV producer Paul Junger Witt is 61.



Country singer-musician Ranger Doug (Riders in the Sky) is 58.



Hockey Hall-of-Famer Bobby Orr is 56.



Blues singer-musician Marcia Ball is 55.



Actor William Hurt is 54.



Rock musician Carl Palmer (Emerson, Lake and Palmer) is 54.



Rock musician Jimmie Vaughan is 53.



Country musician Jimmy Seales (Shenandoah) is 50.



Movie director Spike Lee is 47.



Actress Theresa Russell is 47.



Actress Vanessa Bell Calloway is 47.



Actress Holly Hunter is 46.



Rock musician Slim Jim Phantom (The Stray Cats) is 43.



Actor-auto racer John Clark Gable is 43.



Actress-model Kathy Ireland is 41.



Rock musician Adrian Oxxal (James) is 39.



Actress Liza Snyder is 36.



Actor Michael Rapaport ("Boston Public") is 34.



Actor Alexander Chaplin is 33.



Rock singer Chester Bennington (Linkin Park) is 28.



Actor Michael Genadry is 26.



Actress Bianca Lawson is 25.



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Thought for Today:

"In the republic of mediocrity, genius is dangerous." -

- Robert S. Ingersoll, American lawyer and politician (1833-1899).

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Today is Friday, March 19th

The 79th day of 2004.

There are 287 days left in the year.

This is the date the swallows traditionally return to the San Juan Capistrano Mission in California.



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Today's Highlight in History:



One year ago, on March 19, 2003, President Bush ordered the start of war against Iraq. (Because of the time difference, it was early March 20 in Iraq; U.S. forces bombarded Baghdad with cruise missiles and precision-guided bombs aimed at Saddam Hussein and other Iraqi leaders.)



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On this date:



In 721, B.C.E., according to the Roman historian Ptolemy, Babylonian astronomers noted history's first recorded eclipse: an eclipse of the moon.



In 1628, 90 Puritan merchants (New England Co.) receive New World land patent; Massachusetts Colony founded



In 1748, English Naturalization Act passes granting Jews right to colonize US.



In 1822, The city of Boston, Massachusetts, was incorporated.



In 1831, The first reported bank heist in U.S. history takes place when $245,000 is stolen from the City Bank in New York City.



In 1848, American frontiersman and law enforcement officer Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp was born in Monmouth, Illinois. He died in 1929.



In 1859, the opera "Faust" by Charles Gounod premiered in Paris.



In 1895, The Los Angeles Railway was established to provide streetcar service.



In 1908, The state of Maryland barred Christian Scientists from practicing without medical diplomas.



In 1917, the Supreme Court upheld the eight-hour work day for railroads.



In 1918, Congress approved daylight-saving time.



In 1931, Nevada legalized gambling.



In 1945, about 800 people were killed as kamikaze planes attacked the U.S. carrier Franklin off Japan; the ship, however, was saved.



In 1945, Adolf Hitler issued his "Nero Decree," ordering the destruction of German facilities that could fall into Allied hands.



In 1951, Herman Wouk's war novel "The Caine Mutiny" was published.



In 1953, the Academy Awards ceremony was televised for the first time; "The Greatest Show on Earth" was named best picture of 1952.



In 1973, "POWs Return from Vietnam" Shortly after the Paris cease-fire agreement was signed, North Vietnam began releasing American prisoners of war. The most touching reunion seen on TV took place at California's Travis Air Force Base, as Lt. Col. Robert Stirm stepped onto the tarmac. His eldest daughter, Lorrie, 15, beamed as she rushed at her father with arms outstretched, followed closely by her brothers, her sister, and her mother, Loretta. The scene personified Operation Homecoming, during which 591 serviceman were released.



In 1975, Pennsylvania became the first state to allow girls to compete with boys in high school sports.



In 1976, Buckingham Palace announced the separation of Princess Margaret and her husband, the Earl of Snowdon, after 16 years of marriage.



In 1977, The last episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" aired.



In 1979, the U.S. House of Representatives began televising its day-to-day business.



In 1980, The Prime Interest Rate went to 19.0 percent



In 1982, The 100th episode of "Dallas" aired on CBS.



In 1984, 20 years ago, The Prime Interest Rate went to 11.5 percent



In 1984, The TV show "Kate and Allie" premiered.



In 1987, Televangelist Jim Bakker resigns from the PTL following a sex scandal that involved himself and his secretary, Jessica Hahn.



In 1988, Two British soldiers were killed by mourners at a funeral in Belfast, North Ireland. The soldiers were shot to death after being dragged from a car and beaten.



In 1989, The 300th episode of "Dallas" aired on CBS.



In 1990, Latvia's political opposition claimed victory in the republic's first free elections in 50 years.



In 1997, The 200th episode of "Beverly Hills 90210" was aired on FOX.



In 1998, The World Health Organization warned of tuberculosis epidemic that could kill 70 million people in next two decades.



In 2000, Vector Data Systems conducted a simulation of the 1993 Branch Davidian siege in Waco, TX. The simulation showed that the government had not fired first.



In 2001, California officials declared a power alert and ordered the first of two days of rolling blackouts.



In 2002, Operation Anaconda, the largest U.S.-led ground offensive since the Gulf War, ended in eastern Afghanistan. During the operation, which began on March 2, it was reported that at least 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters were killed. Eleven allied troops were killed during the same operation.



In 2002, Actor Ben Kingsley was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.



Ten years ago (1994):



Talks between North Korea and South Korea collapsed, imperiling a U.S.-brokered deal to resolve the North Korean nuclear dispute.



In his weekly radio address, President Clinton promised to tell people "all across America about our health reform plan and what it really means."



Five years ago (1999):



During a White House news conference, Clinton prepared the nation for airstrikes against Serbian targets following the collapse of Kosovo peace talks in Paris.



A powerful bomb shattered an outdoor food market in Vladikavkaz, Russia, killing at least 53 people.



One year ago (2003):



Tobacco farmer Dwight Ware Watson, who'd claimed to be carrying bombs in a tractor and trailer that he'd driven into a pond on Washington's National Mall, surrendered after disrupting traffic for two days; there were no explosives.



Six men hijacked a Cuban airliner at knifepoint to the Florida Keys to seek asylum in the United States. (The six were later convicted of federal hijacking charges.)



Mahmoud Abbas accepted the position of Palestinian prime minister.



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Today's Birthdays:



Former White House national security adviser Brent Scowcroft is 79.



Actor-director Patrick McGoohan is 76.



Theologian Hans Kung is 76.



Jazz musician Ornette Coleman is 74.



Author Philip Roth is 71.



Actress Renee Taylor is 71.



Actress-singer Phyllis Newman is 69.



Actress Ursula Andress is 68.



Singer Clarence "Frogman" Henry is 67.



Rock musician Paul Atkinson (The Zombies) is 58.



Singer Ruth Pointer (The Pointer Sisters) is 58.



Actress Glenn Close is 57.



Actor Bruce Willis is 49.



Rock musician Gert Bettens (K's Choice) is 34.



Rock musician Zach Lind (Jimmy Eat World) is 28.



Actor Craig Lamar Traylor ("Malcolm in the Middle") is 15.



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Thought for Today:

"History is always repeating itself, but each time the price goes up." -

— Anonymous.

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Today is Thursday, March 18th

The 78th day of 2003.

There are 288 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On March 18, 1766, Britain repealed the Stamp Act.



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On this date:



In 1190, Crusaders killed 57 Jews in Bury St. Edmonds England.



In 1554, Princess Elizabeth, heir apparent to the throne in England, is imprisoned for suspected complicity in Wyatt's Rebellion against her half sister, Queen Mary I of England.



In 1673, Lord Berkley sold his half of New Jersey to the Quakers.



In 1818, The U.S. Congress approved the first pensions for government service.



In 1834, The first railroad tunnel in the United States is completed in Pennsylvania.



In 1837, the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, Grover Cleveland, was born in Caldwell, N.J.



In 1850, the First Stagecoach Company was formed by Henry Wells & William Fargo, was called the American Express, later changed to Wells Fargo, a coast to coast express business.



In 1909, Einar Dessau of Denmark uses a short-wave transmitter, becoming the first person to broadcast as a “ham” operator.



In 1910, The first opera by a U.S. composer was performed at the Met in New York City.



In 1922, Mohandas K. Gandhi was sentenced in India to six years' imprisonment for civil disobedience. (He was released after serving two years.)



In 1931, Schick Inc. marketed the first electric razor.



In 1937, more than 400 people, mostly children, were killed in a gas explosion at a school in New London, Texas.



In 1938, New York first required serological blood tests of pregnant women.



In 1940, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini met at the Brenner Pass, where the Italian dictator agreed to join Germany's war against France and Britain.



In 1945, 1,250 U.S. bombers attacks Berlin.



In 1949, The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is ratified.



In 1959, President Eisenhower signed the Hawaii statehood bill.



In 1962, France and Algerian rebels agreed to a truce.



In 1963, The United States Supreme Court handed down its Miranda decision which states that all defendants must be provided with legal counsel.



In 1965, the first spacewalk took place as Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov left his Voskhod II capsule, secured by a tether.



In 1969, U.S. President Nixon authorizes Operation Menue. It was the ‘secret’ bombing of Cambodia.



In 1974, most of the Arab oil-producing nations ended their embargo against the United States.



In 1975, Saigon abandoned most of the Central Highlands of Vietnam to Hanoi.



In 1975, The Kurds ended their fight against Iraq.



In 1977, Vietnam turned over an MIA to a U.S. delegation.



In 1979, Iranian authorities detained American feminist Kate Millett, a day before deporting her and a companion for what were termed "provocations."



In 1980, The Vostok rocket exploded on the launch pad killing 50.



In 1981, The U.S. disclosed that there were biological weapons tested in Texas in 1966.



In 1981, The Buffalo Sabres set an NHL record when they scored 9 goals in one period against Toronto.



In 1986, The U.S. Treasury Department announced that a clear, polyester thread was to be woven into bills in an effort to thwart counterfeiters.



In 1986, Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Prince Andrew to Sarah Ferguson.



In 1987, The U.S. performed nuclear tests at a Nevada test site.



In 1989, 12 paintings were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. The value was $100 million making it the largest art robbery in history.



In 1989, A 4,400-year-old mummy was discovered at the Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt.



In 1990, In Tampa, FL, a little league player was killed after being hit with a pitch.



In 1990, The first free elections took place in East Germany.



In 1990, The 32-day lockout of baseball players ended.



In 1992, Leona Hemsly was sentenced to 4 years in prison for tax evasion.



In 1992, White South Africans voted for constitutional reforms that would give legal equality to blacks.



In 1997, A Russian AN-24 crashed killing 50 people.



Ten years ago (1994):



The space shuttle Columbia returned from a two-week mission.



Published reports said first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton had made nearly $100,000 from the commodities market in the late 1970s on an initial investment of only $1,000.



Muslim and Croat leaders signed agreements to create a Bosnian federation.



The U.N. Security Council unanimously condemned the Hebron mosque massacre.



Zsa Zsa Gabor filed for bankruptcy.



Five years ago (1999):



The Kosovar Albanian delegation signed a U.S.-sponsored peace accord following talks in Paris; the Clinton administration warned NATO would act against Serb targets if Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic rejected the agreement.



One year ago (2003):



A jury in Corpus Christi, Texas, cleared Bayer Corp. of liability in a $560 million lawsuit that accused the pharmaceutical giant of ignoring research linking the cholesterol-lowering drug Baycol to dozens of deaths.



In Salt Lake City, Brian Mitchell and Wanda Barzee were charged with aggravated kidnapping, sexual assault and burglary in the abduction of Elizabeth Smart, who was found with them six days earlier.



China's new president, Hu Jintao, announced that his country must deepen reforms and raise living standards of workers and farmers.



Olympic gold medal figure skater Sarah Hughes won the Sullivan Award as the nation's top amateur athlete.



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Today's Birthdays:



Actor Peter Graves is 78.



Composer John Kander ("Chicago") is 77.



Author John Updike is 72.



Nobel peace laureate and former South African president F.W. de Klerk is 68.



Country singer Charley Pride is 66.



Singer Wilson Pickett is 63.



Actor Kevin Dobson is 61.



Actor Brad Dourif is 54.



Singer Irene Cara is 45.



Actor Thomas Ian Griffith is 42.



Singer James McMurtry is 42.



Singer-actress Vanessa L. Williams is 41.



Olympic gold medal speedskater Bonnie Blair is 40.



Country musician Scott Saunders (Sons of the Desert) is 40.



Rock musician Jerry Cantrell (Alice in Chains) is 38.



Rock singer-musician Miki Berenyi is 37.



Rapper-actress-talk show host Queen Latifah is 34.



Rock musician Stuart Zender is 30.



Singer Devin Lima (LFO) is 27.



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Thought for Today:

"No man has a right in America to treat any other man tolerantly, for tolerance is the assumption of superiority." -

— Wendell Willkie, American politician (1892-1944).

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Today is Wednesday, March 17th.

The 77th day of 2004.

There are 289 days left in the year.

This is St. Patrick's Day.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On March 17, 461, according to tradition, St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, died in Saul.



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On this date:



In 1737, The Charitable Irish Society of Boston, Massachusetts, hosts the first nonliturgical celebration of Saint Patrick's Day.



In 1756, St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated for the first time in New York City at the Crown and Thistle Tavern.



In 1762, The first Saint Patrick's Day parade in New York, New York, inaugurates a strong traditional celebration among Irish Americans.



In 1776, British forces evacuated Boston during the Revolutionary War.



In 1845, the rubber band is patented by Stephen Perry of London.



In 1870, Massachusetts legislature authorizes incorporation of Wellesley Female Seminary (now Wellesley College).



In 1905, Eleanor Roosevelt married Franklin D. Roosevelt in New York.



In 1910, the Camp Fire Girls organization was formed. (It was formally presented to the public on this day two years later.)



In 1919, Singer Nat "King" Cole was born in Montgomery, AL. He died Feb. 15, 1965 at the age of 45.



In 1941, the National Gallery of Art opened in Washington, D.C.



In 1942, Gen. Douglas MacArthur arrived in Australia to become supreme commander of Allied forces in the southwest Pacific theater during World War II.



In 1950, scientists at the University of California at Berkeley announced they had created a new radioactive element, californium.



In 1958, the U.S. Navy launched the Vanguard I satellite.



In 1966, a U.S. midget submarine located a missing hydrogen bomb that had fallen from an American bomber into the Mediterranean off Spain.



In 1969, Golda Meir became prime minister of Israel.



In 1973, The first prisoners of war (POWs) were released from the "Hanoi Hilton" in Hanoi, North Vietnam.



In 1985, U.S. President Reagan agreed to a joint study with Canada on acid rain.



In 1987, IBM releases PC-DOS version 3.3.



In 1992, 28 people were killed in the truck bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina.



Ten years ago (1994):



former President Ronald Reagan said Oliver North, who was running for a U.S. Senate seat from Virginia, lied when he said Reagan "knew everything" about the Iran-Contra operation.



Secretary of State Warren Christopher, just back from China, told a House subcommittee that reports describing the trip as a failure were "rather misleading," and said Beijing had made "solid improvements" in the areas of prison labor and immigration.



Five years ago (1999):



A panel of medical experts concluded that marijuana has medical benefits for people suffering from cancer and AIDS.



In the wake of a bribery scandal, the International Olympic Committee expelled six of its members but backed President Juan Antonio Samaranch.



Instant replay was voted back in the NFL for the 1999 season.



One year ago (2003):



Edging to the brink of war, President Bush gave Saddam Hussein 48 hours to leave his country and told Americans that military confrontation will ultimately make them safer. Iraq rejected Bush's ultimatum, saying that a U.S. attack to force Saddam from power would be "a grave mistake."



In Washington, D.C., tobacco farmer Dwight Ware Watson, claiming to be carrying bombs, drove a tractor and trailer into a pond on the National Mall; the threat disrupted traffic for two days until Watson surrendered; there were no bombs.



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Today's Birthdays:



Actress Mercedes McCambridge is 86.



The former national chairwoman of the NAACP, Myrlie Evers-Williams, is 71.



Rock musician Paul Kantner is 63.



Singer-songwriter Jim Weatherly is 61.



Singer-songwriter John Sebastian (The Lovin' Spoonful) is 60.



Rock musician Harold Brown (War) is 58.



Actor Patrick Duffy is 55.



Actor Kurt Russell is 53.



Country singer Susie Allanson is 52.



Actress Lesley-Anne Down is 50.



Country singer Paul Overstreet is 49.



Actor Gary Sinise is 49.



Actress Vicki Lewis is 44.



Actor Casey Siemaszko is 43.



Writer-director Rob Sitch is 42.



Actor Rob Lowe is 40.



Rock singer Billy Corgan is 37.



Rock musician Van Conner (Screaming Trees) is 37.



Actor Mathew St. Patrick ("Six Feet Under") is 36.



Actor Yanic Truesdale is 35.



Rock musician Melissa Auf der Maur is 32.



Rock musician Caroline Corr (The Corrs) is 31.



Actress Marisa Coughlan is 30.



Singer Stephen Gately (Boyzone) is 28.



Rapper Swifty (D12) is 27.



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Thought for Today:

"It is my rule never to lose me temper till it would be detrimental to keep it." -

- Sean O'Casey, Irish playwright (1880-1964).

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Today is Tuesday, March 16th.

The 76th day of 2004.

There are 290 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On March 16, 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter" was first published.



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On this date:



In 1190, The Crusaders began the massacre of Jews in York, England.



In 1516, Louis II, aged nine, succeeds as king of Bohemia and Hungary on the death of Ladislas II.



In 1621, The first Indian appeared in Plymouth, MA.



In 1751, James Madison, fourth president of the United States, was born in Port Conway, Va.



In 1802, Congress authorized the establishment of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.



In 1830, London's re-organised police force (Scotland Yard) forms



In 1830, The New York Stock Exchange experiences its slowest day ever, with just thirty-one shares being traded.



In 1884, John Montgomery becomes the first man to fly a glider when he traveled approximately 600 feet across a California valley.



In 1906, Comedian and "King of the one-liners" ("take my wife, please.") Henny Youngman was born.



In 1912, Former First Lady Patricia "Pat" Nixon was born (nee: Thelma Catherine Ryan) in Ely, NV. She died on June 22, 1993.



In 1915, the Federal Trade Commission was organized.



In 1926, Robert G. Goddard, for whom a NASA space center is named, tested the first space-type liquid-fueled rocket. The rocket traveled for 2 1/2 seconds, covering 184 feet at a speed of 60 mph and attaining a maximum height of 41 feet.



In 1935, Adolf Hitler scrapped the Treaty of Versailles.



In 1942, U.S. President Roosevelt ordered men between the ages of 45 and 64 to register for non-military duty.



In 1945, during World War II, Iwo Jima was declared secured by the Allies.



In 1964, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson submitted a $1 billion "war on poverty" program to Congress.



In 1966, United States astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott, aboard Gemini 8, achieve the first linkup of a crewed spacecraft with another object, an Agena rocket.



In 1968, during the Vietnam War, the My Lai massacre was carried out by U.S. troops under the command of Lt. William L. Calley Jr.



In 1971, Simon and Garfunkel win the Grammy Award for Best Album for Bridge Over Troubled Water and the Grammy for Best Record for the title song.



In 1978, Italian politician Aldo Moro was kidnapped by left-wing urban guerrillas, who later murdered him.



In 1984, William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, was kidnapped by gunmen; he died in captivity.



In 1985, Terry Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press, was abducted in Beirut; he was released in December 1991.



In 1985, "A Chorus Line" played its 4,000th performance.



In 1987, Bostonia magazine printed an English translation of Albert Einstein’s last high school report card. He got an "A" in math but a "D" in french.



In 1988, Indictments are issued for Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter of the National Security Council for their involvement in the Iran-Contra affair.



In 1991, U.S. skaters Kristi Yamaguchi, Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan swept the World Figure Skating Championships in Munich, Germany.



In 1996, In his weekly radio address, President Clinton accused the Republican-controlled House of bowing to "the back-alley whispers of the gun lobby" by gutting anti-terrorism legislation he'd submitted in response to the Oklahoma City bombing.



Ten years ago (1994):



Figure skater Tonya Harding pleaded guilty in Portland, Ore., to conspiracy to hinder prosecution for covering up the attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan, avoiding jail but drawing a $100,000 fine.



Russia agreed to phase out production of weapons-grade plutonium.



Five years ago (1999):



The Dow Jones industrial average briefly topped the 10,000 level, reaching a high of 10,001.78 before retreating.



The entire 20-member European Commission resigned following publication of a critical report on sloppy management and cronyism.



The Nebraska Cornhuskers beat Chicago State 50-3 in an NCAA baseball game.



One year ago (2003):



Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein warned that if Iraq were attacked, it would take the war anywhere in the world "wherever there is sky, land or water."



President Bush gave the United Nations one more day to find a diplomatic solution to the standoff.



Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old American college student in Gaza to protest Israel operations, was killed when she was run over by a bulldozer while trying to block troops from demolishing a Palestinian home.



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Today's Birthdays:



Comedian-director Jerry Lewis (born Joseph Levitch) is 78.



Movie director Bernardo Bertolucci is 63.



Game show host Chuck Woolery is 63.



Singer-songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker is 62.



Country singer Robin Williams is 57.



Actor Erik Estrada is 55.



Actor Victor Garber is 55.



Actress Kate Nelligan is 53.



Country singer Ray Benson (Asleep at the Wheel) is 53.



Rock singer-musician Nancy Wilson (Heart) is 50.



Golfer Hollis Stacy is 50.



Actress Isabelle Huppert is 49.



Rapper Flavor Flav (Public Enemy) is 45.



Rock musician Jimmy DeGrasso (Megadeth) is 41.



Folk singer Patty Griffin is 40.



Actress Lauren Graham is 37.



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Thought for Today:

"No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true." -

- Nathaniel Hawthorne, American author (1804-1864), in "The Scarlet Letter."

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