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

Today is Tuesday, May 11th.

The 132nd day of 2004.

There are 234 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



One hundred years ago, May 11, 1904, surrealist artist Salvador Dali was born in Figueras, Spain.



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On this date:



In 330, Constantinople (formerly Byzantine, now Istanbul) was established as a new capital by Roman Emperor Constantine for the Eastern Roman Empire.



In 1752, The first U.S. fire insurance policy was issued in Philadelphia, Pa.



In 1792, The Columbia River was discovered and named by US Captain Robert Gray



In 1858, Minnesota became the 32nd state of the Union.



In 1888, Composer/Songwriter Irving Berlin (Israel Isidore Baline) was born in Temun, Russia. He died September 22, 1989 at the age of 101.



In 1910, Glacier National Park in Montana was established.



In 1912, Actor/Comedian Phil Silvers (Philip Silversmith) was born in Brooklyn NY. He died November 1, 1985 at the age of 73.



In 1920, Oxford University permits the admission of women.



In 1921, Tel Aviv became the first all Jewish municipality.



In 1927, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded.



In 1928, General Electric opens the first TV-station. WGY-TV (1.5 inch picture/43 lines), in Schenectady NY



In 1929,The first regularly scheduled TV broadcasts are aired 3 nights per week in Schenectady NY on WGY-TV.



In 1943, During World War II, U.S. forces landed on the Aleutian island of Attu, which was held by the Japanese; the Americans took the island 19 days later.



In 1944, Allied forces launched a major offensive against German lines in Italy.



In 1945, US marines conquer Awatsha Draw Okinawa.



In 1946, The first CARE packages arrived in Europe, at Le Havre, France.



In 1947, BF Goodrich manufactures 1st tubeless tire, Akron OH



In 1949, Israel was admitted to the United Nations as the world body's 59th member.



In 1949, The first Polaroid camera was sold for $89.95 in New York City.



In 1949, Siam changed its name to Thailand.



In 1950, U.S. President Truman dedicated the Grand Coulee Dam.



In 1951, Jay Forrester patents computer core memory.



In 1960, Israeli soldiers capture Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires



In 1969, The Monty Python comedy troupe forms



In 1969, One of the more infamous and bloody battles of the Vietnam War began with U.S. attempts to seize Dong Ap Bia mountain (Hill 937). After 10 days, American troops conquered the hill, only to abandon it soon after. The heavy casualties to take the mountain inspired the name "Hamburger Hill."



In 1972, John Lennon appeared on the "Dick Cavett" TV show and said that the FBI had tapped his phone.



In 1973, Charges against Daniel Ellsberg for his role in the "Pentagon Papers" case were dismissed by Judge William M. Byrne, who cited government misconduct.



In 1976 ABC aired the last episode of "Marcus Welby, MD."



In 1977, The U.S. government outlawed the use of chlorofluorocarbons as spray can propellants.



In 1981, Reggae artist Bob Marley, 36, died in a Miami hospital of cancer.



In 1983, The final episode of "Quincy, M.E." aired on NBC.



In 1985, More than 50 people died when a flash fire swept a jam-packed soccer stadium in Bradford, England.



In 1989, The final episode of "Dynasty" aired.



In 1996, An Atlanta-bound ValuJet DC-9 caught fire shortly after takeoff from Miami and crashed into the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 people on board.



In 1999, CBS announced that it would provide high-definition prime-time programming beginning in September.



In 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft delayed Timothy McVeigh's execution from May 16 to June 11 because of FBI mishandling of documents.



Ten years ago (1994):



Arkansas put to death two convicted murderers; it was the first time a state executed two people on the same day since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to restore the death penalty in 1976.



Five years ago (1999):



Stung by an espionage scandal, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said he would halt the Clinton administration's aggressive declassification of Cold War-era nuclear documents.



In Beijing, protests outside the U.S. Embassy over NATO's bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade eased after state-run television aired U.S. and NATO apologies for the attack.



One year ago (2003):



The United States declared Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's Baath Party dead.



Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, heeding an appeal by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, said Palestinian leaders had put aside reservations to parts of the U.S.-developed plan for peace with Israel and were ready to get started on it.



Lithuania became the first ex-Soviet republic to approve entry into the European Union as voters completed a weekend referendum.



Canada beat Sweden 3-2 in Finland to win its first hockey world championship in six years.



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Today's Birthdays:



Comedian Mort Sahl is 77.



Religious leader (Nation of Islam) Louis Farrakhan is 71.



Rock singer Eric Burdon (The Animals; War) is 63.



Actress Shohreh Aghdashloo is 52.



Actress Frances Fisher is 52.



Actor Boyd Gaines is 51.



Country musician Mark Herndon (Alabama) is 49.



Actress Martha Quinn is 45.



Actress Natasha Richardson is 41.



Country singer-musician Tim Raybon (The Raybon Brothers) is 41.



Actor Coby Bell is 29.



Actor Austin O'Brien is 24.



Actor Jonathan Jackson is 22.



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Thought for Today:

"Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it." -

- Salvador Dali, Spanish artist (1904-1989).

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Today is Monday, May 10th.

The 131st day of 2004.

There are 235 days left in the year.

Today is "Mother's Day" in Latin America



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Today's Highlight in History:



On May 10, 1869, a golden spike was driven at Promontory, Utah, marking the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in the United States.



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On this date:



In 1497, Amerigo Vespucci sailed for the New World for the first time. Christopher Columbus got there first, but Vespucci wrote about his voyages. A Swiss publisher put out an atlas after learning of Vespucci's adventures but before learning about Columbus's. He suggested naming the New World after Vespucci...and so put America on the map.



In 1752, Benjamin Franklins 1st tests the lightning rod



In 1773, The English Parliament passed the Tea Act, which taxed all tea in the U.S. colonies.



In 1774, Louis XVI ascended the throne of France.



In 1775, Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys captured the British-held fortress at Ticonderoga, N.Y.



In 1823, The first steamboat to ascent the Mississippi River arrived at Fort Snelling, Minnesota.



In 1865, Union forces captured Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Irwinville, Ga.



In 1872, Victoria Claflin Woodhull became the first woman nominated for the U.S. Presidency. She was nominated by the National Equal Rights Party.



In 1899, American dancer and actor, Fred Astaire (Frederick Austerlitz) was born in Omaha, NE. He died in Los Angeles on June 22, 1987 at the age of 88.



In 1902, Producer David O. Selznick was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He died June 22, 1965 at the age of 63



In 1924, J. Edgar Hoover was given the job of FBI director.



In 1933, The Nazis staged massive public book burnings in Germany.



In 1940, Germany invaded Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.



In 1940, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigned, and Winston Churchill formed a new government.



In 1941, Adolf Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess, parachuted into Scotland on what he claimed was a peace mission. (Hess ended up serving a life sentence at Spandau prison until 1987, when he apparently committed suicide.)



In 1943, U.S. troops invaded Attu in the Aleutian Islands to expel the Japanese.



In 1968, Preliminary Vietnam peace talks began in Paris.



In 1969, US troops begin attack on Hill 937/Hamburger Hill



In 1973, A federal grand jury investigating the Watergate scandal indicted former Attorney General John Mitchell and former Commerce Secretary Maurice Stans on perjury charges. The burglary at Democratic party offices in the Watergate office complex eventually led to President Nixon's most trusted aides...and attempts to cover up their involvement let to Nixon himself.



In 1978, Britain's Princess Margaret and the Earl of Snowdon announced they were divorcing after 18 years of marriage.



In 1983 "Laverne & Shirley" last airs on ABC-TV



In 1984, The International Court of Justice said the U.S. should halt any actions to blockade Nicaragua's ports (the U.S. had already said it would not recognize World Court jurisdiction on this issue.)



In 1995, former President G. H. W. Bush's office released his letter of resignation from the National Rifle Association in which Bush expressed outrage over its reference to federal agents as "jack-booted government thugs."



In 2000, 11,000 residents were evacuated in Los Alamos, NM, due to a wildfire that was blown into a canyon. The fire had been deliberately set to control another wildfire that had been deliberately set to clear brush.



Ten years ago (1994):



The state of Illinois executed convicted serial killer John Wayne Gacy for the murders of 33 young men and boys.



Nelson Mandela took the oath of office to become South Africa's first black president.



An annular, or "ring," eclipse cast a moving shadow across the United States.



Five years ago (1999):



China broke off talks on arms control with the United States, and allowed demonstrators to hurl stones at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing for a third day to protest NATO's bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia.



A military jury at Camp Lejeune, N.C., sentenced Captain Richard Ashby, a Marine pilot whose jet had clipped an Italian gondola cable, sending 20 people plunging to their deaths, to six months in prison and dismissed him from the corps for helping hide a videotape made during the flight (Ashby had been acquitted earlier of manslaughter).



One year ago (2003):



The leader of Iraq's largest Shiite Muslim group, Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim, returned triumphantly to his U.S.-occupied homeland after two decades in Iranian exile.



The New York Times announced on its Web site that one of its reporters, Jayson Blair, had "committed frequent acts of journalistic fraud," according to an investigation conducted by the paper.



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Today's Birthdays:



Sportscaster Pat Summerall is 74.



T.V. and radio personality Gary Owens is 68.



Rhythm and blues singer Henry Fambrough (The Spinners) is 66.



Writer-producer-director Jim Abrahams is 60.



Singer Donovan is 58.



Singer Dave Mason is 58.



Actress Meg Foster is 56.



Rhythm and blues singer Ron Banks (The Dramatics) is 53.



Rock singer Bono (U2) is 44.



Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks is 41.



Model Linda Evangelista is 39.



Rock musician Krist Novoselic (Nirvana, Eyes Adrift) is 39.



Rapper Young MC is 37.



Actor Erik Palladino is 36.



Rock musician Jesse Vest (Tantric) is 27.



Actor Kenan Thompson is 26.



Rhythm and blues singer Jason Dalyrimple (Soul For Real) is 24.



Singer Ashley Poole (Dream) is 19.



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Thought for Today:

"Nothing recedes like success." -

- Walter Winchell, American columnist and broadcaster (1897-1972).

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Today is Sunday, May 9th.

The 130th day of 2004.

There are 236 days left in the year.

This is Mother's Day.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On May 9, 1754, The first American newspaper cartoon was published. The illustration, in Benjamin Franklin's "Pennsylvania Gazette", showed a snake cut into sections, each part representing an American colony; the caption read, "Join or die."



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On this date:



In 1502, Christopher Columbus left Cadiz, Spain, on his fourth and final trip to the Western Hemisphere.



In 1671, Irish adventurer Thomas Blood, known as Colonel Blood, is caught after stealing the crown jewels from the Tower of London; he is ultimately pardoned by King Charles II.



In 1899, The lawn mower was patented.



In 1913, The 17th amendment to the Constitution, providing for the election of U.S. senators by popular vote rather than selection by state legislatures, was ratified.



In 1914, The first Mother's Day was proclaimed by President Wilson.



In 1926, Americans Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett became the first men to fly over the North Pole.



In 1936, Italy annexed Ethiopia.



In 1943, The 5th German Panser army surrenders in Tunisia



In 1945, U.S. officials announced that a midnight entertainment curfew was being lifted immediately.



In 1960, The Food and Drug Administration approved a pill as safe for birth control use. (The pill, Enovid, was made by G.D. Searle and Company of Chicago.)



In 1961, Federal Communications Commission chairman Newton N. Minow condemned television programming as a "vast wasteland" in a speech to the National Association of Broadcasters.



In 1963, A secret military satellite is launched by the Air Force from Point Arguello, Ca., releasing 400 million tiny copper hairs into a polar orbit to provide a cloud of reflective material for relaying radio signals from coast to coast within the U.S.



In 1970, 100,000s demonstrate against the Vietnam War in Washington, DC.



In 1974, The House Judiciary Committee opened hearings on whether to recommend the impeachment of President Nixon.



In 1978, The bullet-riddled body of former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro, who'd been abducted by the Red Brigades, was found in an automobile in the center of Rome.



In 1980, 35 motorists were killed when a Liberian freighter rammed the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay, Fla., causing a 1,400-foot section to collapse.



In 1989, President G. H. W. Bush complained that Panama's elections were marred by "massive irregularities," and he called for worldwide pressure on General Manuel Antonio Noriega to step down as military leader.



In 1987, Actor Tom Cruise (27) weds actress Mimi Rogers (33).



In 1991, William Kennedy Smith, nephew of Sen. Edward Kennedy, D- Mass., was charged with the March 30 rape and assault of a woman at the Kennedy estate in West Palm Beach, Fla. He was later acquitted.



Ten years ago (1994):



South Africa's newly elected parliament chose Nelson Mandela to be the country's first black president. Mandela promised a South Africa for "all its people, black and white."



Five years ago (1999):



A chartered bus carrying members of a casino club on a Mother's Day gambling excursion flipped off a highway in New Orleans, killing 22 people.



Furious Chinese demonstrators hurled rocks and debris into the U.S. Embassy in a second day of protests against NATO's bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia.



One year ago (2003):



The United States and its allies asked the UN Security Council to give its stamp of approval to their occupation of Iraq.



The Republican-led House approved 222-203 a $550 billion tax cut package.



Louisiana Democrat Russell B. Long, who greatly influenced tax laws during nearly four decades in the Senate, died at 84.



In Cleveland, a camouflage-clad gunman fired hundreds of rounds as he roamed the halls of Case Western Reserve University's business school, killing one person; suspect Biswanath Halder later pleaded innocent.



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Today's Birthdays:



CBS News correspondent Mike Wallace is 86.



Actor-writer Alan Bennett is 70.



Actor Albert Finney is 68.



Actress-turned-politician Glenda Jackson is 68.



Musician Sonny Curtis (Buddy Holly and the Crickets) is 67.



Producer-director James L. Brooks is 64.



Singer Tommy Roe is 62.



Singer-musician Richie Furay (Buffalo Springfield and Poco) is 60.



Actress Candice Bergen is 58.



Singer Clint Holmes is 58.



Actor Anthony Higgins is 57.



Singer Billy Joel is 55.



Rock singer-musician Tom Petersson (Cheap Trick) is 54.



Actress Alley Mills is 53.



Actor John Corbett is 43.



Singer Dave Gahan (Depeche Mode) is 42.



Rapper Ghostface Killah is 34.



Singer Tamia is 29.



Rock musician Dan Regan (Reel Big Fish) is 27.



Actress Rosario Dawson is 25.



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Thought for Today:

"A mother never realises that her children are no longer children." -

- Holbrook Jackson, British critic and historian (1874-1948 ).

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Today is Saturday, May 8th.

The 129th day of 2004.

There are 237 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On May 8, 1945, President Truman announced in a radio address that World War II had ended in Europe.



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On this date:



In 1429, During the Hundred Years' War, the siege of Orléans ends when French troops led by 17-year-old Joan of Arc drive the English from the city.



In 1541, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto reached the Mississippi River.



In 1618, Johannes Kepler announced his rules governing the motion of the planets.



In 1642, Paul de Chomedy de Maisonneuve founds and becomes the first governor of Ville-Marie, the first permanent European settlement in Canada and the future city of Montreal.



In 1794, the U.S. Post Office was established.



In 1794, Antoine Lavoisier, French scientist who is considered the founder of modern chemistry, is guillotined by the revolutionary authorities in Paris, France.



In 1846, The first major battle of the Mexican War was fought at Palo Alto, Texas, resulting in victory for Gen. Zachary Taylor's forces.



In 1847, Robert W. Thompson of England patented the rubber tire (first called "air wheels").



In 1866, Australian Rules Football is created



In 1877, the Westminister Dog Show was first held.



In 1884, The 33rd president of the United States, Harry S. Truman, was born near Lamar, Mo.



In 1886, Atlanta pharmacist John Styth Pemberton invented the flavor syrup for Coca-Cola.



In 1940, Actor/Singer Eric Hilliard "Ricky" Nelson (Ozzie & Harriet's son, David's brother, Tracy's dad, Kris Harmon's husband, Tom Harmon's son-in-law, Mark Harmon's brother-in-law) was born in Teaneck, NJ. He died December 31, 1985 at the age of 45.



In 1943, The Germans suppressed a revolt by Polish Jews and destroyed the Warsaw Ghetto.



In 1952, Mad Magazine debuts in newsstands. The face of Alfred E Neuman predates Mad Magazine by at least 50 years. He appeared often in the various EC publications before Mad was started. Originally he had no name, but writers occasionally attached some name to this ubiquitous face. Two names that were often used were Melvin Coznowski (multiple spellings) and Alfred E Neuman. Mad was originally a comic book. Though William Gaines was instrumental in the founding of the Comics Code Authority, he dropped out over a rule dispute. He dumped all of his comics except Mad, which he renamed Mad Magazine and changed to a not-quite-a-comic-book satirical format.



In 1953, President Eisenhower announced $60 million in military aid for the French effort in Vietnam.



In 1958, Vice President Nixon was shoved, stoned, booed and spat upon by anti-American protesters in Lima, Peru.



In 1962, The musical comedy "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" opened on Broadway.



In 1963, "Dr No" premieres in US



In 1967, World heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali is indicted for refusing to be inducted into the U.S. Army for religious reasons.



In 1970, Construction workers broke up an anti-war protest on New York's Wall Street.



In 1972, President Nixon orders the mining of Haiphong harbor and massive bombing raids over North Vietnam in an effort to force the communists to end the Vietnam War.



In 1973, Militant American Indians who'd held the South Dakota hamlet of Wounded Knee for 10 weeks surrendered.



In 1978, David R. Berkowitz pleaded guilty in a Brooklyn courtroom to the "Son of Sam" killings that had terrified New Yorkers.



In 1984, Joanie (Erin Moran) and Chachi (Scott Baio) got married on ABC-TV's "Happy Days."



In 1984, The Soviet Union announced it would not participate in the Summer Olympics planned for Los Angeles.



In 1985, "New Coke" was released to the public on the 99th anniversary of Coca-Cola.



In 1986, Reporters were told that 84,000 people had been evacuated from areas near the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Soviet Ukraine.



In 1987, Gary Hart, dogged by questions about his personal life, including his relationship with Miami model Donna Rice, withdrew from the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.



In 2002, FBI Director Robert Mueller told a Senate committee an FBI memo from Phoenix warning that several Arabs were suspiciously training at a U.S. aviation school wouldn't have led officials to the Sept. 11 hijackers even if they'd followed up the warning with more vigor.



Ten years ago (1994):



President Clinton announced a shift in U.S. policy toward Haitian refugees, saying there would be offshore screening of boat people seeking political asylum.



Actor George Peppard died at age 65.



Five years ago (1999):



NATO expressed regret for a mistaken attack on the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, but pledged to pursue the bombing campaign. Demonstrators in Beijing retaliated by throwing rocks and smashing cars at the U.S. Embassy.



The Citadel, South Carolina's formerly all-male military school, graduated its first female cadet, Nancy Ruth Mace.



British actor Sir Dirk Bogarde died in London at age 78.



One year ago (2003):



The Senate unanimously endorsed adding to NATO seven former communist nations: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.



A federal grand jury indicted Katrina Leung on charges that she'd illegally taken, copied and kept secret documents obtained from an FBI agent.



A Russian-built cargo plane lost a door over Congo, hurling more than 100 Congolese soldiers and their families to their deaths.



The Michigan Wolverines were barred from the next postseason and put on three and a-half years' probation by the NCAA for a booster's payments to players dating to the Fab Five era.



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Today's Birthdays:



Comedian Don Rickles is 78.



Environmentalist Sir David Attenborough is 78.



Author Peter Benchley is 64.



Singer John Fred (John Fred and His Playboy Band) is 63.



Actor James Mitchum is 63.



Country singer Jack Blanchard is 62.



Singer Toni Tennille is 61.



Jazz musician Keith Jarrett is 59.



Singer Philip Bailey (Earth, Wind and Fire) is 53.



Rock musician Chris Frantz (Talking Heads) is 53.



Rockabilly singer Billy Burnette is 51.



Rock musician Alex Van Halen is 51.



Actor David Keith is 50.



Actor Stephen Furst is 50.



Actress Melissa Gilbert is 40.



Rock musician Dave Rowntree (Blur) is 40.



Country musician Del Gray is 36.



Rock singer Darren Hayes is 32.



Singer Enrique Iglesias is 29.



Singer Ana Maria Lombo (Eden's Crush) is 26.



Actress Julia Whelan is 19.



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Thought for Today:

"What you see is news, what you know is background, what you feel is opinion." -

- Lester Markel, American editor (1894-1977).

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Today is Friday, May 7th.

The 128th day of 2004.

There are 238 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On May 7, 1915, nearly 1,200 people died when a German torpedo sank the British liner Lusitania off the Irish coast.



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On this date:



In 1429, The English siege of Orleans was broken by Joan of Arc.



In 1789, The first inaugural ball was held in New York in honor of President and Mrs. George Washington.



In 1800, The Northwest Territory is divided by law into two territories, the Ohio and the Indiana Territory.



In 1847, The American Medical Association was founded in Philadelphia.



In 1888, George Eastman patents "Kodak box camera"



In 1901, Actor Frank James "Gary" Cooper was born in Helena, MT. He died May 13, 1961 at the age of 59.



In 1913, British House of Commons rejects woman's right to vote



In 1928, England lowers age of women voters from 30 to 21



In 1934, The newly restored U.S.S. Constitution (Old Ironsides) is permanently berthed at Constitution Drydock in Boston.



In 1939, Germany and Italy announced a military and political alliance known as the Rome-Berlin Axis.



In 1940, Winston Churchill became British Prime Minister.



In 1942, In the Battle of the Coral Sea, Japanese and American navies attacked each other with carrier planes. It was the first time in the history of naval warfare where two enemy fleets fought without seeing each other.



In 1943, The last major German strongholds in North Africa, Tunis and Bizerte, fell to Allied forces.



In 1945, Germany signed an unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters in Rheims, France. It would take effect the next day.



In 1947, "Kraft Television Theater" premiered on NBC.



In 1954, The 55-day Battle of Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam ended with Vietnamese insurgents overrunning French forces.



In 1963, The United States launched the Telstar Two communications satellite.



In 1975, President Ford formally declared an end to the "Vietnam era." In Ho Chi Minh City -- formerly Saigon -- the Viet Cong celebrated its takeover.



In 1977, Seattle Slew won the Kentucky Derby, the first of its Triple Crown victories.



In 1984, A $180 million out-of-court settlement was announced in the Agent Orange class-action suit brought by Vietnam veterans who charged they'd suffered injury from exposure to the defoliant.



In 1992, A 203-year-old proposed constitutional amendment barring the U.S. Congress from giving itself a midterm pay raise was ratified as the 27th amendment.



In 1997, A report released by the U.S. government said that Switzerland provided Nazi Germany with equipment and credit during World War II. Germany exchanged for gold what had been plundered or stolen. Switzerland did not comply with postwar agreements to return the gold.



In 1998, Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, agreed to buy Chrysler Corporation for more than $37 billion.



In 1998, Residents of London voted to elect their own mayor for the first time in history. The vote would take place in May 2000.



In 2001, California electricity grid operators ordered statewide rolling power blackouts.



In 2002, Seattle Slew died in Lexington, Kentucky, at age 28.



Ten years ago (1994):



Norway's most famous painting, "The Scream" by Edvard Munch, was recovered almost three months after it was stolen from an Oslo museum.



Go For Gin won the 120th Kentucky Derby.



Five years ago (1999):



NATO jets struck the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, killing three people and injuring 20; President Clinton called the attack a "tragic mistake."



A jury in Pontiac, Mich., ordered "The Jenny Jones Show" to pay $25 million to the family of Scott Amedure, a gay man who was shot to death after revealing a crush on Jonathan Schmitz, a fellow guest on the talk show. (However, the Michigan Court of Appeals later overturned the award, and the Michigan Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal.)



One year ago (2003):



President Bush ordered U.S. sanctions against Iraq lifted, allowing U.S. humanitarian aid and remittances to flow into Iraq.



The White House announced President Bush had chosen New Mexico oilman Colin R. McMillan to be secretary of the Navy and Air Force Secretary James Roche to replace the dismissed secretary of the Army, Thomas White. (However, McMillan died an apparent suicide the following July, while Roche's nomination is being held up in Congress.)



Roger Moore collapsed during a matinee performance of the Broadway comedy "The Play What I Wrote." He finished the show after a 10-minute break. He was fitted with a pacemaker the following day.



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Today's Birthdays:



Actor Darren McGavin is 82.



Singer Teresa Brewer is 73.



Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) is 72.



Singer Jimmy Ruffin is 65.



Singer Johnny Maestro is 65.



Actress Robin Strasser is 59.



Singer-songwriter Bill Danoff is 58.



Rock musician Bill Kreutzmann (The Dead) is 58.



NBC newsman Tim Russert is 54.



Actor Robert Hegyes is 53.



Movie writer-director ("Fast Times at Ridgemont High") Amy Heckerling is 50.



Actor Michael E. Knight is 45.



Rock musician Phil Campbell (Motorhead) is 43.



Country musician Rick Schell (Pinmonkey) is 41.



Rock singer-musician Chris O'Connor (Primitive Radio Gods) is 39.



Actress Traci Lords (Nora Louise Kuzma) is 35.



Singer Eagle-Eye Cherry is 32.



Actor Breckin Meyer is 30.



Actor Taylor Abrahamse is 13.



Grandson Tyler Jacob "TJ" Roy is 11. (grandpa sent him a new e-Machine computer for his present)



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Thought for Today:

"Men tire themselves in pursuit of rest." -

- Laurence Sterne, English author (1713-1768 ).

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Today is Thursday, May 6th.

The 127th day of 2004.

There are 239 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On May 6, 1937, the hydrogen-filled German dirigible Hindenburg burned and crashed in Lakehurst, N.J., killing 35 of the 97 people on board and a Navy crewman on the ground.



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On this date:



In 1527, German troops began sacking Rome, bringing about the end of the Renaissance.



In 1626, Dutch settler Peter Minuit allegedly purchases what is now New York's Manhattan Island from Native Americans for goods worth $24.



In 1833, John Deere makes the 1st steel plow



In 1840, The first adhesive postage stamps, the Penny Black and the Twopenny Blue, went on sale in Britain.



In 1851, Linus Yale patents the Yale-lock



In 1856, Psychiatrist Sigmund Freud was born in Czechoslovakia. He died September 23, 1939 at the age of 83 in London.



In 1861, Arkansas seceded from the Union.



In 1877, The Sioux (Lakota) chief Crazy Horse surrenders and gives up all claim to Nebraska.



In 1882, Congress passed, over President Arthur's veto, the Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred Chinese immigrants from the U.S. for 10 years.



In 1889, The Paris Exposition formally opened, featuring the just-completed Eiffel Tower.



In 1890, The Mormon Church renounces polygamy



In 1895, Actor Rudolph Valentino (Rudolpho Alfonzo Rafaello Pietro Filiberto Guglieimi Di Valentino d'Antonguolla) was born in Castellaneta Italy. He died August 23, 1926 at the age of 31 in New York.



In 1906, a "Temporary" permit to erect overhead wires on Market Street is issued, allowing United Railroads to run electric streetcars in San Francisco.



In 1910, Britain's King Edward VII died. He was succeeded by his second son, George V.



In 1914, The British House of Lords rejects women suffrage



In 1915, Actor/Producer/Director Orson Welles was born in Kenosha, WI. He died Oct 10, 1985 at the age of 70 in Los Angeles CA.



In 1915, Boston Red Soxer Babe Ruth made his pitching debut and hit his first homerun, but loses to the New York Yankees 4-3 in 15



In 1935, The Works Progress Administration began operating.



In 1940, Pulitzer prize awarded to John Steinbeck (Grapes of Wrath)



In 1941, Joseph Stalin assumed the Soviet premiership.



In 1942, During World War II, some 15,000 Americans and Filipinos on Corregidor surrendered to the Japanese.



In 1950, U.S. President Harry Truman asked that Hawaii and Alaska be admitted as states in the interest of national security.



In 1950, Liz Taylor's 1st marriage (Conrad Hilton Jr)



In 1954, Medical student Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile during a track meet in Oxford, England, in 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds.



In 1957, Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy of Massachusetts was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his book "Profiles In Courage".



In 1957 Last broadcast of "I Love Lucy" on CBS-TV



In 1960, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1960.



In 1962, In the first test of its kind, the submerged submarine USS "Ethan Allen" fired a Polaris missile armed with a nuclear warhead that detonated above the Pacific Ocean.



In 1976, An earthquake struck the town of Udine in northern Italy, killing 973 people and leaving over 100,000 homeless.



In 1981, Yale architecture student Maya Ying Lin was named winner of a competition to design the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.



In 1987, CIA Director William J. Casey died at age 74.



In 1987, Democratic presidential candidate Gary Hart held a news conference in Hanover, New Hampshire, in which he denied ever having an affair with Miami model Donna Rice, but declined to say whether he'd ever committed adultery.



In 1996, The body of former CIA director William E. Colby was found washed up on a riverbank in southern Maryland, eight days after he'd disappeared.



In 1998, Astronomers announced the detection of a gamma ray burst in a galaxy 12 billion light years away that was equal to the energy expended by the sun in one trillion years.



In 2001, Chandra Levy's parents reported her missing to police in Washington, DC. Levy's body was found on May 22, 2002 in Rock Creek Park.



Ten years ago (1994):



Former Arkansas state worker Paula Jones filed suit against President Clinton, alleging he'd sexually harassed her in 1991. (Jones reached a settlement with Clinton in November 1998.)



Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and French President Francois Mitterrand formally opened the Channel Tunnel between their countries.



The House passed the assault weapons ban 216-214.



Five years ago (1999):



Russia and the major Western powers set aside their differences over NATO airstrikes and drafted a joint plan to end the Kosovo conflict.



President Clinton met with Kosovo refugees in Germany, listening to chilling stories of murder, rape and terror and promising them, "You will go home again in safety and in freedom."



Reversing decades of overwhelming loyalty to Britain's governing Labor Party, Scottish and Welsh voters elected strong nationalist oppositions to their first separate assemblies of modern times.



One year ago (2003):



Florida Senator Bob Graham launched his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination by accusing President Bush of retreating from the war on terrorism to "settle old scores" between the Bush family and Iraq's Saddam Hussein.



White House budget chief Mitchell Daniels announced his resignation.



Kmart Corporation emerged from bankruptcy after more than 15 months of Chapter 11 protection.



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



Today's Birthdays:



Baseball Hall-of-Famer Willie Mays is 73.



Senate Banking Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) is 70.



Rock singer Bob Seger is 59.



Singer Jimmie Dale Gilmore is 59.



Actor Ben Masters is 57.



Actor Gregg Henry is 52.



British Prime Minister Tony Blair is 51.



TV game show host Tom Bergeron is 49.



Rock singer John Flansburgh (They Might Be Giants) is 44.



Actor George Clooney is 43.



Actor Clay O'Brien is 43.



Actress Roma Downey is 41.



Rock singer-musician Tony Scalzo (Fastball) is 40.



Rock musician Mark Bryan (Hootie and the Blowfish) is 37.



Rock musician Chris Shiflett (Foo Fighters) is 33.



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Thought for Today:

"How glorious it is -- and also how painful -- to be an exception." -

- Alfred de Musset, French author (1810-1857).

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

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

Today is Wednesday, May 5th.

The 126th day of 2004.

There are 240 days left in the year.

Today is Cinco de Mayo

Today is Boy's Day



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Today's Highlight in History:



One hundred years ago, on May 5, 1904, Cy Young pitched the American League's first perfect game as the Boston Red Sox defeated the Philadelphia Athletics, 3-0.



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On this date:



In 1818, Philosopher Karl Marx (Communist Manifesto, Das Kapital), the founder of modern socialism and communism was born in Prussia. He died in London in 1883.



In 1821, Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile on the island of St. Helena.



In 1847, The American Medical Association was organized in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.



In 1862, Mexican forces loyal to Benito Juarez defeated French troops sent by Napoleon III in the Battle of Puebla.



In 1865, The Thirteenth Amendment was ratified, abolishing slavery in the U.S.



In 1912, The first issue of the Soviet Communist Party newspaper Pravda was published.



In 1914, Actor Tyrone Power was born. He died of a heart attack during the filming of a sword fight with George Sanders while making the film Solomon and Sheba in 1958. All his scenes in the film were reshot with actor Yul Brenner and the film was released in 1959.



In 1920, President Woodrow Wilson makes the Communist Labor Party illegal in the US.



In 1925, John T. Scopes was arrested in Tennessee for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution.



In 1925, My father J. R. "Bob" Kyle was born near St. Louis, MO. He died in 1988 at the age of 63.



In 1942, During World War II, Japanese forces landed on the Philippine island of Corregidor.



In 1942, Country singer Tammy Wynette (Virginia Wynette Pugh) was born in Red Bay, AL. She died April 6, 1998 at the age of 55.



In 1942, Sales of sugar resumed in the United States under a rationing program.



In 1945, In the only fatal attack of its kind during World War II, a Japanese balloon bomb exploded on Gearhart Mountain in Oregon, killing Elsie Mitchell, the pregnant wife of a minister, and five children who were on a picnic.



In 1948, The first air squadron of jets is stationed aboard an aircraft carrier.



In 1952, Pulitzer prize awarded to Herman Wouk (Caine Mutiny)



In 1955, West Germany became a sovereign state.



In 1955, The baseball musical "Damn Yankees" opened on Broadway at 46th St Theater NYC for 1022 performances.



In 1961, Astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. became America's first space traveler as he made a 15-minute sub-orbital flight in a capsule launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla.



In 1961, President John F. Kennedy signed the Fair Labor Standards Act. The act raised the minimum wage to $1.15 in September.



In 1964, Separatists riot in Québec



In 1965, The first large-scale U.S. Army ground units arrived in South Vietnam.



In 1980, A siege at the Iranian Embassy in London ended as British commandos, the troops of the SAS, and police stormed the building killing four of the five gunmen who took over the building.



In 1981, Irish Republican Army hunger-striker Bobby Sands died at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland in his 66th day without food. He is the first of 10 Irish Republican Army hunger strikers to die in a Belfast prison; they were protesting their treatment as criminals rather than political prisoners.



In 1989, A federal judge ordered sweeping changes in the FBI's promotion system, months after the judge found that the bureau had systematically discriminated against its Hispanic employees in advancements and assignments.



In 1997, "Married With Children" final episode on Fox TV



Ten years ago (1994):



Singapore caned American teen-ager Michael Fay for vandalism, a day after the sentence was reduced from six lashes to four in response to an appeal by President Clinton, who considered the punishment too harsh.



Five years ago (1994):



President Clinton began a morale-boosting trip to Europe that included a visit to Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where he met the three American soldiers just released by Yugoslavia.



The first Kosovo refugees brought to the United States, 453 of them, arrived at Fort Dix in New Jersey.



One year ago (2003):



Searchers using dogs and heavy equipment went from one crumbled home to another after tornado-packed storms flattened communities in four Midwestern states, killing 19 people.



In Colombia, a botched rescue attempt resulted in the deaths of a state governor, former defense minister and eight other hostages being held by rebels; three hostages survived.



Walter Sisulu, the quiet giant of South Africa's anti-apartheid struggle for five decades, died in Johannesburg at age 90.



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



Today's Birthdays:



Actress Ann B. Davis is 78.



Actress Pat Carroll is 77.



Actor Will Hutchins (Marshall Lowell Hutchason)(Sugarfoot) is 72.



AFL-CIO president John J. Sweeney is 70.



Saxophonist Ace Cannon is 70.



Country singer-musician Roni Stoneman is 66.



Actor Michael Murphy is 66.



Actor Lance Henriksen is 64.



Comedian-actor Michael Palin is 61.



Actor Jean-Pierre Leaud is 60.



Actor John Rhys-Davies is 60.



Actor Roger Rees is 60.



Actor Richard E. Grant is 47.



Actress Lisa Eilbacher is 47.



Broadcast journalist John Miller is 46.



Rock singer Ian McCulloch (Echo and the Bunnymen) is 45.



NBC newscaster Brian Williams is 45.



Actress Tina Yothers is 31.



Singer Craig David is 23.



Actress Danielle Fishel is 23.



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Thought for Today:

"Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people." -

- Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, "father" of America's nuclear navy (1900-1986).

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

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

Today is Tuesday, May 4th.

The 125th day of 2004.

There are 241 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



One hundred years ago, on May 4, 1904, the United States began building the Panama Canal.



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



On this date:



In 1493, Line of Demarcation drawn; non-Christian world divided between Spain and Portugal by the Pope



In 1626, Dutch explorer Peter Minuit landed on present-day Manhattan Island.



In 1715, A French manufacturer debuts the first folding umbrella



In 1776, Rhode Island declared its freedom from England, two months before the Declaration of Independence was adopted.



In 1783, Herschel reports seeing a red glow near lunar crater Aristarchus



In 1839, The Cunard shipping line was founded by Samuel Cunard of Halifax, Nova Scotia.



In 1886, At Haymarket Square in Chicago, a labor demonstration for an eight-hour work day turned into a riot when a bomb exploded killing 5 police officers.



In 1906, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt warned the U.S. Congress that Standard Oil was in violation of antitrust laws.



In 1910, Canadian parliament accept creation of Royal Canadian Navy.



In 1922, KNX-AM in Los Angeles CA begins radio transmissions



In 1926, The first general strike in British history began. It was called by the Trades Union Congress and troops were called in to man essential services.



In 1927, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded.



In 1929, Elegant stage/movie actress Audrey Hepburn (Ruston-Ferrer-Dotti) was born in Brussels, Belgium. She died January 20, 1993 in Switzerland at the age of 63



In 1932, Mobster Al Capone, convicted of income-tax evasion, entered the federal penitentiary in Atlanta.



In 1942, The Battle of the Coral Sea, the first naval clash fought entirely with carrier aircraft, began during World War II.



In 1945, During World War II, German forces in the Netherlands, Denmark and northwest Germany agreed to surrender.



In 1946, A two-day riot at Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay ended, the violence having claimed the lives of five people.



In 1953, Pulitzer prize was awarded to Ernest Hemingway (Old Man & The Sea).



In 1959, 1st Grammy Awards: Perry Como & Ella Fitzgerald win



In 1960, The birth control pill is approved by the FDA as a birth control device.



In 1961, A group of Freedom Riders left Washington for New Orleans to challenge racial segregation in interstate buses and bus terminals.



In 1964, The Pulitzer Prize jury failed, for the first time, to award winners in the areas of fiction, drama and music.



In 1968, McDonald's Big Mac Hamburger debuts.



In 1970, Ohio National Guard troops opened fire on a crowd of anti Vietnam war protestors at Kent State University, killing four students and wounding nine others. The incident inspiries Neil Young to compose "Ohio" which becomes a hit for Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Memorial services are held annually for Allison Krause, Sandra Lee Scheuer, Jeffrey Glenn Miller and William K. Schroeder on the Kent, Ohio campus.



In 1980, Marshal Josip Broz Tito, president of Yugoslavia, died three days before his 88th birthday.



In 1982, An Argentine jet fighter sank the British destroyer H.M.S. Sheffield during the Falkland Islands war using a French Exocet anti-ship missle.



In 1990, Latvia's Supreme Soviet (Parliament) became the third and last of the Baltic republics to vote in favor of a declaration of independence from the USSR.



In 1997, FBI director Louis Freeh indicated that "catastrophic mechanical failure" was the most likely cause of the crash of TWA Flight 800 the previous July.



In 2000, The "ILOVEYOU" e-mail virus infected computer networks and hard drives across the globe, spawning various imitations.



Ten years ago (1994):



Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat signed a historic accord on Palestinian autonomy that granted self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.



Five years ago (1999):



Work crews struggled to restore electricity across Serbia after NATO strikes on major power grids left Belgrade and other cities in the dark.



Five New York City police officers went on trial for the torture of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima. (One officer later pleaded guilty; a second was eventually convicted of perjury; the remaining three were acquitted of brutality charges. Two of those three were later convicted of conspiring to obstruct justice; those convictions were overturned.)



Tornadoes roared across the Plains for a second straight day.



One year ago (2003):



Tornadoes swept across the Midwest, causing death and destruction across a wide swath of eastern Kansas and nearby Missouri.



Police in Iraq's capital returned to work in force.



Pope John Paul II proclaimed five new saints before a crowd of 1 million people in Madrid.



Two American astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut ended up nearly 300 miles off course after returning from the international space station.



Idaho Gem was born. He was the first member of the horse family to be cloned.



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



Today's Birthdays:



The president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, is 76.



Jazz musician Maynard Ferguson is 76.



Opera singer Roberta Peters is 74.



Jazz musician Ron Carter is 67.



Rock musician Dick Dale is 67.



Singer Tyrone Davis is 66.



Singer-songwriter Nick Ashford is 62.



Actor Paul Gleason is 60.



Pop singer Peggy Santiglia (The Angels) is 60.



Country singer Stella Parton is 55.



Actor-turned-clergyman Hilly Hicks is 54.



Singer Jackie Jackson (The Jacksons) is 53.



Country singer Randy Travis is 45.



Actress Mary McDonough is 43.



Comedian Ana Gasteyer is 37.



Rock musician Mike Dirnt (Green Day) is 32.



Rock musician Jose Castellanos is 27.



Singer Lance Bass ('N Sync) is 25.



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Thought for Today:

"Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime; therefore, we must be saved by hope." -

- Reinhold Niebuhr, American theologian (1892-1971).

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

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

Today is Monday, May 3rd.

The 124th day of 2004.

There are 242 days left in the year.



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



Today's Highlight in History:



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



Twenty-five years ago, on May 3, 1979, Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher was chosen to become Britain's first female prime minister as the Tories ousted the incumbent Labor government in parliamentary elections.



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



On this date:



In 1649, 1st American law to regulate the practice of medicine passed in New York.



In 1654, America's first toll bridge was erected at Rowley, Massachusetts over the Newbury River. It was permitted to charge a toll for animals, while people crossed for free.



In 1802, Washington, D.C., was incorporated as a city.



In 1841, New Zealand is proclaimed a British colony.



In 1903, Singer Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was born in Tacoma, WA. He died in Madrid, Spain on October 14, 1977 at the age of 74.



In 1916, Irish nationalist Padraic Pearse and two others were executed by the British for their roles in the Easter Rising.



In 1921, West Virginia imposed the first state sales tax.



In 1933, Nellie T. Ross became the first female director of the U.S. Mint.



In 1934, Dell becomes the first publisher to offer comic books for sale to the public "Famous Funnies".



In 1937, Margaret Mitchell won a Pulitzer Prize for her novel, "Gone With the Wind"



In 1944, U.S. wartime rationing of most grades of meats ended.



In 1945, Indian forces captured Rangoon, Burma, from the Japanese.



In 1947, Japan introduces a new constitution, in which women vote for the first time.



In 1948, The Supreme Court ruled that covenants prohibiting the sale of real estate to blacks or members of other racial groups were legally unenforceable.



In 1963, "Police Brutality in Birmingham" Peacefully protesting segregation in local stores and restaurants, a group of more than 1,000 blacks, led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., marched through this Alabama city. They were met with unprovoked and terrifying violence by the Birmingham police, goaded on by Commissioner "Bull" Connor. First, attack dogs were set loose on the protesters, then the marchers were blasted with fire hoses shooting water at 100 p.s.i., enough force to knock bark off trees. The evening news programs on all three networks showed extensive footage of the appalling police response. The broadcasts awakened the nation to the barbarity being committed in the name of racial segregation and added considerable impetus to the civil rights movement.



In 1965, Cambodia drops diplomatic relations with the US.



In 1965, 1st use of satellite TV, Today Show on the Early Bird Satellite



In 1965, KTCI TV channel 17 in St Paul-Minneapolis MN (PBS) 1st broadcast



In 1971, Anti-war protesters began four days of demonstrations in Washington, D.C. aimed at shutting down the nation's capital. Nixon administration arrests 13,000 anti-war protesters in 3 days.



In 1971, National Public Radio (NPR) began its programming.



In 1978, "Sun Day" fell on a Wednesday as thousands of people extolling the virtues of solar energy held events across the country.



In 1986, In NASA 's first post-Challenger launch, an unmanned Delta rocket lost power in its main engine shortly after liftoff, forcing safety officers to destroy it by remote control.



In 1988, The White House acknowledged that first lady Nancy Reagan had used astrological advice to help schedule her husband's activities.



In 1991, The final episode of "Dallas" aired on CBS.



In 2000, The trial of two Libyans accused of killing 270 people in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 (over Lockerbie) opened.



Ten years ago (1994):



President Clinton presided over a televised forum from Atlanta, during which he denied suggestions he'd vacillated on foreign policy, but said global problems were more difficult than he'd imagined.



Five years ago (1999):



Tornadoes roared across Oklahoma and Kansas, killing at least three dozen people and injuring hundreds.



The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 11,000, just 24 trading days after passing 10,000.



Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi met with President Clinton at the White House during the first official U.S. visit by a Japanese premier in 12 years.



One year ago (2003):



President Bush told a news conference in Crawford, Texas, it was a matter of when - not if - weapons of mass destruction would be found in Iraq.



Pope John Paul II urged hundreds of thousands of young people outside Madrid to be "artisans of peace."



New Hampshire awoke to find its granite symbol of independence and stubbornness, the "Old Man of the Mountain", had collapsed into rubble.



Funny Cide rolled to victory in the Kentucky Derby.



Model and actress Suzy Parker died in Montecito, Calif., at age 69.



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



Today's Birthdays:



Broadway librettist Betty Comden is 85.



Folk singer Pete Seeger is 85.



Singer James Brown is 71.



Singer Engelbert Humperdinck is 68.



Sports announcer Greg Gumbel is 58.



Singer Frankie Valli is 67.



Singer Christopher Cross is 53.



Country musician Cactus Moser (Highway 101) is 47.



Rock musician David Ball (Soft Cell) is 45.



Country singer Shane Minor is 36.



Country singer Brad Martin is 31.



Actor Dule Hill is 29.



Actress Jill Berard is 14.



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Thought for Today:

"Nostalgia isn't what it used to be." -

- Peter De Vries, American author

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

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

Today is Sunday, May 2nd.

The 123rd day of 2004.

There are 243 days left in the year.



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



Today's Highlight in History:



On May 2, 1863, Confederate Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was accidentally wounded by his own men at Chancellorsville, Va.; he died eight days later.



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



On this date:



In 1507, Two years after entering the Augustinian monastery at Erfurt, future German reformer Martin Luther, 23, was consecrated a priest. (Luther remained in the order until 1521, when he was excommunicated from the Catholic Church.)



In 1519, Artist Leonardo da Vinci died at Cloux, France.



In 1670, The Hudson Bay Company was chartered by England's King Charles II.



In 1776, France & Spain agree to donate arms to American rebels



In 1780, William Herschel discovers the first binary star, Xi Ursae Majoris.



In 1798, The black General Toussaint L’ouverture forced British troops to agree to evacuate the port of Santo Domingo.



In 1865, The first fire department with paid firemen is established in New York City by an act of the state legislature.



In 1865, President Andrew Johnson offered $100,000 reward for the capture of former CSA President Jefferson Davis.



In 1885, "Good Housekeeping" magazine was first published by Clark W. Bryan in Holyoke, Massachusetts.



In 1887, Hannibal W Goodwin patents celluloid photographic film



In 1890, The Oklahoma Territory was organized.



In 1902, The 1st science fiction film, "A Trip To The Moon", is released



In 1903, Doctor/Author/Activist Benjamin McLane Spockwas born in New Haven, CT. He died March 15, 1998 at the age of 94.



In 1926, U.S. Marines landed in Nicaragua to put down a revolt and to protect U.S. interests. They did not depart until 1933.



In 1932, Jack Benny's first radio show made its debut on the NBC "Blue" Network.



In 1932, Pulitzer prize awarded to Pearl S Buck (The Good Earth)



In 1936, "Peter and the Wolf," a symphonic tale for children by Sergei Prokofiev, had its world premiere in Moscow.



In 1937, Actor/Comedian Lorenzo Music ("Rhoda"'s Carlton the doorman, the voice of Garfield the cat) was born. He died August 4, 2001 at the age of 64



In 1938, Pulitzer prize awarded to Thornton Wilder (Our Town).



In 1939, Lou Gehrig set a new major-league baseball record when he played in his 2,130th game.



In 1941, FCC approves regular scheduled commercial TV broadcasts to begin July 1



In 1944, Ted Williams was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marine Air Corps and was awarded his wings.



In 1944, WABD (WNEW, now WNYW) TV channel 5 in New York NY (DUM/MET/FOX) 1st broadcast



In 1945, The Soviet Union announced the fall of Berlin, and the Allies announced the surrender of Nazi troops in Italy and parts of Austria.



In 1946, Prisoners revolted at California's Alcatraz prison.



In 1949, Pulitzer prize awarded to Arthur Miller (Death of a salesman).



In 1952, Ted Williams again reported for active duty as a Marine fighter pilot.



In 1955, Tennessee Williams won a Pulitzer prize for "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."



In 1955, WGBH TV channel 2 in Boston MA (PBS) begins broadcasting



In 1957, Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, the controversial Republican senator from Wisconsin, died at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland.



In 1960, Convicted sex offender and best-selling author Caryl Chessman was executed at San Quentin Prison in California.



In 1963, Peter, Paul and Mary performed "Puff the Magic Dragon" on American Bandstand.



In 1965, The Early Bird satellite was used to transmit television pictures across the Atlantic.



In 1969, The British passenger liner Queen Elizabeth 2, left on her maiden voyage to New York.



In 1970, Student anti-war protesters at Ohio's Kent State University burn down the campus ROTC building. The National Guard took control of the campus.



In 1972, After serving 48 years as head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover died in Washington at age 77.



In 1974, Former Vice President Spiro T. Agnew was disbarred by the Maryland Court of Appeals, effectively preventing him from practicing law anywhere in the United States.



In 1975, Apple Records closes down



In 1977, The nation's first major anti-nuclear protest is staged at the Seabrook Facility in New Hampshire.



In 1981 Radio Shack re-releases Model III TRSDOS 1.3 with 2 fixes



In 1982, In the Falklands War, the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano was sunk by the British submarine Conqueror; more than 350 men were killed.



In 1983, A 6.7 earthquake injures 487 in Coalinga CA



In 1986, Soviet official Boris N. Yeltsin told West German television that water reservoirs near the crippled Chernobyl nuclear power plant were contaminated with radioactivity.



In 1996, President Clinton vetoed a cap on punitive damage awards.



In 1997, Police arrest transsexual hooker Atisone Seiuli with Eddie Murphy



In 1997, Tony Blair became Britain's youngest prime minister in 185 years. He was 44 years old.



In 1998, In separate radio addresses, President Clinton and congressional Republicans lambasted the Internal Revenue Service and promised more reforms to prevent abuses of the tax-collecting agency in the future.



Ten years ago (1994):



Nelson Mandela claimed victory in the wake of South Africa's first democratic elections; President F.W. de Klerk acknowledged defeat.



Five years ago (1999):



Yugoslav authorities handed over to the Rev. Jesse Jackson three American prisoners of war who'd been held for a month.



Actor Oliver Reed died in Malta at age 61.



One year ago (2003):



A federal court struck down most of the new campaign finance law's ban on the use of large corporate and union contributions by political parties. (However, the Supreme Court later ruled that rooting out corruption, or even the appearance of it, justified limitations on the free speech and free spending of contributors, candidates and political parties.)



India and Pakistan agreed to hold talks on settling a half-century of disputes that had drawn them into three wars.



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Today's Birthdays:



Actor Theodore Bikel is 80.



Actor Roscoe Lee Browne is 79.



Rock musician Link Wray is 75.



Bianca Jagger is 59.



Country singer R.C. Bannon is 59.



Singer Lesley Gore is 58.



Singer-songwriter Larry Gatlin is 56.



Rock singer Lou Gramm (Foreigner) is 54.



Actress Christine Baranski is 52.



Singer Angela Bofill is 50.



Actress Elizabeth Berridge is 42.



Country singer Ty Herndon is 42.



Rock musician Todd Sucherman (Styx) is 35.



Wrestler-actor The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) is 32.



Actress Jenna Von Oy is 27.



Olympic gold medal figure skater Sarah Hughes is 19.



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Thought for Today:

"What experience and history teach is this: that people and governments have never learned anything from history." -

- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, German philosopher (1770-1831).

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

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

Today is Saturday, May 1st.

The 122nd day of 2004.

There are 244 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On May 1, 1960, the Soviet Union shot down an American U-2 reconnaissance plane near Sverdlovsk and captured its pilot, Francis Gary Powers.



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



On this date:



In 1704, The Boston Newsletter published the first newspaper ad.



In 1707, The Act of Union unites England, Wales and Scotland as the United Kingdom of Great Britain; the countries adopt a single flag, the Union Jack.



In 1784, New York University is established.



In 1786, Mozart's opera "The Marriage of Figaro" premiered in Vienna.



In 1794, The first trade union in America is formed -- the Federal Society of Journeymen Cordwainers -- (shoemakers).



In 1815, Georgetown University is founded in Washington, D.C.



In 1844, Samuel Morse sends 1st telegraphic message



In 1852, Adventurer "Calamity Jane" (Martha Jane Canary Burke) was born. She died August 1, 1903 at the age of 51.



In 1869, The "Folies-Bergère" opens in Paris France



In 1883 "Buffalo Bill" Cody put on his 1st Wild West Show



In 1884, Construction began in Chicago on the first skyscraper (the first steel skeleton construction), the ten-story Home Insurance Company of New York.



In 1889, Bayer introduces aspirin in powder form (Germany).



In 1893, The World's Columbian Exposition was officially opened in Chicago by President Cleveland.



In 1898, Commodore George Dewey gave the command, "You may fire when you are ready, Gridley," as an American naval force destroyed a Spanish fleet in Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War.



In 1912, The Beverly Hills Hotel opened.



In 1915, The liner Lusitania left New York on the same day the German Embassy took out advertisements warning anyone traveling on ships carrying a British flag that they did so at their own risk. It was sunk six days later with the loss of 1,198 lives.



In 1918, Tv host Jack Paar was born Canton, OH. He died January 27, 2004 at the age of 85.



In 1927, Adolf Hitler held his first Nazi meeting in Berlin. 17 years and 364 days later he commits suicide as the Soviet Russian Army enters Berlin.



In 1928, "Lei Day" is first observed (a Hawaiian celebration).



In 1931, New York's 102-story Empire State Building was dedicated.



In 1931, Singer Kate Smith began her long-running radio program on CBS.



In 1935, Boulder Dam was finished after 4 years and 354 days.



In 1937, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt signed an act of neutrality, keeping the United States out of World War II.



In 1941, The Orson Welles motion picture "Citizen Kane" premiered in New York.



In 1941, The cereal Cheerios was introduced by General Mills.



In 1943, Food rationing began in the U.S.



In 1944,The Messerschmitt Me-262 Sturmvogel, the first operational jet aircraft (twin-jet fighter), makes its 1st flight



In 1945, Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels committed suicide.



In 1959, West Germany introduced the 5 day work week.



In 1961, A Delta airliner destined for Miami became the first plane to be hijacked to Cuba by an armed gunman.



In 1963, Lesley Gore performed "It's My Party" on "American Bandstand."



In 1964, First BASIC program run on a computer (Dartmouth).



In 1967, Elvis Presley married Priscilla Beaulieu in Las Vegas. (They divorced in 1973.)



In 1970, Students at Kent State University riot in downtown Kent, OH, in protest of the American invasion of Cambodia.



In 1971, Amtrak — which combined and streamlined the operations of 18 intercity passenger railroads — went into service.



In 1973, In Washington, DC, it was reported that there was evidence of a Watergate cover-up by top Nixon aides.



In 1975, Smokey the Bear retires after 25 years of public service.



In 1978, Ernest Morial was inaugurated as the first black mayor of New Orleans.



In 1981, Radio Shack releases Model III TRSDOS 1.3.



In 1988, The final episode of "Magnum, p.i." aired.



In 1988, "Newsweek" magazine reported that, according to a memoir by former White House chief of staff Donald Regan, astrology had influenced the planning of President Reagan's schedule.



In 1992, President Bush ordered 4,000 military troops into the riot-ravaged streets of Los Angeles.



In 1998, Eldridge Cleaver, the fiery Black Panther leader who later renounced his past and became a Republican, died in Pomona, Calif., at age 62.



In 2001, In Washington, DC, Chandra Levy disappeared. She was an intern at the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. California Representative Gary Condit was named in the investigation. Her body was found on May 22, 2002 in Rock Creek Park.



Ten years ago (1994):



Israeli and PLO delegates opened a final round of talks in Cairo, Egypt, on Palestinian autonomy prior to the signing of an agreement on self-rule.



Five years ago (1999):



Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic agreed to hand over three captured U.S. soldiers to the Reverend Jesse Jackson.



Despite protests, the National Rifle Association held its annual meeting in Denver 11 days after the Columbine shootings.



The "Liberty Bell Seven," the Mercury space capsule flown by Gus Grissom, was found in the Atlantic 300 miles southeast of Cape Canaveral, 38 years after it sank.



An amphibious boat (known as a "duck") sank at Hot Springs, Ark., killing 13.



"Charismatic," a 30-1 shot, charged to victory in the 125th Kentucky Derby.



One year ago (2003):



In Fallujah, Iraq, seven U.S. Army soldiers were injured when attackers threw two grenades into a compound. The attack occurred just hours after American fired on Iraqi protesters in the street outside after they received fire.



President Bush, speaking to the nation from the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln off the Southern California coast, declared major combat in Iraq over, but also said "difficult work" remained ahead.



A magnitude 6.4 earthquake killed 177 people in Turkey.



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Today's Birthdays:



Actor Glenn Ford is 88.



Actor Dan O'Herlihy is 85.



Comedian Louis Nye (Nyestadt) is 82.



Former astronaut ("Aurora 7") Malcolm Scott Carpenter is 79.



Country singer Sonny James is 75.



Jazz singer Shirley Horn is 70.



Singer Judy Collins is 65.



Actor Stephen Macht is 62.



Singer Rita Coolidge is 59.



Actor-director Douglas Barr is 55.



Actor Dann Florek is 53.



Singer-songwriter Ray Parker Junior is 50.



Hall of Fame jockey Steve Cauthen is 44.



Actress Maia Morgenstern ("The Passion of the Christ") is 42.



Country singer Wayne Hancock is 39.



Rock musician Johnny Colt is 38.



Actor Charlie Schlatter is 38.



Country singer Tim McGraw is 37.



Rock musician D'Arcy is 36.



Country singer Cory Morrow is 32.



Actor Darius McCrary is 28.



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Thought for Today:

"Think much, speak little, and write less." -

- Italian proverb.

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Today is Friday, April 30th.

The 121st day of 2004.

There are 245 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



One hundred years ago, on April 30th, 1904, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition opened in St. Louis as President Theodore Roosevelt pressed a telegraph key at the White House to signal the official start of the world's fair commemorating the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase, albeit a year late. (The fair drew some 20 million visitors before it closed the following December.)



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On this date:



In 1006, The brightest supernova in recorded history is observed.



In 1789, George Washington took office in New York as the first president of the United States.



In 1798, The U.S. Department of the Navy was established.



In 1803, The United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France for 60 million francs, the equivalent of about $15 million.



In 1812, Louisiana became the 18th state of the Union.



In 1864, New York became the first state to charge a hunting license fee.



In 1885, The Boston Pops Orchestra is formed.



In 1900, Engineer John Luther "Casey" Jones of the Illinois Central Railroad died in a wreck near Vaughan, Miss., after staying at the controls in an effort to save the passengers.



In 1900, Hawaii was organized as a U.S. territory.



In 1904, 100 years ago, the ice cream cone made its debut.



In 1912, Actress Eve Arden (Eunice Quedens) was born in Mill Valley, CA. She died November 12, 1990 at the age of 78.



In 1931, The George Washington Bridge, linking New York City and New Jersey, opened.



In 1939, The New York World's Fair officially opened.



In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first U.S. president to appear on television when he was televised at the New York World's Fair.



In 1943, The British submarine HMS Seraph dropped 'the man who never was,' a dead man the British planted with false invasion plans, into the Mediterranean off the coast of Spain.



In 1945, As Russian troops approached his Berlin bunker, Adolf Hitler committed suicide along with his wife of one day, Eva Braun.



In 1947, President Truman signed a measure officially changing the name of Boulder Dam to Hoover Dam.



In 1952, Mr Potato Head is the 1st toy to be advertised on television



In 1961, The 1st shuttle flights between Washington DC, Boston MA & New York NY begin (Eastern Airlines)



In 1962, NASA civilian pilot Joseph A Walker takes X-15 to an altitude of 75,190 meters (246,683 feet/ 46.72 miles).



In 1964, The FCC ruled that all TV receivers should be equipped to receive both VHF and UHF channels.



In 1969, WEDB TV channel 40 in Berlin NH (PBS) begins broadcasting



In 1970, President Nixon announced the U.S. was sending troops into Cambodia, an action that sparked widespread protest.



In 1973, President Nixon announced the resignations of top aides H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, along with Attorney General Richard G. Kleindienst and White House counsel John Dean.



In 1975, The South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to Communist forces as President Duong Van Minh announced an unconditional surrender. The communists occupied Saigon and re-named it Ho Chi Minh City. The Vietnam War came to an halt.



In 1988, The largest banana split ever, at 4.55 miles long, is made in Selinsgrove PA



In 1991, In Bangladesh a cyclone (hurricane) kills over 131,000 and leaves 9 million homeless



In 1992, The final episode of "The Cosby Show" aired on NBC.



In 1995, President Clinton announced he would end U.S. trade and investment with Iran, denouncing the Tehran government as "inspiration and paymaster to terrorists."



In 1997, The television series "Ellen" made TV history when its lead character "came out" as a lesbian.



In 1998, A man set himself on fire and shot himself to death on a Los Angeles area freeway in a scene captured on live television.



In 2001, The world's first space "tourist", California businessman Dennis Tito, arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.



Ten years ago (1994):



The counting of ballots began in South Africa's first all-race elections.



Some 100,000 men, women and children fleeing ethnic slaughter in Rwanda crossed into neighboring Tanzania.



Five years ago (1999):



A bomb exploded at a gay pub in London, killing three people and injuring more than 70.



The Reverend Jesse Jackson met with three U.S. soldiers being held prisoner by Yugoslavia.



One year ago (2003):



International mediators presented Israeli and Palestinian leaders with a new Middle East "road map," a U.S.-backed blueprint for ending 31 months of violence and establishing a Palestinian state. Mahmoud Abbas took office as Palestinian prime minister.



The U.S. Navy withdrew from its disputed Vieques bombing range in Puerto Rico, prompting celebrations by islanders.



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Today's Birthdays:



Actor Al Lewis (The Munsters' "Grandpa Munster", Car 54 Where Are You?'s "Off. Leo Schnauser") is 94.



Actress Cloris Leachman is 78.



Singer Willie Nelson is 71.



Actor Gary Collins is 66.



Actor Burt Young is 64.



Singer Bobby Vee is 61.



Actress Jill Clayburgh is 60.



King of Sweden Carl XVI Gustav is 58.



Movie director Allan Arkush is 56.



Actor Perry King is 56.



Singer Merrill Osmond is 51.



Movie director Jane Campion is 50.



Actor Paul Gross is 45.



Basketball executive Isiah Thomas is 43.



Country musician Robert Reynolds (The Mavericks) is 42.



Rapper Turbo B (Snap) is 37.



Rock musician Clark Vogeler is 35.



Rhythm and blues singer Chris "Choc" Dalyrimple (Soul For Real) is 33.



Rock musician Chris Henderson (3 Doors Down) is 33.



Country singer Carolyn Dawn Johnson is 33.



Rock singer J.R. Richards (Dishwalla) is 32.



Rhythm and blues singer Jeff Timmons (98 Degrees) is 31.



Actor Johnny Galecki is 29.



Actress Kirsten Dunst is 22.



Country singer Tyler Wilkinson (The Wilkinsons) is 20.



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Thought for Today:

"More persons, on the whole, are humbugged by believing nothing, than by believing too much." -

- P.T. Barnum, American showman (1810-1891).

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Today is Thursday, April 29th.

The 120th day of 2004.

There are 246 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On April 29, 1945, during World War II, American soldiers liberated the Dachau concentration camp; that same day, Adolf Hitler married Eva Braun and designated Admiral Karl Doenitz his successor.



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On this date:



In 1289, Qala'un, the Sultan of Egypt, captured Tripoli.



In 1429, Joan of Arc entered the besieged city of Orleans to lead a victory over the English.



In 1707, English/Scottish parliament accept Act of Union, form Great Britain



In 1852, First edition of Peter Roget's Thesaurus published.



In 1861, Maryland's House of Delegates voted against seceding from the Union.



In 1862, New Orleans fell to Union forces during the Civil War.



In 1863, Publisher, Editor, Journalist William Randolph Hearst was born in San Francisco, CA. He was a twin. He died August 14, 1951 in Beverly Hills, CA at the age of 88.



In 1885, Women were admitted for the first time to examinations at England's Oxford University.



In 1899, Jazz Musician, Jazz Pianist, Bandleader, Composer, Arranger Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was born in Washington, DC. He died May 24, 1974 at the age of75.



In 1909, TV/Movie/Stage Actor Tom Ewell (S. Yewell Tompkins) was born in Owensboro, KY. He died September 12, 1994 at the age of 85.



In 1916, The Easter Rising in Dublin collapsed as Irish nationalists surrendered to British authorities.



In 1928, Turkey announced a 15-year plan to change its language from Arabic to English.



In 1939, The Whitestone bridge connecting the Bronx & Queens opened.



In 1946, 28 former Japanese leaders were indicted as war criminals.



In 1957, The first military nuclear power plant was dedicated in Fort Belvoir, Virginia.



In 1960, Dick Clark told the U.S. House of Representatives that he had never taken payola for the records he featured on his show "American Bandstand."



In 1961, ABC's "Wide World of Sports", debuts



In 1971, Salyut 1, the world's First space station, was launched into earth orbit



In 1974, President Nixon announced he was releasing edited transcripts of some secretly made White House tape recordings related to Watergate.



In 1975, The U.S. embassy in Vietnam was evacuated as North Vietnamese forces fought their way into Saigon.



In 1979, The final episode of "Battlestar Galactica" was aired on ABC.



In 1980, British-born director Alfred Hitchcock, best known for psychological suspense films such as Psycho, dies at 80.



In 1983, Harold Washington was sworn in as the first black mayor of Chicago.



In 1984, Britain announces that its administration of Hong Kong will cease in 1997, when it will return the colony to China.



In 1986, The Soviet Union appealed to the West for help in fighting a reactor fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant that had sent a radioactive cloud across northeastern Europe.



In 1990, Wrecking cranes began tearing down the section of the Berlin Wall surrounding the Brandenburg Gate, the wall's most famous section.



In 1992, Deadly rioting erupted in Los Angeles after a jury in Simi Valley, Calif., acquitted four Los Angeles police officers of almost all state charges in the videotaped beating of Rodney King.



In 1996, Former CIA Director William Colby was presumed drowned by authorities in Maryland after an apparent boating accident; his body was later recovered.



In 1997, A worldwide treaty to ban chemical weapons went into effect.



In 1998, The United States, Canada, and Mexico agreed to eliminate tariffs on items accounting for $1 billion in trade at a meeting in Paris of the North American Free Trade Agreement.



In 2000, Tens of thousands of angry Cuban-Americans marched peacefully through Miami's Little Havana, protesting the raid in which armed federal agents yanked six-year-old Elian Gonzalez from the home of relatives.



Ten years ago (1994):



Hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the terror of ethnic massacres in Rwanda were pouring into Tanzania.



Israel and the PLO signed an agreement in Paris granting Palestinians broad authority to set taxes, control trade and regulate banks under self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.



Five years ago (1999):



Yugoslavia filed World Court cases against 10 alliance members, including the United States, claiming their bombing campaign breached international law.



The Reverend Jesse Jackson arrived in Belgrade on a mission to win freedom for three American POWs held by Yugoslavia.



One year ago (2003):



The Palestinian parliament approved Mahmoud Abbas as prime minister, clearing the final obstacle to the launch of a U.S.-backed "road map" to peace.



Pakistani authorities captured Waleed bin Attash, accused of playing a leading role in the Sept. 11 attacks.



Mr. T (Laurence Tureaud) filed a lawsuit against Best Buy Co. Inc., that claimed the store did not have permission to sue his likeness in a print ad.



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Today's Birthdays:



Actress Celeste Holm is 85.



Rhythm and blues singer Carl Gardner (The Coasters) is 76.



Poet Rod McKuen is 71.



Actor Keith Baxter is 71.



Bluesman Otis Rush is 70.



Conductor Zubin Mehta is 68.



Actor Lane Smith is 68.



Country singer Duane Allen (The Oak Ridge Boys) is 61.



Singer Tommy James is 57.



Movie director Phillip Noyce is 54.



Country musician Wayne Secrest (Confederate Railroad) is 54.



Comedian Jerry Seinfeld is 50.



Actress Kate Mulgrew is 49.



Actor Daniel Day-Lewis is 47.



Actress Michelle Pfeiffer is 46.



Actress Eve Plumb is 46.



Rock musician Phil King is 44.



Country singer Stephanie Bentley is 41.



Singer Carnie Wilson (Wilson Phillips) is 36.



Actress Uma Thurman is 34.



Tennis player Andre Agassi is 34.



Rapper Master P is 34.



Country singer James Bonamy is 32.



Rock musician Mike Hogan (The Cranberries) is 31.



Pop singer Jo O'Meara (S Club 7) is 25.



Actor Zane Carney is 19.



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Thought for Today:

"News is history shot on the wing." -

- Gene Fowler, American journalist (1890-1960).

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