Paradise Driver

Friday, November 28, 2008

"Let's all be careful out there!"

Today is Thursday, Nov. 27, the 332nd day of 2008.
There are 34 days left in the year.
This is Thanksgiving Day.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Nov. 27, 1978, San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk, a gay-rights activist, were shot to death inside City Hall by former supervisor Dan White.

On this date:

In 1701, astronomer Anders Celsius, inventor of the Celsius temperature scale, was born in Uppsala, Sweden.
In 1901, the U.S. Army War College was established in Washington, D.C.
In 1910, the Pennsylvania Railroad began regularly serving New York's Pennsylvania Station.
In 1942, during World War II, the French navy at Toulon scuttled its ships and submarines to keep them out of the hands of German troops.
In 1953, playwright Eugene O'Neill died in Boston at age 65.
In 1970, Pope Paul VI, visiting the Philippines, was slightly wounded at the Manila airport by a dagger-wielding Bolivian painter disguised as a priest.
In 1973, the Senate voted 92-3 to confirm Gerald R. Ford as vice president, succeeding Spiro T. Agnew, who'd resigned.
In 1983, 181 people were killed when a Colombian Avianca Airlines Boeing 747 crashed near Madrid's Barajas airport.
In 1988, actor John Carradine, known for his roles in horror films, died in Milan, Italy, at age 82.
In 1989, a bomb blamed on drug traffickers destroyed a Colombian Avianca Boeing 727, killing all 107 people on board and three people on the ground.

Ten years ago:

Answering 81 questions put to him three weeks earlier, President Clinton wrote the House Judiciary Committee that his testimony in the Monica Lewinsky affair was "not false and misleading."

Five years ago:

President Bush flew to Iraq under extraordinary secrecy and security to spend Thanksgiving with U.S. troops and thank them for "defending the American people from danger."

One year ago:

Israeli and Palestinian leaders at a Mideast conference in Annapolis, Md., agreed to formally restart peace talks.
A Somali immigrant, Nuradin Abdi, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for plotting to blow up an Ohio shopping mall.
Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor died after being shot in his Florida home by an intruder.
Bill Willis, a Hall of Fame guard with the Cleveland Browns and Ohio State's first black football All-American, died in Columbus, Ohio, at age 86.
Dr. J. Robert Cade, inventor of Gatorade, died at age 80.

Today's Birthdays:

Thought for Today:

"Who does not thank for little will not thank for much."
Estonian proverb.

"Let's all be careful out there!"

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

"Let's all be careful out there!"

Today is Wednesday, Nov. 26, the 331st day of 2008.
There are 35 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

Nov. 26, 1789, was a day of thanksgiving set aside by President Washington to observe the adoption of the Constitution of the United States.

On this date:

In 1825, the first college social fraternity, Kappa Alpha, was formed at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y.
In 1883, former slave and abolitionist Sojourner Truth died in Battle Creek, Mich.
In 1933, a judge in New York decided the James Joyce book "Ulysses" was not obscene and could therefore be published in the United States.
In 1942, President Roosevelt ordered nationwide gasoline rationing, beginning Dec. 1.
In 1942, the motion picture "Casablanca," starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, had its world premiere at the Hollywood Theater in New York.
In 1943, during World War II, the HMT Rohna, a British transport ship carrying American soldiers, was hit by a German missile off Algeria; 1,138 men were killed.
In 1949, India adopted a constitution as a republic within the British Commonwealth.
In 1950, China entered the Korean War, launching a counteroffensive against soldiers from the United Nations, the U.S. and South Korea.
In 1965, France launched its first satellite, sending a 92-pound capsule into orbit.
In 1973, President Nixon's personal secretary, Rose Mary Woods, told a federal court that she'd accidentally caused part of the 18 1/2-minute gap in a key Watergate tape.

Ten years ago:

In the first speech ever by a British prime minister to an Irish parliament, Tony Blair predicted that Northern Ireland's troubled peace accord would ultimately work because of a strengthened cooperative spirit uniting Britain and Ireland.
In India, at least 211 people died when two trains collided in the northern state of Punjab.

Five years ago:

Human rights activist Gao Zhan, who was freed from a Chinese prison after the U.S. government interceded on her behalf, pleaded guilty in Alexandria, Va., to illegally selling American high-tech items with potential military uses to China. (Gao later received a reduced sentence of seven months in prison for her cooperation with authorities.)
Hard-liners defeated moderates in Northern Ireland's legislative elections.

One year ago:

President Bush met separately at the White House with the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority a day ahead of a major Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, Md.
Vice President Dick Cheney experienced an irregular heartbeat and was taken to George Washington University Hospital for evaluation.
President Bush greeted the 2007 Nobel Prize winners, including former Vice President Al Gore.
Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott announced his retirement after a 35-year career in Congress.
Washington Redskins star safety Sean Taylor was mortally wounded when he was shot during a botched armed robbery at his home in Palmetto Bay, Fla. (Taylor died the next day.)
Hall of Fame jockey Bill Hartack died in Freer, Texas, at age 74.

Today's Birthdays: