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Today is Tuesday, April 27th.

The 118th day of 2004.

There are 248 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On April 27, 1805, a force led by U.S. Marines captured the city of Derna, on the shores of Tripoli.



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On this date:



In 1509, Pope Julius II excommunicated the Italian state of Venice.



In 1521, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed by natives in the Philippines.



In 1565, The first Spanish settlement in Phillipines, Cebu City, was founded.



In 1773, The British Parliament passed the Tea Act



In 1813, Americans under Gen. Pike capture York (present-day Toronto), the seat of government in Ontario.



In 1822, The 18th president of the United States, Ulysses Simpson Grant, was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio.



In 1838, Fire destroys half of Charleston.



In 1850, The American-owned steamship "The Atlantic" began regular trans-Atlantic passenger service. It was the first U.S. vessel to challenge what had been a British monopoly.



In 1859, "Pomona" sinks in North Atlantic drowning all 400 aboard.



In 1861, After Virginia secedes from the United States, West Virginia secedes from Virginia and forms its own state.



In 1861, President Lincoln authorizes the suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus.



In 1865, The steamer Sultana exploded on the Mississippi River near Memphis, Tenn., killing more than 1,400 Union prisoners of war.



In 1865, Cornell University was chartered in Ithaca, N.Y.



In 1880, Francis Clarke and M.G. Foster patented the electrical hearing aid



In 1937, The nation's first Social Security checks were distributed.



In 1950, Following the institution of apartheid in 1948, South Africa passes the Group Areas Act, formally segregating the country's racial groups.



In 1953, The U.S. offered $50,000 and political asylum to any Communist pilot who delivered a MIG jet.



In 1965, R. C. Duncan patented the "Pampers" brand disposable diaper.



In 1967, Expo '67 was officially opened in Montreal by Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson.



In 1971, The final episode of "Green Acres" aired.



In 1973, During the Watergate scandal, Acting FBI Director L. Patrick Gray resigned.



In 1975, Saigon was encircled by North Vietnamese troops.



In 1978, Convicted Watergate defendant John D. Ehrlichman was released from an Arizona prison after serving 18 months.



In 1982, The trial of John W. Hinckley Jr., who had shot four people, including President Reagan, began in Washington. (The trial ended with Hinckley's acquittal by reason of insanity.)



In 1984, In London, Libyan gunmen left the Libyan Embassy 11 days after killing a policewoman and wounding 10 others.



In 1989, Student protestors took over Tiananmen Square in Beijing.



In 1992, The new Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was proclaimed in Belgrade by the republic of Serbia and its lone ally, Montenegro.



Ten years ago (1994):



Former President Richard M. Nixon was remembered at an outdoor funeral service attended by all five of his successors at the Nixon presidential library in Yorba Linda, Calif.



Five years ago (1999):



A week after the Columbine High School massacre, President Clinton called for new gun control measures, saying, "People's lives are at stake here."



Jazz trumpeter Al Hirt died in New Orleans at age 76.



One year ago (2003):



The U.S. military arrested the self-anointed mayor of Baghdad, Mohammed Mohsen al-Zubaidi, reflecting U.S. determination to brook no interlopers in its effort to build a consensus for administering Iraq.



Nicanor Duarte wins Paraguay's presidential election.



Kevin Millwood pitched his first career no-hitter to lead the Philadelphia Phillies over the San Francisco Giants 1-0.



Screen and stage writer Peter Stone died in New York at age 73.



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Today's Birthdays:



Actor Jack Klugman is 82.



Civil rights activist Coretta Scott King is 77.



Actress Anouk Aimee is 72.



Announcer Casey Kasem is 72.



Broadcast journalist Phil Jones is 67.



Actress Judy Carne is 65.



Opera singer Judith Blegen is 63.



Rhythm and blues singer Cuba Gooding, Sr. is 60.



Singer Ann Peebles is 57.



Rock singer Kate Pierson (The B-52's) is 56.



Rhythm and blues singer Herbie Murrell (The Stylistics) is 55.



Actor Douglas Sheehan is 55.



Rock musician Ace Frehley (KISS) is 53.



Pop singer Sheena Easton is 45.



Actor James Le Gros is 42.



Rock musician Rob Squires (Big Head Todd and the Monsters) is 39.



Singer Mica Paris is 35.



Rock singer-musician Travis Meeks (Days of the New) is 25.



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Thought for Today:

"There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the laws, would not deserve hanging 10 times in his life." -

- Michel de Montaigne, French philosopher (1533-1592).

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Today is Monday, April 26th.

The 117th day of 2004.

There are 249 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On April 26, 1986, the world's worst nuclear accident occurred at the Chernobyl plant in the Soviet Union. An explosion and fire killed at least 31 people and sent radioactivity into the atmosphere.



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On this date:



In 1514, Copernicus made his first observations of Saturn.



In 1607, An expedition of English colonists, including Captain John Smith, went ashore at Cape Henry, Va., to establish the first permanent English settlement in the Western Hemisphere.



In 1785, American naturalist and artist John James Audubon was born in Haiti.



In 1865, John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Lincoln, was surrounded by federal troops near Bowling Green, Va., and killed.



In 1937, Planes from Nazi Germany raided the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.



In 1945, Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, the head of France's Vichy government during World War II, was arrested.



In 1961, Roger Maris of the New York Yankees hit the first of a record 61 home runs in a single season.



In 1964, The African nations of Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form Tanzania.



In 1968, The United States exploded beneath the Nevada desert a one-megaton nuclear device called "Boxcar."



In 1968, Students seize administration building at Ohio State



In 1970, The Broadway musical "Company" opened at the Alvin Theatre in New York.



In 1989, Actress-comedian Lucille Ball died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles at age 77.



Ten years ago (1994):



Voting began in South Africa's first all-race elections.



A Taiwanese jetliner crashed in Nagoya, Japan, killing 264 people.



Rachelle "Shelley" Shannon, who admitted shooting and wounding an abortion provider outside his clinic, was sentenced in Wichita, Kan., to nearly 11 years in prison.



Five years ago (1999):



The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Cornelio Sommaruga, met with three U.S. soldiers held captive by Yugoslavia.



BBC anchorwoman Jill Dando, the host of a crime-fighting program, was fatally shot on the steps of her London home. (Barry George was convicted in July 2001 of killing Dando.)



One year ago (2003):



A Soyuz rocket carrying American astronaut Edward Lu and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko blasted off for the international space station.



Charlton Heston, diagnosed with symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, made his last appearance as president of the National Rifle Association during a convention in Orlando, Fla., where he briefly thanked the membership.



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Today's Birthdays:



Actress-comedian Carol Burnett is 71.



Rhythm and blues singer Maurice Williams is 66.



Songwriter-musician Duane Eddy is 66.



Singer Bobby Rydell is 62.



Actress Claudine Auger is 62.



Rock musician Gary Wright is 61.



Actor Giancarlo Esposito is 46.



Rock musician Roger Taylor (Duran Duran) is 44.



Actress Joan Chen is 43.



Rock musician Chris Mars is 43.



Actor-singer Michael Damian is 42.



Actor Jet Li is 41.



Rock musician Jimmy Stafford (Train) is 40.



Actor-comedian Kevin James is 39.



Actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste is 37.



Country musician Joe Caverlee (Yankee Grey) is 36.



Rapper T-Boz (TLC) is 34.



Country musician Jay DeMarcus (Rascal Flats) is 33.



Country musician Michael Jeffers (Pinmonkey) is 32.



Rock musician Jose Pasillas (Incubus) is 28.



Actor Tom Welling is 27.



Actress Jordana Brewster is 24.



Actress Marnette Patterson is 24.



Actor Aaron Weeks is 18.



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Thought for Today:

"Whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it may be called." -

- John Stuart Mill, English political philosopher (1806-1873).

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Today is Sunday, April 25th.

The 116th day of 2004.

There are 250 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On April 25, 1792, highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier became the first person under French law to be executed by the guillotine.



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On this date:



In 1507, Geographer Martin Waldseemuller first uses the name America to indicate the New World, falsely giving discovery credit to Amerigo Vespucci.



In 1684, A patent is granted for the thimble.



In 1831, The New York and Harlem Railway was incorporated in New York City.



In 1859, Ground was broken for the Suez Canal.



In 1867, Tokyo is opened for foreign trade.



In 1874, Italian electrical engineer and Nobel laureate Guglielmo Marchese Marconi (inventor of wireless communications) was born in Bologna, Italy. He died in 1937.



In 1898, The United States formally declared war on Spain.



In 1901, New York became the first state to require automobile license plates; the fee was $1.



In 1928, Buddy, a German Shepherd, becomes 1st guide dog for the blind



In 1940, W2XBS (now WCBS-TV) in New York City presented the first circus on TV.



In 1945, During World War II, U.S. and Soviet forces linked up on the Elbe River, a meeting that dramatized the collapse of Nazi Germany's defenses.



In 1945, Last Boeing B-17 attack against Nazi Germany.



In 1945, Delegates from some 50 countries met in San Francisco to organize the United Nations.



In 1950, Basketball player Chuck Cooper becomes the first African-American in the NBA when he is drafted by the Boston Celtics.



In 1953, Dr. James D. Watson and Dr. Francis H.C. Crick suggested the double helix structure of DNA.



In 1957, WUHY TV channel 35 in Philadelphia PA (PBS) begins broadcasting



In 1959, The St. Lawrence Seaway opened to shipping.



In 1960, The US submarine Triton completed the first fully submerged trip around the globe.



In 1961, Robert Noyce was granted a patent for the integrated circuit, the basis for electronics and computers.



In 1971, About 200,000 anti-Vietnam War protesters march on Washington.



In 1974, NFL moves the goal posts & adopts sudden-death playoff.



In 1978, Supreme Court rules pension plans can't require women to pay more.



In 1980, A U.S. commando mission to rescue 53 American embassy hostages in Iran was abandoned in the desert with the loss of eight American lives when a helicopter collided with a tanker aircraft.



In 1983, Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov invited Samantha Smith to visit his country after receiving a letter in which the Manchester, Maine, schoolgirl expressed fears about nuclear war.



In 1983, The "Pioneer Ten" spacecraft crossed Pluto's orbit, speeding on its endless voyage through the Milky Way.



In 1983, ABC's "Nightline" expands from ½ hour to a full hour.



In 1990, Violeta Barrios de Chamorro was inaugurated as president of Nicaragua, ending 11 years of leftist Sandinista rule.



In 1990, The Hubble Space Telescope was deployed from the space shuttle Discovery.



In 1991, the United States announced its first financial aid to Hanoi since the 1960s: $1 million to make artificial limbs for Vietnamese disabled during the war.



In 1992, The final episode of "Growing Pains" aired on ABC.



In 1992, The final episode of "Who's the Boss?" aired on ABC.



In 1992, Islamic forces in Afghanistan took control of most of the capital of Kabul following the collapse of the Communist government.



Ten years ago (1994):



Terrorist bombers struck twice on the eve of South Africa's first all-race election, killing about a dozen people.



Conservative Tsutomu Hata became prime minister of Japan, succeeding Morihiro Hosokawa.



Five years ago (1999):



On the third and final day of their Washington summit, NATO leaders promised military protection and economic aid to Yugoslavia's neighbors for standing with the West against Slobodan Milosevic.



More than 70,000 mourners gathered in Littleton, Colo., to remember the victims of the Columbine High School massacre.



Lord Killanin, former president of the International Olympic Committee, died in Dublin, Ireland, at age 84.



One year ago (2003):



The Pentagon announced that Army Secretary Thomas White, whose tenure as civilian chief of the military's largest service was marked by tensions with his boss, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, was leaving office.



Georgia lawmakers voted to scrap the Dixie cross from the state's flag.



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Today's Birthdays:



Country musician Vassar Clements is 76.



Movie director-writer Paul Mazursky is 74.



NBA'er Meadowlark Lemon is 72.



Songwriter Jerry Leiber is 71.



Actor Alfred "Al" Pacino is 64.



Rock musician Stu Cook (Creedence Clearwater Revival) is 59.



Singer Bjorn Ulvaeus (ABBA) is 59.



Actress Talia Rose Shire is 58.



Actor Jeffrey DeMunn is 57.



Rock musician Michael Brown (The Left Banke) is 55.



Rock musician Steve Ferrone (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers) is 54.



Country singer-songwriter Rob Crosby is 50.



Actor Hank Azaria is 40.



Rock singer Andy Bell (Erasure) is 40.



Rock musician Eric Avery (Jane's Addiction) is 39.



TV personality Jane Clayson is 37.



Actress Renee Zellweger is 35.



Actor Jason Lee is 34.



Actor Jason Wiles is 34.



Actress Emily Bergl is 29.



Singer Jacob Underwood (O Town) is 24.



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Thought for Today:

"Prophecy is the wit of a fool." -

- Vladimir Nabokov, Russian-born author (1899-1977).

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Today is Saturday, April 24th.

The 115th day of 2004.

There are 251 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On April 24, 1800, Congress approved a bill establishing the Library of Congress.



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On this date:



In 1792, The national anthem of France, "La Marseillaise," was composed by Captain Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle.



In 1805, The U.S. Marines attacked and captured the town of Derna in Tripoli.



In 1833, Jacob Ebert of Cadiz, OH, along with George Dulty of Wheeling, WV, got together to patent something that became pure Americana. The two invented the soda fountain on this day.



In 1877, Federal troops were ordered out of New Orleans, ending the North's post-Civil War rule in the South.



In 1886, Oil was discovered in the Middle East. The first well to come in was on the Egyptian shore of the Red Sea.



In 1888, Eastman Kodak formed.



In 1898, Spain declared war on the United States after rejecting America's ultimatum to withdraw from Cuba.



In 1915, The Ottoman Turkish Empire began the brutal mass deportation of Armenians during World War I.



In 1916, Some 1,600 Irish nationalists launched the Easter Rising (Rebellion) by seizing several key sites in Dublin. (The rising was put down by British forces several days later.)



In 1928, The fathometer was patented; it measures underwater depths by using sound.



In 1944, In deciding the legal case "United States v. Ballard," the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the general principle that "the truth of religious claims is not for secular authority to determine."



In 1948, The "Berlin airlift" began to relieve the surrounded city.



In 1950 "Peter Pan" opened at Imperial Theater NYC for 320 performances



In 1950, The West Bank was annexed by Transjordan.



In 1950, Egypt established control of Gaza.



In 1953, British statesman Winston Churchill was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.



In 1961, President Kennedy accepted "sole responsibility" for the abortive Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.



In 1962, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology achieved the first satellite relay of a television signal, between Camp Parks, Calif., and Westford, Mass.



In 1967, Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov is the first person to die during a space mission when the Soyuz I craft crashes to earth.



In 1968, Leftist students at Columbia University in New York began a week-long occupation of several campus buildings.



In 1970, The People's Republic of China launched its first satellite, which kept transmitting a song, "The East is Red."



In 1974, Actor/comedian William "Bud" Abbott ("Abbott and Costello") died at the age of 78. He was born October 2, 1895 in Asbury Park, NJ.



In 1980, The United States launched an abortive attempt to free the American hostages in Iran, a mission that resulted in the deaths of eight U.S. servicemen.



In 1981, The IBM Personal Computer was introduced.



In 1990, West and East Germany agree to merge their currency and economies in July. Full political reunification occurs in October.



In 1990, The space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla. It was carrying the $1.5 billion Hubble Space Telescope.



In 1997, The U.S. Senate ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention. The global treaty banned the development, production, storage and use of chemical weapons



In 2000, A youth opened fire on a crowd of people in the National Zoo in Washington, wounding seven children, one seriously.



Ten years ago (1994):



Bosnian Serbs, threatened with NATO air strikes, grudgingly gave up their three-week assault on Gorazde, burning houses and blowing up a water treatment plant as they withdrew.



Five years ago (1999):



On the second day of a NATO summit, the alliance ran into objections from Russia and questions among its own members about enforcing an oil embargo against Yugoslavia by searching ships at sea. President Clinton urged Americans to be patient with the bombing strategy in the meantime.



One year ago (2003):



U.S. forces in Iraq took custody of Tariq Aziz, the former Iraqi deputy prime minister.



China shut down a Beijing hospital as the global death toll from SARS surpassed 260.



A U.S. official reported that North Korea had claimed to have nuclear weapons.



In Red Lion, Pa., a 14-year-old boy shot and killed his school principal inside a crowded junior high cafeteria, then killed himself.



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Today's Birthdays:



Critic Stanley Kauffmann is 88.



Actor J.D. Cannon is 82.



Actress Shirley MacLaine (Beaty) is 70.



Author Sue Grafton is 64.



Actress-singer-director Barbra Joan Streisand is 62.



Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley is 62.



Country singer Richard Sterban (The Oak Ridge Boys) is 61.



Rock musician Doug Clifford (Creedence Clearwater Revival) is 59.



Actor-playwright Eric Bogosian is 51.



Actor Michael O'Keefe is 49.



Rock musician David J (Bauhaus) is 47.



Rock musician Billy Gould is 41.



Actor-comedian Cedric the Entertainer is 40.



Actor Djimon Hounsou is 40.



Rock musician Patty Schemel is 37.



Rock musician Aaron Comess (Spin Doctors) is 36.



Actor Derek Luke is 30.



Country singer Rebecca Lynn Howard is 25.



Singer Kelly Clarkson ("American Idol") is 22.



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Thought for Today:

"I know of no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution." -

- Ulysses S. Grant, U.S. President (1822-1885).

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Today is Friday, April 23rd.

The 114th day of 2004.

There are 252 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



April 23, 1564, is believed to be the birthdate of English poet and dramatist William Shakespeare; he died 52 years later (1616), also on April 23.



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On this date:



In 1348, King Edward III of England established the Order of the Garter.



In 1635, A boundary dispute between Maryland and Virginia causes a naval skirmish off the coast of Virginia.



In 1662, Connecticut was chartered as an English colony.



In 1789, President-elect Washington and his wife moved into the first executive mansion, the Franklin House, in New York.



In 1791, The 15th president of the United States, James Buchanan, was born in Franklin County, Pa.



In 1851, The first postage stamps were issued in Canada.



In 1904, The American Academy of Arts and Letters was founded.



In 1939, Boston Red Sox Ted Williams hits his 1st homerun



In 1940, About 200 people died in a dance hall fire in Natchez, Miss.



In 1948, KSTP TV channel 5 in St Paul-Minneapolis MN (ABC) 1st broadcast



In 1954, Hank Aaron of the Milwaukee Braves hit the first of his record 755 major-league home runs, in a game against the St. Louis Cardinals. (The Braves won, 7-5.)



In 1956, The U.S. Supreme Court ended race segregation on buses.



In 1969, Sirhan Sirhan was sentenced to death for assassinating New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy. (The sentence was later reduced to life imprisonment.)



In 1985, The Coca-Cola Company announced it was changing the secret flavor formula for Coke (negative public reaction forced the company to resume selling the original version).



In 1992, McDonald's opened its first fast-food restaurant in the Chinese capital of Beijing.



In 1993, Labor leader Cesar Chavez died in San Luis, Ariz., at age 66.



In 1997, The military confirmed that two pieces of wreckage found on a snowy Rocky Mountain peak were from the Air Force warplane that vanished on a training mission over Arizona.



In 1998, James Earl Ray, who'd confessed to assassinating the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 and then insisted he'd been framed, died at a Nashville hospital at age 70.



Ten years ago (1994):



Mourners left red roses, burning candles and cards at the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda, Calif., in memory of the 37th president of the United States, who had died the day before at age 81.



Physicists at the Department of Energy's Fermin National Accelerator Laboratory discovered the subatomic particle called the top quark.



Five years ago (1999):



On the first day of a 50th anniversary NATO summit in Washington, Western leaders pledged to intensify military strikes against Yugoslavia and vowed "no compromise" on demands that Slobodan Milosevic withdraw his troops from Kosovo.



One year ago (2003):



Global health officials warned travelers to avoid Beijing and Toronto, where they might get the SARS virus and export it to new locations.



U.S. negotiators met with North Korean and Chinese representatives in Beijing for the first three-way meeting by the governments since the Korean War.



American Airlines reported a $1-billion first-quarter loss.



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Today's Birthdays:



Actress Janet Blair is 83.



Actress-turned-diplomat Shirley Temple Black is 76.



Actor Alan Oppenheimer is 74.



Actor David Birney is 65.



Actor Lee Majors (Harvey Lee Yeary II) is 65.



Actress Sandra Dee is 62.



Irish nationalist Bernadette Devlin McAliskey is 57.



Actress Blair Brown is 56.



Writer-director Paul Brickman is 55.



Actress Joyce DeWitt is 55.



Actor James Russo is 51.



Political filmmaker-author Michael Moore is 50.



Actress Judy Davis is 49.



Actress Jan Hooks is 47.



Actress Valerie Bertinelli is 44.



Actor Craig Sheffer is 44.



Actor George Lopez ("George Lopez") is 43.



Rock musician Gen is 40.



U.S. Olympic gold medal skier Donna Weinbrecht is 39.



Actress Melina Kanakaredes is 37.



Rock musician Stan Frazier (Sugar Ray) is 36.



Country musician Tim Womack (Sons of the Desert) is 36.



Actor Scott Bairstow is 34.



Actress Rachel Skarsten is 19.



Actor Camryn Walling is 14.



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Thought for Today:

"...We are such stuff/ As dreams are made on, and our little life/ Is rounded with a sleep." -

- From "The Tempest," by William Shakespeare (1564-1616).

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Today is Thursday, April 22nd.

The 113th day of 2004.

There are 253 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



Fifty years ago, on April 22, 1954, the televised Senate Army-McCarthy hearings began.



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On this date:



In 1370, Construction of the Bastile began. The French king Charles the Fifth wanted it erected as a defense against the British.



In 1451, Queen Isabella I, who sponsored the voyages of Christopher Columbus, was born in Madrigal, Spain.



In 1509, Henry VIII ascended the throne of England following the death of his father, Henry VII.



In 1500, Pedro Alvarez Cabral discovered Brazil & claims it for Portugal.



In 1529, Spain and Portugal divide the western hemisphere in Treaty of Saragossa.



In 1823, Roller Skates were patented by R.J. Tyers.



In 1864, Congress authorized the use of the phrase "In God We Trust" on U.S. coins.



In 1870, The father of Soviet communism, Vladimir Ilyitch Ulyanov (aka Nikolai Lenin) was born. He died in Moscow of a stroke on January 21, 1924 at the age of 53.



In 1876, 1st National League game, Boston Braves beat Philadelphia Athletics 6-5; Philadelphia Athletics Wes Fisler scores baseball's 1st run.



In 1889, The Oklahoma Land Rush began at noon as thousands of homesteaders staked claims.



In 1892, The Winstar Institute, the first anatomy school in the U.S., opens.



In 1898, With the United States and Spain on the verge of formally declaring war, the U.S. Navy began blockading Cuban ports. The USS Nashville captured a Spanish merchant ship, the Buenaventura, off Key West, Fla. Also, Congress authorized creation of the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, popularly known as the "Rough Riders."



In 1904, The father of the atomic bomb, J. (Julius) Robert Oppenheimer was born. He died on February 18, 1967 at the age of 62.



In 1914, Babe Ruth made his pitching debut with the Baltimore Orioles.



In 1915, The second battle of Ypres started when German troops released clouds of deadly chlorine gas on British troops; it was the first chemical warfare attack of World War One.



In 1915, New York Yankees don pinstripes & hat-in-the-ring logo for 1st time



In 1940, Rear Adm Joseph Taussig testified before the U.S. Senate Naval Affairs Committee that war with Japan is inevitable



In 1944, During World War II, U.S. forces began invading Japanese-held New Guinea with amphibious landings near Hollandia.



In 1945, Adolf Hitler admitted that the war was lost and that suicide was his only recourse.



In 1952, An atomic test conducted in Nevada became the first nuclear explosion shown on live network television.



In 1964, President Johnson opened the New York World's Fair.



In 1970, Millions of Americans concerned about the environment observed the first Earth Day.



In 1976, Barbara Walters signs a record $1 million contract with ABC and becomes the first female nightly news anchor in the United States.



In 1978, 'The Blues Brothers' (Dan Akroyd and John Belushi) make their first appearance on Saturday Night Live



In 1978, The final episode of "Maude" aired.



In 1983, The West German news magazine Stern announced the discovery of 60 volumes of personal diaries purportedly written by Adolf Hitler. However, the diaries turned out to be a hoax.



In 1991, Johnny Carson announces he will retire next year from Tonight Show



In 1993, The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum was dedicated in Washington D.C. to honor the victims of Nazi extermination.



In 2000, In a dramatic pre-dawn raid, armed immigration agents seized Elian Gonzalez from his relatives' home in Miami; Elian was reunited with his father at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington.



Ten years ago (1994):



Richard M. Nixon, the 37th president of the United States, died at a New York hospital four days after suffering a stroke. He was 81.



Five years ago (1999):



At Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., investigators found a powerful bomb made from a propane tank, heightening suspicions that gunmen Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who killed 13 people before killing themselves, intended to destroy the school.



NATO struck directly against Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, destroying his luxurious mansion.



One year ago (2003):



President Bush announced he would nominate Alan Greenspan for a fifth term as Federal Reserve chairman.



Songwriter Felice Bryant, who, with her late husband, Boudleaux, wrote "Bye Bye Love" and other Everly Brothers hits, died in Gatlinburg, Tenn., at age 77.



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Today's Birthdays:



Actor Eddie Albert is 96.



TV producer Aaron Spelling is 81.



Actor George Cole is 79.



Actress Charlotte Rae is 78.



Actress Estelle Harris ("Seinfeld") is 72.



Singer Glen Campbell is 68.



Actor Jack Nicholson is 67.



Singer Mel Carter is 61.



Country singer Cleve Francis is 59.



Movie director John Waters is 58.



Singer Peter Frampton is 54.



Rock singer-musician Paul Carrack (Mike and the Mechanics; Squeeze) is 53.



Actor Joseph Bottoms is 50.



Actress Marilyn Chambers is 50.



Actor Ryan Stiles is 45.



Actress Catherine Mary Stewart is 45.



Comedian Byron Allen is 43.



Actor Chris Makepeace is 40.



Actress Sheryl Lee is 37.



Country singer-musician Heath Wright (Ricochet) is 37.



Country singer Kellie Coffey is 33.



Actor Ingo Rademacher is 33.



Rock singer-musician Daniel Johns (Silverchair) is 25.



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Thought for Today:

"Always remember others may hate you but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself." -

- Richard M. Nixon, 37th president of the United States (1913-1994).

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Today is Wednesday, April 21st.

The 112th day of 2004.

There are 254 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On April 21, 1910, author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, died in Redding, CT.



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On this date:



In 753 BCE, According to legend, twin brothers Romulus and Remus, sons of the god Mars, found the ancient city of Rome.



In 1649, The Maryland Toleration Act, which provided for freedom of worship for all Christians, was passed by the Maryland assembly.



In 1789, John Adams was sworn in as the first vice president of the United States.



In 1828, Noah Webster published the first American dictionary.



In 1836, An army of Texans led by Sam Houston defeated the Mexicans at San Jacinto, assuring the independence of Texas. Sam yelled "Remember the Alamo". The whole war battle took only 18 minutes, but it claimed 600 Mexicans and only 9 Texans.



In 1857, Alexander Douglas patented the bustle



In 1862, Congress established the U.S. Mint in Denver, Colorado.



In 1878, The first firehouse pole was installed in N.Y.



In 1913, Gideon Sundback of Sweden patents the zipper



In 1914, US marines occupy Vera Cruz, Mexico, and stayed 6 months.



In 1918, Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the German flying ace known as the "Red Baron," was shot down and killed in action during World War I after dowining 80 enemy planes.



In 1940, The quiz show that asked the $64-question, "Take It or Leave It," premiered on CBS Radio.



In 1945, Soviet forces assaulted the headquarters of the German High Command in south Berlin.



In 1948, 1st Polaroid camera is sold in US



In 1954, U.S. Air Force planes began flying French troops to Indochina to reinforce Dien Bien Phu. The city later fell to communist Viet Minh forces.



In 1960, Brazil inaugurated its new capital, Brasilia, transferring the seat of national government from Rio de Janeiro.



In 1967, Svetlana Alliluyeva (Josef Stalin's daughter) defects in NYC.



In 1972, Apollo 16 astronauts John Young and Charles Duke explored the surface of the moon.



In 1975, South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu resigned after 10 years in office.



In 1977, The musical play "Annie" opened on Broadway.



In 1982, The final episode of "WKRP in Cincinnati" aired on CBS.



In 1986, Geraldo Rivera opens Al Capone's vault on TV & finds nothing



In 1989, Tens of thousands of people crowded into Beijing's Tiananmen Square, cheering students who waved banners demanding greater political freedoms.



In 1992, Robert Alton Harris became the first person executed by the state of California in 25 years as he was put to death in the gas chamber for the 1978 murder of two teenage boys.



In 1993, The first episode of "Walker, Texas Ranger" aired on CBS.



In 1995, The FBI arrested former soldier Timothy McVeigh at an Oklahoma jail where he'd spent two days on minor traffic and weapons charges; he was charged in connection with the Oklahoma City bombing two days earlier.



In 1997, The swollen Red River, which had flooded 75 percent of Grand Forks, N.D., reached a projected crest of 54 feet -- or 26 feet above flood stage.



In 1997, Ashes of Timothy Leary & Gene Roddenberry launched into orbit



Ten years ago (1994):



The U.S. House of Representatives passed a $28 billion get-tough-on-crime bill by a vote of 285-141.



Five years ago (1999):



A day after the mass killing at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., investigators continued their work, while memorial services were held across the city and dozens of counselors offered support to grieving students, parents, friends and family.



Actor and bandleader Charles "Buddy" Rogers died in Rancho Mirage, Calif., at age 94.



The 200th episode of "L.A. Law" aired.



One year ago (2003):



Military officials in Iraq announced the arrest of Muhammad Hamza al-Zubaydi, a key figure in the bloody suppression of the Shiite Muslim uprising of 1991.



State-run media in China reported the government had dismissed Beijing's mayor following the disclosure of a steep increase in SARS cases in the Chinese capital.



Scott Peterson pleaded innocent in the deaths of his pregnant wife and unborn son.



Robert Cheruiyot became the 12th Kenyan in 13 years to win the Boston Marathon; Svetlana Zakharova of Russia won the women's race.



Jazz singer Nina Simone died in France at age 70.



In Iraq, retired U.S. Lt. Gen. Jay Garner arrived in Baghdad as Iraq's postwar administrator.



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



Today's Birthdays



Ice skater Werner Groebli ("Mr. Frick") is 89.



Britain's Queen Elizabeth II is 78.



Actress-comedian-writer Elaine May is 72.



Actor-turned-talk show host Charles Grodin is 69.



Singer-musician Iggy Pop is 57.



Singer-songwriter Paul Davis is 56.



Actress Patti LuPone is 55.



Actor Tony Danza is 53.



Actress Andie MacDowell is 46.



Rock singer Robert Smith (The Cure) is 45.



Rock musician Michael Timmins (Cowboy Junkies) is 45.



Actor John Cameron Mitchell is 41.



Rapper Michael Franti (Spearhead) is 36.



Comedian Nicole Sullivan is 34.



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Thought for Today:

"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first." -

- Mark Twain (1835-1910).

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

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

Today is Tuesday, April 20th.

The 111th day of 2004.

There are 255 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



Five years ago, on April 20, 1999, the Columbine High School massacre took place in Littleton, Colo., as students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold shot and killed 12 classmates and one teacher before taking their own lives.



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



On this date:



In 735, B.C.E., According to the Roman historian Varro, Romulus founded the city of Rome.



In 1812, The fourth vice president of the United States, George Clinton, died in Washington at age 73, becoming the first vice president to die while in office.



In 1836, The Territory of Wisconsin was established by Congress.



In 1841, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe, considered the first detective story, was published in Graham's Magazine in Philadelphia.



In 1859, "A Tale Of Two Cities" was first published by Charles Dickens.



In 1889, Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau, Austria.



In 1902, Scientists Marie and Pierre Curie isolated the radioactive element radium.



In 1940, RCA publicly demonstrated its new and powerful electron microscope.



In 1945, During World War II, Allied forces took control of the German cities of Nuremberg and Stuttgart.



In 1967, US planes bomb Haiphong for 1st time during the Vietnam War



In 1968, Pierre Elliott Trudeau was sworn in as prime minister of Canada.



In 1971, The Supreme Court upheld the use of busing to achieve racial desegregation in schools.



In 1972, The manned lunar module from Apollo 16 landed on the moon.



In 1973, L. Patrick Gray, acting director of the FBI, resigns after admitting he destroyed evidence connected to Watergate.



In 1978, A Korean Air Lines Boeing 707 crash-landed in northwestern Russia after being fired on by a Soviet interceptor after entering Soviet airspace. Two passengers were killed.



In 1980, The first Cubans sailing to the United States as part of the massive Mariel boatlift reached Florida.



In 1987, The U.S. deports Karl Linnas to the Soviet Union to face death for Nazi war crimes.



Ten years ago (1994):



Israeli and PLO negotiators wrapped up an agreement transferring civilian government powers to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.



One year ago (1999):



U.S. Army forces took control of Baghdad from the Marines in a changing of the guard that thinned the military presence in the capital.



Celebrating Easter, the Reverend Emmanuel Delly, a longtime Iraqi bishop, pleaded for safeguards against the persecution of Christians in the new Iraq.



A landslide in southern Kyrgyzstan killed 38 people.



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Today's Birthdays:



Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is 84.



Actress Nina Foch is 80.



Singer Johnny Tillotson is 65.



Actor George Takei is 64.



Actor Ryan O'Neal is 63.



Rock musician Craig Frost (Grand Funk; Bob Seger's Silver Bullet Band) is 56.



Actress Jessica Lange is 55.



Singer Luther Vandross is 53.



Actor Clint Howard is 45.



Actor Crispin Glover is 40.



Country singer Wade Hayes is 35.



Actor Shemar Moore is 34.



Rock musician Mikey Welsh is 33.



Actress Carmen Electra is 32.



Actor Joseph Lawrence is 28.



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Thought for Today:

"The law that will work is merely the summing up in legislative form of the moral judgment that the community has already reached." -

- Woodrow Wilson, American president (1856-1924).

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

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

Today is Monday, April 19th.

The 110th day of 2004.

There are 256 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On April 19, 1775, the American Revolutionary War began with the battles of Lexington and Concord.



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



On this date:



In 1782, the Netherlands recognized American independence.



In 1893, the Oscar Wilde play "A Woman of No Importance" opened at the Haymarket Theatre in London.



In 1933, the United States went off the gold standard.



In 1943, during World War II, tens of thousands of Jews living in the Warsaw Ghetto began a valiant but futile battle against Nazi forces.



In 1945, the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "Carousel" opened on Broadway.



In 1951, General Douglas MacArthur, relieved of his Far East command by President Truman, bid farewell to Congress, quoting a line from a ballad: "Old soldiers never die; they just fade away."



In 1982, astronauts Sally K. Ride and Guion S. Bluford Jr. became the first woman and first African-American to be tapped for U.S. space missions.



In 1989, 47 sailors were killed when a gun turret exploded aboard the USS Iowa.



In 1993, the 51-day siege at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, ended as fire destroyed the structure after federal agents began smashing their way in; dozens of people, including David Koresh, were killed.



In 1995, a truck bomb destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring hundreds. Timothy McVeigh was later convicted of federal murder charges and executed.



Ten years ago (1994):



A Los Angeles jury awarded $3.8 million to beaten motorist Rodney King.



The Supreme Court outlawed the practice of excluding people from juries because of their gender.



Five years ago (1999):



The German parliament inaugurated its new home in the restored Reichstag in Berlin, its prewar capital.



The Supreme Court ruled that a federal law aimed at limiting e-mail smut did not violate free-speech rights.



Joseph Chebet of Kenya won the Boston Marathon, in two hours, nine minutes, 52 seconds; Fatuma Roba of Ethiopia won the women's race in two hours, 23 minutes, 25 seconds.



One year ago (2003):



Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo won a new term in an election denounced by opponents as fraudulent.



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



Today's Birthdays:



Actor Hugh O'Brian (Krampke) is 79.



Actress Elinor Donahue is 67.



Actor Tim Curry is 58.



Pop singer Mark "Flo" Volman (The Turtles; Flo and Eddie) is 57.



Tennis player Sue Barker is 48.



Recording executive Suge Knight is 39.



Singer-songwriter Dar Williams is 37.



Actress Ashley Taylor Judd is 36.



Singer Bekka Bramlett is 36.



Actor James Franco is 26.



Actress Kate Hudson is 25.



Actor Hayden Christensen is 23.



Actor Courtland Mead is 17.



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



Thought for Today:

"The crisis you have to worry about most is the one you don't see coming." -

- Mike Mansfield, American statesman (1903-2001).

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

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

Today is Sunday, April 18th

The 109th day of 2004.

There are 257 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On April 18, 1775, American revolutionaries Paul Revere, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott rode though the towns of Massachusetts giving the warning that "the British are coming."



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



On this date:



In 1853, Vice President William R. King dies one month after his inauguration, and President Pierce will not have a Vice President during his term in office.



In 1902, Denmark was the first country to adopt fingerprinting as a way to identify criminals.



In 1906, A devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck San Francisco at 5:12AM local time, followed by raging fires. The earthquake and resulting fires caused an estimated 3,000 deaths and $524 million in property loss.



In 1921, Junior Achievement, created to encourage business skills in young people, was incorporated in Colorado Springs, Co.



In 1923, The first game was played in Yankee Stadium. The Yankees defeated the Boston Red Sox, 4-1.



In 1934, The first coin-operated laundry (called a "washateria") was opened by J.F. Cantrell in Fort Worth, Texas.



In 1936, Pan-Am's "Clipper" starts providing regular passenger flights between San Francisco and Honolulu.



In 1937, Leon Trotsky called for the overthrow of Soviet leader Josef Stalin.



In 1942, An air squadron from the USS Hornet led by Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle raided Tokyo and other Japanese cities.



In 1943 Traveling in a bomber, Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, was shot down by American P-38 fighters.



In 1944, The ballet "Fancy Free," with music by Leonard Bernstein premiered.



In 1945, Famed American war correspondent Ernie Pyle, 44, was killed by Japanese gunfire on the Pacific island of Ie Shima, off Okinawa.



In 1946, The League of Nations went out of business.



In 1949, The Irish Republic came into existence as it withdrew from the British Commonwealth.



In 1950 1st transatlantic jet passenger trip by BOAC in a DH Comet 4.



In 1951, New York Yankee Mickey Mantle goes 1-for-4 in his 1st game



In 1955, Inventor, Mathematician, Physicist Albert E. Einstein died at the age of 76 in Princeton; NJ. He was born November 29, 1849.



In 1955, The phrase "Third World" was first used by Indonesia's President Sukarno in a speech about non-white and underdeveloped areas.



In 1956, "the match made in heaven," when American actress Grace Kelly married Prince Ranier III of Monaco in a civil ceremony. A church wedding took place the following day.



In 1964, Sandy Koufax is 1st to strike out the side on 9 pitches



In 1968, The London Bridge was sold to American Robert McCullough for one million pounds (about $4M at the time). It was later re-erected in Arizona.



In 1971, THE 1ST "EARTH DAY" A nationwide observance is held to promote awareness and activism concerning environmental issues



In 1974, The Washington District Court conducting the Watergate proceedings issued a subpoena on President Richard M. Nixon to produce tape recordings and other material demanded by the Special Prosecutor.



In 1977, Alex Haley, author of "Roots", awarded Pulitzer Prize



In 1978, The U.S. Senate voted 68-32 to turn the Panama Canal over to Panamanian control on Dec. 31, 1999.



In 1980, Rhodesia became the independent nation of Zimbabwe as the British flag was lowered at a ceremony in Salisbury.



In 1980, The Prime Interest Rate went to 19.5 percent



In 1982, Canada Constitution Act replaces British North America Act



In 1983, 62 people, including 17 Americans, were killed at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, by a suicide bomber.



In 1989, Thousands of Chinese students demanding democracy tried to storm Communist Party headquarters in Beijing.



In 1992, An 11-year-old Florida boy sued to "divorce" his natural parents and remain with his foster parents. The boy eventually won his suit.



In 1996, gunmen killed 18 people and wounded 15 more in an attack on tourists at the Egyptian pyramids.



In 2002, Four Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan were killed when they were mistakenly bombed by an American F-16 pilot.



Ten years ago (1994):



Former President Richard Nixon suffered a stroke at his home in Park Ridge, N.J., and was taken to New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center; he died four days later.



Five years ago (1999):



NATO launched its most active day of airstrikes in its assault on Yugoslavia, pummeling refineries, bridges and dozens of other targets in the 25th straight day of attacks.



Wayne Gretzky played his last National Hockey League game as his New York Rangers lost to Pittsburgh 2-1 in overtime at Madison Square Garden.



One year ago (2003):



Iraqi police arrested Saddam Hussein's former finance minister (Hikmat Mizban Ibrahim al-Azzawi) and turned him over to the U.S. Marines.



Scott Peterson was arrested in San Diego in the death of his wife, Laci, who was eight months pregnant when she vanished on Christmas Eve.



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



Today's Birthdays:



Actress Barbara Hale (Perry Mason's "Della Street"; William Katt's mom, Bill Williams' wife) is 83.



Blues singer Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown is 80.



Actor Clive Revill is 74.



Actor James Drury is 70.



Actor Robert Hooks is 67.



Actress Hayley Mills (Parent Trap; Sir John's daughter, Juliet's sister) is 58.



Actor James Woods is 57.



Actress-director Dorothy Lyman is 57.



Actress Cindy Pickett is 57.



Country musician Walt Richmond (The Tractors) is 57.



Country musician Jim Scholten (Sawyer Brown) is 52.



Actor Rick Moranis is 50.



Actress Melody Thomas Scott is 48.



Actor Eric Roberts (Julia's brother) is 48.



Actor John James is 48.



Rock musician Les Pattinson (Echo and the Bunnymen) is 46.



Talk show host Conan O'Brien is 41.



Actress Jane Leeves ("Daphne" on Frasier) is 41.



Actor Eric McCormack is 41.



Actress Maria Bello is 37.



Rock musician Greg Eklund (Everclear) is 34.



Rhythm and blues singer Trina (Trina and Tamara) is 30.



Actress Melissa Joan Hart ("Sabrina The Teenage Witch") is 28.



Actor Sean Maguire is 28.



Actress Alia Shawkat is 15.



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



Thought for Today:

"It's what you learn after you know it all that counts." -

- Earl Weaver, baseball manager.

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

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

Today is Saturday, April 17th.

The 108th day of 2004.

There are 258 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On April 17, 1964, Ford Motor Company unveiled its new Mustang model at the New York World's Fair.



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



On this date:



In 1421, The sea broke the dikes at Dort in Holland, drowning an estimated 100,000 people.



In 1492, Christopher Columbus signs a contract with Spain, giving him a commission to seek a westward passage to Asia.



In 1521, Martin Luther went before the Diet of Worms to face charges stemming from his religious writings.



In 1524, Giovanni da Verrazzano reached present-day New York harbor.



In 1629, Horses were first imported into the colonies by the Massachusetts Bay Colony.



In 1790, American statesman Benjamin Franklin died in Philadelphia at age 84.



In 1824, Russia abandons all North American claims south of 54º 40' N



In 1861, The Virginia State Convention voted to secede from the Union.



In 1875, "Snooker" (variation of pool) invented by Sir Neville Chamberlain



In 1894, Former Soviet leader (1953-1964) Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev was born in Kalinovka, near the village of Kursk in southwestern Russia. He ided September 11, 1971 at the age of 77.



In 1897, Pulitzer Prize (1928 - The Bridge of San Luis Rey, 1938 - Our Town, 1943 - The Skin of Our Teeth) author/playwriter Thornton Niven Wilder was born in Madison, Wisconsin. He died December 7, 1975 at the age of 78.



In 1918, Actor William Holden (William Franklin Beedle Jr.) was born. He died November 16, 1981 at the age of 63.



In 1923, Correspondent, journalist Harry Reasoner was born in Dakota City, IA. He died August 6, 1991 at the age of 68.



In 1941, Yugoslavia surrendered to Germany in World War II.



In 1942, French General Henri Giraud, who was captured in 1940, escaped from a castle prison at Konigstein. He lowered himself down the castle wall and jumped on board a moving train, which took him to the French border.



1945, The U.S. seized 1,100 tons of uranium at Strassfut, Germany, in an effort to prevent Russia from developing an atomic bomb.



In 1961, About 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban exiles launched the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in a failed attempt to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro.



In 1964, Jerrie Mock of Columbus, Ohio, became the first woman to complete a solo airplane flight around the world.



In 1967, "The Joey Bishop Show" debuted on ABC-TV.



In 1969, A jury in Los Angeles convicted Sirhan Sirhan of assassinating Senator Robert F. Kennedy.



In 1969, Czechoslovak Communist Party chairman Alexander Dubcek was deposed.



In 1970, The astronauts of Apollo 13 splashed down safely in the Pacific, four days after a ruptured oxygen tank crippled their spacecraft.



In 1970, Johnny Cash performed at the White House at the invitation of President Richard M. Nixon. He played "A Boy Named Sue."



In 1984, In London, gunmen from the Libyan Embassy fired weapons into an anti-Libya protest. One policewoman was killed and 10 others were wounded.



In 1985, In Lebanon, the cabinet resigned as Shiites took W. Beirut.



In 1986, In Beirut, three British hostages were found dead. They were killed in retaliation to the U.S. attacks on Libya on April 15.



In 1987, NBC aired the final episode of "Remington Steele."



In In 1989, The Polish trade union Solidarity was legalized after a seven-year ban, this led to the first non-communist government in the Eastern Bloc.



In 1995, President Clinton signed an executive order stripping the "classified" label from most national security documents that were at least 25 years old.



In 1998, Linda McCartney (Paul's wife) died at the age of 56. She was born September 24, 1941.



In 1998, Scientists report loss of 75-square-mile chunk of Larsen Ice Shelf on Antarctic Peninsula.



In 2002, The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences board voted unanimously to urge networks not to get rid of artist credits at the end of TV shows.



Ten years ago (1994):



Bosnian Serb tanks entered the Muslim enclave of Gorazde; the UN Security Council issued a nonbinding statement that condemned the Serbs' escalating military activities, but made no threat of force to back its condemnation.



Five years ago (1999):



General Wesley Clark, NATO's commander, bluntly told Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to change his policies in Kosovo or see his military machine destroyed.



The first of three bombs to explode in London within a two-week period went off in Brixton, a racially mixed neighborhood, injuring 39 people.



One year ago (2003):



U.S. special forces in Baghdad captured Barzan Ibrahim Hasan, a half-brother of and adviser to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.



In Baghdad, Iraq, thieves were arrested after blowing a hole in a bank vault and dropped children in to bring out money. U.S. troops arrested the thieves and removed $4 million in U.S. dollars for safekeeping.



The U.S. government awarded Bechtel Corporation a major contract for helping rebuild Iraq's power, water and sewage systems.



Diet doctor Robert C. Atkins died in New York at age 72.



Songwriter Earl King died in New Orleans at age 69.



Sir J. Paul Getty Jr., the reclusive third son of American oilman J. Paul Getty, died in London at age 70.



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



Today's Birthdays:



Actor Lon McCallister is 81.



Rock promoter Don Kirshner is 70.



Composer-musician Jan Hammer is 56.



Actress Olivia Hussey is 53.



Rock singer-musician Pete Shelley (Buzzcocks) is 49.



Actress Teri Austin is 45.



Actor Sean Bean is 45.



Rock singer Maynard James Keenan (Tool) is 40.



Actress Lela Rochon is 40.



Singer Liz Phair is 37.



Actress Jennifer Garner ("Alias") is 32.



Singer Victoria Adams Beckham is 30.



Actress-singer Lindsay Korman is 26.



Actor Paulie Litt ("Hope and Faith") is nine.



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Thought for Today:

"A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past; he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future." -

- Sydney J. Harris, American journalist (1917-1986).

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

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

Today is Friday, April 16th.

The 107th day of 2004.

There are 259 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On April 16, 1947, the French ship Grandcamp blew up at the harbor in Texas City, Texas; another ship, the Highflyer, exploded the following day. The blasts and resulting fires killed 576 people.



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



On this date:



In 1705, Queen Anne of England knights Isaac Newton at Trinity College.



In 1789, President-elect Washington left Mount Vernon, Va., for his inauguration in New York.



In 1818, The U.S. Senate ratifies the Rush-Bagot amendment to form an unarmed U.S.-Canada border.



In 1854, San Salvador was destroyed by an earthquake.



In 1862, A bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia became law.



In 1879, Saint Bernadette, who had described seeing visions of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes, died in Nevers, France.



In 1889, Comedian, Actor, Director Sir Charles (Charlie) Spencer Chaplin was born in London, England. He died in Switzerland on December 25, 1977 at the age of 88.



In 1900, The US Post Office issues 1st books of postage stamps



In 1908, The Natural Bridges National Monument was established in Utah.



In 1912, Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly across the English Channel, using a Bleriot monoplane to travel from Dover, England, to Hardelot, France.



In 1917, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin returned to Russia after years of exile.



In 1921, Actor/producer/director/screenwriter/author Sir Peter Ustinov was born in London, England. He died on March 28, 2004 at the age of 82.



In 1924, Oscar (4) and Grammy (20) winning composer/conductor/arranger Henry Mancini was born in Cleveland, OH. He died June 14, 1994 at the age of 70.



In 1935, The radio comedy program "Fibber McGee and Molly" premiered on the NBC Blue Network.



In 1939 Singer Dame Mary Isobel Catherine O'Brien (Dusty) Springfield was born in London, England. She died March 2, 1999 at the age of 59.



In 1945, In his first speech to Congress, President Truman pledged to carry out the war and peace policies of his late predecessor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt.



In 1945, U.S. troops reached Nuremberg, Germany, during World War II.



In 1945, The Russian Army began the Battle of Berlin.



In 1947, Financier and presidential confidant Bernard M. Baruch said in a speech at the South Carolina statehouse: "Let us not be deceived -- we are today in the midst of a cold war."



In 1962, Walter Cronkite succeeded Douglas Edwards as anchorman of "The CBS Evening News."



In 1972, Apollo 16 blasted off on a voyage to the moon.



In 1975, The Khmer Rouge Rebels won control of Cambodia after a five-year civil war. They renamed the country Kampuchea and began a reign of terror.



In 1977, The ban on women attending West Point was lifted.



In 1981, The final episode of "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" aired on NBC.



In 1982, Queen Elizabeth proclaimed Canada's new constitution, severing the last colonial links with Britain.



In 2002, The U.S. Supreme Court overturned major parts of a 1996 child pornography law based on rights to free speech.



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



Ten years ago (1994):



Bosnian Serbs downed a British Sea Harrier jet near Gorazde; the pilot ejected, and was rescued by Bosnian government troops.



Ralph Ellison, author of "Invisible Man," died in New York at age 80.



Five years ago (1999):



President Clinton defended NATO airstrikes against Serbian targets during visits to Michigan and Massachusetts, saying U.S. involvement in Kosovo was a moral imperative.



Wayne Gretzky announced his retirement from hockey.



One year ago (2003):



The Bush administration lowered the terror alert level from orange to yellow, saying the end of heavy fighting in Iraq has diminished the threat of terrorism in the United States.



During a visit to a fighter jet factory in St. Louis, President Bush called for lifting economic sanctions against Iraq as commanders of both the U.S. military and the reconstruction effort prepared to move into the country.



Michael Jordan played his last NBA game with the Washington Wizards, who lost to the Philadelphia 76ers, 107-87.



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



Today's Birthdays:



Actor Barry Nelson is 84.



Actor Peter Mark Richman is 77.



Actress-singer Edie Adams is 75.



Singer Bobby Vinton is 69.



Denmark's Queen Margrethe the Second is 64.



Basketball Hall-of-Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is 57.



Singer Gerry Rafferty is 57.



Actress Ellen Barkin is 50.



Singer Jimmy Osmond is 41.



Rock singer David Pirner (Soul Asylum) is 40.



Actor-comedian Martin Lawrence is 39.



Actor Jon Cryer is 39.



Rock musician Dan Rieser is 38.



Actor Peter Billingsley is 32.



Actor Lukas Haas is 28.



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Thought for Today:

"Only the vanquished remember history." -

- Marshall McLuhan, Canadian communications theorist (1911-1980).

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

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

Today is Thursday, April 15th

The 106th day of 2004.

There are 260 days left in the year.

Today is Tax Day.



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Today's Highlight in History:



In the early hours (2:27 a.m) of April 15, 1912, the British luxury liner HMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic off Newfoundland, less than three hours after striking an iceberg. 1,517 people died.



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



On this date:



In 1452, Painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, and scientist, one of the great masters of the High Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci was born in the small town of Vinci, in Tuscany (Toscana), near Florence. He died May 2, 1519 at the age of 67.



In 1738, The bottle opener was invented.



In 1770, Joseph Priestley discovered that a piece of rubber could erase lead made from pencils. He coined the word "eraser".



In 1793, Bank of England hands out 1st £5-note .



In 1813, U.S. troops under James Wilkinson attacked the Spanish-held city of Mobile which would be in the future state of Alabama.



In 1817, The first U.S. public school for the deaf, Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons (now the American School for the Deaf), was founded at Hartford, Conn.



In 1850, The city of San Francisco was incorporated.



In 1861, Three days after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, President Lincoln declared a state of insurrection and called out Union troops.



In 1865, President Lincoln died at 7:22AM, several hours after being shot at Ford's Theater in Washington by John Wilkes Booth. Andrew Johnson became the nation's 17th president.



In 1874, A compulsory education law is passed by New York Legislature.



In 1878, Harley Procter developed Ivory Soap, which when marketed later, made Procter and Gamble a multi-million dollar business



In 1892, The General Electric Company, formed by the merger of the Edison Electric Light Co. and other firms, was incorporated in New York state.



In 1912, The "fourth dimension" was spoken by Einstein as time.



In 1920, New Canadian small cent coin is released.



In 1923, Insulin (discovered in 1922) became available for general use.



In 1923, 1st sound on film public performance shown at Rialto Theater (NYC)



In 1927, Babe Ruth hits 1st of 60 homeruns of season (off A's Howard Ehmke)



In 1928, Alioto's on Fisherman's Wharf (San Francisco) forms



In 1945, During World War II, British and Canadian troops liberated the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen.



In 1947, Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American in the 20th century to play in a major league baseball game. He went hitless.



In 1952, U.S. President Harry Truman signed the official Japanese peace treaty.



In 1952, 1st B-52 prototype test flight



In 1955, Ray Kroc opened the first McDonald's in Des Plaines, Illinois. Kroc began his career selling milkshake machines. On his first day of business, sales of 15-cent hamburgers and 10-cent french fries totaled $366.12.



In 1956, The worlds’ first, all-color TV station was dedicated. It was WNBQ-TV in Chicago and is now WMAQ-TV.



In 1959, Cuban leader Fidel Castro arrived in Washington to begin a goodwill tour of the United States.



In 1960, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), organizes at Shaw University



In 1964, Chesapeake Bay Bridge opens (Bridge-Tunnel measures 17.6 miles (28.4 km) and is considered the world's largest bridge-tunnel complex)



In 1975, 1st appearance of the San Diego Chicken



In 1986, In retaliation for the terrorist bombing of a Berlin discotheque, the United States launches an air raid against Libya; nearly 40 people are killed.



In 1987, A jury in Northampton, Mass., found Amy Carter, Abbie Hoffman and 13 other protesters innocent of charges stemming from a demonstration against CIA recruiters at the University of Massachusetts.



In 1989, 95 people died in a crush of soccer fans at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England.



In 1989, Students in Beijing launched a series of pro-democracy protests following the death of former Communist Party leader Hu Yaobang; the protests culminated in the Tiananmen Square massacre.



In 1990, Actress Greta Garbo died in New York at age 84.



In 1997, The Justice Department inspector general reported that FBI crime lab agents produced flawed scientific work or inaccurate testimony in major cases such as the Oklahoma City bombing.



In 1997, Baseball honors Jackie Robinson by retiring #42 for all teams.



In 1998, Pol Pot, the notorious leader of the Khmer Rouge, died at age 73, evading prosecution for the deaths of 2 million Cambodians.



In 2002, Retired Supreme Court Justice Byron R. White died at age 84.



Ten years ago (1994):



Ministers from 109 countries signed a 26,000-page world trade agreement known as the "Uruguay Round" accords in Marrakesh, Morocco.



Five years ago (1999):



A gunman opened fire at the Mormon Family History Library in Salt Lake City, killing two people and wounding four others before being shot to death by police.



Astronomers from San Francisco State University, working at an observatory in Arizona, announced they had discovered evidence of a multi-planet solar system in the constellation Andromeda. It was the only known solar system other than our own.



One year ago (2003):



Looters and arsonists ransacked and gutted Iraq's National Library, as well as Iraq's principal Islamic library.



In the Netherlands, Volkert van der Graaf, the killer of politician Pim Fortuyn, was sentenced to 18 years in prison.



Umpire Laz Diaz was attacked by a fan during a game between the Kansas City Royals and Chicago White Sox; the fan, Eric Dybas, was later sentenced to six months in jail and 30 months' probation.



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Today's Birthdays:



Actor Michael Ansara is 82.



Country singer Roy Clark is 71.



Actress Claudia Cardinale is 65.



Actress Julie Sommars is 62.



Rock singer-guitarist Dave Edmunds is 60.



Actress Lois Chiles (the "Bond girl" in Moonraker) is 57.



TV producer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason is 57.



Actor Michael Tucci is 54.



Actress Amy Wright is 54.



Columnist Heloise is 53.



Actress-screenwriter Emma Thompson is 45.



Singer Samantha [Karen] Fox is 38.



Rock musician Ed O'Brien (Radiohead) is 36.



Actor Flex is 34.



Actor Peter Billingsley is 32.



Actress Susan Ward is 28.



Actress Emma Watson ("Harry Potter" films) is 14.



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Thought for Today:

"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." -

- George Bernard Shaw, Irish-born playwright (1856-1950).

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Today is Wednesday, April 14th.

The 105th day of 2004.

There are 261 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On April 14, 1865, President Lincoln was shot and mortally wounded at 10:13PM by John Wilkes Booth while attending the comedy "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater with his wife Mary Todd in Washington. (Lincoln died the following morning.)



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On this date:



In 73, According to Jewish historian Josephus, 967 Jewish zealots committed mass suicide within the fortress of Masada on this last night before the walls were breached by the attacking Roman Tenth Legion. (Two women and five children survived by hiding in a cistern, and were later released unharmed by the Romans.)



In 1291, A body of Templars make a night raid on the Moslem camp at the Siege of Acre. They were all killed.



In 1543, Bartoleme Ferrelo returns to Spain after discovering the San Francisco Bay area.



In 1611, The word "telescope" was first used by Prince Federico Cesi.



In 1759, Composer George Frideric Handel died in London.



In 1775, The first American society for the abolition of slavery was organized by Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush.



In 1828, The first edition of Noah Webster's "American Dictionary of the English Language" was published.



In 1863, The continuous-roll printing press was patented by William Bullock.



In 1869, The airbrake is patented by George Westinghouse, Jr. in Schenectady, New York.



In 1894, 1st public showing of Thomas Edison's kinetoscope (moving pictures)



In 1902, J. C. (James Cash) Penney opened his first store, called "The Golden Rule," in Kemmerer, Wyo.



In 1904, British actor Sir (Arthur) John Gielgud was born in London. He died May 21, 2000 at the age of 96.



In 1910, President William Taft starts an American tradition, throwing out the first ball on opening day of the major league baseball season.



In 1912, The British liner RMS Titanic collided with an iceberg in the North Atlantic and began sinking.



In 1914, The non-skid tire pattern was patented by Stacy G. Carkhuff.



In 1918, Douglas Campbell became the first American ace pilot when he shot down his fifth German enemy aircraft.



In 1925, Actor Rodney (Rod) Steiger was born in Westhampton, NY. He died July 8, 2002 at the age of 77.



In 1928, Regular air passenger flights between San Francisco and Los Angeles started by Maddux Air Lines.



In 1931, King Alfonso XIII of Spain went into exile, and the Spanish Republic was proclaimed.



In 1939, The John Steinbeck novel "The Grapes of Wrath" was first published.



In 1945, US forces conquer Motobu peninsula on Okinawa



In 1945, US marines attack Yae Take on Okinawa



In 1946, The civil war between Communists and Nationalists resumed in China.



In 1948, A flash of light is observed in the crater Plato on the Moon.



In 1948, NYC subway fares jump from 5¢ to 10¢



In 1956, Ampex Corp demonstrates 1st commercial videotape recorder



In 1958, Van Cliburn appeared on national TV for the first time. He was on NBC's "The Tonight Show" with Jack Paar.



In 1958, Sputnik 2 (with dog Laika) burns up in atmosphere



In 1967, Israel and Syria exchanged heavy fighting atop Mount Hermon.



In 1973, Acting FBI director L Patrick Gray resigns after admitting he destroyed evidence in the Watergate scandal



In 1981, The first test flight of America's first operational space shuttle, the Columbia, ended successfully with a landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.



In 1986, Americans got first word of a U.S. air raid on Libya (because of the time difference, it was the early morning of April 15 where the attack occurred.)



In 1986, Desmond Tutu elected Anglican archbishop of Capetown.



In 1992, The Supreme Court threw out Apple's lawsuit against Microsoft.



In 1992, A federal appeals court in New York ruled that hotel magnate Leona Helmsley, 71, must go to prison for tax evasion.



In 2000, A Wall Street sell-off wipes out billions of dollars in investments. Nasdaq index plunges almost 10 percent (355 points), Dow Jones industrials lose 5.66 percent (617 points).



In 2000, After five years of deadlock, Russia approved the START II treaty that calls for the scrapping of U.S. and Russian nuclear warheads. The Russian government warned it would abandon all arms-control pacts if Washington continued with an anti-missile system.



Ten years ago (1994):



Two American F-15 warplanes inadvertently shot down two U.S. helicopters over northern Iraq, killing 26 people, including 15 Americans.



The chiefs of the nation's seven largest tobacco companies spent more than six hours being grilled by the House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee about the effects of smoking.



Five years ago (1999):



Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr told Congress the Watergate-era law that gave him the power to probe actions of executive branch officials was flawed and should be abolished.



NATO mistakenly bombed a convoy of ethnic Albanian refugees; Yugoslav officials said 75 people were killed.



British entertainer Anthony Newley died in Jensen Beach, Fla., at age 67.



One year ago (2003):



Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit fell with unexpectedly light resistance, the last Iraqi city to succumb to overpowering U.S.-led ground and air forces.



U.S. commandos in Baghdad captured Abul Abbas, leader of the Palestinian group that killed an American on the hijacked cruise liner "Achille Lauro" in 1985. (Abbas died last month while in U.S. custody.)



Four Islamic militants were convicted in a deadly bombing outside the U.S. Consulate in Pakistan.



Assailants armed with an AK-47 assault rifle and a handgun opened fire at John McDonogh High School in New Orleans, killing one youth and wounding three others.



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Today's Birthdays:



Actor Bradford Dillman is 74.



Actor Jay Robinson is 74.



Country singer Loretta Lynn is 69.



Former NYPD officer Frank Serpico is 68.



Actress Julie Christie is 64.



Former baseball player Pete Rose is 63.



Rock musician Ritchie Blackmore is 59.



Actor John Shea is 55.



My best friend Judy Jeanette Lewis Roy Nelson is 54.



Actor Brad Garrett is 44.



Actor Robert Carlyle is 43.



Rock singer-musician John Bell (Widespread Panic) is 42.



Rock musician Barrett Martin is 37.



Actor Anthony Michael Hall is 36.



Actor Adrien Brody is 31.



Rapper DaBrat is 30.



Actress Sarah Michelle Gellar is 27.



Actress Vivien Cardone is 11.



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Thought for Today:

"If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference." -

- Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865).

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Today is Tuesday, April 13th

The 104th day of 2004.

There are 262 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On April 13, 1970, Apollo 13, four-fifths of the way to the moon, was crippled when a tank containing liquid oxygen burst. (The astronauts managed to return safely.)



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On this date:



In 1059, Pope Nicholas II decreed that future popes could be elected by cardinals only.



In 1436, The French drive the English out of Paris (100 Year War)



In 1598, King Henry IV of France endorsed the Edict of Nantes, which granted rights to the Protestant Huguenots. (The edict was abrogated in 1685 by King Louis XIV, who declared France entirely Catholic again.)



In 1742, Handel's "Messiah" was first performed publicly, in Dublin, Ireland.



In 1743, The third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, was born in Shadwell (present-day Albemarle County), VA. He died July 4, 1826.



In 1775, Lord North extends the New England Restraining Act to South Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland. The act forbids trade with any country other than Britain and Ireland.



In 1782, Washington, NC, was incorporated as the first town to be named for George Washington.



In 1796, The first known elephant brought to the United States arrives from Bengal, India.



In 1829, English Emancipation Act grants freedom of religion to Catholics



In 1852, American merchant F. W. (Frank Winfield) Woolworth was born in Rodman, New York. He died in 1919.



In 1861, After 34 hours of bombardment, Union-held Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederates.



In 1870, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in New York.



In 1902, JC Penney opens his 1st store in Kemmerer WY



In 1912, The Royal Flying Corps forms (later RAF)



In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the Jefferson Memorial.



In 1957, Due to lack of funds, Saturday mail delivery in the U.S. was halted.



In 1958, Van Cliburn became the first American to win the Tchaikovsky International Piano Contest in Moscow.



In 1960, France becomes the fourth nuclear nation exploding an A-Bomb in Sahara.



In 1964, Sidney Poitier became the first black performer in a leading role to win an Academy Award, for "Lilies of the Field."



In 1981, Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke received a Pulitzer Prize for her feature about an 8-year-old heroin addict named "Jimmy"; however, Cooke relinquished the prize two days later, admitting she'd fabricated the story.



In 1986, Pope John Paul II visited a Rome synagogue in the first recorded papal visit of its kind.



In 1990, The Soviet Union accepted responsibility for the World War II murders of thousands of imprisoned Polish officers in the Katyn Forest. The Soviets had previously blamed the massacre on the Nazis.



In 1992, the Great Chicago Flood took place as the city's century-old tunnel system and adjacent basements filled with water from the Chicago River.



In 1992, A 5.5 earthquake hits Netherlands



In 1997, Golfer Tiger Woods, 21, becomes the youngest person to win the Masters and the first African American and Asian American champion. He finished 18 under par.



In 1998, Dolly, the world's first cloned sheep, gave natural birth to a healthy baby lamb.



Ten years ago (1994):



Islamic militants bombed an Israeli bus, killing six people and wounding 28.



Five years ago (1999):



Right-to-die advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian was sentenced in Pontiac, Mich., to 10 to 25 years in prison for second-degree murder in the lethal injection of a Lou Gehrig's disease patient.



One year ago (2003):



U.S.-led forces announced the capture of Watban Ibrahim Hasan, a half-brother of and adviser to Saddam Hussein.



After three weeks of captivity, seven U.S. POW's, including Army Specialist Shoshana Johnson, were released by Iraqi troops near Tikrit, Iraq.



Mike Weir became the first Canadian to win the Masters after the first sudden-death playoff in 13 years.



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Today's Birthdays:



Actor Howard Keel is 87.



Movie director Stanley Donen is 80.



Actor Don Adams is 78.



Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., is 71.



Actor Lyle Waggoner is 69.



Actor Edward Fox is 67.



Playwright Lanford Wilson is 67.



Actor Paul Sorvino is 65.



Movie and TV composer Bill Conti is 62.



Rock musician Jack Casady is 60.



Actor Tony Dow is 59.



Singer Al Green is 58.



Actor Ron Perlman is 54.



Actor William Sadler is 54.



Singer Peabo Bryson is 53.



Rock musician Max Weinberg is 53.



Bluegrass singer-musician Sam Bush is 52.



Rock musician Jimmy Destri (Blondie) is 50.



Singer-musician Louis Johnson (The Brothers Johnson) is 49.



Comedian Gary Kroeger is 47.



Actress Saundra Santiago is 47.



Rock musician Joey Mazzola (Sponge) is 43.



Chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov is 41.



Actress Page Hannah is 40.



Rock musician Lisa Umbarger is 39.



Actor Rick Schroder is 34.



Singer Lou Bega is 29.



Actress Courtney Peldon is 23.



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Thought for Today:

"I cannot give you the formula for success but I can give you the formula for failure -- which is: Try to please everybody." -

- Herbert Bayard Swope, American journalist (1882-1958 ).

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NOTE:

The listing for Sunday, 04/11 stated that the worlds strongest recorded surface wind was on the 11th. It was actually on 04/12/1934. All other info for that day and that event appear to be correct..