Paradise Driver

Friday, January 09, 2009

JANUARY 9TH

Today is Friday, Jan. 9, the ninth day of 2009.
There are 356 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Jan. 9, 1913, Richard Milhous Nixon, the 37th president of the United States, was born in Yorba Linda, Calif.

On this date:

In 1788, Connecticut became the fifth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
In 1793, Frenchman Jean Pierre Blanchard, using a hot-air balloon, flew between Philadelphia and Woodbury, N.J.
In 1859, women's suffrage leader Carrie Chapman Catt was born in Ripon, Wis.
In 1861, Mississippi seceded from the Union.
In 1945, during World War II, American forces began landing at Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines.
In 1959, the Western series "Rawhide" premiered on CBS-TV.
In 1964, anti-U.S. rioting broke out in the Panama Canal Zone, resulting in the deaths of 21 Panamanians and several U.S. soldiers.
In 1968, the Surveyor 7 space probe made a soft landing on the moon, marking the end of the American series of unmanned explorations of the lunar surface.
In 1972, reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, speaking by telephone from the Bahamas to reporters in Hollywood, said a purportedly authorized biography of him by Clifford Irving was a fake.
In 1997, a Comair commuter plane crashed 18 miles short of the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, killing all 29 people on board.

Ten years ago:

At the White House, presidential advisers prepared a public and legal defense in President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice; Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, meanwhile, pledged "above all, fairness" to the president, who ended up being acquitted.

Five years ago:

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge announced that the nation's threat level had been lowered from orange to yellow.
Officials said Pentagon lawyers determined that former Iraq leader Saddam Hussein had been a prisoner of war since his capture.
An Ohio woman who'd claimed to have lost a lottery ticket worth $162 million was charged with filing a false police report. (Elecia Battle was later convicted of the misdemeanor and put on one year's probation.)

One year ago:

President Bush, on his first visit to Israel as president, warned Iran of "serious consequences" if it meddled again with U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf.
The U.S. military reported nine American soldiers were killed in the first two days of a new offensive to root out al-Qaida in Iraq fighters holed up in districts north of Baghdad.
Johnny Grant, the honorary mayor of Hollywood, died in Los Angeles at age 84.

Today's Birthdays:

Author Judith Krantz is 81.
Football Hall-of-Famer Bart Starr is 75.
Sportscaster Dick Enberg is 74.
Actress K. Callan is 73.
Folk singer Joan Baez is 68.
Rockabilly singer Roy Head is 68.
Actress Susannah York is 68.
Rock musician Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) is 65.
Singer David Johansen (aka Buster Poindexter) is 59.
Singer Crystal Gayle is 58.
Actor J.K. Simmons is 54.
Nobel Peace laureate and human rights activist Rigoberto Menchu is 50.
Rock musician Eric Erlandson is 46.
Actress Joely Richardson is 44.
Rock musician Carl Bell (Fuel) is 42.
Rock singer Steve Harwell (Smash Mouth) is 42.
Rock singer-musician Dave Matthews is 42.
Actress-director Joey Lauren Adams is 41.
Singer A.J. McLean (Backstreet Boys) is 31.
Pop-rock musician Drew Brown (OneRepublic) is 25.
Rock-soul singer Paolo Nutini is 22.

Thought for Today:

"No written law has ever been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion."
Carrie Chapman Catt, American women's suffrage leader (1859-1947).

"Let's all be careful out there!"

DAILY CHUCKLE 9-009

"Let's all be careful out there!"

Thursday, January 08, 2009

JANUARY 8TH

Today is Thursday, Jan. 8th, the eighth day of 2009.
There are 357 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Jan. 8, 1935, rock-and-roll legend Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo, Miss.

On this date:

In 1798, the Eleventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was declared in effect by President John Adams nearly three years after its ratification by the states; it prohibited a citizen of one state from suing another state in federal court.
In 1815, U.S. forces led by Gen. Andrew Jackson defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans, the closing engagement of the War of 1812.
In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson outlined his "Fourteen Points" for lasting peace after World War I. Mississippi became the first state to ratify the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, which established Prohibition.
In 1959, Charles de Gaulle was inaugurated as president of France's Fifth Republic. In Cuba, Fidel Castro and his army arrived in Havana in triumph following the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista.
In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a "War on Poverty" in his State of the Union address.
In 1973, the Paris peace talks between the United States and North Vietnam resumed.
In 1976, Chinese premier Zhou Enlai died in Beijing.
In 1987, for the first time, the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 2,000, ending the day at 2,002.25.
In 1989, 47 people were killed when a British Midland Boeing 737-400 carrying 126 people crashed in central England.
In 2003, a US Airways Express commuter plane crashed at the Charlotte, N.C., airport, killing all 21 people on board.
A Turkish Airlines jet crashed in Turkey, killing 75 people.

Ten years ago:

By a unanimous vote, senators formally ratified the rules for President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial.
The top two executives of Salt Lake City's Olympic organizing committee resigned amid disclosures that civic boosters had given cash to members of the International Olympic Committee.

Five years ago:

A U.S. Black Hawk medivac helicopter crashed near Fallujah, Iraq, killing all nine soldiers aboard.
Libya agreed to compensate family members of victims of a 1989 bombing of a French passenger plane over the Niger desert that killed 170 people.

One year ago:

Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican John McCain won the New Hampshire primaries.
U.S. Army Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan, the only officer charged in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, was cleared of criminal wrongdoing.
A quick-thinking Boy Scout foiled an assassination attempt on the president of the Maldives, grabbing an attacker's knife as the man leapt from a crowd.
Paintings by Pablo Picasso and Brazilian painter Candido Portinari, stolen from Brazil's Sao Paulo Museum in December 2007, were recovered.

Today's Birthdays:

Actor-comedian Larry Storch is 86.
Actor Ron Moody is 85.
Comedian Soupy Sales is 83.
Broadcast journalist Sander Vanocur is 81.
CBS newsman Charles Osgood is 76.
Singer Shirley Bassey is 72.
Game show host Bob Eubanks is 71.
Country-gospel singer Cristy Lane is 69.
Rhythm-and-blues singer Anthony Gourdine (Little Anthony and the Imperials) is 68.
Actress Yvette Mimieux is 67.
Physicist Stephen Hawking is 67.
Rock musician Robby Krieger (The Doors) is 63.
Rock singer David Bowie is 62.
Movie director John McTiernan is 58.
Actress Harriet Sansom Harris is 54.
Singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith is 45.
Actress Maria Pitillo is 44.
Actress Michelle Forbes is 44.
Singer R. Kelly is 42.
Rock musician Jeff Abercrombie (Fuel) is 40.
Actress Ami Dolenz is 40.
Reggae singer Sean Paul is 36.
Country singer Tift Merritt is 34.
Actress-rock singer Jenny Lewis is 33.
Actress Amber Benson is 32.
Actor Scott Whyte is 31.
Actress Sarah Polley is 30.
Actress Rachel Nichols is 29.
Actress Gaby Hoffman is 27.
Rock musician Disashi Lumumbo-Kasongo (Gym Class Heroes) is 26.

Thought for Today:

"In order to go on living one must try to escape the death involved in perfectionism."
Hannah Arendt, American author and historian (1906-1975).

"Let's all be careful out there!"

DAILY CHUCKLE 9-008

"Let's all be careful out there!"

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

JANUARY 7TH

Today is Wednesday, Jan. 7, the seventh day of 2009.
There are 358 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Jan. 7, 1789, the first U.S. presidential election was held. Americans voted for electors who, a month later, chose George Washington to be the nation's first president.

On this date:

In 1608, an accidental fire devastated the Jamestown settlement in the Virginia colony.
In 1610, astronomer Galileo Galilei began observing three of Jupiter's moons.
In 1800, the 13th president of the United States, Millard Fillmore, was born in Summerhill, N.Y.
In 1927, commercial transatlantic telephone service was inaugurated between New York and London.
In 1942, the Japanese siege of Bataan began during World War II.
In 1949, George C. Marshall resigned as U.S. Secretary of State, effective Jan. 20. President Harry S. Truman chose Dean Acheson to succeed him.
In 1959, the United States recognized the new government of Cuba, six days after Fidel Castro led the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista.
In 1972, Lewis F. Powell Jr. and William H. Rehnquist were sworn in as the 99th and 100th members of the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 1979, Vietnamese forces captured the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, overthrowing the Khmer Rouge government.
In 1989, Emperor Hirohito of Japan died in Tokyo at age 87; he was succeeded by his son, Crown Prince Akihito.

Ten years ago:

For the second time in history, an impeached American president went on trial before the Senate. President Bill Clinton faced charges of perjury and obstruction of justice; he was acquitted.

Five years ago:

President George W. Bush proposed legal status, at least temporarily, for millions of illegal immigrants working in the U.S.
Swedish actress Ingrid Thulin died in Stockholm at age 77.

One year ago:

The Pentagon reported an Iranian fleet of high-speed boats charged at and threatened to blow up a three-ship U.S. Navy convoy passing near Iranian waters, then vanished as the American ship commanders were preparing to open fire.
In Baghdad, the head of a key U.S.-backed Sunni group was killed in a double suicide bombing that claimed at least 11 other lives.
Second-ranked LSU defeated No. 1 Ohio State, 38-24, in the BCS championship game played in New Orleans.
Philip Agee, a renegade CIA agent whose naming of operatives led to a law against exposing spies, died in Cuba at age 72.

Today's Birthdays:

Author William Peter Blatty is 81.
Country singer Jack Greene is 79.
Pop musician Paul Revere is 71.
Magazine publisher Jann Wenner is 63.
Singer Kenny Loggins is 61.
Singer-songwriter Marshall Chapman is 60.
Latin pop singer Juan Gabriel is 59.
Actress Erin Gray is 59.
Actor Sammo Hung is 57.
Actor David Caruso is 53.
"CBS Evening News" anchor Katie Couric is 52.
Country singer David Lee Murphy is 50.
Rock musician Kathy Valentine (The Go-Go's) is 50.
Actor David Marciano is 49.
Actress Hallie Todd is 47.
Actor Nicolas Cage is 45.
Singer-songwriter John Ondrasik (Five for Fighting) is 44.
Actor Doug E. Doug is 39.
Actor Kevin Rahm is 38.
Country singer-musician John Rich is 35.
Actor Dustin Diamond is 32.
Actor Robert Ri'chard is 26.
Actor Liam Aiken is 19.
Actress Camryn Grimes is 19.
Actor Max Morrow is 18.

Thought for Today:

"I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness and the willingness to remain vulnerable."
Anne Morrow Lindbergh, American author (1906-2001).

"Let's all be careful out there!"