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

Today is Monday, April 12th

The 103rd day of 2004.

There are 263 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On April 12, 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Ga., at age 63; he was succeeded by Vice President Harry S. Truman.



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On this date:



In 1204, The 4th Crusade occupies & plunders Constantinople.



In 1606, England adopted as its flag the original version of the Union Jack.



In 1654, The Ordinance of Union came into effect, uniting Ireland and Scotland with England.



In 1799, Phineas Pratt patented the comb cutting machine.



In 1833, Charles Gaylor patented the fireproof safe in New York City.



In 1844, Texas became a U.S. territory.



In 1861, The American Civil War began as Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina.



In 1892, The portable typewriter was patented by George C. Blickensderfer.



In 1898, The Army transfers Yerba Buena Island in San Francisco Bay to the Navy



In 1908, Fire makes 17,000 homeless in Chelsea MA



In 1934, "Tender Is the Night," by F. Scott Fitzgerald, was first published.



In 1945, U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt, recently elected to a record fourth term in office, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage; Vice President Harry Truman is sworn in as president.



In 1954, Bill Haley & the Comets record "Rock Around the Clock"



In 1955, The Salk vaccine against polio was declared safe and effective.



In 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin, aboard Vostok 1, is the first man to travel to space; he makes one orbit of the earth during his 108-minute flight.



In 1964, The 100th episode of "Mr. Ed" aired on CBS.



In 1966, The first B-52 bombing on North Vietnam.



In 1981, The space shuttle Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral on its first test flight.



In 1983, Chicagoans went to the polls to elect Harold Washington the city's first black mayor.



In 1985, Senator Jake Garn of Utah became the first senator to fly in space as the shuttle Discovery lifted off.



In 1988, Harvard University won a patent for a genetically altered mouse. It was the first patent for a life form.



In 1989, In the U.S.S.R, ration cards were issued for the first time since World War II. The ration was prompted by a sugar shortage.



In 1989, radical activist Abbie Hoffman was found dead at his home in New Hope, Pa., at age 52.



In 1989, former middleweight boxing champion Sugar Ray Robinson died in Culver City, Calif., at age 67.



In 1992, Euro Disneyland opened in Marne-La-Vallee, France.



In 1993, NATO began enforcing a no-fly zone over Bosnia and Herzegovina.



Ten years ago (1994):



Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell declined to be nominated to the Supreme Court.



Playwright Edward Albee won his third Pulitzer prize for "Three Tall Women"; the Pulitzer prize for fiction went to E. Annie Proulx for "The Shipping News"; the gold-medal award for public service journalism went to the Akron Beacon-Journal of Ohio.



Five years ago (1999):



U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright cited President Clinton for contempt of court, concluding that the president had lied about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky in a deposition in the Paula Jones case.



A jury in Little Rock, Ark., acquitted Susan McDougal of obstructing Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's Whitewater inquiry and deadlocked on two other charges, causing a mistrial.



One year ago (2003):



Finance officials from the seven richest industrial countries, meeting in Washington, agreed to support a new UN Security Council resolution as part of a global effort to rebuild Iraq and promised to begin talks on reducing Iraq's massive foreign debt burden.



Rescued POW Jessica Lynch returned to the United States after treatment at a U.S. military hospital in Germany.



Women's activists took their fight against the all-male Augusta National as close as they could get to the Masters tournament.



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Today's Birthdays:



Country singer Ned Miller is 79.



Actress Jane Withers is 78.



Opera singer Montserrat Caballe is 71.



Actor Charles Napier is 68.



Jazz musician Herbie Hancock is 64.



Actor Frank Bank ("Leave It to Beaver") is 62.



Rock singer John Kay (Steppenwolf) is 60.



Actor Ed O'Neill is 58.



Author Tom Clancy is 57.



Actor Dan Lauria is 57.



Talk show host David Letterman is 57.



Author Scott Turow is 55.



Singer David Cassidy is 54.



Singer Pat Travers is 50.



Actor Andy Garcia [Andrés Arturo García Menéndez] is 48.



Country singer Vince Gill is 47.



Actress Suzzanne Douglas is 47.



Rock musician Will Sergeant (Echo & the Bunnymen) is 46.



Rock singer Art Alexakis (Everclear) is 42.



Country singer Deryl Dodd is 40.



Folk-pop singer Amy Ray (Indigo Girls) is 40.



Figure skater Elaine Zayak is 39.



Rock singer Nicholas Hexum (311) is 34.



Actor Nicholas Brendon is 33.



Actress Shannen Doherty is 33.



Rock musician Guy Berryman (Coldplay) is 26.



Actress Claire Danes is 25.



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Thought for Today:

"Eternal truths will be neither true nor eternal unless they have fresh meaning for every new social situation." -

- President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945).

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This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina, KS, USA. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, KS, and reprinted by the Salina Journal.



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8th Grade Final Exam: Salina, KS -1895



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Grammar (Time, one hour)







1. Give nine rules for the use of Capital Letters.





2. Name the Parts of Speech and define those that have no modifications.





3. Define Verse, Stanza and Paragraph.





4. What are the Principal Parts of a verb? Give Principal Parts of lie, play and run.





5. Define Case, Illustrate each Case.





6. What is Punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation.





7 - 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.





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Arithmetic (Time, 1.25 hours)







1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.





2. A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?





3. If a load of wheat weighs 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1050 lbs. for tare?





4. District No. 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?





5. Find cost of 6720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton.





6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.





7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $20 per metre?





8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.





9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance around which is 640 rods?





10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt.





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U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes)







1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided.





2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus.





3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.





4. Show the territorial growth of the United States.





5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas.





6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.





7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?





8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865.





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Orthography (Time, one hour)







1. What is meant by the following: Alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication?





2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?





3. What are the following, and give examples of each: Trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals?





4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u.'





5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two exceptions under each rule.





6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.





7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup.





8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.





9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.





10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.





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Geography (Time, one hour)







1. What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?





2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas?





3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?





4. Describe the mountains of North America.





5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco.





6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.





7. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each.





8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?





9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.





10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth.





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Gives the saying:

"He only had an 8th grade education"

a whole new meaning, doesn't it?



By the way, orthography is the study or science of spelling. I had to look it up in the dictionary.

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

Today is Sunday, April 11th

The 102nd day of 2004.

There are 264 days left in the year.

Today is Easter Sunday



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Today's Highlight in History:



On April 11, 1945, during World War II, American soldiers liberated the notorious Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald in Germany.



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On this date:



In 1415, All ships in English ports are detained for service with Henry V, King of England.



In 1506, The foundation stone of the new St. Peter's Basilica was laid under the patronage of Julius II. (The church was not completed, however, until 1626.)



In 1689, William III and Mary II were crowned as joint sovereigns of Britain.



In 1803, A twin-screw propeller steamboat was patented by John Stevens. The boat was 25-feet-long and four-feet wide.



In 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte abdicated (the first time) as emperor of France and was banished to the island of Elba.



In 1876, The stenotype was patented by John C. Zachos of New York City.



In 1876, Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks is organized



In 1890, Ellis Island is designated as an immigration station



In 1898, President McKinley asked Congress for a declaration of war against Spain.



In 1899, The treaty ending the Spanish-American War was declared in effect.



In 1906, Einstein introduces his Theory of Relativity



In 1921, Iowa became the first state to impose a cigarette tax.



In 1921, KDKA broadcast the 1st radio sporting event, a boxing match (Ray-Dundee).



In 1934, At the top of Mt. Washington in New Hampshire, winds gust to 231 miles per hour, the strongest ever recorded on earth.



In 1941, Germany bombers blitzed Conventry, England.



In 1945, U.S. troops reached the Elbe River in Germany.



In 1950, US B-29 bomber shot down above Latvia.



In 1951, President Truman relieved General Douglas MacArthur of his commands in the Far East.



In 1951, The Stone of Scone was recovered after a 107-day hunt after it had been stolen from Westminster Abbey by Scottish Nationalists who wanted it returned to Scotland.



In 1953, Oveta Culp Hobby became the first Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare.



In 1960, 1st weather satellite launched (Tiros 1)



In 1965, 40 tornadoes strike US midwest killing 272 & injuring 5,000.



In 1966, NBC broadcasted the last episode of "Hulabaloo."



In 1968, President Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1968, a week after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.



In 1968, President Johnson ordered 24,500 military reservists called up, half of them for duty in Vietnam.



In 1970, Apollo 13 blasted off on its ill-fated mission to the moon.



In 1974, The Judiciary committee subpoenas U.S. President Richard Nixon to produce tapes for impeachment inquiry.



In 1979, Idi Amin was deposed as president of Uganda as rebels and exiles backed by Tanzanian forces seized control.



In 1981, U.S. President Ronald Reagan returned to the White House from the hospital after recovering from an assassination attempt.



In 1981, Valerie Bertinelli marries Eddie Van Halen.



In 1983, Harold Washington was elected the first black mayor of Chicago.



In 1984, Chinese troops invade Vietnam.



In 1985, The 100th episode of "Hill Street Blues" aired.



In 1986, Kellogg's of Battle Creek, MI stopped its 80-year tradition of tours of the breakfast food plant on this day, saying that company secrets were at risk with spies from other cereal manufacturers.



In 1986, Dodge Morgan completes nonstop sail solo around the world in 150 days



In 1991, U.N. Security Council issued a formal cease-fire with Iraq.



In 1992, Euro-Disney opens near Paris France



In 1996, Israel began a 17-day bombardment of Lebanon under the name "Operation Grapes of Wrath."



In 1996, Seven-year-old Jessica Dubroff, who'd hoped to become the youngest person to fly cross-country, was killed along with her father and flight instructor when her plane crashed after takeoff from Cheyenne, Wyoming.



In 1997, The Air Force announced that despite an intensive nine-day search, it couldn't find a bomb-laden A-10 warplane that had disappeared with its pilot during a training mission over Arizona. (The plane's wreckage was later found in a Colorado mountainside.)



In 2001, Ending a tense 11-day standoff, China agreed to free the 24 crew members of an American spy plane after U.S. President George W. Bush said he was "very sorry" for the death of a Chinese fighter pilot whose plane had collided with the American aircraft.



Ten years ago (1994):



The White House disclosed that President and Mrs. Clinton had failed to report $6,498 in income that the first lady made in commodities trading in 1980; the couple wrote checks totaling $14,615 in back taxes and interest.



Five years ago (1999):



The Justice Department reported that more than a third of the women in state prisons and jails said they were physically or sexually abused as children.



Jose Maria Olazabal won the Masters by two shots over Davis Love III.



One year ago (2003):



Ten of the main suspects in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole escaped from prison in Yemen.



American troops took the northern Iraqi city of Mosul without a fight.



The U.S. military issed a most-wanted list of 55 regime leaders that "must be captured or killed."



In Cuba, three men convicted of hijacking a passenger ferry the previous week were executed by firing squad, a swift response by Fidel Castro's government to a recent string of hijackings to the United States.



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Today's Birthdays:



"Brenda Starr" creator Dale Messick is 98.



Fashion designer Oleg Cassini is 91.



Former New York State Governor Hugh Carey is 85.



Ethel Kennedy is 76.



Actor Johnny Sheffield is 73.



Actor Joel Grey is 72.



Actress Louise Lasser is 65.



Syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman is 63.



Movie writer-director John Milius is 60.



Actor Peter Riegert is 57.



Actor Meshach Taylor is 57.



Actor Bill Irwin is 54.



Country singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale is 47.



Songwriter-producer Daryl Simmons is 47.



Actor Lucky Vanous is 43.



Country singer Steve Azar is 40.



Singer Lisa Stansfield is 38.



Rock musician Dylan Keefe (Marcy Playground) is 34.



Singer Joss Stone is 17.



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Thought for Today:

"We have enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another." -

- Jonathan Swift, English satirist (1667-1745).

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

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

Today is Saturday, April 10th.

The 101st day of 2004.

There are 265 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On April 10, 1912, the RMS Titanic set sail from Southampton, England, on its ill-fated maiden voyage.



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On this date:



In 1790, The first U.S. patent law, protecting inventions against piracy, is approved.



In 1790, Robert Gray is 1st American to circumnavigate the Earth



In 1814, British and Spanish forces defeated Napoleon's army at the Battle of Toulouse. This led to his abdication and exile to Elba the next day.



In 1825, 1st hotel in Hawaii opens



In 1841, The New York "Tribune" begins publication under editor Horace Greeley



In 1845, More than 1,000 buildings damaged by fire in Pittsburgh Pa.



In 1847, American journalist Joseph Pulitzer, whose will provided for the establishment of the Pulitzer Prizes, was born in Makó, Hungary. He died in 1911.



In 1849, The Safety pin was patented by Walter Hunt of New York City. He immediately sold the patent rights for $100.



In 1866, The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was incorporated.



In 1872, The first Arbor day was celebrated in Nebraska; it was later changed to April 22.



In 1903, American playwright, legislator, and diplomat Clare Boothe Luce was born in New York City. She died in 1987.



In 1925, The novel "The Great Gatsby," by F. Scott Fitzgerald, was first published.



In 1930, The first synthetic rubber is produced.



In 1932, German president Paul Von Hindenburg was re-elected, with Adolf Hitler coming in second.



In 1939, The British Mediterranean fleet sailed to protect Greece and Turkey from possible Italian aggression.



In 1941, In World War II, U.S. troops occupied Greenland to prevent Nazi infiltration.



In 1945, German Me 262 jet fighters shot down ten U.S. bombers near Berlin.



In 1945, Members of the U.S. 80th Division entered the Buchenwald concentration camp north of Weimar, Germany. It was the first of the Nazi concentration camps to be liberated by Allied troops. Buchenwald had been established in 1937 and an estimated 56,000 people died there.



In 1947, Jackie Robinson became the 1st black in modern major league baseball (Brooklyn Dodgers)



In 1953, The three-dimensional horror movie "House of Wax," produced by Warner Brothers and starring Vincent Price, premiered in New York.



In 1955, Polio vaccine tested a success by Dr. Jonas Salk.



In 1957, Ricky Nelson sang for first time on TV's "Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet." He performed the song "I'm Walking."



In 1960, The U.S. Senate passed the Civil Rights Bill.



In 1961, Adolf Eichmann, the former Nazi, was put on trial as a war criminal in an Israeli court in Jerusalem.



In 1963, The nuclear-powered submarine USS Thresher failed to surface off Cape Cod, Mass., in a disaster that claimed 129 lives.



In 1968, President Johnson replaced General Westmoreland with General Creighton Abrams in Vietnam.



In 1968, Ferry MV Wahine capsized in the harbor mouth of Wellington NZ in 100mph winds. 200 killed.



In 1972, The United States and the Soviet Union joined some 70 nations in signing an agreement banning biological warfare.



In 1974, Golda Meir announced her resignation as prime minister of Israel.



In 1978, Arkady Shevchenko, a high-ranking Soviet citizen employed by the United Nations, sought political asylum in the United States.



In 1981, Imprisoned IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands won election to the British Parliament.



In 1987, the state of Utah began pumping water from the Great Salt Lake to reduce damaging record water levels. The pumping created a 500-square-mile lake on the Bonneville salt flats.



In 1991, Last automat (coin operated cafeteria) closes (3rd & 42nd St, New York NY)



In 1995, NYC bans smoking in all restaurants that seat 35 or more



In 1998, The Northern Ireland peace talks concluded as negotiators reached a landmark settlement to end 30 years of bitter rivalries and bloody attacks.



In 1998, the anti-impotence drug Viagra went on the market and became one of the best-selling new medications of all time. (Insert your own joke here.)



Ten years ago (1994):



Two U.S. F-16 fighters bombed Bosnian Serb targets in Gorazde -- NATO's first-ever attack on ground positions. (A second air strike took place the following day.)



Five years ago (1999):



Bad weather hampered NATO's bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, but the allies warned Slobodan Milosevic the lull wouldn't last. The Pentagon, meanwhile, announced that 82 U.S. planes would join the force conducting airstrikes over Yugoslavia.



The Miami Heat humiliated the Chicago Bulls, 82-49, holding the Bulls to the lowest point total since the introduction of the shot clock.



One year ago (2003):



Iraqi television aired videotaped greetings from President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.



The House passed a bill creating a national Amber Alert system and strengthening child pornography laws.



A fire in a boarding school for the deaf in southern Russia killed 30 children.



Eva Narcissus Boyd, the singer formerly known as "Little Eva," died in Kinston, N.C.



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Today's Birthdays:



Actor Harry Morgan is 89.



Actor Max von Sydow is 75.



Actress Liz Sheridan is 75.



Actor Omar Sharif is 72.



Sportscaster John Madden is 68.



Rhythm and blues singer Bobbie Smith (The Spinners) is 68.



Sportscaster Don Meredith is 66.



Reggae artist Bunny Wailer is 57.



Actor Steven Seagal is 53.



Folk-pop singer Terre Roche (The Roches) is 51.



Actor Peter MacNicol is 50.



Rock musician Steven Gustafson (10,000 Maniacs) is 47.



Singer-producer Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds is 46.



Rock singer-musician Brian Setzer is 45.



Rapper Afrika Bambaataa is 44.



Actor Jeb Adams is 43.



Olympic gold medal speedskater Cathy Turner is 42.



Rock musician Tim "Herb" Alexander is 39.



Actor-comedian Orlando Jones is 36.



Singer Kenny Lattimore is 34.



Blues singer Shemekia Copeland is 25.



Actor Ryan Merriman is 21.



Singer Mandy Moore is 20.



Actor Haley Joel Osment is 16.



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Thought for Today:

"Take from me the hope that I can change the future, and you will send me mad." -

- Israel Zangwill, English dramatist (1864-1926).

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

Today is Friday, April 9th.

The 100th day of 2004.

There are 266 days left in the year.

This is Good Friday



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Today's Highlight in History:



On April 9, 1865, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia.



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On this date:



In 837, Halley's Comet makes its closest known passage to Earth: 5 million kilometers (3 million miles).



In 1682, French explorer Robert La Salle reached the Mississippi River.



In 1747, The last beheading took place in England; Lord Lovat Simon Fraser, the 12th baron Lovat Jacobite, was a peer who was the last to be beheaded in England; for "high treeason".



In 1770, Captain James Cook discovers Botany Bay on the Australian continent.



In 1869, The Hudson's Bay Company agreed to cede its territorial rights to Canada.



In 1872, Samuel R Percy patents dried milk



In 1909, In Pentecostal history, the first group outbreak of the charismatic gift of tongues occurred in Los Angeles under the leadership of black evangelist William J. Seymour, 38. It marked the beginning of the three-year-long "Azusa Street Revival."



In 1912, 1st exhibition baseball game at Fenway Park (Red Sox vs Harvard)



In 1912, SS Titanic leaves Queenstown Ireland for New York.



In 1928, Mae West's NYC debut in a daring new play "Diamond Lil"



In 1939, Singer Marian Anderson performed a concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., after she was denied the use of Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution.



In 1940, During World War II, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway.



In 1942, American and Philippine defenders on Bataan capitulated to Japanese forces; the surrender was followed by the notorious Bataan Death March, which claimed nearly 10,000 lives.



In 1947, A series of tornadoes in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas claimed 169 lives.



In 1947, Atomic Energy Commission is formed



In 1950, Bob Hope made his first television appearance on "Star-Spangled Review" on NBC-TV.



In 1959, NASA announced the selection of America's first seven astronauts: Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Donald Slayton.



In 1963, British statesman Winston Churchill was made an honorary U.S. citizen.



In 1965, The newly built Houston Astrodome featured its first baseball game, an exhibition between the Astros and the New York Yankees. (The Astros won, 2-1.)



In 1967, 1st Boeing 737 rolls out



In 1968, Slain American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., is buried in Atlanta, Georgia.



In 1969, The supersonic aircraft Concorde made its maiden flight, from Bristol to Fairford in England



In 1970, Paul McCartney announces the official breakup of the Beatles.



In 1974, Janet Jackson, at age 7, appeared on the TV show "The Jacksons" for the first time.



In 1981, The Japanese cargo ship Nisso Maru sank in the East China Sea after it was hit by the nuclear-powered U.S. submarine USS George Washington.



In 1983, The space shuttle Challenger ended its first mission with a safe landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.



In 1986, It was announced that Patrick Duffy's character on the TV show Dallas would be returning after being killed off in the previous season.



In 1987, Responding to charges of bugging at the new U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Soviet officials displayed microphones and other gadgets they said were found in Soviet missions in the United States.



In 1991, The Soviet republic of Georgia declared its independence.



In 1991, Release date of Microsoft MS DOS 5.0.



In 1992, A U.S. Federal court finds former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega guilty of cocaine trafficking, money laundering, and racketeering. It is the first time the former head of state in another nation is convicted under United States law.



In 1995, Women's rights supporters rallied near the U.S. Capitol to protest violence against women.



In 1996, In a dramatic shift of purse-string power, President Clinton signed a line-item veto bill into law. (However, the Supreme Court struck down the veto as unconstitutional in 1998.)



In 1997, The CIA apologized to Gulf War veterans for failing to do a better job in supplying information to U.S. troops who blew up an Iraqi bunker later found to contain chemical weapons.



In 1997, Amid privacy concerns, Social Security officials pulled the plug on an Internet site that provided records of individual earnings and retirements.



In 1998, More than 150 Muslims died in stampede in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on last day of the haj pilgrimage.



In 2001, The parent company of American Airlines acquired the bankrupt Trans World Airlines (TWA); the acquisition made American America's No. 1 air carrier.



In 2002, Former Arthur Andersen auditor David B. Duncan pleaded guilty in federal court in Houston to ordering the shredding of Enron documents, and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.



Ten years ago (1994):



Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali ordered U.N. troops to use "all available means" to roll back Serb military gains in the Muslim enclave of Gorazde.



The space shuttle Endeavour blasted off on an 11-day mission that included mapping the Earth's surface in three dimensions.



Five years ago (1999):



Niger's president, Ibrahim Bare Mainassara, was gunned down by members of his own Presidential Guard.



A judge ordered the federal government to pay $909 million to Glendale Federal Bank in California for breach of contract. (The ruling stemmed from a 1996 Supreme Court decision that said the government broke its contract with Glendale and two other thrifts when it changed the rules on how they had to count their assets.)



One year ago (2003):



Jubilant Iraqis celebrated the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime, beheading a toppled statue of their longtime ruler in downtown Baghdad and embracing American troops as liberators.



In Afghanistan, a U.S. warplane called in to support allied Afghans under fire mistakenly bombed a house, killing 11 civilians.



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Today's Birthdays:



Playboy magazine founder Hugh Marston Hefner is 78.



Naturalist Jim Fowler is 72.



Actor Jean-Paul Belmondo is 71.



Actress Michael Learned is 65.



Country singer Margo Smith is 62.



Country singer Hal Ketchum is 51.



Actor Dennis Quaid is 50.



Humorist Jimmy Tingle is 49.



Golfer Severiano Ballesteros is 47.



Country musician Dave Innis (Restless Heart) is 45.



Sports reporter Lisa Guerrero is 40.



Actress-model Paulina Porizkova is 39.



Actress Cynthia Nixon is 38.



Rock singer Kevin Martin (Candlebox) is 35.



Singer Rachel Stevens (S Club 7) is 26.



Actress Keshia Knight Pulliam is 25.



Actor Ryan Northcott is 24.



Actress Kristen Stewart is 14.



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Thought for Today:

"It is indeed difficult to define just who the 'modern man' is, and what views he has to hold in order to be modern." -

- Josiah Royce, American philosopher (1855-1916).

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

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

Today is Thursday, April 8th.

The 99th day of 2004.

There are 267 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On April 8, 1974, Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hit his 715th career home run in a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, breaking Babe Ruth's record. The round-tripper was off pitcher Al Downing.



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On this date:



In 563 B.C.E., Philosopher, Prince, Religious Leader (Buddism) Siddhartha Gautama Buddha was born in India. He died on February 15, 483 B.C.E. at the age of 79.



In 1460, Explorer Juan Ponce de Leon was born. He died in 1521.



In 1513, Explorer Juan Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for Spain.



In 1525, Albert von Brandenburg, the leader of the Teutonic Order, assumes the title "Duke of Prussia" and passed the first laws of the Protestant church, making Prussia a Protestant state.



In 1546, At its fourth session, the Council of Trent adopted Jerome's "Latin Vulgate" as the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church. (Included in the Vulgate O.T. were the 15 apocryphal books which Protestants reject in their biblical canon.)



In 1652, Cape Town in South Africa is founded by Jan van Riebeeck as a supply post for the Dutch East India Company.



In 1789, The U.S. House of Representatives held its first meeting.



In 1834, Cornelius Lawrence became the first mayor to be elected by popular vote in a city election (New York City).



In 1862, The aerosol dispenser was patented by John D. Lynde.



In 1865, General Robert E Lee surrenders at Appomattox Court House in Virginia



In 1869, The American Museum of Natural History opens in New York City.



In 1879, Milk was sold in glass bottles for the first time.



In 1893, Actress/producer Mary ("America's Sweetheart") Pickford [Gladys Marie Smith] was born in Toronto, Canada. She was a co-founder of the United Artists Corporation. She died in 1979.



In 1904, The Anglo-French agreement known as the "Entente Cordial" was signed. It settled all global differences between the two, including disputes over Newfoundland, West Africa, Egypt and Morocco.



In 1912, Olympic ice skater/actress Sonja Henie was born in Norway. She died October 12, 1969 at the age of 57.



In 1913, The Seventeenth amendment was ratified, requiring direct election of senators.



In 1935, The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was approved by Congress.



In 1946, The League of Nations assembled in Geneva for the last time.



In 1950, Ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky died in London.



In 1952, President Truman seized the steel industry to avert a nationwide strike.



In 1963, The final episode of "The Rifleman" aired.



In 1969, The first artificial heart was implanted into a human.



In 1970, The Senate rejected President Nixon's nomination of G. Harold Carswell to the U.S. Supreme Court.



In 1973, Artist Pablo Ruiz y Picasso died at his home near Mougins, France, at age 91.



In 1979, The last episode of "All In The Family" aired.



In 1981, Gen. Omar N. Bradley (the last "5-Star" general) died in New York at age 88.



In 1986, Film actor/director Clint Eastwood was elected mayor of Carmel, California.



In 1988, The Rev. Jimmy Swaggart was defrocked as a minister of the Assemblies of God after he rejected an order from the church's national leaders to stop preaching for a year.



In 1990, Ryan White, the teenage AIDS patient whose battle for acceptance gained national attention, died in Indianapolis at age 18.



In 1990, Fire breaks out on the Danish ferry Scandinavian Star in the North Sea, killing more than 150 people.



In 1991, Michael Landon announces he has inoperable cancer of the pancreas



In 1992, Yasir Arafat, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), survives a plane crash in the Sahara Desert; the plane's three crew members perished.



In 1992, After 151 years Britain's "Punch Magazine" published its final issue.



In 1993, singer Marian Anderson died in Portland, Ore., at age 96.



In 1994, Smoking banned in the Pentagon and on all US military bases



In 1997, Microsoft Corp releases Internet Explorer 4.0.



Ten years ago (1994):



Kurt Cobain, singer and guitarist for the grunge band Nirvana, was found dead in Seattle from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound; he was 27.



Japanese Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa announced his intention to resign in the wake of an ever-widening financial scandal.



Five years ago (1999):



At a White House news conference, President Clinton said NATO could still win in Kosovo by air power alone, and he expressed hope for an early release of three American POWs; also at the session with reporters was visiting Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji, who promised to cooperate in investigations of alleged nuclear-weapons spying and illegal campaign contributions by Beijing.



One year ago (2003):



Two journalists were killed when U.S. forces fired on their hotel in Baghdad.



Connecticut won its second straight NCAA women's basketball championship, defeating Tennessee 73-68.



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



Today's Birthdays:



Former first lady Betty Ford is 86.



Comedian Shecky Greene is 78.



Lyricist Fred Ebb is 68.



Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh is 67.



Basketball Hall-of-Famer John Havlicek is 64.



Singer J.J. Jackson is 63.



Singer Peggy Lennon (The Lennon Sisters) is 63.



Songwriter-producer Leon Huff is 62.



Actor Hywel Bennett is 60.



Actor Stuart Pankin is 58.



Rock musician Steve Howe (Yes) is 57.



Rock musician Mel Schacher (Grand Funk Railroad) is 53.



Baseball Hall-of-Famer Gary Carter is 50.



Actor John Schneider is 44.



Rock musician Izzy Stradlin is 42.



Singer Julian Lennon is 41.



Rock singer-musician Donita Sparks (L7) is 41.



Rapper Biz Markie is 40.



Actress Robin Wright Penn is 38.



Actress Patricia Arquette is 36.



Rock singer Craig Honeycutt (Everything) is 34.



Rock musician Darren Jessee is 33.



Actor Taran Noah Smith is 20.



Actress Kirsten Storms is 20.



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Thought for Today:

"The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants." -

- Gen. Omar N. Bradley (1893-1981)

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

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

Today is Wednesday, April 7th.

The 98th day of 2004.

There are 268 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On April 7, 1927, an audience in New York saw an image of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover in the first successful long-distance (using phone lines) demonstration of television.



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On this date:



In 1348, Prague University, the first in central Europe, was founded by Charles IV, King of Bohemia.



In 1788, 1st settlement in Ohio, at Marietta



In 1798, The Mississippi Territory was organized.



In 1827, John Walker, an English chemist, invented the wooden match.



In 1862, Union forces led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant defeated the Confederates at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee.



In 1891, Nebraska introduced the 8 hour work day.



In 1902, Texas Oil Company (Texaco) forms.



In 1915, One of the greatest jazz-blues singers of all time, Billie "Lady Day" Holiday was born in Philadelphia, PA. She died in 1959.



In 1919, The Original Dixieland Jazz Band, the first jazz band to record its music, makes its debut in London, England; its song “Tiger Rag” becomes popular.



In 1923, The first operation for a brain tumor under local anesthetic is performed at Beth Israel Hospital in New York City by Dr. K. Winfield Ney.



In 1933, Prohibition ended as Utah became the 38th state to ratify 21st Amendment.



In 1939, Italy invaded Albania. (Less than a week later, Italy annexed Albania.)



In 1940, Educator Booker T. Washington becomes the first African American pictured on a U.S. postage stamp.



In 1943, British and American armies linked up between Wadi Akarit and El Guettar in North Africa to form a solid line against the German army.



In 1943, The drug LSD was first produced at Sandoz Laboratories, Basel, Switzerland, by Albert Hofman.



In 1945, During World War II, American planes intercepted a Japanese fleet that was headed for Okinawa on a suicide mission. The Japanese battleship Yamato, the world’s largest battleship, was sunk during the battle for Okinawa.



In 1947, Auto pioneer Henry Ford died in Dearborn, Mich., at age 83.



In 1947, Millions of Americans were left without telephone service by a nationwide strike. It lasted 23 days.



In 1948, The World Health Organization (WHO) was founded.



In 1949, The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "South Pacific" opened on Broadway.



In 1953, The U.N. General Assembly elected Dag Hammarskjold of Sweden to be secretary-general.



In 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower fears "domino-effect" in Indo-China



In 1959, Oklahoma ends prohibition, after 51 years



In 1964, IBM introduced its innovative System/360, the company's first line of compatible mainframe computers that gave customers the option of upgrading from lower-cost models to more powerful, expensive ones.



In 1966, The United States recovered a hydrogen bomb it had lost off the coast of Spain.



In 1967, Israel reported that they had shot down six Syrian MIGs.



In 1969, The Supreme Court unanimously struck down laws prohibiting private possession of obscene material.



In 1971, President Nixon pledged to withdraw 100,000 more men from Vietnam by December.



In 1978, President Jimmy Carter defers production of the neutron bomb



In 1980, President Jimmy Carter breaks off diplomatic relations with Iran during the hostage crisis.



In 1981, Willem Klein mentally extracts 13th root of a 100-digit # in 29 seconds



In 1984, The Census Bureau reported Los Angeles had overtaken Chicago as the nation's "second city" in terms of population.



In 1988, Iran and Iraq bomb each other's capitals and other towns, killing and wounding scores of people.



In 1988, Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev and Afghan leader Najibullah met in the Soviet Central Asian city of Tashkent. They later issued a joint statement, anouncing an to end the civil war in Afghanistan and withdraw Soviet troops.



In 1989, In the Norwegian Sea, 42 seamen died when a Soviet Mike-class nuclear-powered submarine,the Komsomolets, sank more than 300 miles off coast of Norway after an undersea accident and fire. Twenty-seven crew members were rescued.



In 1990, At Cincinnati's Contemporary Arts Center a display of Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs went on display. On the same day the center and its director were indicted on obscenity charges. The charges resulted in acquittal.



In 1990, In the U.S., John Poindexter was found guilty of five counts at his Iran-Contra trial. The convictions were later reversed on appeal.



In 1991, The 100th episode of "Married With Children" aired.



In 2000, Attorney General Janet Reno met in Washington with the father of Elian Gonzalez; Reno later told reporters that officials would arrange for Juan Miguel Gonzalez to reclaim his son, but she gave Elian's Miami relatives one more chance to drop their resistance and join in a peaceful transfer.



In 2000, U.S. President Clinton signed the Senior Citizens Freedom to Work Act of 2000. The bill reversed a Depression-era law and allows senior citizens to earn money without losing Social Security retirement benefits.



In 2001, In Cincinnati, Ohio, Timothy Thomas, an unarmed black man wanted on 14 misdemeanor warrants, was fatally shot by a white police officer, sparking three days of riots.



In 2002, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein vowed to defeat the U.S. if it attacked Iraq. He said Iraq would continue supplying the Palestinians "with every means by which they can defend themselves....We will fight with missiles, warplanes, marsh reeds and even stones and they will be defeated."



Ten years ago (1994):



Civil war erupted in Rwanda, a day after a mysterious plane crash claimed the lives of the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi. In the months that followed, hundreds of thousands of minority Tutsi and Hutu intellectuals were slaughtered.



Vatican acknowledges Holocaust (Nazi's killing of Jews) for 1st time



Five years ago (1999):



Yugoslav authorities sealed off Kosovo's main border crossings, preventing ethnic Albanians from leaving as the wave of refugees approached the half-million mark.



One year ago (2003):



U.S. troops in more than 100 U.S. armored vehicles rumbled through downtown Baghdad, seizing one of Saddam Hussein's opulent palaces and toppling a 40-foot statue of the Iraqi ruler.



The Supreme Court voted 6-3 to uphold a 50-year-old Virginia law making it a crime to burn a cross as an act of intimidation.



The Boston Globe won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for public service for its coverage of the priest sex abuse scandal.



Syracuse won the NCAA basketball tournament with an 81-78 victory over Kansas.



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



Today's Birthdays:



Actor R.G. Armstrong is 87.



Sitar player Ravi Shankar is 84.



Actor James Garner is 76.



Pentagon whistleblower (Pentagon Papers) Daniel Ellsberg is 73.



Country singer Cal Smith is 72.



Actor Wayne Rogers is 71.



Actor Ian Richardson is 70.



Media commentator Hodding Carter III is 69.



Country singer Bobby Bare is 69.



Rhythm and blues singer Charlie Thomas (The Drifters) is 67.



Jazz musician Freddie Hubbard is 66.



The mayor of Oakland, Calif., Jerry Brown, is 66.



Movie director Francis Ford Coppola is 65.



Television personality David Frost is 65.



Singer Patricia Bennett (The Chiffons) is 57.



Singer John Oates is 55.



Singer Janis Ian is 53.



Country musician John Dittrich is 53.



Rock musician Bruce Gary is 52.



Actor Jackie Chan is 50.



Football Hall-of-Famer Tony Dorsett is 50.



Actress Elaine Miles ("Marilyn Whirlwind" - Northern Exposure) is 44.



Actor Russell Crowe is 40.



Rhythm and blues singer Mark Kibble (Take 6) is 40.



Actor Bill Bellamy is 39.



Rock musician Dave "Yorkie" Palmer (Space) is 39.



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



Thought for Today:

"It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it." -

- Eleanor Roosevelt, American first lady (1884-1962).

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

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

Today is Tuesday, April 6th.

The 97th day of 2004.

There are 269 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On April 6, 1909, Explorers Robert E. Peary and Matthew A. Henson and four Inuit guides became the first men to reach the North Pole. (The claim, disputed by skeptics, was upheld in 1989 by the Navigation Foundation.)



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



On this date:



In 648 B.C.E., The earliest total solar eclipse chronicled by Greeks was observed.



In 6 B.C.E., This day is believed by some Biblical scholars to be the actual date of the historical birth of Jesus Christ.



In 610, Lailat-ul Qadar, the night the Koran descended to Earth



In 1199, English King Richard I was killed by an arrow at the siege of the castle of Chaluz in France.



In 1652, Cape Colony, the 1st European settlement in S Africa, established.



In 1712, Slave revolt in New York.



In 1722, Peter the Great ends tax on men with beards.



In 1789, The first U.S. Congress began regular sessions at the Federal Hall in New York City.



In 1814, After being granted sovereignty in the island of Elba and a pension from the French government, Napoleon Bonaparte abdicates at Fountainebleau. He was allowed to keep the title of emperor.



In 1830, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (aka:Morman)(known as the Church of Christ until 1834) was organized by Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery at Fayette, New York.



In 1862, The Civil War Battle of Shiloh began in Tennessee.



In 1866, Outlaw Butch Cassidy (George Robert Leroy Parker) was born. He died in 1908.



In 1869, Celluloid is the first plastic to be patented.



In 1874, American magician Harry Houdini (Ehrich Weiss) was born in Budapest Hungary. He died October 31, 1926 at the age of 52 in Detroit, MI.



In 1884, Actor, Movie Director Walter Huston (Houghston) (John's dad, Anjelica's granddad) was born in Toronto, Ontario Canada. He died April 7, 1950 at the age of 66.



In 1886, City of Vancouver, BC incorporated.



In 1889, The Kodak Camera was placed on sale by George Eastman.



In 1892, Author, journalist, broadcaster and world traveler Lowell Thomas was born in Woodington, Ohio.



In 1893, Andy Bowen & Jack Burke box 7 hours 19 minutes to no decision in St Louis (111 rounds, longest bout in boxing history)



In 1893, Mormon temple in Salt Lake City dedicated



In 1896, The first modern Olympic games formally opened in Athens, Greece.



In 1909, St. Canadian Credit Union of Manchester, New Hampshire received a charter to become the first credit union to be established in the U.S.



In 1912, The electric starter first appeared in cars.



In 1917, Congress approved a declaration of war against Germany.



In 1924, 4 planes leave Seattle on 1st successful around-the-world flight



In 1927, William P. MacCracken, Jr. earned license number "1" when the Department of Commerce issued the first aviator's license.



In 1930, Hostess Twinkies were invented by bakery executive James Dewar.



In 1930, Humorist Will Rogers begins broadcasting The Will Rogers Program on CBS radio.



In 1938, Du Pont researchers Roy J. Plunkett and Jack Rebok accidentally created the chemical compound that was later marketed as Teflon.



In 1941, Germany invades Yugoslavia and Greece.



In 1954, Four weeks after being attacked on the air by Edward R. Murrow, Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, R-Wis., delivered a filmed response on CBS' "See It Now" in which he charged that Murrow had, in the past, "engaged in propaganda for Communist causes."



In 1954, The TV Dinner was first put on sale by Swanson & Sons.



In 1957, Trolley cars in New York City completed their final runs



In 1965, The United States launched the "Early Bird" Intelsat 1, the first commercial geosynchronous communications satellite.



In 1965, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson authorized the use of ground troops in combat operations in Vietnam.



In 1968, Federal troops and National Guardsmen were ordered out in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Detroit, as rioting continued over the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.



In 1971, Russian-born composer Igor Stravinsky died in New York City.



In 1973, Yankee Ron Blomberg becomes 1st designated hitter, he walks



In 1980, Post It Notes were introduced.



In 1992, Science-fiction author Isaac Asimov died in New York at age 72.



In 1998, Pakistan successfully tests medium-range missile capable of attacking neighboring India.



In 1998, Country singer Tammy Wynette died at her Nashville, Tenn., home at age 55.



In 2000, The father of Elian Gonzalez, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, arrived in the United States to press for the return of his six-year-old son to Cuba.



In 2000, A private company mapping the human genetic blueprint announced it had decoded all of the DNA pieces that make up the genetic pattern of a single human being.



In 2001, Pacific Gas and Electric filed for bankruptcy in an offshoot of the California energy crisis.



Ten years ago (1994):



Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun announced his retirement after 24 years.



The presidents of Rwanda and Burundi were killed in a mysterious plane crash near Rwanda's capital; widespread violence and genocide erupted in Rwanda over claims the plane had been shot down.



A Palestinian suicide-bomber killed seven Israelis in an attack on a bus in Afula.



Five years ago (1999):



Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic declared a unilateral cease-fire in his campaign to crush rebels in Kosovo; Western leaders called the move a sham and pledged to press ahead with airstrikes.



Carmen Electra filed for a divorce from Dennis Rodman. They had only been married six months.



One year ago (2003):



U.S. forces encircled and began flying into Baghdad's international airport. British forces in the south made their deepest push into Basra, Iraq's second largest city.



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



Today's Birthdays:



Composer-conductor Andre Previn is 75.



Actor Ivan Dixon is 73.



Country singer Merle Haggard is 67.



Actor Billy Dee Williams is 67.



Actor Roy Thinnes is 66.



Movie director Barry Levinson is 62.



Singer/actress/model [Holly] Michelle [Gilliam] Phillips is 60.



Actor John Ratzenberger is 57.



Actress Marilu Henner is 52.



Figure skater Janet Lynn is 51.



Actor Michael Rooker is 49.



Actress Ari Meyers is 35.



Actor Paul Rudd is 35.



Actor Jason Hervey is 32.



Actor Zach Braff is 29.



Actress Soleil Moon Frye (Punky Brewster) is 28.



Actress Candace Cameron is 28.



Actor Bret Harrison is 22.



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Thought for Today:

"After the age of 80, everything reminds you of something else." -

- Lowell Thomas, American author and broadcaster (1892-1981).

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

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

Today is Monday, April 5th.

The 96th day of 2004.

There are 270 days left in the year.

The Jewish holiday Passover begins at sunset.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On April 5, 1964, Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur died in Washington at age 84.



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



On this date:



In 2348, B.C.E., according to tradition, Noah's Ark landed on Mt. Ararat



In 1614, American Indian princess Pocahontas married English colonist John Rolfe in Virginia.



In 1621, The Mayflower sailed from Plymouth, Mass., on a return trip to England.



In 1722, Jacob Roggeveen discovers Easter Island.



In 1768, The first U.S. Chamber of Commerce is formed in New York City.



In 1792, George Washington cast the first presidential veto, rejecting a congressional measure for apportioning representatives among the states.



In 1806, Isaac Quintard of Stanfield, CT, patented the Apple Cider mill



In 1843, Queen Victoria proclaimed Hong Kong to be a British crown colony.



In 1856, Educator, Social Reformer, Booker Taliaferro Washington was born in Franklin County, Virginia. He died November 14, 1915 at age 59.



In 1869, Daniel Bakeman, the last surviving soldier of the Revolutionary War, died at the age of 109.



In 1887, British historian Lord Acton wrote, "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely."



In 1887, In Tuscumbia, Alabama, teacher Anne Sullivan achieved a major breakthrough with her blind and deaf pupil, Helen Keller, by conveying to her the meaning of the word "water" in the manual alphabet.



In 1892, Walter H. Coe of Providence, RI, patented gold leaf in rolls.



In 1895, Playwright Oscar Wilde lost his criminal libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry, who had accused the writer of homosexual practices.



In 1896, 1st modern Olympic Games officially open in Athens



In 1900, Actor Spencer Tracy was born in Milwaukee, WI. He died June 10, 1967 at age 67.



In 1908, Actress Bette Davis was born in Lowell, MA. She died October 6, 1989 at age 81.



In 1916, Actor Gregory Peck was born in San Diego, CA. He died June 11, 2003 at age 87.



In 1923, Firestone Tire and Rubber Company of Akron, OH began the first regular production of balloon tires



In 1949, Astronaut Dr. Judith Arlene Resnik was born. She died January 28, 1986 at age 36 in the Challenger explosion.



In 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death following their conviction in New York on charges of conspiring to commit espionage for the Soviet Union; co-defendant Morton Sobell was sentenced to 30 years in prison (he was released in 1969).



In 1955, Winston Churchill resigns as British PM.



In 1961, Barbra Streisand appears on "The Jack Paar Show" (forerunner of the Tonight Show).



In 1962, NASA civilian pilot Neil A. Armstrong takes the X-15 to an altitude of 54,600 meters (179,133 feet or 33.9 miles)



In 1968, Violence erupted in several American cities in response to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.



In 1971, Mount Etna erupts in Sicily Italy.



In 1971, Fran Phipps is 1st woman to reach North Pole



In 1973, Pioneer 11 launched to Jupiter



In 1974, The then tallest building, the World Trade Center, opened in New York City with 110 stories.



In 1975, Nationalist Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek died at age 87.



In 1976, Reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes died in Houston at age 72.



In 1980, The final episode of "Hawaii Five-O" aired.



In 1983, The Beach Boys were banned from the Fourth of July concert at the White House. President Ronald Reagan overturned the ban two days later.



In 1987, The United States observed daylight saving time on the first Sunday in April beginning this year. Up until the last year, it was the last Sunday in April.



In 1987, The Fox Broadcasting Company makes its prime time television debut with Married…with Children.



In 1992, Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton died in Little Rock, Ark., at age 74.



In 1997, Allen Ginsberg, the counterculture guru who'd shattered conventions as poet laureate of the Beat Generation, died in New York City at age 70.



In 1997, The 100th episode of "Walker, Texas Ranger" aired on CBS.



In 1998, The world's longest suspension bridge, Japan's Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, opened for public use.



In 2063, Earth's 1st contact by extra-terrestrials (Vulcan) according to Star Trek.



Ten years ago (1994):



President Clinton presided over a 90-minute town hall meeting in Charlotte, N.C., in which he called himself the victim of "false charges" in connection with the Whitewater controversy.



Five years ago (1999):



NATO missiles and aircraft blasted Serbian targets inside Yugoslavia for a 13th straight day.



The United Nations suspended sanctions against Libya after Moammar Gadhafi surrendered two suspected Libyan intelligence agents for trial in the 1988 Pan Am bombing.



In Laramie, Wyo., Russell Henderson pleaded guilty to kidnapping and felony murder in the death of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student.



One year ago (2003):



U.S. officials declared a near chokehold on the Iraqi capital Baghdad even while warning that many other parts of Iraq were not yet under allied control.



A prison riot in northern Honduras left 69 inmates dead and dozens injured.



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



Today's Birthdays:



Novelist Arthur Hailey is 84.



Actress Gale Storm (Josephine Owaissa Cottle) is 82.



Movie producer Roger Corman is 78.



Country music producer Cowboy Jack Clement is 73.



Impressionist-actor Frank Gorshin is 71.



Secretary of State Colin Luther Powell is 67.



Country singer Tommy Cash is 64.



Actor Michael Moriarty is 63.



Writer-director Peter Greenaway is 62.



Actor Max Gail is 61.



Rocker Dave Holland (Judas Priest) is 60.



Actress Jane Asher is 58.



Singer Agnetha Faltskog (ABBA) is 54.



Rock musician Mike McCready (Pearl Jam) is 39.



Country singer Troy Gentry is 37.



Singer Paula Cole is 36.



Country singer Pat Green is 32.



Rapper-producer Pharrell Williams is 31.



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



Thought for Today:

"In war, you win or lose, live or die -- and the difference is just an eyelash." -

- Douglas MacArthur, Army general (1880-1964).

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

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

Today is Sunday, April 4th.

The 95th day of 2004.

There are 271 days left in the year.

This is Palm Sunday



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Today's Highlight in History:



On April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., 39, was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn.



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



On this date:



In 1507, Future German reformer Martin Luther, at age 21, was ordained a priest in the Roman Catholic church.



In 1541, Spanish ecclesiastic reformer and mystic Ignatius Loyola, 50, was elected the first General of the Jesuit Order, which he had helped establish the previous year.



In 1581, After circumnavigating the world, Francis Drake was knighted on board The Golden Hind at Deptford in London by Queen Elizabeth I.



In 1687, James II issued a Declaration of Indulgence allowing full liberty of worship in England. The document allowed peaceable meetings of nonconformists and forgave all penalties for ecclesiastical offenses.



In 1812, The Territory of Orleans became the 18th U.S. state and will later become known as Louisiana.



In 1818, Congress decided the flag of the United States would consist of 13 red and white stripes and 20 stars, with a new star to be added for every new state of the Union.



In 1828, Casparus van Wooden patents chocolate milk powder in Amsterdam.



In 1841, President William Henry Harrison succumbed to pneumonia one month after his inaugural, becoming the first U.S. chief executive to die in office.



In 1850, Los Angeles (El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora La Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula) is incorporated as a city, the same year that California is admitted (September 9, 1850) to the United States. It's the only city in the West with four distinct seasons:

- floods

- fire

- earthquakes

- smog



In 1887, Susanna Medora Salter became the first woman elected mayor of an American community -- Argonia, Kan.



In 1896, The Yukon gold rush began with the announcement of a strike in the Northwest Territory of Canada.



In 1897, Campbell's Soup was introduced.



In 1902, British financier Cecil Rhodes left $10 million in his will to provide scholarships for Americans at Oxford University.



In 1905, 370,000 people were killed in an earthquake which struck the province of Lahore, then part of British India. The earthquake measured 8.6 on the Richter scale and demolished the towns of Kangra and Dharmsala.



In 1915, American blues musician Muddy Waters (McKinley Morganfield) was born in Rolling Fork, MI. He died in 1983.



In 1917, The U.S. Senate voted 90-6 to enter World War I on the Allied side.



In 1932, Professor C.G. King of the University of Pittsburgh isolated Vitamin C after five years of research.



In 1941, In North Africa, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel captured the British held town of Benghazi.



In 1944, German Holocaust victim Anne Frank, 14, wrote in her diary:

'I want to go on living even after my death! And therefore I am grateful to God for giving me this gift...of expressing all that is in me.'



In 1945, During World War II, U.S. forces liberated the Nazi death camp Ohrdruf in Germany.



In 1945, Hungary was liberated from Nazi occupation.



In 1949, 12 nations, including the United States, signed the North Atlantic Treaty.



In 1958, The 1st march against nuclear weapons was held in Aldermaston England



In 1964, The Beatles hold the top five spots on Billboard's "Hot 100", setting an all-time record.



In 1965, German theologian Jurgen Moltmann revealed in a letter to Karl Barth:

'Polemics always makes one a little one-sided.'



In 1967, Johnny Carson quit "The Tonight Show." He returned three weeks later after getting a raise of $30,000 a week.



In 1968, James Brown made a national TV appeal for calm following the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.



In 1969, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, often at odds with television censors, was canceled due to its controversial political humor.



In 1971, The final episode of "Hogan's Heroes" aired.



In 1974, Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves tied Babe Ruth's home-run record by hitting his 714th round-tripper in Cincinnati.



In 1975, More than 130 people, most of them children, were killed when a U.S. Air Force transport plane evacuating Vietnamese orphans crashed shortly after take-off from Saigon.



In 1981, Henry Cisneros became the first Mexican-American elected mayor of a major U.S. city: San Antonio, Texas.



In 1983, The space shuttle Challenger roared into orbit on its maiden voyage. It was later destroyed when it disintegrated during re-entry while over eastern Texas on February 1, 2003; its seven-person crew perished in the disaster.



In 1984, President Reagan proposed an international ban on chemical weapons.



In 1984, In George Orwell's 1949 novel "1984", Winston Smith begins his secret diary, writing "Down With Big Brother".



In 1986, The final episode of "Knight Rider" aired.



In 1992, Small-town billionaire Sam Moore Walton, whose Wal-Mart retail store chain helped make him one of the world's richest men, died.



In 2002, President Bush urged Israel to pull its troops back from Palestinian cities and dismissed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as a failed leader who had "betrayed the hopes of his people." Bush ordered Secretary of State Colin Powell to the region to seek a cease-fire.



Ten years ago (1994):



On Wall Street, stocks plummeted in violent spasms of selling that sent the Dow industrial down more than 40 points to a six-month low.



The University of Arkansas won the NCAA basketball championship, defeating Duke 76-72.



Netscape Comminications was founded as Mosiac Comminications.



Five years ago (1999):



NATO warplanes and missiles attacked an army headquarters, oil refineries and other targets in and around Belgrade.



The Colorado Rockies beat the San Diego Padres 8-2 in baseball's first season opener held in Mexico.



One year ago (2003):



U.S. forces seized Saddam International Airport outside Baghdad.



Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs became the 18th player to hit 500 career homers, connecting for a solo shot in a 10-9 loss to Cincinnati.



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



Today's Birthdays:



Singer-actress Frances Langford is 90.



Composer Elmer Bernstein is 82.



Actress Elizabeth Wilson is 79.



Author-poet Maya Angelou is 76.



Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Richard Lugar, R-Ind., is 72.



Recording executive Clive Davis is 72.



Actor Michael Parks is 66.



Bandleader Hugh Masekela is 65.



Author Kitty Kelley is 62.



Actor Craig T. Nelson is 60.



Actor Walter Charles is 59.



Actress Caroline McWilliams is 59.



Actress Christine Lahti is 54.



Country singer Steve Gatlin (The Gatlin Brothers) is 53.



Writer-producer David E. Kelley is 48.



Actor Phil Morris is 45.



Actress Lorraine Toussaint is 44.



Actor Hugo Weaving is 44.



Rock musician Craig Adams (The Cult) is 42.



Actor Robert Downey Jr. is 39.



Actress Nancy McKeon is 38.



Actor Barry Pepper is 34.



Country singer Clay Davidson is 33.



Singer Jill Scott is 32.



Rock musician Magnus Sveningsson (The Cardigans) is 32.



Magician David Blaine is 31.



Singer Kelly Price is 31.



Rhythm and blues singer Andre Dalyrimple (Soul For Real) is 30.



Actress Alicia Silverstone is 28.



Actor Heath Ledger is 25.



Actress Natasha Lyonne is 25.



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Thought for Today:

"If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live." -

- Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968 ).

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Today is Saturday, April 3rd.

The 94th day of 2004.

There are 272 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



OnApril 3, 1860, the legendary Pony Express began service between St. Joseph, Mo., and Sacramento, Calif.



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On this date:



In 33, Christ was crucified.



In 1776, Harvard College conferred the first honorary Doctor of Laws degree to George Washington.



In 1783, American writer Washington Irving was born in New York City. He died in 1859.



In 1790, The Revenue Marine Service is created and will later become the U.S. Coast Guard.



In 1829, James Carrington of Wallingford, Connecticut, patented the coffee mill.



In 1862, Slavery was abolished in Washington, D.C.



In 1865, Union forces occupied the Confederate capital of Richmond, Va.



In 1868, A Hawaiian surfs on the highest wave ever, a 50' tsunami.



In 1882, Outlaw Jesse James was shot to death in St. Joseph, Mo., by Robert Ford, a member of James' gang.



In 1882, The wood block alarm was invented; it was suspended over your bed; when the alarm went on, it dropped 20 wooden blocks over your head to wake you up.



In 1898, "America's Toastmaster General" George Jessel was born. He died May 23, 1981 at the age of 83.



In 1910, Alaska's Mt. McKinley, the highest mountain in North America was climbed.



In 1921, Actress Jan Sterling (Adriance) was born. Topper's "ghostest with the mostest" died March 26th, 2004 at the age of 82.



In 1926, Astronaut Virgil "Gus" Grissom was born. He died in the tragic Apollo I fire on January 27, 1967, at the age of 40.



In 1927, The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) transfers Ohio to the Eastern time zone.



In 1933, The first flight over the peak of Mount Everest in the Himalayas was made by four Britons in two Westland biplanes.



In 1933, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt informed newspaper reporters that beer would be served at the White House. This followed the March 22nd legislation that legalized "3.2" beer.



In 1936, Bruno Hauptmann was electrocuted in Trenton, N.J., for the kidnap-murder of the Lindbergh child.



In 1941, Singer Jan Berry (Jan and Dean) was born. He died last month (March 26, 2004) at the age of 62.



In 1942, The Japanese began their all-out assault on the U.S. and Filipino troops at Bataan.



In 1946, Lt. Gen. Masaharu Homma, the Japanese commander responsible for the Bataan Death March, was executed outside Manila.



In 1948, President Truman signed the Marshall Plan, which allocated more than $5 billion in aid for 16 European countries.



In 1949, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis debuted on radio in an NBC program that ran until 1952.



In 1953, "TV Guide" was published for the first time, price per issue - 15 cents. The cover was a photo of Lucille Ball's infant Desiderio Alberto Arnaz IV (aka: Desi, Jr.).



In 1955, Fred Astaire appeared on television for the first time on "The Toast of the Town," with host, Ed Sullivan.



In 1956, Elvis Presley performed on "The Milton Berle Show." The show was broadcast live from the aircraft carrier USS Hancock. Elvis played the songs "Heartbreak Hotel," "Money, Honey," and "Blue Suede Shoes."



In 1958, Fidel Castro's rebels attacked Havana.



In 1966, USSR's Luna 10 becomes the first craft to orbit the Moon.



In 1968, The day before he was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "mountaintop" speech to a rally of striking sanitation workers.



In 1968, North Vietnam agreed to meet with U.S. representatives to set up preliminary peace talks.



In 1974, U.S. President Nixon announced that he would pay $432,787 in back taxes.



In 1974, Deadly tornadoes struck wide parts of the South and Midwest before jumping across the border into Canada; more than 300 fatalities resulted.



In 1979, Jane M. Byrne was elected mayor of Chicago, defeating Republican Wallace D. Johnson.



In 1980, The final episode of "Barnaby Jones" aired.



In 1982, John Chancellor stepped down as anchor of the "The NBC Nightly News." Roger Mudd and Tom Brokaw became the co-anchors of the show.



In 1985, The U.S. charged that Israel violated the Geneva Convention by deporting Shiite prisoners.



In 1991, The U.N. Security Council passes a cease-fire resolution to end the Persian Gulf War.



In 1996, Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski was arrested.



Ten years ago (1994):



In his Easter Sunday address, Pope John Paul II expressed hope that the joy of Christianity would overwhelm the din of violence and hate.



A memorial service was held at the site of the Goshen United Methodist Church in Alabama for the 20 people who were killed when a tornado leveled the building a week earlier.



Five years ago (1999):



NATO missiles struck downtown Belgrade for the first time, destroying the headquarters of security forces accused of waging a campaign against Kosovo Albanians.



One year ago (2003):



Moving with a sense of wartime urgency, the House and Senate separately agreed to give President Bush nearly $80 billion to carry out the battle against Iraq and meet the threat of terrorism.



Cuban security forces arrested the hijackers of a passenger ferry, rescuing nearly 50 hostages.



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Today's Birthdays:



Actor Marlon Brando is 80.



Actress-singer Doris Day is 80.



Actor Kevin Hagen is 76.



Actress Miyoshi Umeki is 75.



Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl is 74.



British ethologist and authority on wild chimpanzees, Jane Goodall is 70.



Jazz musician Jimmy McGriff is 68.



Actor William Gaunt is 67.



Actress Marsha Mason is 62.



Singer Wayne Newton is 62.



Singer Billy Joe Royal is 62.



Singer Tony Orlando is 60.



Comedy writer Pat Proft is 57.



Singer Richard Thompson is 55.



Country musician Curtis Stone (Highway 101) is 54.



Rock musician Mick Mars [Bob Allen Dale] (Motley Crue) is 48.



Actor Alec Baldwin is 46.



Actor David Hyde Pierce is 45.



Comedian-actor Eddie Murphy is 43.



Rock singer-musician Mike Ness (Social Distortion) is 42.



Rock singer Sebastian Bach is 36.



Olympic Skier Picabo Street (gold-1994) is 33.



Actress Jennie Garth is 32.



Actress Amanda Bynes is 18.



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Thought for Today:

"I didn't invent the world I write about -- it's all true." -

- Graham Greene, British author (1904-1991).

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Today is Friday, April 2nd.

The 93rd day of 2004.

There are 273 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On April 2, 1917, President Wilson asked Congress to declare war against Germany, saying, "The world must be made safe for democracy."



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On this date:



In 742, The first Holy Roman emperor (800-814) Charlemagne was born. He died on January 28, 814 at the age of 71.



In 1513, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon landed in Florida.



In 1792, Congress passed the Coinage Act, which authorized establishment of the U.S. Mint.



In 1805, Storyteller Hans Christian Andersen was born in Odense, Denmark.



In 1819, The first successful agricultural journal ("The American Farmer") began publication.



In 1827, Lead pencils were first manufactured by Joseph Dixon.



In 1860, The first Italian Parliament met at Turin.



In 1865, Confederate President Davis and most of his Cabinet fled the Confederate capital of Richmond, Va.



In 1872, Samuel F.B. Morse, developer of the electric telegraph, died in New York.



In 1876, The Philadelphia Athletics and the Boston Red Caps play the 1st National League baseball game, in Philadelphia.



In 1877, The 1st Easter egg roll is held on the White House lawn.



In 1902, The first motion picture theatre opened in Los Angeles with the name Electric Theatre.



In 1908, Actor Christian Rudolph "Buddy" Ebsen, Jr. was born in Belleville, IL. He died July 6, 2003 at the age of 95.



In 1914, Considered one of the best actors of the 20th century, Sir Alec Guinness [de Cuffe] ("Obi-Wan Kenobi" - Star Wars) was born in London, England, United Kingdom. He was knighted in 1959. He died in 2000.



In 1917, Jeannette Rankin (R-Montana) becomes 1st woman member of US House of Representatives



In 1921, Professor Albert Einstein lectures in NYC on his new theory of relativity



In 1920, Actor/Producer/Director Jack Webb ("Sgt. Joe Friday" - Dragnet) was born in Santa Monica, CA. He died December 23, 1982, at the age of 62.



In 1931, A teenage girl strikes out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game in Chattanooga TN



In 1932, Aviator Charles A. Lindbergh and Dr. John F. Condon turned over $50,000 in ransom to an unidentified man in a New York City cemetery in exchange for Lindbergh's kidnapped son. (The child, however, was not returned, and was found dead the following month.)



In 1935, Sir Watson-Watt was granted a patent for the RADAR.



In 1941, German Lieutenant General Erwin Rommel, "the Desert Fox," resumed his advance into Cyrenaica. The advance was the beginning of the recapture of Libya by the Axis forces.



In 1944, The Soviet Union announced that its troops had crossed the Prut River and entered Romania.



In 1956, "The Edge of Night" and "As the World Turns" debuted on CBS-TV.



In 1958, The National Advisory Council on Aeronautics (NACA) is renamed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).



In 1974, French president Georges Pompidou died in Paris.



In 1978, The first episode of "Dallas" aired on CBS.



In 1982, Several thousand troops from Argentina seized the disputed Falkland Islands, located in the south Atlantic, from Britain. (Britain seized the islands back the following June.)



In 1992, Mob boss John Gotti was convicted in New York of murder and racketeering; he was later sentenced to life in prison.



In 1995, The New York Police Department and the New York Transit Police merge into one organization



In 1996, Lech Walesa resumed his old job as an electrician at the Gdansk shipyard, earning $250 per month. He was the former Solidarity union leader who became Poland's first post-war democratic president.



Ten years ago (1994):



President Clinton warned Americans against "demagogues of division" in his weekly radio address, while calling for greater personal responsibility and cooperation to overcome the nation's problems.



Consumer reporter Betty Furness died in Hartsdale, N.Y., at age 78.



Five years ago (1999):



The Labor Department reported that the nation's unemployment rate fell to a 29-year low of 4.2 percent in March 1999.



One year ago (2003):



American forces fought their way to within sight of the Baghdad skyline; Iraqi soldiers discarded their military uniforms by the roadside to hide their identity.



A bomb blast near a wharf in the southern Philippine city of Davao killed 16.



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Today's Birthdays:



Actor Dabbs Greer is 87.



TV Actress Gloria Henry (Dennis the Menace's mom:Alice Mitchell) is 81.



Actress Rita Gam is 76.



Actress Elena Verdugo (Marcus Welby, MD's Consuelo Lopez) is 78.



Actress Sharon Acker is 69.



Singer Leon Russell is 63.



Radio Disc Jocky Dr. Demento (Barrett E. Hansen) is 63.



Jazz musician Larry Coryell is 61.



Actress Linda Hunt is 59.



Singer Emmylou Harris is 57.



Actress Pamela Reed is 55.



Actress Debralee Scott is 51.



Actor Ron Palillo (Welcome Back Kotter's Arnold J. Horshack) is 50.



Country singer Buddy Jewell is 43.



Actor Chris Meloni is 43.



Singer Keren Woodward (Bananarama) is 43.



Country singer Billy Dean is 42.



Actress Jana Marie Hupp is 40.



Rock musician Greg Camp (Smash Mouth) is 37.



Rock musician Tony Fredianelli (Third Eye Blind) is 35.



Country singer Jill King is 29.



Actor Jeremy Garrett is 28.



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Thought for Today:

"No artist is ahead of his time. He is his time. It is just that others are behind the time." -

- Martha Graham, modern dance pioneer (1894-1991).

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