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

Today is Thursday, May 27th.

The 148th day of 2004.

There are 218 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On May 27, 1937, the newly completed Golden Gate Bridge connecting San Francisco and Marin County, Calif., was opened to the public.



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On this date:



In 1647, The first recorded American execution of a "witch", Achsah Young (a resident of what is now Windsor, CT), took place in Massachusetts. The method involved was not burning at the stake, but hanging.



In 1794, Financier/magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt was born. He died January 4, 1877 at the age of 82, leaving a personal fortune of over $100,000,000 (when $100 million was worth something).



In 1796, James S McLean patents his piano



In 1837, Frontier marshal/gunslinger James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok was born in Troy Grove IL. He was murdered in Deadwood, Dakota Territory on August 2, 1876 at the age of 39.



In 1878, The founder of modern dance, Isadora Duncan was born in San Francisco CA. She died in Nice, France on September 14, 1927, at the age of 49, when her scarf became entangled in the wheel of her sports car.



In 1895, British inventor Birt Acres patents film camera/projector



In 1896, 255 people were killed when a tornado struck St. Louis, Mo., and East St. Louis, Ill.



In 1911, U.S. Senator/38th Vice President Hubert Horatio Humphrey was born in Waverly MN. He died January 13, 1978 at the age of 66.



In 1911, Actor/gourmet Vincent Price was born in St. Louis MO. He died October 25, 1993 at the age of 82.



In 1919, Charles Strite patents pop-up toaster



In 1921, After 84 years of British control, Afghanistan achieves sovereignty.



In 1924, The Methodist Episcopal Church rescinded its ban on dancing and theatre-going.



In 1930, Pressure-sensitive masking tape is invented by Richard Drew of St. Paul, Minnesota.



In 1931, Auguste Pickard and Charles Knipfer took man's first trip into the stratosphere when they rode their balloon to an altitude of 51,793 feet.



In 1933, Walt Disney's Academy Award-winning animated short "The Three Little Pigs" was first released.



In 1935, The Supreme Court struck down the National Industrial Recovery Act.



In 1936, The Cunard liner Queen Mary left England on its maiden voyage.



In 1941, Amid rising world tensions, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed an "unlimited national emergency."



In 1941, The British navy sank the German battleship Bismarck off France, with a loss of 2,300 lives.



In 1964, Independent India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, died.



In 1964, The second James Bond - 007 movie "From Russia With Love" premieres in US



In 1969, Construction of "Walt Disney World "began in Florida.



In 1977, Two Boeing 747s operated by Pan American and KLM collided at the airport onm Tenerife in Spain's Canary Islands. 582 were killed.



In 1982, The final episode of "Bosom Buddies" aired on ABC.



In 1982, The final episode of "Mork and Mindy" aired on ABC.



In 1985, In Beijing, representatives of Britain and China exchanged instruments of ratification on the pact returning Hong Kong to the Chinese in 1997.



In 1988, The final episode of "Punky Brewster" aired on NBC.



In 1993, Five people were killed in a bombing at the Uffizi museum of art in Florence, Italy; some three dozen paintings were ruined or damaged.



In 1995, In Charlottesville, VA, Christopher Reeve was paralyzed after being thrown from his horse during a jumping event.



Ten years ago (1994):



Nobel Prize-winning author Alexander Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia to the emotional cheers of thousands after spending two decades in exile.



British forces officially leave Berlin.



Final broadcast of Arsenio Hall talk show



Larry King ended his radio show on the Mutual Radio Network



Five years ago (1999):



A U.N. tribunal indicted Slobodan Milosevic for crimes against humanity, holding the Yugoslav president personally responsible for the horrors in Kosovo and brutal purge of ethnic Albanians.



The space shuttle Discovery blasted off on a mission to carry supplies to the new international space station.



In Milan, Italy, the latest restoration of "The Last Supper" by Leonardo da Vinci, an effort that took 22 years, went on display during a VIP-only showing.



One year ago (2003):



Two Iraqis shot and killed two American soldiers in Fallujah, a hotbed of support for Saddam Hussein.



Derrick Todd Lee, a suspected serial killer of women in Louisiana, was arrested in Atlanta.



A study was released that showed women who took hormones for years ran a higher risk of Alzheimer's or other types of dementia.



The U.S. accused Iran of harboring al-Qaida militants.



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Today's Birthdays:



Novelist Herman Wouk is 89.



Actor Christopher Lee is 82.

\

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is 81.



Actress Lee Meriwether is 69.



Musician Ramsey Lewis is 69.



Actor Louis Gossett Jr. is 68.



Rhythm and blues singer Raymond Sanders (The Persuasions) is 65.



Country singer Don Williams is 65.



Actor Bruce Weitz is 61.



Singer Cilla Black is 61.



Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) is 60.



Singer Bruce Cockburn is 59.



Actor Richard Schiff is 49.



Singer Siouxsie Sioux (Susan Dallion Sioux)(The Creatures, Siouxsie and the Banshees) is 47.



Rock musician Eddie Harsch (The Black Crowes) is 47.



Rock singer-musician Neil Finn (The Finn Brothers) is 46.



Actress Peri Gilpin is 43.



Actress Cathy Silvers is 43.



Actor Todd Bridges is 39.



Rock musician Sean Kinney (Alice In Chains) is 38.



Actor Dondre Whitfield is 35.



Actor Paul Bettany is 33.



Rock singer-musician Brian Desveaux (Nine Days) is 33.



Rapper Andre 3000 (Outkast) is 30.



Actor Ethan Dampf ("American Dreams") is 10.



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Thought for Today:

"Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious.

Great speech is impassioned, small speech cantankerous." -

- Chuang-Tzu, Chinese essayist (c.369-c.286 B.C.).

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Today is Wednesday, May 26th.

The 147th day of 2004.

There are 219 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On May 26, 1940, the evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk, France, began during World War II. The evacuation was known as "Operation Dynamo. "



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On this date:



In 1521, Martin Luther was banned by the Edict of Worms because of his religious beliefs and writings.



In 1637, The first battle of Pequot at New Haven CT kills 500 Indians.



In 1647, A new law banned Catholic priests from the colony of Massachusetts. The penalty was banishment or death for a second offense.



In 1790, Tennessee is organized as a territory



In 1805, Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned king of Italy.



In 1805, Lewis and Clark, after a year of exploration, spot the snow-capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains.



In 1864, The Territory of Montana is formed from a portion of the Territory of Idaho.



In 1865, Arrangements were made in New Orleans for the surrender of Confederate forces west of the Mississippi.



In 1868, The impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson ended with his acquittal on all remaining charges.



In 1896, The Dow Jones Industrial Average, co-founded by Charles Dow, first appeared in the Wall Street Journal. The Dow Jones Industrial 12-stock average opened and posted a 40.94 for the day.



In 1898, San Fransisco approves City Charter, allows Municipal ownership of utiliies.



In 1906, Archaeological Institute of America forms.



In 1908, In Persia (now Iran), the first oil strike was made in the Middle East.



In 1913, Actors' Equity Association was organized.



In 1927, The Ford Motor Company manufactures its 15 millionth Model T automobile.



In 1937, San Francisco Bay's Golden Gate Bridge opened.



In 1946, A patent was filed in the United States for an H-bomb.



In 1952, The border between East and West Germany and between East Germany and West Berlin were closed. The border between East and West Berlin remained open.



In 1954, In Egypt, archeologists found the 4,800-year-old Cheops' "Ship of the Dead".



In 1959, The word "Frisbee" became a registered trademark of Wham-O.



In 1960, U.N. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge accused the Soviets of hiding a microphone inside a wood carving of the Great Seal of the United States that had been presented to the U.S. embassy in Moscow.



In 1966, A Buddhist monk sets himself on fire at US consulate in Hue South-Vietnam.



In 1967, "Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band," by The Beatles, was released.



In 1969, The Apollo 10 astronauts returned to Earth after a successful eight-day dress rehearsal for the first manned moon landing.



In 1970, The final episode of "I Dream of Jeannie" aired.



In 1977, George H. Willig scaled the outside of the South Tower of New York's World Trade Center; he was arrested at the top of the 110-story building.



In 1978, The first legal casino in the eastern U.S. opened in Atlantic City, N.J.



In 1989, Danish parliament allows legal marriage among homosexuals.



In 1991, A Lauda Air Boeing 767 crashed in Thailand, killing all 223 people aboard.



In 1994, The United States and Vietnam resumed diplomatic relations.



In 1998, The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Ellis Island was mainly in New Jersey, not New York.



In 1998, The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police officers in high-speed chases are liable for bystander injuries only if their "actions shock the conscience."



In 2002, Fourteen people were killed when barges being pushed by a towboat crashed into the piers of the Interstate 40 bridge in Oklahoma, causing part of the structure to fall into the Arkansas River.



Ten years ago (1994):



President Clinton renewed trade privileges for China, and announced his administration would no longer link China's trade status with its human rights record.



Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley were married in the Dominican Republic. (The marriage, however, ended in 1996.)



Five years ago (1999):



House Republicans pushed through legislation that would put new obstacles in the way of spending government surpluses that came from Social Security taxes.



Indian aircraft fired on separatist guerrillas in Kashmir province and Pakistan threatened retaliation; it was the first use of air power in years in the long-running conflict over the Himalayan border region.



One year ago (2003):



Angering hard-liners, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared in a speech to his Likud Party that he was determined to reach a peace deal and end 36 years of rule over the Palestinians.



An airplane carrying Spanish peacekeepers returning from Afghanistan crashed in Turkey, killing all 75 people aboard.



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Today's Birthdays:



Actor James Arness is 81.



Actor Alec McCowen is 79.



Sportscaster Brent Musberger is 65.



Rock singer-musician Levon Helm (The Band) is 64.



Country musician Gates Nichols (Confederate Railroad) is 60.



Rock musician Garry Peterson (Guess Who) is 59.



Singer Stevie Nicks is 56.



Actor Philip Michael Thomas is 55.



Actress Pamela Suzette "Pam" Grier is 55.



Country singer Hank Williams Jr. is 55.



Astronaut/Astrophisicist Dr. Sally Kristen Ride is 53.



Actress Margaret Colin is 47.



Country singer-songwriter Dave Robbins (BlackHawk) is 45.



Actor Doug Hutchison is 44.



Actress Genie Francis is 42.



Comedian Bobcat Goldthwait is 42.



Singer Lenny Kravitz is 40.



Actress Helena Bonham Carter is 38.



Rock musician Phillip Rhodes is 36.



Actor Joseph Fiennes is 34.



Rhythm and blues singer Joey Kibble (Take 6) is 33.



Actor-producer-writer Matt Stone is 33.



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Thought for Today:

"Love, I find, is like singing. Everybody can do enough to satisfy themselves, though it may not impress the neighbors as being very much." -

- Zora Neale Hurston, American anthropologist (1903-1960).

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

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

Today is Tuesday, May 25th.

The 146th day of 2004.

There are 220 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On May 25, 1787, the Constitutional Convention was convened in Philadelphia after enough delegates had shown up for a quorum.



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On this date:



In 585 BCE, The first known prediction of a solar eclipse was made in Greece.



In 1721, John Copsen became the first insurance agent in the U.S. when he advertised coverage for vessels and other goods in Philadelphia.



In 1810, Argentina began its revolt against Spain.



In 1829, John the Baptist is said to have appeared to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery and ordained them priests (they later founded the Mormon Church).



In 1841, The first Canadian parliament met in Ottawa



In 1844, The first telegraphed news dispatch, sent from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, appeared in the Baltimore "Patriot."



In 1895, Playwright Oscar Wilde was convicted of a morals charge in London; he was sentenced to prison.



In 1927, the Ford Motor Company announced that its popular automobile model, the Model T, known as the Tin Lizzie, would not be rolling off assembly lines anymore. Instead, the discontinued car would be replaced by the more modern Model A.



In 1927, The "Movietone News" was shown for the first time at the Sam Harris Theatre in New York City.



In 1935, Babe Ruth hit the 714th and final home run of his career, for the Boston Braves, in a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.



In 1944, The first German V-1 "buzz bomb" hit London



In 1945, Arther C. Clark proposes relay satellites in geosynchronous orbit.



In 1946, Transjordan (now Jordan) became a kingdom as it proclaimed its new monarch, King Abdullah Ibn Ul-Hussein.



In 1961, President Kennedy asked the nation to work toward putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade.



In 1963, The Organization of African Unity was founded, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.



In 1968, The Rolling Stones released "Jumpin' Jack Flash."



In 1968, The Gateway Arch, part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, was dedicated.



In 1977, The science fiction film Star Wars, directed by George Lucas, is released.



In 1977, An opinion piece by Vietnam verteran Jan Scruggs appeared in "The Washington Post." The article called for a national memorial to "remind an ungrateful nation of what it has done to its sons" that had served in the Vietnam War.



In 1979, 275 people died when an American Airlines DC-10 crashed on takeoff from Chicago's O'Hare airport.



In 1981, Daredevil Daniel Goodwin, wearing a "Spiderman" costume, scaled the outside of Chicago's Sears Tower in seven-and-a-half hours.



In 1983, "The Return of the Jedi" opened nationwide. It set a new record in opening day box office sales. The gross was $6,219,629.



In 1992, Jay Leno debuted as the new permanent host of NBC's "Tonight Show."



In 1999, The final episode of "Home Improvement" aired.



Ten years ago (1994):



The U.N. Security Council lifted a ten-year-old ban on weapons exports from South Africa, scrapping the last of its apartheid-era embargoes.



Five years ago (1999):



A bipartisan congressional report said China's two-decade effort to steal U.S. weapons technology continued well into the Clinton administration; President Clinton responded that his administration was already "moving aggressively to tighten security."



Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr decided against re-prosecuting Whitewater figure Susan McDougal and Julie Hiatt Steele, a witness in the Monica Lewinsky investigation, after both their trials ended with hung juries.



One year ago (2003):



In a historic vote cast under intense U.S. pressure, Israel's government conditionally approved by a narrow margin an internationally backed "road map" to peace.



Nestor Kirchner was sworn in as Argentina's first popularly elected president since the country's financial meltdown in December 2001.



Director Gus Van Sant's "Elephant," a disturbing film loosely based on the Columbine school shooting, won top prize at the Cannes Film Festival.



Gil de Ferran won the Indianapolis 500.



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Today's Birthdays:



Lyricist Hal David is 83.



Former opera singer Beverly Sills is 75.



Former White House news secretary Ron Nessen is 70.



Country singer-songwriter Tom T. Hall is 68.



Actor Ian McKellen is 65.



Actress Dixie Carter is 65.



Country singer Jessi Colter is 61.



Actress-singer Leslie Uggams is 61.



Movie director and Muppeteer Frank Oz is 60.



Actress Karen Valentine is 57.



Rock singer Klaus Meine (The Scorpions) is 56.



Actress Patti D'Arbanville is 53.



Actress Connie Sellecca is 49.



Rock singer-musician Paul Weller is 46.



Actor-comedian Mike Myers is 41.



Actor Matt Borlenghi is 37.



Actress Anne Heche is 35.



Actresses Sidney and Lindsay Greenbush ("Little House on the Prairie") are 34.



Actor Jamie Kennedy is 34.



Actor Justin Henry is 33.



Singer Lauryn Hill is 29.



Rock musician Todd Whitener (Tantric) is 26.



Actor Corbin Allred is 25.



Actress-singer Lauren Frost is 19.



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Thought for Today:

"Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else." -

- Sir James Barrie, Scottish dramatist (1860-1937).

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

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

Today is Monday, May 24th.

The 145th day of 2004.

There are 221 days left in the year.

This is the Memorial Day observance.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On May 24th, 1844, Samuel F.B. Morse transmitted the message, "What hath God wrought!" from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore as he formally opened America's first telegraph line.



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On this date:



In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus publishes proof of a sun-centered solar system "De Revolutionibus."



In 1607, Captain Christopher Newport and 105 followers found the colony of Jamestown at the mouth of the James River on the coast of Virginia.



In 1624, After years of unprofitable operation Virginia’s charter was revoked and it became a royal colony.



In 1626, Peter Minuet of the Dutch West India Trading Company bought the Island of Manhattan from the Carnarsee Indians reportedly for blankets, cattle, and various trinkets valued in all at $24.



In 1738, The Methodist Church was established.



In 1819, Queen Victoria was born in London.



In 1830, "Mary Had A Little Lamb" is written



In 1830, the first passenger railroad service in the United States began service between Baltimore and Elliott's Mills, Maryland.



In 1859, Charles Gounod's "Ave Maria" was performed by Madame Caroline Miolan-Carvalho for the first time in public.



In 1869, The first exploration expedition goes down the Colorado River and through the Grand Canyon by boat, 1000 miles in 101 days.



In 1881, Some 200 people died when the Canadian ferry Princess Victoria sank near London, Ontario.



In 1883, The Brooklyn Bridge, linking Brooklyn and Manhattan, was opened to traffic.



In 1899, The first auto repair shop opens in Boston.



In 1941, The German battleship Bismarck sank the British dreadnought HMS Hood in the North Atlantic. Only 3 people survived, 1,416 die.



In 1951, Racial segregation in Wash DC restaurants ruled illegal.



In 1958, United Press International was formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service.



In 1962, Astronaut Scott Carpenter became the second American to orbit the Earth as he flew aboard Aurora Seven.



In 1974, The last "Dean Martin Show" was seen on NBC.



In 1976, Britain and France opened transatlantic Concorde service to Washington.



In 1977, In a surprise move, the Kremlin ousted Soviet President Nikolai Podgorny from the Communist Party's ruling Politburo.



In 1980, Iran rejected a call by the World Court in The Hague to release the American hostages.



In 1987, On it's 50th anniversary, a quarter-of-a-million people jammed San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge -- so many people that their combined weight temporarily flattened its arching span.



In 1993, The final episode of "Designing Women" was aired on CBS.



In 2000, Israel completed its withdrawal of its forces from southern Lebanon. Israel had occupied the region for 22 years.



In 2002, President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a landmark nuclear arms reduction treaty in Moscow.



Ten years ago (1994):



Four men convicted of bombing New York's World Trade Center were each sentenced to 240 years in prison.



The United States and Japan agreed to revive efforts to pry open Japanese markets to U.S. goods.



Five years ago (1999):



A sharply divided Supreme Court ruled, five to four, that schools can be sued when officials fail to stop students from sexually harassing each other.



The Supreme Court ruled that police violate people's privacy rights when they bring TV camera crews or other journalists into homes during arrests or searches.



Mike Tyson walked out of a Rockville, Md., jail after serving 3 1/2 months behind bars for assaulting two motorists after a fender-bender.



The final episode of "Mad About You" aired.



One year ago (2003):



Furious crowds hurled debris and insults at Algeria's president (Abdelaziz Bouteflika) when he visited a town devastated by a deadly earthquake.



The U.S.-led coalition ordered Iraqis to give up their weapons by mid-June.



British actress Rachel Kempson, matriarch of the Redgrave acting dynasty, died in Millbrook, N.Y., four days short of her 93rd birthday.



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Today's Birthdays:



Comedian Tommy Chong is 66.



Singer Bob Dylan (Robert Zimmerman) is 63.



Singer Sarah Dish (Patti LaBelle & the Blue Belles) is 62.



Actor Gary Burghoff is 61.



Singer Patti LaBelle is 60.



Actress Priscilla Presley is 59.



Country singer Mike Reid is 57.



Actor Jim Broadbent is 54.



Actor Alfred Molina is 51.



Singer Rosanne Cash is 49.



Actress Kristin Scott Thomas is 44.



Rock musician Vivian Trimble is 41.



Actor John C. Reilly is 39.



Actor Eric Close is 37.



Rapper-recording executive Heavy D (Dwight Myers) is 37.



Rock musician Rich Robinson is 35.



Actor Billy L. Sullivan is 24.



Actor-rapper Big Tyme is 21.



Country singer Billy Gilman is 16.



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Thought for Today:

"Responsibility educates." -

- Wendell Phillips, American abolitionist (1811-1884).

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

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Today is Sunday, May 23rd,

The 144th day of 2004.

There are 222 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On May 23, 1934, bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were shot to death in a police ambush in Bienville Parish, La.



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On this date:



In 1430, Joan of Arc was captured by the Burgundians, who sold her to the English.



In 1533, The marriage of England's King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon was declared null and void.



In 1701, Captain William Kidd was hanged in London after he was convicted of piracy and murder.



In 1785, Benjamin Franklin announces his invention of bifocals.



In 1788, South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify the United States Constitution.



In 1827, The first nursery school in the United States was established in New York City. The school was developed "to relieve parents of the laboring classes from the care of their children ... offering the children protection from weather, from idleness and contamination of evil example."



In 1873, 1st Preakness: G Barbee aboard Survivor wins in 2:43



In 1873, The North-West Mounted Police (now the Royal Canadian Mounted Police) is established as Canada's national police force; officers are popularly called Mounties.



In 1937, Industrialist John Davison Rockefeller died in Ormond Beach, Fla.



In 1939, The U.S. Navy submarine "Squalus" went down off New Hampshire in 240 feet of water. 33 of the 59 men aboard were saved in a daring rescue with a diving bell.



In 1940, Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra, the Pied Pipers and featured soloist Frank Sinatra recorded "I'll Never Smile Again" in New York for RCA.



In 1944, During World War II, Allied forces bogged down in Anzio began a major breakout offensive.



In 1945, Nazi official Heinrich Himmler committed suicide while imprisoned in Luneburg, Germany.



In 1960, Israel announced it had captured former Nazi official Adolf Eichmann in Argentina. (Eichmann was tried in Israel, found guilty of crimes against humanity, and hanged in 1962.)



In 1977, The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the appeals of former Nixon White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman and former Attorney General John N. Mitchell in connection with their Watergate convictions.



In 1990, Neil Bush, son of the president, denied any wrongdoing as a director of a failed Denver savings-and-loan in testimony before Congress.



In 2001, The final episode of "Star Trek: Voyager" aired.



Ten years ago (1994):



Funeral services were held at Arlington National Cemetery for former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.



Four men convicted in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center were each sentenced to 240 years in prison.



"Pulp Fiction" by American director Quentin Tarantino won the Golden Palm for best film at the 47th Cannes Film Festival.



The final episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" aired.



Five years ago (1999):



Social Democrat Johannes Rau won election to Germany's largely ceremonial presidency.



Professional wrestler Owen Hart, also known as "The Blue Blazer," died when he fell 78 feet from a cable as he was being lowered into the ring at a World Wrestling Federation show in Kansas City, Mo.



"Rosetta," a Belgian film, won top honors at the 52nd annual Cannes Film Festival.



One year ago (2003):



By the narrowest of margins, Congress sent President Bush the third tax cut of his presidency — a $330 billion package of rebates and lower rates for families and new breaks for businesses and investors.



Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon agreed to submit the U.S.-backed "road map" for peace to the Israeli Cabinet.



Annika Sorenstam ended her historic appearance on the PGA tour in the Colonial with a 15-foot par putt, missing the cut by four strokes.



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Today's Birthdays:



Bandleader Artie Shaw (Arthur Jacob Arshawsky) is 94.



Actress Betty Garrett is 85.



Pianist Alicia de Larrocha is 81.



Bluegrass singer Mac Wiseman is 79.



Actor Nigel Davenport is 76.



Actress Barbara Barrie is 73.



Actress Joan Collins is 71.



Actor Charles Kimbrough is 68.



Rhythm and blues singer General Johnson (Chairmen of the Board) is 61.



Actress Lauren Chapin is 59.



Country singer Misty Morgan is 59.



Actress Linda Thompson is 54.



Country singer Judy Rodman is 53.



Singer Luka Bloom is 49.



Actor-comedian Drew Carey is 46.



Country singer Shelly West is 46.



Actor Linden Ashby is 44.



Actress-model Karen Duffy is 43.



Rock musician Phil Selway (Radiohead) is 37.



Singer Lorenzo is 32.



Country singer Brian McComas is 32.



Singer Maxwell is 31.



Singer Jewel is 30.



Actor Adam Wylie is 20.



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Thought for Today:

"When you shut one eye, you do not hear everything." -

- Swiss proverb.

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Today is Saturday, May 22nd.

The 143rd day of 2004.

There are 223 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On May 22, 1868, the "Great Train Robbery" took place near Marshfield, Ind., as seven members of the Reno gang made off with $96,000 in loot.



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On this date:



In 1761, The first life insurance policy in the United States was issued, in Philadelphia.



In 1807, Former Vice President Aaron Burr was put on trial for treason in Richmond, Virginia, but was acquitted in August.



In 1813, Composer Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig, Germany.



In 1819, The first steam-propelled vessel to attempt a transatlantic crossing, the Savannah, departed from Savannah, Ga. (It arrived in Liverpool, England, on June 20.)



In 1841, Henry Kennedy received a patent for the first reclining chair.



In 1843, The first wagon train left Independence, Missouri, for the Oregon Trail. About 1000 colonists were part of the wagon train.



In 1849, Abraham Lincoln received a patent for the floating dry dock.



In 1892, Dr. Sheffield, a British dentist, invented the toothpaste tube.



In 1900, The Associated Press was incorporated in New York as a non-profit news cooperative. It was founded in 1848.



In 1908, The Wright brothers registered their flying machine for a U.S. patent.



In 1939, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini signed a "Pact of Steel" committing Germany and Italy to a military alliance.



In 1945, 6th Marine division reaches suburbs of Naha Okinawa



In 1947, The "Truman Doctrine" was enacted as Congress appropriated military and economic aid for Greece and Turkey.



In 1953, U.S. President Eisenhower signed the Offshore Oil Bill, which gave coastal states control over "submerged" lands.



In 1955, Jack Benny did his last live network radio broadcast after a run of 23 years. He devoted his time fully to TV.



In 1956, KRIS TV channel 6 in Corpus Christi TX (NBC) begins broadcasting



In 1960, Virtually all coastal towns in Pacific Basin between 37th & 44th parallels severely damaged by tsunami that strikes Hilo HI at 01:04 AM



In 1961, The Top Of The Needle restauraunt in the Space Needle in Seattle opened as the first revolving restaurant.



In 1965, "Super-cali-fragil-istic-expi-ali-docious" hits #66. The Beatles' "Ticket to Ride" was #1.



In 1966, The final episode of "Perry Mason" aired on CBS.



In 1967, "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" debuts on NET (now PBS)



In 1969, The lunar module of Apollo 10 flew to within nine miles of the moon's surface in a dress rehearsal for the first lunar landing.



In 1972, President Nixon began a visit to the Soviet Union, during which he and Kremlin leaders signed the SALT One arms limitation treaty.



In 1972, The island nation of Ceylon became the republic of Sri Lanka.



In 1973, Nixon admits White House role in the Watergate cover-up, citing national security.



In 1977, Final European scheduled run of the Orient Express after 94 years of operation.



In 1979, Canadians voted in parliamentary elections that put the Progressive Conservatives in power, ending the 11-year tenure of Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau.



In 1981, The Prime Interest Rate went to 20.5 percent



In 1984, The final episode of "Hart to Hart" aired.



In 1989, In a serious blow to Chinese Premier Li Peng, more than 100 top military leaders vowed to refrain from entering Beijing to suppress pro-democracy demonstrations.



In 1990, Microsoft releases Windows 3.0



In 1992, After a reign lasting nearly 30 years, Johnny Carson hosted NBC's "Tonight Show" for the last time.



In 1998, New information came to light about the June 1996 bombing that killed 19 American airmen. The information indicated that Saudi citizens had been responsible and not Iranians as once believed.



In 2001, The final episode of "3rd Rock from the Sun" aired on NBC.



In 2002, The remains of Chandra Levy, the federal intern who had disappeared more than a year earlier, were found in a Washington park.



Ten years ago (1994):



A worldwide trade embargo against Haiti went into effect to punish Haiti's military rulers for not reinstating the country's ousted elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide.



Five years ago (1999):



Columbine High School seniors wearing blue-and-silver gowns marched single file in a graduation ceremony that mixed celebration of the day with sorrow for victims of the recent massacre.



One year ago (2003):



The U.N. Security Council gave the U.S. and Britain a mandate to rule Iraq, ending 13 years of economic sanctions.



Annika Sorenstam became the first woman since Babe Didrikson Zaharias in 1945 to tee off against the men on the pro tour, playing in the first round of the Colonial golf tournament in Fort Worth, Texas. (Sorenstam missed the cut the next day by four shots.)



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Today's Birthdays:



Movie reviewer Judith Crist is 82.



Singer Charles Aznavour is 80.



Actor Michael Constantine is 77.



Conductor Peter Nero is 70.



Actor-director Richard Benjamin is 66.



Actor Frank Converse is 66.



Actor Michael Sarrazin (Jacques Michel Andre Sarazin) is 64.



Former CNN anchor Bernard Shaw is 64.



Actress Barbara Parkins is 62.



Songwriter Bernie Taupin is 54.



Singer Morrissey is 45.



Country musician Dana Williams (Diamond Rio) is 43.



Rock musician Jesse Valenzuela is 42.



Rhythm and blues singer Johnny Gill (New Edition) is 38.



Rock musician Dan Roberts (Crash Test Dummies) is 37.



Model Naomi Campbell is 34.



Actress Alison Eastwood is 32.



Singer Donell Jones is 31.



Actress A.J. Langer is 30.



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Thought for Today:

"Freedom is the right to do what you ought to do." -

- Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, American religious leader (1895-1979).

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

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

Today is Friday, May 21st.

The 142nd day of 2004.

There are 224 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On May 21, 1927, Charles A. Lindbergh landed his Spirit of St. Louis near Paris, completing the first solo airplane flight across the Atlantic Ocean.



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



On this date:



In 1471, King Henry VI was killed in the tower of London. Edward IV took the throne.



In 1542, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto died while searching for gold along the Mississippi River.



In 1819, Bicycles were first seen in the U.S. in New York City. They were originally known as "swift walkers."



In 1832, The first Democratic National Convention got under way, in Baltimore.



In 1840, New Zealand was declared a British colony.



In 1881, Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross.



In 1892, The opera "I Pagliacci," by Ruggiero Leoncavallo, was first performed, in Milan, Italy.



In 1904, Jazz musician, singer and composer Thomas "Fats" Waller was born in New York City. He died in 1943 at the age of 39..



In 1906, Louis H. Perlman received his patent for the demountable tire-carrying rim.



In 1924, 14-year-old Bobby Franks was murdered in a "thrill killing" committed by Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb, two students at the University of Chicago.



In 1929, The first automatic electric stock quotation board was put into operation by Sutro and Company of New York City



In 1932, Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, when she arrives in Ireland from Newfoundland, Canada.



In 1941, President Roosevelt proclaimed "an unlimited state of national emergency," seven months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.



In 1941, The first U.S. ship, the SS Robin Moor, was sunk by a U-boat.



In 1945, Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart were married.



In 1954, The U.S. Senate rejected President Eisenhower's plan for 18-year old voting rights.



In 1956, The United States exploded the first airborne hydrogen bomb over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.



In 1961, President John F. Kennedy commits the country to “landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth before this decade is out.”



In 1968, The nuclear-powered U.S. submarine Scorpion, with 99 men aboard, was last heard from. (The remains of the sub were later found on the ocean floor 400 miles southwest of the Azores.)



In 1979, Former San Francisco City Supervisor Dan White was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the slayings of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk.



In 1990, The final episode of "Newhart" aired on CBS.



In 1991, Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated during national elections by a suicide bomber.



In 1992, The final episode of "MacGyver" aired.



Ten years ago (1994):



Israeli commandos swept into Lebanon's eastern mountains and abducted Mustafa Dirani, a Shiite Muslim guerrilla leader. (Dirani was released last January as part of a complex prisoner exchange between Hezbollah and Israel.)



Five years ago (1999):



Presidential friend and fund-raiser Yah Lin "Charlie" Trie pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations and agreed to cooperate in an investigation of illegal Asian donations to the Democrats.



A luxury cruise liner, the Sun Vista, sank off Malaysia's western coast; nearly eleven-hundred passengers and crew escaped with no casualties.



Susan Lucci won a Daytime Emmy Award for best actress on her 19th try.



One year ago (2003):



Christie Whitman resigned as Environmental Protection Agency administrator.



The most devastating earthquake to hit Algeria in two decades killed at least 2,200 people.



Ruben Studdard edged Clay Aiken to win the second "American Idol" competition on Fox.



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Today's Birthdays:



Actress Jeanne Bates ("Ben Casey") is 86.



Actor David Groh is 65.



Rhythm and blues singer Ron Isley (The Isley Brothers) is 63.



Actor Richard Hatch is 59.



Musician Bill Champlin (Chicago) is 57.



Singer Leo Sayer is 56.



Actress Carol Potter is 56.



Comedian Al Franken is 53.



Actor Mr. T is 52.



Music producer Stan Lynch is 49.



Actor Judge Reinhold is 47.



Actor-director Nick Cassavetes is 45.



Actor Brent Briscoe is 43.



Jazz musician Christian McBride is 32.



Actress Fairuza Balk is 30.



Rapper Havoc (Mobb Deep) is 30.



Actress Ashlie Brillault is 17.



Actor Scott Leavenworth is 14.



Actress Sarah Ramos is 13.



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Thought for Today:

"Being frustrated is disagreeable, but the real disasters of life begin when you get what you want." -

- Irving Kristol, American editor

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

WIDDLE WABBITS



An adorable little girl, all blonde curls and blue eyes walks into a pet shop and asks in the sweetest little lisp:



"Excuthe me, mithter do you keep widdle wabbiths?"



The shopkeeper's heart melts and he gets down on his knees, so that he's on her level, and asks, "Do you want a widdle white wabby or a thoft and fuwwy bwack wabby or maybe one like that cute widdle bwown wabby over there?"



She, blushing, rocks on her heels, puts her hands on her knees, leans forward and says in a quiet voice, "I don't phink my python weally givth a phuck."

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

Today is Thursday, May 20th.

The 141st day of 2004.

There are 225 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On May 20, 1861, the capital of the Confederacy was moved from Montgomery, Ala., to Richmond, Va.



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



On this date:



In 1498, Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama arrived at Calicut, India, after becoming the first westerner to sail from Europe around Africa to India.



In 1506, Christopher Columbus died in poverty in Spain.



In 1639, The city council of Dorchester, Mass, established the first school funded by community taxes.



In 1775, Citizens of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina declare independence of Britain



In 1861, North Carolina voted to secede from the Union.



In 1874, Levi Strauss marketed his blue jeans with copper rivets, priced at $13.50 A DOZEN.



In 1887, The U.S. Senate approved an agreement to lease Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as a naval base.



In 1902, The United States ended its three-year military presence in Cuba as the Republic of Cuba was established under its first elected president, Tomas Estrada Palma.



In 1908, Actor Jimmy Stewart (James Maitland Stewart) was born in Indiana PA. He died July 2, 1997 at the age of 89.



In 1926, Congress passes the Air Commerce Act, requiring licensing of pilots and planes.



In 1927, Charles Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, N.Y., aboard the Spirit of St. Louis on his historic solo flight to France.



In 1932, Amelia Earhart took off from Newfoundland for Ireland to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.



In 1939, Regular transatlantic air service began as a Pan American Airways plane, the Yankee Clipper, took off from Port Washington, N.Y., bound for Europe.



In 1939, The first telecast over telephone wires was sent from Madison Square Garden to the NBC-TV studios at 30 Rockefeller Center in Manhattan. The event was a bicycle race.



In 1942, Glenn Miller and His Orchestra recorded "(I've Got a Gal in) Kalamazoo" at Victor Studios in Hollywood.



In 1948, Israel used its Air Force for the first time. They gained their first victory with the defeat of the Syrian army.



In 1958, Elvis Presley got his orders to report to duty from the U.S. Army. He was allowed a 60-day deferment so he could finish the film "King Creole".



In 1961, A white mob attacked a busload of Freedom Riders in Montgomery, Ala., prompting the federal government to send in U.S. marshals to restore order.



In 1969, U.S. and South Vietnamese forces captured Apbia Mountain, referred to as "Hamburger Hill" by the Americans, following one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War.



In 1980, N.Y. state and federal officials agree on evacuating 710 families in the Love Canal area of Niagara Falls.



In 1980, In a referendum, the largely French-speaking province of Québec votes to remain part of Canada.



In 1982, The final episode of "Barney Miller" aired.



In 1989, Comedian Gilda Radner died in Los Angeles at age 42.



In 1990, The Hubble Space Telescope sent back its first photographs.



In 1993, The final episode of "Cheers" aired on NBC.



In 1995, President Clinton announced that the two-block stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House would be permanently closed to motor vehicles as a security measure.



In 1996, The final episode of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" aired on NBC.



In 1997, The final episode of "Roseanne" aired on ABC.



Ten years ago (1994):



Tributes poured in following the death of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. President Clinton said of the former first lady: "She captivated our nation and the world with her intelligence, her elegance and her grace."



Five years ago (1999):



An armed 15-year-old boy opened fire at Heritage High School in Conyers, Ga., wounding six students.



NATO warplanes hammered Belgrade and its suburbs, leaving a hospital in smoldering ruins, three patients dead and the nearby homes of three European ambassadors damaged.



One year ago (2003):



The Bush administration, concerned that a wave of attacks overseas could spread to the United States, raised the terrorism alert level to orange.



The United States banned all beef imports from Canada after a lone case of mad cow disease was discovered in the heart of Canada's cattle country.



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Today's Birthdays:



Actor David Hedison (Ara Heditsian) is 75.



Actor James McEachin is 74.



Actor Anthony Zerbe is 68.



Actor David Proval is 62.



Singer Jill Jackson ("Paula" of Paul & Paula) is 62.



Singer Joe Cocker is 60.



Singer-actress Cher is 58.



Actor-comedian Dave Thomas is 55.



Musician Warren Cann is 52.



Actor Dean Butler is 48.



Ron Reagan is 46.



Rock musician Jane Wiedlin (The Go-Go's) is 46.



Actor Bronson Pinchot is 45.



Actor John Billingsley ("Enterprise") is 44.



Actor Tony Goldwyn is 44.



Singer Susan Cowsill (The Cowsills) is 44.



Singer Nick Heyward is 43.



Actress Mindy Cohn is 38.



Rock musician Tom Gorman (Belly) is 38.



Rapper Busta Rhymes is 32.



Actress Angela Goethals is 27.



Rhythm and blues singer Naturi Naughton is 20.



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Thought for Today:

"Life is like a landscape. You live in the midst of it, but can describe it only from the vantage point of distance." -

- Charles A. Lindbergh (1902-1974).

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

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

Today is Wednesday, May 19th.

The 140th day of 2004.

There are 226 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On May 19, 1994, former first lady Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis died of non-Hodgkins lymphoma in New York at age 64.



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



On this date:



In 1536, Anne Boleyn, the second wife of England's King Henry VIII, was beheaded after she was convicted of adultery and incest with her brother, Lord Rochford, who was executed two days before.



In 1643, Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut & New Harbor form United Colonies of New England



In 1749, George II granted a charter to the Ohio Company to settle Ohio Valley.



In 1780, About midday, near-total darkness descends on much of New England. To this day its cause is still unexplained



In 1796, Game protection law restricts encroachment on Indian hunting grounds



In 1857, The electric fire alarm system was patented by William F. Channing and Moses G. Farmer.



In 1884, Ringling Brothers circus premieres



In 1891, Rice Institute, which became Rice University, is chartered



In 1892, Charles Brady King of Detroit invented the pneumatic hammer.



In 1906, The Federated Boys' Clubs, forerunner of the Boys' Clubs of America, were organized.



In 1911, The first American criminal conviction that was based on fingerprint evidence occurred in New York City.



In 1928, 51 frogs enter 1st annual "Frog Jumping Jubilee" (Angel's Camp CA)



In 1935, T.E. Lawrence, also known as "Lawrence of Arabia," died in England from injuries sustained in a motorcycle crash.



In 1943, In an address to the U.S. Congress, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill pledged his country's full support in the war against Japan.



In 1954, American composer Charles Ives died in New York.



In 1958, The United States and Canada formally established the North American Air Defense Command.



In 1958, Bobby Darin’s single, "Splish Splash," was released as the first eight-track master recording pressed to a plastic 45-RPM disc.



In 1960, USAF Maj Robert M White takes the X-15 rocket plane to 33,222 mph.



In 1962, During a Democratic fund-raiser at New York's Madison Square Garden, actress Marilyn Monroe performed a sultry rendition of "Happy Birthday to You" for guest-of-honor President Kennedy.



In 1964, The State Department disclosed that 40 hidden microphones had been found in the U.S. embassy in Moscow.



In 1967, The Soviet Union ratified a treaty with the United States and Britain banning nuclear weapons from outer space.



In 1967, The first U.S. air strike on central Hanoi is launched.



In 1992, The 27th Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits Congress from giving itself mid-term pay raises, went into effect.



In 1998, Millions of pagers nationwide stopped working when a communications satellite, the Galaxy Four, suddenly lost track of Earth.



Ten years ago (1994):



President Clinton held a news conference in which he defended his foreign policy against suggestions he was improvising it from crisis to crisis, saying, "I continue to look for new solutions."



Final Episode of LA Law after 8 year run.



Five years ago (1999):



As NATO's Operation Allied Force entered its ninth week, Russia's special envoy to the Balkans called on both NATO and Yugoslavia to suspend hostilities.



The Justice Department renewed its campaign to revoke John Demjanjuk's citizenship, alleging he was a Nazi death camp guard known as "Ivan the Terrible."



The much-anticipated movie prequel "Star Wars: Episode One - The Phantom Menace" opened.



One year ago (2003):



WorldCom Incorporated agreed to pay investors $500 million to settle civil fraud charges.



The Supreme Court dealt a defeat to the drug industry, ruling 6-3 that a state may try to force companies to lower prices on prescription medications for the poor and uninsured.



A Palestinian woman blew herself up during a security check outside a mall, killing three Israelis in the fifth suicide bombing in 48 hours.



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



Today's Birthdays:



PBS newscaster Jim Lehrer is 70.



T.V. personality David Hartman is 69.



Actor James Fox is 65.



Actress Nancy Kwan is 65.



Author-director Nora Ephron is 63.



Rock singer-composer Pete Townshend (The Who) is 59.



Concert pianist David Helfgott is 57.



Rock singer-musician Dusty Hill (ZZ Top) is 55.



Singer-actress Grace Jones is 52.



Rock musician Phil Rudd (AC/DC) is 50.



Baseball catcher Rick Cerone is 50.



Actor Steven Ford is 48.



Rock musician Iain Harvie (Del Amitri) is 42.



Rock singer Jenny Berggren (Ace of Base) is 32.



Actor Eric Lloyd is 18.



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Thought for Today:

"Life is never so bad at its worst that it is impossible to live; it is never so good at its best that it is easy to live." -

- Gabriel Heatter, American radio commentator (1890-1972).

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

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

Today is Tuesday, May 18th.

The 139th day of 2004.

There are 227 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On May 18, 1804, the French Senate proclaimed Napoleon Bonaparte emperor.



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



On this date:



In 1642, The Canadian city of Montreal was founded.



In 1652, The Rhode Island Colony enacts the first American law declaring slavery illegal.



In 1852, The state of Massachusetts passed a law requiring all school age children to attend school.



In 1896, The Supreme Court endorsed "separate but equal" racial segregation with its Plessy v. Ferguson decision, a ruling that was overturned 58 years later with Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.



In 1897, Producer/Director Frank Capra was born in Sicily. He died September 3, 1991 at the age of 94.



In 1904, American statesman Jacob K. Javits was born in New York.



In 1914, The "Mariner" became the first steamboat with cargo to pass through the Panama Canal.



In 1926, Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson vanished while visiting a beach in Venice, Calif.; she reappeared a month later, claiming to have been kidnapped.



In 1933, The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was created.



In 1942, New York ended night baseball games for the duration of World War II.



In 1944, During World War II, Allied forces finally occupied Monte Cassino in Italy after a four-month struggle that claimed some 20,000 lives.



In 1951, The United Nations moved out of its temporary headquarters in Lake Success, N.Y., for its permanent home in Manhattan.



In 1953, The first woman to fly faster than the speed of sound, Jacqueline Cochran, piloted an F-86 Sabrejet over California on this day, at an average speed of 652.337 miles-per-hour.



In 1963, The Beatles began their first headlining tour at the Grenada Theatre in Slough, England.



In 1964, The Supreme Court rules unconstitutional a federal statute depriving naturalized citizens of U.S. citizenship if they return to the land of their birth for three years.



In 1965, WTAF TV channel 29 in Philadelphia PA (IND) begins broadcasting



In 1967, Tennessee Gov. Ellington repeals the "Monkey Law", upheld in the Scopes Trial in 1925.



In 1969, Astronauts Eugene A. Cernan, Thomas P. Stafford and John W. Young blasted off aboard Apollo 10.



In 1974, India became the sixth nation to explode an atomic bomb.



In 1979, A federal jury in Oklahoma City awarded $10.5 million to the estate of Karen Silkwood, a laboratory technician contaminated by radiation at a Kerr-McGee plutonium plant in 1974. Silkwood herself couldn't collect. She died in a hit-and-run automobile accident while on her way to give information about the plant to a newspaper reporter.



In 1980, The Mount St. Helens volcano in Washington state, dormant for over 100 years, exploded, 500 times as powerful as the Hiroshima bomb. The blast took 1,300 feet off the top of the mountain and left 57 people dead or missing.



In 1995, Actress Elizabeth Montgomery died at the age of 62. She was born in Los Angeles on April 15, 1933.



In 1998, The final episode of "Murphy Brown" aired on CBS.



Ten years ago (1994):



Israeli troops completed their withdrawal from the Gaza Strip as Palestinian authorities took over.



Five years ago (1999):



Georgette Smith, a Florida woman left paralyzed from the neck down after being shot by her elderly mother, won the right to be taken off life support. (Smith died the next day, shortly after being taken off a ventilator; her mother, Shirley Egan, was later acquitted of attempted murder.)



Two Serb soldiers held as prisoners of war by the U.S. military were turned over to Yugoslav authorities.



One year ago (2003):



A Hamas suicide attacker disguised as an observant Jew killed seven Israeli bus passengers.



Belgian voters give Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt's coalition of socialists and liberals another four years in office.



Pope John Paul II celebrated his 83rd birthday with an open-air Mass and requests for prayers so he could continue his papacy.



"Les Miserables" closed on Broadway after more than 16 years and 6,680 performances.



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



Today's Birthdays:



Pope John Paul II (Ckarol Wojtyla) is 84.



Actor Bill Macy is 82.



Sportscaster Jack Whitaker is 80.



Actor Pernell Roberts is 74.



Actor Robert Morse is 73.



Actor and television executive Dwayne Hickman is 70.



Baseball Hall-of-Famer Brooks Robinson is 67.



Bluegrass singer-musician Rodney Dillard (The Dillards) is 62.



Baseball Hall-of-Famer Reggie Jackson is 58.



Country singer Joe Bonsall (The Oak Ridge Boys) is 56.



Actress Candice Azzara is 55.



Rock musician Rick Wakeman (Yes) is 55.



Actor James Stephens is 53.



Country singer George Strait is 52.



Rhythm and blues singer Butch Tavares (Tavares) is 51.



Rock singer-musician Page Hamilton is 44.



Singer-actress Martika is 35.



Comedian-writer Tina Fey ("Saturday Night Live") is 34.



Rapper Special Ed is 30.



Rhythm and blues singer Darryl Allen (Mista) is 24.



Actor Spencer Breslin is 12.



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



Thought for Today:

"Life is a joke that's just begun." -

- W.S. Gilbert, English librettist (1836-1911).

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

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

Today is Monday, May 17th.

The 138th day of 2004.

There are 228 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision which found that racially segregated public schools were inherently unequal, and therefore unconstitutional.



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



On this date:



In 1666, Newark, New Jersey, was founded



In 1673, Louis Joliet & Jacques Marquette begin exploring Mississippi



In 1792, A group of 24 brokers meeting at a coffee house in New York City organize the New York Stock Exchange. The first transactions are made under a tree on Wall Street.



In 1803, The Reaping Machine was patented by John Hawkins & Richard French.



In 1804, Lewis & Clark begin their exploration of the Louisiana Purchase.



In 1845, The rubber band was patented.



In 1875, The first Kentucky Derby was run; the winner was Aristides.



In 1883, Buffalo Bill Cody's 1st wild west show premieres in Omaha



In 1904, Jean Gabin, one of France's most popular film actors, was born in Paris.



In 1912, LPG (liquified petroleum gas) is first used for cooking and heating in Pennsylvania



In 1916, British Summer Time (Daylight Saving), 1st introduced



In 1920, 1st flight by Dutch airlines KLM (Koninklijke-Luchtvaart-Maatschappij)



In 1932, The U.S. Congress changed the name "Porto Rico" to "Puerto Rico."



In 1938, Congress passed the Vinson Naval Act, providing for a two-ocean navy.



In 1939, Britain's King George VI and Queen Elizabeth arrived in Quebec on the first visit to Canada by reigning British sovereigns.



In 1940, The Nazis occupied Brussels, Belgium, during World War II.



In 1946, President Truman seized control of the nation's railroads, delaying a threatened strike by engineers and trainmen.



In 1948, The Soviet Union recognized the new state of Israel.



In 1974, During a shootout with Los Angeles police, the house the Symbionese Liberation Army were using to hideout in, is destroyed by fire (5 die).



In 1973, The Senate opened its hearings into the Watergate scandal.



In 1975, NBC TV bought the rights to show "Gone With the Wind." The one time rights cost NBC $5,000,000.



In 1979, -12ºF (-11ºC), on top of Mauna Kea HI (state record)



In 1987, 37 American sailors were killed when an Iraqi warplane attacked the U.S. Navy frigate Stark in the Persian Gulf. (Iraq and the U.S. called the attack a mistake.)



In 1989, One million people demonstrated for democratic reforms in Beijing. The number of students fasting reached three-thousand.



Ten years ago (1994):



The U.N. Security Council approved a peacekeeping force and an arms embargo for violence-racked Rwanda.



Five years ago (1999):



The Supreme Court banned states from paying lower welfare benefits to newcomers than to longtime residents.



Labor Party leader Ehud Barak unseated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israeli elections.



Makah Indians in Washington state harpooned a gray whale for the first time in 70 years.



One year ago (2003):



A top Vatican official, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, acknowledged what many observers had long suspected - that Pope John Paul II was suffering from Parkinson's disease.



A German tour bus overturned on a highway in France, killing 28 people.



A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in the West Bank city of Hebron, killing an Israeli man and his pregnant wife.



More than 260 people died in Sri Lanka's worst flooding in five decades.



Funny Cide ran away from the field in the Preakness, two weeks after winning the Kentucky Derby. (However, Funny Cide came up short at the Belmont Stakes, finishing third.)



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



Today's Birthdays:



Opera singer Birgit Nilsson is 86.



Actor-director Dennis Hopper is 68.



Rhythm and blues singer Pervis Jackson (The Spinners) is 66.



Singer Taj Mahal is 62.



Singer-songwriter Jesse Winchester is 60.



Rock musician Bill Bruford is 55.



Singer-musician George Johnson (The Brothers Johnson) is 51.



Journalist Kathleen Sullivan is 51.



Actor Bill Paxton is 49.



Boxing Hall-of-Famer Ray Charles "Sugar Ray" Leonard is 48.



Actor-comedian Bob Saget is 48.



Singer Enya (Eithne Ni Bhraonain) is 43.



Actor Craig Ferguson ("The Drew Carey Show") is 42.



Singer-musician Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) is 39.



Rhythm and blues musician O'Dell (Mint Condition) is 39.



Actress Paige Turco is 39.



Singer Jordan Knight is 34.



Rhythm and blues singer Darnell Van Rensalier (Shai) is 34.



Actor Hill Harper is 31.



Rock singer Andrea Corr (The Corrs) is 30.



Singer Kandi Burruss is 28.



Actor Tahj Mowry is 18.



Actress Samantha Browne-Walters is 13.



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Thought for Today:

"The family you come from isn't as important as the family you're going to have." -

- Ring Lardner, American humorist (1885-1933).

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

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

Today is Sunday, May 16th.

The 137th day of 2004.

There are 229 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On May 16, 1929, the first Academy Awards were presented during a banquet at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The movie "Wings" won "best production" while Emil Jannings and Janet Gaynor were named best actor and best actress.



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



On this date:



In 1639, The town of Newport, Rhode Island, was founded



In 1760, The French were forced to evacuate Quebec



In 1763, The English lexicographer, author and wit Samuel Johnson first met his future biographer, James Boswell.



In 1770, Marie Antoinette, age 14, married the future King Louis VI of France, who was 15.



In 1804, The French Senate declared Napoleon Bonaparte emperor.



In 1817, The Mississippi River steamboat service began as it took passengers from New Orleans, La, to Louisville, Ky.



In 1862, The Automobile was first built by Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir.



In 1866, Charles Elmer Hires invents root beer



In 1866, Congress authorized the minting of the 5-cent piece called the nickel, minted with not more than 25% nickel; the silver half-dime was used up to this point.



In 1868, The Senate failed by one vote to convict President Andrew Johnson as it took its first ballot on one of 11 articles of impeachment against him.



In 1879, The Treaty of Gandamak between Russia and England set up the Afghan state.



In 1881, World's 1st electric tram goes into service in Lichterfelder (near Berlin)



In 1888, Canadian Pacific Railroad opens Hotel Vancouver, Vancouver British Columbia



In 1888, The first demonstration of recording on a flat disc was demonstrated by Emile Berliner.



In 1888, The capitol of Texas was dedicated in Austin.



In 1891, Spam was introduced by George A. Hormel & Co.



In 1905, Actor Henry Jaynes Fonda was born in Grand Island, NE. He died August 12, 1982 at the age of 77.



In 1910, The U.S. Bureau of Mines is established as part of the Department of the Interior.



In 1919, Pianist Liberace (Wladziu Valentino Liberace) was born a twin in West Allis, WI. He died February 4, 1987 at the age of 67.



In 1920, Joan of Arc was canonized in Rome.



In 1927, The U.S. Supreme Court rules that even though the manufacturing of liquor is illegal, all bootleggers must pay income tax.



In 1946, The Irving Berlin musical, "Annie Get Your Gun," opened at New York’s Imperial Theatre for the first of 1,147 performances.



In 1946, The world's first magnetic tape recorder is demonstrated for the first time by Jack Mullin.



In 1954, WGAN (now WGME) TV channel 13 in Portland, ME (CBS) 1st broadcast



In 1960, A "Big Four" summit conference in Paris collapsed on its opening day as the Soviet Union leveled spy charges against the U.S. in the wake of the U2 incident.



In 1965, Spaghetti-O's is first marketed.



In 1975, Japanese climber Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.



In 1977, Five people were killed when a New York Airways helicopter, idling atop the Pan Am Building in midtown Manhattan, toppled over, sending a huge rotor blade flying.



In 1981, "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes hits #1 for next 9 weeks



In 1986, "Top Gun" premieres



In 1988, US Supreme Court rules trash may be searched without a warrant



In 1990. Actor/Singer/Dancer Sammy Davis Jr. died at the age of 64. He was born In New York City NY on December 8, 1925.



In 1992, The space shuttle Endeavour completed its maiden voyage with a safe landing in the California desert.



In 1995, Japanese police arrested doomsday cult leader Shoko Asahara, holding him in connection with the nerve-gas attack on Tokyo's subways two months earlier.



In 1996, Admiral Jeremy "Mike" Boorda, the nation's top Navy officer, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after some of his military awards were called into question.



In 2000, U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was nominated to run for U.S. Senator in New York. She was the first U.S. first lady to run for public office.



Ten years ago (1994):



Israel began its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, shutting down the prison and military headquarters where Israeli soldiers had been in charge since the 1967 Middle East War.



Five years ago (1999):



The Justice Department said preliminary figures from the FBI indicated a decline in serious crime in 1998 for the seventh consecutive year.



One year ago (2003):



President Bush launched his re-election campaign.



The Senate committed $15 billion to fight global AIDS.



In Casablanca, Morocco, five simultaneous suicide attacks claimed the lives of 33 victims, in addition to a dozen suicide bombers.



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Today's Birthdays:



Author Studs Terkel is 92.



Actor George Gaynes is 87.



Actor Harry Carey Jr. is 83.



Actress Yvonne Craig is 67.



Jazz musician Billy Cobham is 60.



Actor Pierce Brosnan is 51.



Actress Debra Winger is 49.



Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut is 49.



Actress Mare Winningham is 45.



Singer Janet Jackson is 38.



Rhythm and blues singer Ralph Tresvant (New Edition) is 36.



Actress Tracey Gold is 35.



Tennis player Gabriela Sabatini is 34.



Country singer Rick Trevino is 33.



Actor David Boreanaz is 33.



Musician Simon Katz is 33.



Actress Tori Spelling is 31.



Actor Marc John Jefferies is 14.



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Thought for Today:

"Ideas won't keep; something must be done about them." -

- Alfred North Whitehead, English philosopher-mathematician (1861-1947).

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Today is Saturday, May 15th.

The 136th day of 2004.

There are 230 days left in the year.

This is Armed Forces Day.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On May 15, 1911, the Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of Standard Oil Company, ruling it was in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.



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On this date:



In 756, Abd-al-Rahman I becomes emir of Cordova Spain



In 1567, Mary, Queen of Scots, marries her third husband James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, who was acquitted of complicity in her second husband's murder.



In 1602, Cape Cod was discovered by English navigator Bartholomew Gosnold.



In 1618, Johannes Kepler discovered his harmonics law.



In 1672, The first copyright law in the colonies was enacted by the Massachusetts general court for "The General Laws and Liberties of the Massachusetts Colony."



In 1718, Britain's James Puckle patents the first machine gun.



In 1856, American writer L(yman) Frank Baum was born in Chittenango, NY. He created an original fairyland, the land of Oz, a world of fantastic characters and lighthearted adventure. He died May 6, 1919 at the age of 62



In 1886, Poet Emily Dickinson died in Amherst, Mass.



In 1918, U.S. airmail began service between Washington, Philadelphia and New York.



In 1930, Ellen Church, the first airline stewardess, went on duty aboard a United Airlines flight between San Francisco and Cheyenne, Wyo.



In 1940, Nylon stockings went on general sale for the first time in the United States.



In 1941, Joe DiMaggio began his historic major-league hitting streak of 56 games.



In 1942, Gasoline rationing went into effect in 17 states, limiting sales to three gallons a week for non-essential vehicles.



In 1948, Hours after declaring its independence, the new state of Israel was attacked by Transjordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.



In 1957, Great Britain drops a hydrogen bomb on Christmas Island in the Pacific, becoming the third nation, after the United States and the Soviet Union, with thermonuclear capabilities.



In 1963, Astronaut L. Gordon Cooper blasted off aboard Faith Seven on the final mission of the Project Mercury space program.



In 1970, Phillip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green, two black students at Jackson State University in Mississippi, were killed when police opened fire during student protests.



In 1972, George C. Wallace was shot by Arthur Bremer and left paralyzed while campaigning in Laurel, Md., for the Democratic presidential nomination.



In 1975, The merchant ship U.S. Mayaguez was recaptured from Cambodia's Khmer Rouge. This was the final U.S. action of the Viet Nam War.



In 1979, The final episode of "Starsky and Hutch" was aired by ABC.



In 1988, The Soviet Union begins withdrawing its forces from Afghanistan nearly a decade after invading the country.



In 1991, French President Francois Mitterrand appointed Edith Cresson to be France's first female premier.



In 2001, Tens of thousands of Palestinians packed town squares in the West Bank town of Ramallah as they marked what they called the day of "catastrophe" in 1948, when they were uprooted and the state of Israel created.



Ten years ago (1994):



Supreme Court nominee Stephen G. Breyer arrived in Washington to spend the night at the White House, while Republicans joined Democrats in predicting swift Senate confirmation.



Five years ago (1999):



Russian President Boris Yeltsin triumphed over his Communist foes, surviving an impeachment vote in the Russian parliament.



Charismatic won the Preakness, finishing one and a-half lengths ahead of Menifee.



One year ago (2003):



Emergency officials rushed to a series of mock catastrophes in the Chicago area on the busiest day of a national weeklong exercise.



Runaway Texas Democrats boarded two buses and returned home after a self-imposed weeklong exile in Oklahoma that succeeded in killing a redistricting bill they opposed.



The three-year championship reign of the Los Angeles Lakers came to a decisive end as the San Antonio Spurs overpowered the Lakers 110-82 to win the Western Conference semifinal series 4 games to 2.



Country music star June Carter Cash died in Nashville, Tenn., at age 73.



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Today's Birthdays:



Actress Constance Cummings is 94.



Singer Richard Edward "Eddy" Arnold is 86.



Actor Joseph Wiseman is 86.



Playwright Sir Peter Shaffer ("Equus") is 78.



Actress-singer Anna Maria Alberghetti is 68.



Counterculture icon Wavy Gravy is 68.



Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is 67.



Singer Trini Lopez is 67.



Singer Lenny Welch is 66.



Actress-singer Lainie Kazan is 64.



Actor-director Paul Rudd ("Knots Landing") is 64.



Country singer K.T. Oslin is 62.



Singer-songwriter Brian Eno is 56.



Actor Nicholas Hammond ("The Sound of Music") is 54.



Actor Chazz Palminteri is 53.



Baseball Hall-of-Famer George Brett is 51.



Musician-composer Mike Oldfield ("Tubular Bells") is 51.



Actor Lee Horsley is 49.



Singer-rapper Prince Be (PM Dawn) is 34.



Actor Brad Rowe is 34.



Actor David Charvet is 32.



Rock musician Ahmet Zappa is 30.



Olympic gold-medal gymnast Amy Chow is 26.



Actress Jamie-Lynn DiScala is 23.



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Thought for Today:

"People love to talk but hate to listen." -

- Alice Duer Miller, American author (1874-1942).

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Today is Friday, May 14th

The 135th day of 2004.

There are 231 days left in the year.



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Today's Highlight in History:



On May 14, 1904, the first Olympic games to be held in the United States opened in St. Louis, as part of the World's Fair commemorating the centenary of the Louisiana Purchase.



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On this date:



In 1643, Louis XIV became King of France at age 4 upon the death of his father, Louis the 13th.



In 1796, Edward Jenner inoculated a healthy 8-year-old boy with cowpox virus; the boy subsequently withstood repeated attempts to infect him with smallpox.



In 1804, The Lewis and Clark expedition to explore the Louisiana Territory left St. Louis.



In 1853, Gail Borden applied for a patent for condensed milk.



In 1874 McGill University and Harvard met at Cambridge, MA, for the first college football game to charge admission.



In 1897, "The Stars and Stripes Forever" by John Phillip Sousa was performed for the first time. It was at a ceremony where a statue of George Washington was unveiled.



In 1897, Guglielmo Marconi made the first communication by wireless telegraph.



In 1913, The Rockefeller Foundation was created by John D. Rockefeller with an endowment of $100,000,000.



In 1935, Los Angeles' Griffith Planetarium opens, 3rd in US



In 1936, Pop singer/Actor Bobby Darin (Walden Robert Cassotto) was born in New York, NY. He died December 20, 1973 at the age of 37.



In 1942, The Women's Auxiliary Army Corps was established.



In 1942, The British, while retreating from Burma, reached India.



In 1948, When British rule over Palestine ends, Israel is proclaimed an independent state and is declared open to Jewish immigration.



In 1955, Representatives from eight Communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, signed the Warsaw Pact in Poland.



In 1961, A bus carrying Freedom Riders was bombed and burned in Alabama.



In 1964, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev joined United Arab Republic President Gamel Abdel Nasser in setting off charges, diverting the Nile River from the site of the Aswan High Dam project.



In 1973, The United States launched Skylab One, its first manned space station.



In 1973, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, last airs on NBC-TV



In 1975, U.S. forces raided the Cambodian island of Koh Tang and recaptured the American merchant ship Mayaguez. All 40 crew members were released safely by Cambodia, but some 40 U.S. servicemen were killed in the military operation.



In 1980, President Carter inaugurated the Department of Health and Human Services.



In 1989, The final episode of "Family Ties" aired.



In 1998, Singer-actor, "Chairman of the Board", Frances Albert "Frank" Sinatra died at a Los Angeles hospital at age 82. He was born December 12, 1915 in Hoboken, NJ.



In 1998, The final episode of "Seinfeld" aired on NBC. The commercial time during the show was priced at $2 million for 30 seconds.



In 1998, Singer George Michael pled no contest in the Beverly Hills Municipal Court to committing a lewd act in a park restroom. He was fined $810, given 80 hours of community service, and ordered to undergo counseling.



Ten years ago (1994):



The West Bank town of Jericho saw its first full day of Palestinian self-rule following the withdrawal of Israeli troops, an event celebrated by Palestinians.



Five years ago (1999):



His previous calls rebuffed, President Clinton finally got through to Chinese President Jiang Zemin; Clinton expressed hope the two countries could repair the damage to their relations since the U.S. bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade.



One year ago (2003):



Smugglers abandoned more than 100 illegal immigrants in a locked trailer at a Texas truck stop; 19 people died.



In Chechnya, a female suicide bombing killed 18 people in an apparent attempt on the life of the Moscow-backed chief administrator (Akhmad Kadyrov).



President Bush met for the first time with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun; both leaders said they were united in seeking a Korean peninsula free of nuclear weapons.



Death claimed actress Dame Wendy Hiller in Beaconsfield, England, at age 90; actor Robert Stack in Beverly Hills, California, at age 84; and Basketball Hall-of-Famer Dave DeBusschere in New York at age 62.



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Today's Birthdays:



Opera singer Patrice Munsel is 79.



Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) is 62.



Rock singer-musician Jack Bruce (Cream) is 61.



Movie producer George Lucas is 60.



Actress Meg Foster is 56.



Actress Season Hubley is 53.



Rock singer David Byrne is 52.



Movie director Robert Zemeckis is 52.



Actor Tim Roth is 43.



Rock singer Ian Astbury (The Cult) is 42.



Rock musician C.C./Cecil DeVille is 42.



Rock musician Mike Inez (Alice In Chains) is 38.



Fabrice Morvan (ex-Milli Vanilli) is 38.



Rhythm and blues singer Raphael Saadiq is 38.



Actress Cate Blanchett is 35.



Singer Danny Wood (New Kids on the Block) is 35.



Movie writer-director Sofia Coppola is 33.



Singer Natalie Appleton (All Saints) is 31.



Singer Shanice is 31.



Actress Amber Tamblyn is 21.



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Thought for Today:

"Ah, les bons vieux temps ou nous etions si malheureux!" (Oh, the good old times when we were so unhappy!) -

- French saying.

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