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

Today is Wednesday, June 9th.

The 161st day of 2004.

There are 205 days left in the year.



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



Today's Highlight in History:



On June 9, 1954, in one of the most dramatic confrontations of the Senate-Army Hearings, Army special counsel Joseph N. Welch denounced Senator Joseph R. McCarthy's attack on a member of Welch's law firm, Frederick G. Fisher. Said Welch to McCarthy: "Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"



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



On this date:



In 68, The Roman Emperor Nero committed suicide.



In 1588, The Spanish Armada sails from Lisbon to England.



In 1732, A royal charter for Georgia was granted to James Oglethorpe.



In 1790, John Barry copyrighted "Philadelphia Spelling Book." It was the first American book to be copyrighted.



In 1802, The United States Military Academy at West Point NY was established.



In 1869, Charles Elmer Hires sold his first Root Beer in Philadelphia.



In 1870, Author Charles Dickens died in Godshill, England.



In 1898, China leased Hong Kong's New Territories to Britain for 99 years.



In 1900, "Peter Rabbit" was published by Helen Beatrix Potter.



In 1910, Actor/Author/Director Robert "Bob" Cummings was born in Joplin MO. He died in Woodland Hills CA on December 2, 1990 at age 82.



In 1923, The first armored security vans were introduced by Brink's Inc.



In 1934, Donald Duck made his debut in "The Wise Little Hen."



In 1938, BBC-TV televised coverage of the Trooping of the Colour ceremony for the first time.



In 1940, Norway surrendered to the Nazis during World War II.



In 1945, Japanese Premier Kantaro Suzuki declared that Japan would fight to the last rather than accept unconditional surrender.



In 1953, About 100 people died when a tornado struck Worcester, Mass.



In 1969, The U.S. Senate confirmed Warren Burger to be the new chief justice of the United States, succeeding Earl Warren.



In 1973, Secretariat became horse racing's first Triple Crown winner in 25 years by winning the Belmont Stakes.



In 1978, The Boston Celtics select Larry Bird with the sixth pick of the NBA draft. Although Bird returns to college for his senior season, the Celtics retain his rights and sign him the next year.



In 1978, Leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints struck down a 148-year-old policy of excluding black men from the Mormon priesthood.



In 1980, Comedian Richard Pryor suffered almost fatal burns at his San Fernando Valley, Calif., home when a mixture of "free-base" cocaine (aka:"crack") exploded. He was hospitalized more than two months.



In 1985, American educator Thomas Sutherland was kidnapped in Lebanon; he was released in November 1991 along with fellow hostage Terry Waite.



In 1993, U.S. officials admitted that some veterans of the Gulf War were suffering from a mystery illness.



In 1993, As millions of Japanese watched on television, Crown Prince Naruhito wed commoner Masako Owada in an elaborate Shinto religious ceremony.



In 1995, Japan's parliament passed a controversial resolution designed to atone for the country's role in World War II.



In 1997, The British lease on the New Territories in Hong Kong expires.



In 2000, Canada and the United States signed a border security agreement. The agreement called for the establishment of a border-enforcement team.



Ten years ago (1994):



In a bipartisan slap at President Clinton, the House of Representatives voted 244-178 in favor of having the United States defy the international arms embargo on Bosnia.



Five years ago (1999):



After 78 days of intense NATO airstrikes, Yugoslav and Western generals signed a pact clearing the way for a Kosovo peace plan.



President Clinton instructed federal law agencies to collect race and gender data on people they stop or arrest, in a move to end racial profiling by police.



One year ago (2003):



Israeli soldiers began dismantling settlement outposts in the West Bank.



As rebels bore down on the capital of Liberia, French helicopters rescued more than 500 Americans, Europeans and other foreigners.



The New Jersey Devils won the Stanley Cup, defeating the Anaheim Mighty Ducks 3-0 in Game 7.



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



Today's Birthdays:



Guitarist Les Paul (Lester William Polfus) is 89.



Former World Bank president and former defense secretary Robert S. (Strange) McNamara is 88.



Actress Mona Freeman is 78.



Media analyst Marvin Kalb is 74.



Comedian Jackie Mason (Yokoff Moshe Maza or Jacob Masier) is 68.



Actor Joe Santos is 68.



Author Letty Cottin Pogrebin is 65.



Rock musician Jon Lord is 63.



Actor Michael (Andrew) "J." Fox is 43.



Writer-producer Aaron Sorkin is 43.



Actor Johnny Depp is 41.



Jazz musician Wayman Tisdale is 40.



Actress Gloria Reuben is 40.



Rock musician Dean Felber (Hootie & the Blowfish) is 37.



Rock musician Dean Dinning is 37.



Musician Ed Simons is 34.



Actress Natalie Portman is 23.



Actress Mae Whitman is 16.



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



Thought for Today:

"History is a romance that is believed; romance, a history that is not believed." -

- Horace Walpole, English author (1717-1797).

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

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

Today is Tuesday, June 8th.

The 160th day of 2004.

There are 206 days left in the year.



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



Today's Highlight in History:



On June 8, 632, the prophet Mohammed died in Medina.



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



On this date:



In 452, Italy invaded by Attila the Hun



In 570, The Religion of Islam (submission) was founded in Mecca.



In 1783, Iceland’s Laki volcano erupted and continued to spew lava for eight months. 9,350 people were killed and famine started and lasted until 1790.



In 1786, In New York City, commercial ice cream was manufactured for the first time.



In 1789, James Madison first proposed the Bill of Rights, which led to the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution.



In 1824, The washing machine was patented by Noah Cushing of Quebec.



In 1845, Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the United States, died in Nashville, TN.



In 1861, Tennessee seceded from the Union.



In 1869, Inventor Ives McGaffey receives a U.S. patent for a "sweeping machine," the first vacuum cleaner.



In 1876, Author George Sand died in Nohant, France.



In 1915, U.S. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan resigns, believing that President Woodrow Wilson's response to the sinking of the Lusitania will lead the United States into World War I.



In 1942, Japanese submarines and aircraft attacked Australia, striking at Sydney and Newcastle.



In 1948, The "Texaco Star Theatre" debuts on NBC. Its host, Milton "Uncle Miltie" Berle, goes on to become one of the biggest stars of early television.



In 1953, the Supreme Court ruled that restaurants in the District of Columbia could not refuse to serve blacks.



In 1965, U.S. troops in South Vietnam were given orders to begin fighting offensively, not just from the defensive, as the policy was.



In 1967, 34 U.S. servicemen were killed when Israeli forces raided the Liberty, a Navy ship stationed in the Mediterranean. (Israel called the attack a tragic mistake.)



In 1968, Authorities announced the capture in London of James Earl Ray, the suspected assassin of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.



In 1978, A jury in Clark County, Nevada, ruled the so-called "Mormon will," purportedly written by the late billionaire Howard Hughes, was a forgery.



In 1979, The final episode of "Welcome Back, Kotter" aired on ABC.



In 1982, President Reagan became the first American chief executive to address a joint session of the British Parliament.



In 1987, "Sometimes you have to go above the written law." On this day, Fawn Hall -- who'd been a secretary in the Reagan White House -- told congressional hearings that to protect her immediate supervisor she helped him obstruct justice...altering and shredding sensitive documents...and smuggling papers out of the White House in her clothes. Her immediate supervisor was National Security aide Oliver North...and the documents concerned the Iran-Contra affair, in which the Reagan administration secretly sold arms to Iran, then sent the profits to rebels in the Central American nation of Nicaragua in violation of a law Congress had passed.



In 1995, U.S. Marines rescued Captain Scott O'Grady, whose F-16-C fighter jet had been shot down by Bosnian Serbs on June 2.



Ten years ago (1994):



Bosnia's warring factions agreed to a one-month cease-fire.



President Clinton returned to Oxford University, where he'd attended as a Rhodes scholar, to receive an honorary doctorate.



Five years ago (1999):



The United States, Russia and six leading democracies authorized a text calling for a peacekeeping force in Kosovo.



President Clinton announced new restrictions aimed at making it tougher for teens to sneak into R-rated movies.



One year ago (2003):



Frustrated and angry over delays, a coalition of the nation's mayors meeting in Denver asked federal officials to bypass state governments and give them the money they needed to beef up homeland security.



Poles voted to join the European Union in 2004.



Annika Sorenstam won the LPGA Championship for her fifth major title.



Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero won the French Open men's final with a 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 victory over Martin Verkerk.



George Foreman was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.



The Broadway show "Hairspray" won eight Tony Awards, including best musical; "Take Me Out," Richard Greenberg's play about a gay baseball player, was chosen best play.



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



Today's Birthdays:



Former President Suharto of Indonesia is 83.



Former First Lady Barbara Pierce Bush is 79.



Actor-comedian Jerry Stiller is 77.



Comedian Joan Rivers is 71.



Actress Millicent Martin is 70.



Actor James Darren is 68.



Actor Bernie Casey is 65.



Singer Nancy Sinatra is 64.



Singer Chuck Negron (Three Dog Night) is 62.



Musician Boz Scaggs is 60.



Actor Don Grady is 60.



Rock musician Mick Box (Uriah Heep) is 57.



Author Sara Paretsky is 57.



Actress Sonia Braga is 54.



Actress Kathy Baker is 54.



Country musician Tony Rice is 53.



Singer Bonnie Tyler is 51.



Actor Griffin Dunne is 49.



"Dilbert" creator Scott Adams is 47.



Actor-director Keenen Ivory Wayans is 46.



Singer Mick Hucknall (Simply Red) is 44.



Musician Nick Rhodes (Duran Duran) is 42.



Rhythm and blues singer Doris Pearson (Five Star) is 38.



Actress Julianna Margulies is 37.



Actor Dan Futterman is 37.



Rhythm and blues singer Nicci Gilbert is 34.



Actress Kelli Williams is 34.



Actor Mark Feuerstein is 33.



Folk-bluegrass singer-musician Sara Watkins (Nickel Creek) is 23.



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



Though for Today:

"Love hath no physic for a grief too deep." -

- Robert Nathan, American author and composer (1894-1985).

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

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

Today is Monday, June 7th.

The 159th day of 2004.

There are 207 days left in the year.



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



Today's Highlight in History:



On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed to the Continental Congress a resolution calling for a Declaration of Independence.



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



On this date:



In 1753, Britain's King George II gave his assent to an Act of Parliament establishing the British Museum.



In 1769, Frontiersman Daniel Boone first began to explore present-day Kentucky.



In 1791, The Bank of the United States -- precursor to today's Federal Reserve Banks -- was estabablished...in Philadelphia.



In 1839, The Hawaiian Declaration of Rights is signed.



In 1848, French postimpressionist painter Paul Gauguin was born in Paris.



In 1864, Abraham Lincoln was nominated for another term as president at his party's convention in Baltimore.



In 1917, Singer/Actor Dean Martin (Dino Crocetti) was born in Steubenville, Ohio. He died December 25, 1995 at age 78.



In 1929, The sovereign state of Vatican City came into existence as copies of the Lateran Treaty were exchanged in Rome.



In 1942, The Battle of Midway ended. The sea and air battle lasted 4 days. Japan lost four carriers, a cruiser, and 292 aircraft, and suffered 2,500 casualties. The U.S. lost the Yorktown, the destroyer USS Hammann, 145 aircraft, and suffered 307 casualties.



In 1942 Japan landed troops on the islands of Attu and Kiska in the Aleutians. The U.S. invaded and recaptured the Alutians one year later.



In 1948, The Communists completed their takeover of Czechoslovakia with the resignation of President Eduard Benes.



In 1965, An 1879 Connecticut law banning the use of contraceptives is ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.



In 1966, Movie actor Ronald Reagan wins California's Republican Primary, sending him up against Gov. Pat Brown in that fall's campaign



In 1967, Author-critic Dorothy Parker, famed for her caustic wit, died in New York.



In 1972, The musical "Grease" opened on Broadway.



In 1975, New Hampshire legislators "accidentally" repeal their state laws against homosexuality, courtesy of an ambiguously worded bill concerning rape penalties. It's not until the local gay press starts trumpeting the bills passage that the lawmakers realize their "error." Says one pundit, "Gays throughout the nation may well win their freedom through the fault and stupidity of straights." While the local conservative press pushes for even tougher anti-sodomy laws, the repeal stands.



In 1981, Israeli military planes destroyed a nuclear power plant in Iraq, a facility the Israelis charged could have been used to make nuclear weapons.



In 1998, In a crime that shocked the nation, James Byrd Jr., a 49-year-old black man, was dragged to his death behind a pickup truck in Jasper, Texas. (Two white men were later sentenced to death for the crime; a third received life in prison.)



Ten years ago (1994):



President Clinton addressed the French National Assembly, challenging his generation of Allied leaders to strive for greater European unity or face "the grim alternative" of violence like that rending Bosnia.



Twelve-year-old Vicki Van Meter of Meadville, Pa., completed a trans-Atlantic flight, landing in Glasgow, Scotland.



Five years ago (1999):



The FBI put alleged terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden and anti-abortion activist and accused doctor killer James Charles Kopp on the bureau's list of the Ten Most Wanted fugitives. (Kopp was arrested in 2001 and later convicted of killing Dr. Barnett Slepian.)



Gunmen killed popular Mexican television host Francisco "Paco" Stanley.



One year ago (2003):



In a national first, New Hampshire Episcopalians elected the Reverend V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay man, as their next bishop.



A suicide bomber in Afghanistan killed four German peacekeepers; the blast also killed a teenage Afghan bystander.



Justine Henin-Hardenne beat Kim Clijsters 6-0, 6-4 at the French Open, in the first all-Belgian Grand Slam final.



Empire Maker beat Kentucky Derby-Preakness winner Funny Cide in the Belmont Stakes.



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



Today's Birthdays:



Movie director James Ivory is 76.



Actress Virginia McKenna is 73.



Singer Tom Jones is 64.



Poet Nikki Giovanni is 61.



Actor/ret'd LAPD officer Ken Osmond ("Leave It to Beaver"'s Eddie Haskell) is 61.



Talk show host Jenny Jones is 58.



Actress Anne Twomey is 53.



Actor Liam Neeson is 52.



Actress Colleen Camp is 51.



Singer-songwriter Johnny Clegg is 51.



Actor William Forsythe is 49.



Record producer L.A. Reid is 48.



Singer-songwriter Prince (Prince Rogers Nelson, the artist formerly known as the artist formerly known as Prince) is 46.



Rock singer-musician Gordon Gano (The Violent Femmes) is 41.



Rapper Ecstacy (Whodini) is 40.



Rock musician Eric Kretz (Stone Temple Pilots) is 38.



Rock musician David Navarro is 37.



Actress Helen Baxendale is 34.



Actress Larisa Oleynik is 23.



Tennis player Anna Kournikova is 23.



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



Thought for Today:

"Some seek bread; and some seek wealth and ease; and some seek fame, but all are seeking rest." -

- Frederick Langbridge, English clergyman and author (1849-1922).

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

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

Today is Sunday, June 6th.

The 158th day of 2004.

There are 208 days left in the year.



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



Today's Highlight in History:



On June 6, 1944, The "D-Day" invasion of Europe took place during World War II as 150,000 Allied Expeditionary forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, France. It was the largest invasion in history. A total of 400,000 would land over the follow few days. Their objective: to open a second major European front in the battle against the Nazis. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, commander of these united forces (and, who later became the 34th President of the United States) said, "This landing is but the opening phase of the campaign in Western Europe. Great battles lie ahead. I call upon all who love freedom to stand with us."



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



On this date:



In 1639, Massachusetts grants 500 acres of land to erect a gunpowder mill



In 1813, The US invasion of Canada is halted at Stoney Creek, Ontario.



In 1816, 10 inches of snow falls on New England (entered into records as "the year in which there was no summer"). It was one of the latest snowfalls ever (or maybe one of the earliest!). The cause was the earlier explosive eruption of the volcanoe Krakatoa in Indonesia.



In 1833, Andrew Jackson became the first U.S. president to ride in a train. It was a B&O passenger train.



In 1844, The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) was founded in London.



In 1882, The first electric flatiron, or what we call the electric iron, was patented by Henry W. Seely of New York City.



In 1889, The "Great Fire" in Seattle destroys 25 downtown blocks



In 1918, The World War I Battle of Belleau Wood, which resulted in a U.S. victory over the Germans, began in France.



In 1925, Walter Percy Chrysler founded the Chrysler Corporation.



In 1933, Through the National Employment System Act, Congress creates the U.S. Employment Service.



In 1933, The first drive-in movie theater opened, in Camden, N.J.



In 1934, The Securities and Exchange Commission was established.



In 1942, Japanese forces retreated in the World War II Battle of Midway.



In 1944, General Theodore Roosevelt Jr receives the Congressional Medal of Honor



In 1949, George Orwell's novel "1984", a vision of a World ruled by Big Brother, was published



In 1955, Bill Haley & the Comets, "Rock Around the Clock" hits #1.



In 1966, Black activist James Meredith was shot and wounded as he walked along a Mississippi highway to encourage black voter registration.



In 1966, The NFL and AFL announce their merger



In 1968, At 1:44 a.m. PDT, Sen. Robert Francis Kennedy died at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, 25 1/2 hours after he was shot at the Ambassador Hotel by Sirhan Bishara Sirhan. He was 42.



In 1971, Air West filght 706 collides with Navy Phantom jet over LA, 50 die.



In 1971, The three Soyuz 11 cosmonauts, Georgi T. Dolrovolsky, Vladislav N. Volkov, and Viktor I. Patsayev, were found dead in the craft after its automatic landing. Apparently the cause of death was loss of pressurization in the space craft during re-entry into the earth's atmosphere.



In 1972, The US bombs Haiphong, North-Vietnam; 1000s killed.



In 1977, The U.S. Supreme Court ruled states could not impose an automatic death sentence for defendants convicted of murdering a police officer.



In 1978, California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 13, a primary ballot initiative calling for major cuts in property taxes.



In 1978, "20/20" debuted on ABC.



In 1984, Government forces in India stormed the Golden Temple in Amritsar in an effort to crush Sikh extremists. At least 1,000 Sikhs and 200 soldiers were killed.



In 1985, Authorities in Embu, Brazil, exhumed a body later identified as the remains of Dr. Josef Mengele, the notorious "Angel of Death" of the Nazi Holocaust.



In 1988, George H. W. Bush makes a campaign promise to support reparations for WW II Japanese-American internees (promise broken, May 1989).



In 2001, A jury in Los Angeles awarded more than $3 billion to lifelong smoker Richard Boeken, deciding that tobacco giant Philip Morris was responsible for his incurable lung cancer. (The jury award was reduced by a Superior Court judge to $100 million, which Philip Morris is appealing; Boeken died in January.)



Ten years ago (1994):



President Clinton joined leaders from America's World War II allies to mark the 50th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy.



A Chinese passenger jet crashed, killing all 160 people on board.



In Yemen, Northern Yemen declared a cease-fire after a month-long civil war against the secessionist south.



Five years ago (1999):



The space shuttle Discovery returned from a 10-day mission that included a visit to the international space station.



At the Tony Awards, Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" was named best revival; "Side Man" won best play; "Fosse" was awarded best musical.



In tennis, Andre Agassi won the French Open, defeating Andrei Medvedev 1-6, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4, while in golf, Juli Inkster shot a final-round 1-under 71 for a 16-under 272 total to win the U.S. Women's Open.



One year ago (2003):



The government reported the U.S. unemployment rate had hit a nine-year high of 6.1 percent the previous month.



Already the holder of U.S. rights to the Olympics through 2008, NBC secured the contracts for the 2010 and 2012 games for $2.2 billion.



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



Today's Birthdays:



Politician, ex-Governor of CA George Deukmejian is 76.



Actress Billie Whitelaw is 72.



Civil rights activist Roy Innis is 70.



Tibet Head of State Dalai Lama (Gejong Tenzin Gyatsho) is 69.



Singer Levi Stubbs (Stubbles)(The Four Tops) is 68.



Singer-songwriter Gary "U.S." Bonds (Anderson) is 65.



Country singer Joe Stampley is 61.



Actor Robert Englund is 55.



Folk singer Holly Near is 55.



Singer Dwight Twilley is 53.



Playwright-actor Harvey Fierstein is 50.



Comedian Sandra Bernhard is 49.



Comedian Dana Carvey is 49.



Tennis player Bjorn Borg is 48.



Actress Amanda Pays is 45.



Comedian Colin Quinn is 45.



Record producer Jimmy Jam is 45.



Rock musician Steve Vai is 44.



Rock musician Sean Yseult (White Zombie) is 38.



Actor Max Casella is 37.



Actor Paul Giamatti is 37.



Rhythm and blues singer Damion Hall (Guy) is 36.



Rock musician Bardi Martin is 35.



Country singer Lisa Brokop is 31.



Rapper-rocker Uncle Kracker is 30.



Actress Staci Keanan (Anastasia Sogorsky) is 29.



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



Thought for Today:

"Two dangers constantly threaten the world: order and disorder." -

- Paul Valery, French poet (1871-1945).

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

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

Today is Saturday, June 5th.

The 157th day of 2004.

There are 209 days left in the year.



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



Today's Highlight in History:



On June 5, 1968, At 12:16 a.m. PDT, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was shot and mortally wounded at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles shortly after claiming victory in California's Democratic presidential primary. Five other people were wounded. Gunman Sirhan Bishara Sirhan was immediately arrested. Kennedy died the next day. Kennedy appeared headed for a showdown with Republican Richard Nixon for the White House.



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



On this date:



In 469, B.C.E., Socrates was born.



In 70, Titus & his Roman legions breach the middle wall of Jerusalem.



In 1752, Benjamin Franklin flew a kite for the first time to demonstrate that lightning was a form of electricity.



In 1783, Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier publicly demonstrated their hot-air balloon in a ten-minute flight over Annonay, France.



In 1794, Congress passed the Neutrality Act, which prohibited Americans from enlisting in the service of a foreign power.



In 1846, A telegraph line is opened between Philadelphia and Baltimore.



In 1854, The Canadian Reciprocity Treaty is signed, opening the U.S. to Canadian products in return for freedom of operation on the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River.



In 1862, The Treaty of Saigon permits the French to occupy the three eastern provinces of Cochin China.



In 1895, Actor William Lawrence Boyd was born in Cambridge, OH. He died September 12, 1972 at age 77. You might remember him better as "Hopalong Cassidy".



In 1917, About 10 million American men began registering for the draft in World War I.



In 1920, The Merchant Marine Act is passed by Congress, specifying that government-owned ships be sold to U.S. shipping companies.



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



In 1940, The Battle of France began during World War II.



In 1944, Allies march into Rome.



In 1944, Fieldmarshal Rommel goes on vacation.



In 1944, General Eisenhower decides invasion set for June 6.



In 1944, The first B-29 bombing raid; 1 plane lost due to engine failure. The target was the Japanese rail line in Bangkok, Thailand.



In 1944, In World War Two the first British gliders touched down on French soil in preparation for D-Day.



In 1946, The first medical sponges were first offered for sale in Detroit, MI.



In 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall gave a speech at Harvard University in which he outlined an aid program for Europe that came to be known as "The Marshall Plan."



In 1956, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev denounced Josef Stalin to the Soviet Communist Party Congress.



In 1967, War erupted in the Mideast as Israel raided Egyptian military targets. Syria, Jordan and Iraq entered the conflict.



In 1975, Egypt reopened the Suez Canal to international shipping, eight years after it was closed because of the 1967 war with Israel.



In 1976, The Teton River Dam in Idaho collapsed as it was being filled for the first time, sending 80 billion gallons of water churning down the Upper Snake River Valley, killing 14 people, flooding 300 square miles and causing an estimated $1 billion damage.



In 1981, The Centers for Disease Control reported that five homosexuals in Los Angeles had come down with a rare kind of pneumonia; they were the first recognized cases of what later became known as AIDS.



In 1989, Chinese soldiers slaughter pro-democracy students at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China.



In 1993, Country star Conway Twitty died in Springfield, Mo., at age 59.



In 1995, Carl Weiman and Eric Cornell cooled atoms of ribidium gas to a temperature so low (2 nanokelvin, or 2-billionths of a degree above absolute zero) that they acted as if they were a single atom, creating a new form of matter - dubbed a "superatom."



In 1998, Volkswagen AG won approval to buy Rolls-Royce Motor Cars for $700 million, outbidding BMW's $554 million offer.



In 2000, Ukraine officials announced that the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, site of the worst radiation accident in history, would be closed.



In 2002, Elizabeth Smart, 14, disappeared from her Salt Lake City home. She was found alive in a Salt Lake suburb the following March; two people are accused of abducting her.



Ten years ago (1994):



President Clinton headed across the English Channel aboard the USS George Washington, en route to the 50th anniversary commemoration of D-Day in Normandy.



At least 264 Indonesian villagers in East Java were killed by an earthquake.



Five years ago (1999):



Jazz and pop singer Mel Torme died in Los Angeles at age 73.



Pope John Paul II began a 13-day pilgrimage to his native Poland.



Charismatic failed in his bid to win racing's Triple Crown, finishing third behind Lemon Drop Kid and Vision and Verse in the Belmont Stakes.



Steffi Graf won her sixth French Open title, beating top-ranked Martina Hingis 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.



One year ago (2003):



Speaking to U.S. soldiers in Qatar, President Bush argued the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was justified and pledged that "we'll reveal the truth" on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.



The United States agreed to pull its ground troops away from the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea.



The New York Times' top two editors resigned in the wake of the Jayson Blair scandal.



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



Today's Birthdays:



Broadcast journalist Bill Moyers is 70.



Actress Connie Hines ("Mr. Ed") is 68.



Rhythm and blues singer Floyd Butler (Friends of Distinction) is 63.



Country singer Don Reid (The Statler Brothers) is 59.



Rock musician Fred Stone (Sly and the Family Stone) is 58.



Rock singer Laurie Anderson is 57.



Country singer Gail Davies is 56.



Rock musician Nicko McBrain (Iron Maiden) is 50.



Jazz musician Kenny G (Gorelick) is 48.



Rock singer Richard Butler (Psychedelic Furs) is 48.



Actor Jeff Garlin is 42.



Actress Karen Sillas is 39.



Actor Ron Livingston is 37.



Singer Brian McKnight is 35.



Rock musician Claus Norreen (Aqua) is 34.



Actor Mark Rpbert Wahlberg (Marky Mark) is 33.



Actor Chad Allen is 30.



Rock musician P-nut (311) is 30.



Actress Liza Weil is 27.



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



Thought for Today:

"In a dream you are never eighty." -

- Anne Sexton, American poet (1928-1974).

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

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

Today is Friday, June 4th.

The 156th day of 2004.

There are 210 days left in the year.



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



Today's highlight in history:



On June 4, 1942, the Battle of Midway began during World War II.



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



On this date:



In 780, B.C.E., The first total solar eclipse reliably recorded is noted by the Chinese.



In 1070, Roquefort cheese was created in a cave near Roquefort, France.



In 1615, The fortress of Osaka, Japan, fell to shogun Ieyasu after a six month siege.



In 1674, Horse racing was prohibited in Massachusetts.



In 1717, The Freemasons are founded in London.



In 1784, Marie Thible becomes the world's first female pilot when she guides a hot-air balloon over Lyons, France.



In 1792, Capt. George Vancouver claimed Puget Sound for Britain.



In 1798, Casanova (Giacomo Girolamo Jacopo Casanova de Seingait) died at age 73. The Author, Spy, Romantic Exploiter; Soldier; Seminarian; Rogue; Philanderer; Adventurer was born April 2, 1725.



In 1805, Tripoli was forced to conclude peace with U.S. after conflicts over tribute.



In 1812, The Louisiana Territory was renamed the Missouri Territory.



In 1878, Turkey turned Cyprus over to the British.



In 1892, The Sierra Club was incorporated in San Francisco.



In 1896, Henry Ford made a successful pre-dawn test run of his horseless carriage, called a "quadricycle," through the streets of Detroit.



In 1912, Massachusetts enacted the first U.S. minimum wage law (effective July 1, 1913).



In 1919, The National Suffrage Bill passed the U.S. Senate 56 to 25, and moved to the states for ratification.



In 1924, An eternal light was dedicated at Madison Square in New York City in memory of all New York soldiers who died in World War I.



In 1929, George Eastman demonstrates the first technicolor movie in Rochester NY.



In 1937, The Humpty Dumpty supermarket in Oklahoma City introduced the first shopping carts. Local inventor Sylvan Goldman built the buggies by attaching baskets to small chairs.



In 1939, During what became known as the "Voyage of the Damned," the SS St. Louis, carrying more than 900 Jewish refugees from Germany, was turned away from the Florida coast. The ship was also denied permission to dock in Cuba, and eventually returned to Europe, where many of the refugees later died in Nazi concentration camps.



In 1940, German forces enter Paris.



In 1940, The British complete "miracle of Dunkirk" by evacuating 340,000 troops.



In 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill told the House of Commons "We shall fight on the seas and oceans; we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields, and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."



In 1944, At 9:30 p.m., Group Captain James Stagg, chief meteorologist for the R.A.F., makes what some historians believe "the most important weather prediction in history" - gradual clearing on June sixth in Normandy.



In 1944, Allied forces enter Rome (out of respect for the religious holiday, Trinity Sunday, the American and British armies did not occupy the city until the next morning).



In 1945, The sixth Marine division occupied the Orokoe Peninsula Okinawa.



In 1945, US, Russia, England & France agree to split occupied Germany.



In 1947, The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the Taft-Hartley Act. The law was later enacted over President Truman's veto. The legislation allowed the President of the United States to intervene in labor disputes.



In 1954, French Premier Joseph Laniel and Vietnamese Premier Buu Loc initialed treaties in Paris according "complete independence" to Vietnam.



In 1960, The Taiwan island of Quemoy is hit by 500 artillery shells fired from the coast of Communist China.



In 1961, the "K-19", the first Soviet atomic sub armed with nuclear warheads, loses its coolant system during a training exercise in the North Atlantic. 22 volunteers give their lives averting an explosion that would have poisoned the sea with radiation.



In 1965, The Rolling Stones release "Satisfaction"



In 1970, The Food and Drug Administration approves the use of the drug L-dopa for treatment of Parkinson's disease.



In 1972, Black militant Angela Davis was acquitted of murder, kidnapping and criminal conspiracy charges stemming from a California courtroom shootout in which a judge and three other people were killed.



In 1981, The final episode of "The Waltons" aired. Six TV movies aired between 1982 and 1997.



In 1984, Bruce Springsteen releases "Born in the USA"



In 1985, An accord between Italy and the Vatican ended Roman Catholicism's position as "sole religion of the Italian state."



In 1986, Jonathan Jay Pollard, a former Navy intelligence analyst, pleaded guilty in Washington to spying for Israel. (He is serving a life prison term.)



In 1989, Hundreds, possibly thousands of people died as Chinese army troops stormed Beijing to crush a pro-democracy movement.



In 1990, The world met "Dr. Death" Jack Kevorkian when an Oregon woman, Janet Adkins, killed herself in Michigan using a "suicide machine" developed by the euthanasia advocate and retired pathologist.



In 1990, The Greyhound Bus Company filed bankruptcy.



In 1997, The final episode of "Married With Children" aired.



Ten years ago (1994):



President Clinton and British Prime Minister John Major paid tribute to the lost airmen of World War II at the American Cemetery in Cambridge, England.



Five years ago (1999):



Using a provision of the Constitution allowing him to bypass the Senate, President Clinton appointed openly gay San Francisco businessman James C. Hormel ambassador to Luxembourg while Congress was in recess.



On the tenth anniversary of China's crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests, tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong held a candlelight vigil.



One year ago (2003):



President Bush held landmark meetings with the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers, hoping to advance a Middle East peace plan after winning new support from top Arab leaders.



Martha Stewart stepped down as head of her media empire, hours after federal prosecutors in New York charged her with obstruction of justice, conspiracy, securities fraud and lying to investigators. (Stewart was convicted last March of lying about why she'd sold her shares of ImClone Systems stock in 2001, just before the stock price plunged.)



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



Today's Birthdays:



Former Sen. Howard Metzenbaum (D-Ohio) is 87.



Opera singer Robert Merrill is 85.



Actor Gene Barry (Eugene Klass) is 83



Actor/Olympian Dennis Weaver is 80.



Actor John Drew Barrymore is 72.



Actor Bruce Dern is 68.



Country singer Freddy Fender is 67.



Musician Roger Ball is 60.



Jazz musician Anthony Braxton is 59.



Singer Gordon Waller (Peter and Gordon) is 59.



Rock musician Danny Brown (The Fixx) is 53.



Actor Parker Stevenson is 52.



Actor Keith David is 48.



Actress Julie Gholson is 46.



Actor Eddie Velez is 46.



Singer-musician El DeBarge is 43.



Tennis player Andrea Jaeger is 39.



Actor Scott Wolf is 36.



Actor Noah Wyle is 33.



Rock musician Stefan Lessard (The Dave Matthews Band) is 30.



Comedian Horatio Sanz is 30.



Actress Angelina Jolie is 29.



Animal actor Eddie The Dog ("Frasier") is 14.



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



Thought for Today:

"Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last." -

- Charlotte Bronte, English novelist (1816-1855).

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

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

Today is Thursday, June 3rd.

The 155th day of 2004.

There are 211 days left in the year.



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



Today's Highlight in History:



On June 3, 1963, Pope John XXIII died at age 81. He was succeeded by Pope Paul VI.



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



On this date:



In 1098, Christian forces took Antioch (in modern Syria) after a five-month siege in the First Crusade (1096-99).



In 1539, Hernando De Soto claims Florida for Spain.



In 1540, Hernando de Soto, during his quest for gold, becomes the first European to cross the Appalachian Mountains.



In 1621, The Dutch West India Company received a charter for New Netherlands -- now known as New York.



In 1770, Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo is founded in California.



In 1789, Alexander Mackenzie began his exploration of the Mackenzie River in Canada.



In 1800, John Adams moved to Washington, DC. He was the first President to live in what later became the capital of the United States.



In 1808, Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederacy was born in Christian County, Ky.



In 1818, The last of the Maratha Wars between the British and the Maratha Confederacy in India ended, securing British supremacy in India.



In 1856, Cullen Whipple, of Providence, RI, patented the screw machine.



In 1875, The first transmission by voice was by Alexander Graham Bell. His "harmonic telegraph" instrument send a twanging sound from a reed vibrated by Bell's voice along wires to Watson. Although the instrument transmitted voicelike sounds, the words were not recognizable.



In 1888, The poem "Casey at the Bat" was first published, in the San Francisco Daily Examiner. Writer Ernest L. Thayer was paid $5.00 for his poem.



In 1916, The ROTC was established by the National Defense Act.



In 1937, the Duke of Windsor (formerly King Edward VIII), who had abdicated the British throne, married American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson in a civil ceremony in Monts, France. The King became the Duke of Windsor when he wed a commoner and had to give up his England throne.



In 1940, The evacuation of allied troops from Dunkirk was completed; over 335,000 British, French and Belgian troops were rescued.



In 1942, In WWII, the Battle of Midway Island begins. It was the first major battle won by airpower and Japan's first major defeat in WW II, the turning point in the war in Pacific.



In 1948, The 200-inch reflecting telescope at the Palomar Mountain Observatory in California was dedicated.



In 1948, Korczak Ziolkowski begins sculpture of Crazy Horse near Mt Rushmore



In 1949, Wesley Anthony Brown becomes the first black midshipman to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy.



In 1949, "Dragnet" is first broadcast on radio (KFI in Los Angeles)



In 1959, Singapore becomes self governing under British supervision.



In 1959, The first class to graduate from the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, held their commencement ceremony.



In 1965, Gemini IV is launched, the second 2-man flight (McDivitt & White); astronaut Edward White became the first American to walk in space for 22 minutes, during the flight. The Russians were first in the world with a spacewalk on March 18, 1965. White was later killed when a fire broke out aboard Apollo 1.



In 1966, Gemini IX is launched; the seventh U.S. 2-man flight (Stafford & Cernan).



In 1968, Pop artist Andy Warhol was shot and critically wounded in his New York film studio, known as "The Factory," by Valerie Solanas, an actress and self-styled militant feminist.



In 1968, Canada announces it will replace silver with nickel in coins.



In 1969, The final episode of "Star Trek" aired on NBC.



In 1972, The Eagles' "Take It Easy" was released



In 1973, A Soviet Tupolev 144, the supersonic airliner dubbed "Concordski" because it closely resembled the Anglo-French Concorde plane, crashed at the Paris air show, killing 15.



In 1981, Pope John Paul II left a Rome hospital and returned to the Vatican three weeks after the attempt on his life.



In 1983, Gordon Kahl was killed in a gun battle with law enforcement officials near Smithville, AR. Kahl was wanted for the slayings of two U.S. marshals in North Dakota.



In 1989, Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, died.



In 1989, Chinese army troops began their sweep of Beijing to crush student-led pro-democracy demonstrations. They kill hundreds of pro-democracy students.



In 1989, In the Ural Mountains: LPG (liquified petroleum gas) leaking from a pipeline running alongside the Trans-Siberian railway near Uta, 720 miles east of Moscow, exploded and destroyed two passing passenger trains. About 500 travelers were killed and 723 injured of an estimated 1,200 passengers on both trains.



In 1991, The Mount Unzen volcano in southern Japan erupted, killing about 40 people. The worst eruption in Japanese history.



In 1992, Joan Lunden (Blunden) was ordered to pay her ex-husband $18,000 a month support.



In 1992, In one of the landmark moments of the 1992 presidential campaign, Democratic candidate Bill Clinton plays his saxophone on "The Arsenio Hall Show," wailing his way through "Heartbreak Hotel" and "God Bless The Child."



In 1998, A high-speed train derailed in Eschede, Germany, killing 101 people.



Ten years ago (1994):



President Clinton, continuing his tour of Italy, visited the graves of American soldiers killed in the Anzio landing during World War II.



The United States began consultations with South Korea, Japan and Russia on how to retaliate for North Korea's removal of vital evidence about its nuclear weapons capability.



Five years ago (1999):



Caving in to Russian and Western demands, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic accepted a peace plan for Kosovo designed to end mass expulsions of ethnic Albanians and 11 weeks of NATO airstrikes.



One year ago (2003):



World leaders closed out a summit in Evian, France, by pledging to rebuild Iraq and combat the threat of nuclear weapons in Iran and North Korea.



Arab leaders pledged to renounce terror and help end violence against Israel, standing in solidarity with President G. W. Bush at a summit in Egypt.



Eric Robert Rudolph pleaded innocent in a deadly 1998 abortion clinic bombing in Birmingham, Ala.



Sammy Sosa was ejected in the first inning of Chicago's 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays after umpires found cork in his shattered bat.



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



Today's Birthdays:



Actor Tony Curtis is 79.



Musician Boots Randolph is 77.



TV producer Chuck Barris is 75.



Actress Irma P. Hall ("The Ladykillers") is 69.



Rock singer Ian Hunter (Mott The Hoople) is 65.



Singer Eddie Holman is 58.



Musician Too Slim (Riders in the Sky) is 56.



Singer Suzi Quatro is 54.



Singer Deneice Williams is 53.



Rock musician Billy Powell (Lynyrd Skynyrd) is 52.



Singer Dan Hill is 50.



Actor Scott Valentine is 46.



Country singer Jamie O'Neal is 36.



Singers Gabriel and Ariel Hernandez (No Mercy) are 33.



Actress Lalaine DuPree ("Lizzie McGuire") is 17.



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



Thought for Today:

"Today's shocks are tomorrow's conventions." -

- Carolyn Heilbrun, American educator and writer (1926-2003).

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

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

Today is Wednesday, June 2nd.

The 154th day of 2004.

There are 212 days left in the year.



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



Today's Highlight in History:



On June 2, 1953, Queen Elizabeth II of Britain was crowned in Westminster Abbey, 16 months after the death of her father, King George VI.



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



On this date:



In 455, Gaiseric and the Vandals sack Rome.



In 1537, Pope Paul III banned the enslavement of Indians in the Americas.



In 1635, The first Italian immigrant arrives New York



In 1740, Writer/General Marquis de Sade (Donatien Alphonse Francois, Comte de Sade) was born in France. He died on December 2, 1814 at age 74. The word sadism is derived from his name.



In 1774, A new "Quartering Act", known as one of the "Intolerable Acts" by the Colonists, is authorized by England, calling for billeting of troops in private homes.



In 1835, P.T. Barnum and his circus begin their first tour of US



In 1851, Maine became the first state to enact a law prohibiting alcohol.



In 1857, James E.A. Gibbs of Va. patented the first practical chain-stitch single-thread, twist-loop, rotary hook sewing machine.



In 1873, Ground was broken on San Francisco's Clay Street for the world's first cable-powered railroad.



In 1883, The first night baseball to be played under lights, Ft Wayne Indiana.



In 1883, Chicago's "El" opens



In 1886, President Cleveland married Frances Folsom in a White House ceremony.



In 1896, Guglieimo Marconi's radio was patented in the U.S.



In 1897, Mark Twain, 61, was quoted by the New York Journal as saying from London that "the report of my death was an exaggeration."



In 1904, Actor/Olympian Peter John "Johnny" Weissmuller was born in Chicago IL. He died in Acapulco Mexico on January 20, 1984 at age 79.



In 1910, Pygmies are discovered in Dutch New Guinea.



In 1924, Congress granted U.S. citizenship to all American Indians.



In 1928, Kraft's Velveeta Cheese was invented.



In 1933, A swimming pool was installed at The White House.



In 1935, George Herman "Babe" Ruth announced that he was retiring from baseball.



In 1941, Lou Gehrig died in New York of the degenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.



In 1944, The United States began "shuttle bombing" in "Operation Frantic". The operation was created soley to destroy Germany's war economy.



In 1946, Italians voted by referendum to form a republic instead of of a monarchy, leading to the abdication of King Humbert II.



In 1949, Transjordan renamed Jordan.



In 1954, U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy charged that there were communists working in the CIA and atomic weapons plants.



In 1964, The PLO is formed in Jerusalem.



In 1964, The Rolling Stones first US concert tour debuts in Lynn, MA



In 1966, The U.S. space probe Surveyor 1 soft landed on the moon and began transmitting detailed photographs of the lunar surface.



In 1967, Race riots in the Roxbury section of Boston



In 1969, The National Arts Center in Canada opened its doors to the public.



In 1969, The Australian aircraft carrier Melbourne sliced the destroyer USS Frank E. Evans in half off the shore of South Vietnam.



In 1977, New Jersey legalized casino gambling in Atlantic City.



In 1979, Pope John Paul II arrived in his native Poland on the first visit by a pope to a Communist country.



In 1986, For the first time, the public could watch the proceedings of the U.S. Senate on television as a six-week experiment of televised sessions began.



In 1987, President Reagan announced he was nominating economist Alan Greenspan to succeed Paul Volcker as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.



In 1989, 10,000 Chinese soldiers are blocked by 100,000 citizens protecting students demonstrating for democracy in Tiananmen Square, Beijing.



In 1995, A U.S. Air Force F16C was shot down by a Bosnian Serb surface-to-air missile while on a NATO air patrol in northern Bosnia; the pilot, Capt. Scott F. O'Grady, was rescued six days later.



In 1997, Timothy McVeigh was convicted of murder and conspiracy in the Oklahoma City bombing.



In 1998, Voters in California passed Proposition 227. The act abolished the state's 30-year-old bilingual education program by requiring that all children be taught in English.



Ten years ago (1994):



The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. atomic watchdog, reported it could no longer verify the status of North Korea's nuclear program, prompting the United States to seek economic sanctions.



President Clinton met at the Vatican with Pope John Paul II.



Five years ago (1999):



South Africans went to the polls in their second post-apartheid election, giving the African National Congress a decisive victory; retiring president Nelson Mandela was succeeded by Thabo Mbeki.



Japanese women finally won the right to use the birth control pill, more than three decades after it first appeared in the West.



The final episode of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" aired.



One year ago (2003):



President Bush, visiting the Middle East, pledged to work unstintingly for the goal of Israel and a Palestinian state living side by side without bloodshed.



The Federal Communications Commission eased limits on media ownership.



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



Today's Birthdays:



Actor Milo O'Shea is 79.



Actress Sally Kellerman is 67.



Actor Stacy Keach is 63.



Rock musician Charlie Watts is 63.



Singer William Guest (Gladys Knight & The Pips) is 63.



Actor Charles Haid is 61.



Composer Marvin Hamlisch is 60.



Movie director Lasse Hallstrom is 58.



Actor Gerald Patrick "Jerry" Mathers ("The Beaver") is 56.



Actress Joanna Gleason is 54.



Actor Butch Patrick (Patrick Allan Lilley) ("Edward Wolfgang 'Eddie' Munster") is 51.



Actor Dennis Haysbert ("24") is 50.



Comedian Dana Carvey is 49.



Actor Gary Grimes is 49.



Singer Merril Bainbridge is 36.



Rapper B-Real (Cypress Hill) is 34.



Actress Paula Cale is 34.



Actor-comedian Wayne Brady is 32.



Actress Nikki Cox is 26.



Actor Justin Long is 26.



Actor Deon Richmond is 26.



Rhythm and blues singer Irish Grinstead (702) is 24.



Rock musician Fabrizio Moretti (The Strokes) is 24.



Country singer Dan Cahoon (Marshall Dyllon) is 21.



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



Thought for Today:

"Experience isn't interesting till it begins to repeat itself -- in fact, till it does that, it hardly is experience." -

- Elizabeth Bowen, Irish-born author (1899-1973).

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

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

Today is Tuesday, June 1st.

The 153rd day of 2004.

There are 213 days left in the year.



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



Today's Highlight in History:



On June 1, 1813, the U.S. Navy gained its motto as the mortally wounded commander of the U.S. frigate "Chesapeake", Captain James Lawrence was heard to say, "Don't give up the ship!", during a losing battle with a British frigate "Shannon"; his ship was captured by the British frigate.





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



On this date:



In 1495, The first written record of Scotch Whiskey appeared in the Exchequer Rolls of Scotland. Friar John Cor is the distiller.



In 1792, Kentucky became the 15th state of the union.



In 1796, Tennessee became the 16th state.



In 1801, Mormon leader Brigham Young was born in Whitingham, Vt.



In 1868, James Buchanan, the 15th president of the United States, died near Lancaster, Pa.



In 1880, The first pay telephone was installed and went into service in the Yale Bank Building in New Haven, Conn.



In 1921, Race riot in Tusla Okla (21 whites & 60 blacks killed)



In 1926, Actress Marilyn Monroe (Norma Jean Mortenson Baker) was born in Los Angeles.



In 1936, The Queen Mary arrived in N.Y. on its maiden voyage.



In 1938, Superman, the world's first super hero, appeared in the first issue of Action Comics.



In 1943, A civilian flight from Lisbon to London was shot down by the Germans during World War II, killing all aboard, including actor Leslie Howard.



In 1944, The British Broadcasting Corporation aired a coded message intended to warn the French resistance that the D-Day invasion was imminent.



In 1958, Charles de Gaulle became premier of France.



In 1964, The U.S. Supreme Court banned prayers and Bible teaching in public schools on the constitutional grounds of separation of church and state.



iN 1966, The final episode of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" aired.



In 1971 The final " Ed Sullivan Show' aired on CBS-TV.



In 1977, The Soviet Union formally charged Jewish human rights activist Anatoly Shcharansky with treason. (Shcharansky was imprisoned, then released in 1986.)



iN 1980, The Cable News Network (CNN) made its debut as the first all-news station.



In 1989, Former Sunday school teacher John E. List, sought for 18 years in the slayings of his mother, wife and three children in Westfield, N.J., was arrested in Richmond, Va. (List was later sentenced to life in prison.)



In 1990, U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev signed a bilateral agreement to stop producing chemical arms and to begin destroying their stocks by the end of 1992.



In 1991, Mount Pinatubo (Phillipines) erupted for the first time in 600 years.



Ten years ago (1994):



President Clinton embarked on a European trip that included commemorating the 50th anniversary of D-Day; his first stop was Italy.



Five years ago (1999):



An American Airlines MD-82 landed off-center during a severe thunderstorm in Little Rock, Ark., and barreled off the end of the runway, breaking apart and catching fire; 11 people, including the captain, died.



President Clinton ordered a government investigation into whether -- and how -- the entertainment business markets violence to children. (In a report released in September 2000, federal regulators said the movie, video game and music industries aggressively marketed to underage youths violent products that carried adult ratings.)



One year ago (2003):



Leaders of the world's seven wealthiest nations and Russia pledged billions of dollars to fight AIDS and hunger on the opening day of their summit in Evian, France.



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



Today's Birthdays:



Actor Richard Erdman is 79.



Actor Andy Griffith is 78.



Actor Edward Woodward is 74.



Actor Pat Corley is 74.



Singer Charles Eugene "Pat" Boone is 70.



Actor-writer-director Peter Masterson is 70.



Actor Morgan Freeman is 67.



Actor Rene Auberjonois is 64.



Opera singer Frederica von Stade is 59.



Actor Brian Cox is 58.



Rock musician Ron Wood is 57.



Actor Jonathan Pryce is 57.



Actor Powers Boothe is 55.



Actress Gemma Craven is 54.



Singer Graham Russell (Air Supply) is 54.



Country singer Ronnie Dunn (Brooks and Dunn) is 51.



Actress Diana Canova (Rivero) is 51.



Actress Lisa Hartman Black is 48.



Singer-musician Alan Wilder is 45.



Rock musician Simon Gallup (The Cure) is 44.



Country musician Richard Comeaux (River Road) is 43.



Actor-singer Jason Donovan is 36.



Actress Teri Polo is 35.



Model-actress Heidi Klum is 31.



Singer Alanis Morissette is 30.



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



Thought for Today:

"If America forgets where she came from, if the people lose sight of what brought them along, if she listens to the deniers and mockers, then will begin the rot and dissolution." -

- Carl Sandburg, American writer (1878-1967).

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

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

Today is Monday, May 31st.

The 152nd day of 2004.

There are 214 days left in the year.

This is the Memorial Day observance.



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



Today's Highlight in History:



On May 31, 1889, more than 2,000 people perished when a dam break sent water rushing through Johnstown, Pa.



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



On this date:



In 1578, The Catacombs of Rome are discovered by accident



In 1634, Massachusetts Bay colony annexes Maine colony.



In 1638, Hartford, CT was established.



In 1678, Tax protester Lady Godiva rides naked through Coventry.



In 1790, The US copyright law is enacted .



In 1809, Composer Franz Joseph Haydn died in Vienna, Austria.



In 1819, Poet Walt Whitman was born in West Hill, N.Y.



In 1837, New York's Astor Hotel opened as the most elaborate in the U.S. It was founded by John Jacob Astor, a rich fur trader. Years later, it became the Waldorf-Astoria.



In 1884, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg patented "flaked cereal."



In 1910, The Union of South Africa was founded.



In 1913, The 17th amendment to the Constitution, providing for the popular election of U.S. senators, was declared in effect.



In 1927, The 15,007,003rd and final Ford Model "T" Car rolled off the assembly line.



In 1961, South Africa became an independent republic.



In 1962, World War II Gestapo official Adolf Eichmann was hanged in Israel for his role in the Nazi Holocaust.



In 1970, Tens of thousands of people died in an earthquake in Peru.



In 1977, The trans-Alaska oil pipeline, three years in the making, was completed.



In 1989, House Speaker Jim Wright, dogged by questions about his ethics, announced he would resign. (Thomas Foley later succeeded him.)



In 1991, Leaders of Angola's two warring factions signed a peace treaty, ending a 16-year-old civil war.



Ten years ago (1994):



Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.), maintaining his innocence, was indicted on 17 felony counts alleging he'd plundered nearly $700,000 from the government. (Rostenkowski later pleaded guilty to two counts of misusing federal funds, and spent 451 days in federal custody.)



The United States announced it was no longer aiming long-range nuclear missiles at targets in the former Soviet Union.



Five years ago (1999):



During a Memorial Day visit to Arlington National Cemetery, President Clinton asked Americans to reconsider their ambivalence about Kosovo, calling it "a very small province in a small country. But it is a big test of what we believe in."



In Turkey, the treason trial of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan opened. (Ocalan was later convicted and sentenced to death, but the death sentence was commuted to life in prison in 2002.)



One year ago (2003):



President Bush visited the site of the Nazi death camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland as he challenged allies to overcome their bitterness and mistrust over the Iraq war and unite in the struggle against terrorism.



Olympic Park bombing suspect Eric Robert Rudolph was arrested outside a grocery store in Murphy, N.C.



Air France's Concorde returned to Paris in a final commercial flight.



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



Today's Birthdays:



Prince Rainier III of Monaco is 81.



Actress Elaine Stewart is 75.



Actor-director Clint Eastwood is 74.



Singer Peter Yarrow is 66.



Former Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite is 65.



Singer-musician Augie Meyers is 64.



Actress Sharon Gless is 61.



Football Hall-of-Famer Joe Namath is 61.



Actor Tom Berenger is 54.



Actor Gregory Harrison is 54.



Comedian Chris Elliott is 44.



Actor Kyle Secor is 44.



Actress Lea Thompson is 43.



Singer Corey Hart is 42.



Rapper DMC (McDarryl "D" McDaniels) is 40.



Rapper Kid Frost is 40.



Actress Brooke Shields is 39.



Country musician Ed Adkins (The Derailers) is 37.



Actor Colin Farrell is 28.



Rock musician Scott Klopfenstein (Reel Big Fish) is 27.



Actor Curtis Williams Junior is 17.



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



Thought for Today:

"In the faces of men and women I see God." -

- Walt Whitman (1819-1892).

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

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

Today is Sunday, May 30th.

The 151st day of 2004.

There are 215 days left in the year.



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



Today's Highlight in History:



On May 30, 1854, the territories of Nebraska and Kansas were established.



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



On this date:



In 143, Joan of Arc, condemned as a heretic, was burned at the stake in Rouen, France.



In 1539, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto landed in Florida.



In 1588, The Spanish Aramada, under Medina-Sidonia, departs Lisbon to invade England.



In 1783, The Pennsylvania Evening Post and Daily Advertiser is the first daily newspaper to be published in the United States.



In 1821, The Rubber Fire Hose was patented by James Boyd. It has a cotton jacket.



In 1848, The ice cream freezer was patented by William G. Young of Baltimore, Maryland.



In 1858, The Hudson Bay Company's rights to Vancouver Island are revoked.



In 1872, Mahlon Loomis patents wireless telegraphy



In 1883, 12 people were trampled to death when a rumor that the recently opened Brooklyn Bridge was in imminent danger of collapsing triggered a stampede.



In 1889, The brasierre was invented.



In 1896, The first automobile accident occurred in New York City when Henry Wells hit a bicyclist Evelyn Thomas. The driver was not hurt, but Thomas had a fractured leg.



In 1911, Indianapolis saw its first long-distance auto race; Ray Harroun was the winner.



In 1922, The Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C., by Chief Justice William Howard Taft.



In 1937, Memorial Day Massacre - striking Republic Steel workers and their families, while parading towards the Republic factory, are attacked for no reason by police in Chicago (10 killed).



In 1943, American forces secured the Aleutian island of Attu from the Japanese during World War II.



In 1958, Unidentified soldiers killed in World War II and the Korean conflict were buried at Arlington National Cemetery.



In 1962, Adolf Eichmann was hanged in Israel. Eichmann was a Gestapo official and was executed for his actions in the Nazi Holocaust.



In 1971, The American space probe Mariner Nine blasted off from Cape Kennedy, Fla., on a journey to Mars.



In 1982, Spain became NATO's 16th member.



In 1991, The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that prosecutors can be sued for the legal advice they give police and can be forced to pay damages when that advice leads to someone's rights being violated.



In 1996, Britain's Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson were granted an uncontested decree ending their 10-year marriage.



In 1997, Child molester Jesse K. Timmendequas was convicted in Trenton, New Jersey, of raping and strangling a seven-year-old neigbhor, Megan Kanka, whose 1994 murder inspired "Megan's Law," requiring that communities be notified when sex offenders move in. (Timmendequas was later sentenced to death.)



In 2002, Attorney General John Ashcroft issued new terror-fighting guidelines allowing FBI agents to visit Internet sites, libraries, churches and political organizations as part of an effort to pre-empt terrorist strikes.



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



Ten years ago (1994):



The U.N. Security Council warned North Korea to stop refueling a nuclear reactor and allow U.N. monitors to perform full inspections.



Mormon Church president Ezra Taft Benson died in Salt Lake City at age 94.



Five years ago (1999):



Astronauts from the space shuttle Discovery rigged cranes and other tools to the exterior of the international space station during a spacewalk; then, the astronauts entered the orbiting outpost for three days of making repairs and delivering supplies.



Kenny Brack won the crash-marred Indianapolis 500, driving a car owned by racing legend A.J. Foyt.



One year ago (2003):



ABC-TV news anchor Peter Jenning was sworn in as a U.S. citizen.



President Bush left for a weeklong tour of Europe and the Middle East.



The U.N. Security Council unanimously authorized the deployment of a French-led international force in northeastern Congo, the scene of ethnic fighting.



A federal judge ruled that the U.S. government could keep four watercolors signed by Adolf Hitler and millions of photographs taken by Hitler's personal photographer. A memorabilia collector and heirs of Hitler had charged that the U.S. Army had seized the materials near the end of World War II. The judge ruled that the heirs had waited too long to reopen the case.



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



Today's Birthdays:



Country musician Johnny Gimble is 78.



Actor Clint Walker is 77.



Actor Keir Dullea is 68.



Actress Ruta Lee is 68.



Actor Michael J. Pollard (Pollack) is 65.



Actor Stephen Tobolowsky is 53.



MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Drivers) founder Candy Lightner is 58.



Actor Colm Meaney (Miles O'Brien on Star Trek/TNG & DS-9) is 51.



Actor Ted McGinley is 46.



Actor Ralph Carter is 43.



Actress Tonya Pinkins is 42.



Country singer Wynonna (Christina Judd) is 40.



Rock musician Tom Morello (Audioslave) is 40.



Rock musician Patrick Dahlheimer (Live) is 33.



Actor Trey Parker is 32.



Rapper Cee-Lo is 30.



Actor Blake Bashoff is 23.



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



Thought for Today:

"There are two statements about human beings that are true: that all human beings are alike, and that all are different. On those two facts all human wisdom is founded." -

- Mark Van Doren, American poet (1894-1972).

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

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

Today is Saturday, May 29th.

The 150th day of 2004.

There are 216 days left in the year.



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



Today's Highlight in History:



On May 29, 1765, Patrick Henry denounced the Stamp Act before Virginia's House of Burgesses, responding to a cry of "Treason!" by declaring, "If this be treason, make the most of it!"



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



On this date:



In 1453, Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire and of Eastern Christianity since 324 CE, fell to the Turks under Sultan Muhammad II. The city afterward became the capital of the Ottoman Empire and was renamed Istanbul. Its conquest marked the end of the Middle Ages.



In 1593, Henry Barrow, a Puritan, executed for slandering Queen Elizabeth



In 1630, Charles II, king of England, Scotland and Ireland, was born.



In 1660, Charles II was restored to the English throne after the Puritan Commonwealth.



In 1721, South Carolina was formally incorporated as a royal colony.



In 1790, Rhode Island became the 13th original colony to ratify the United States Constitution.



In 1827, The first nautical school opened in Nantucket, MA, under the name Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin’s Lancasterian School.



In 1848, Wisconsin became the 30th state of the union.



In 1854, U.S. President Franklin Pierce signs the Kansas-Nebraska Act, creating two new territories; settlers of the territories would determine the legality of slaveholding.



In 1856, Abraham Lincoln gave a speech in Bloomington, IL, in which he proclaimed "you can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time."



In 1874, Present constitution of Switzerland takes effect.



In 1886, The first metal snap fastener or press stud was invented by Frenchman Pierre-Albert Raymond, for use in fastening gloves.



In 1900, The trademark "Escalator" was registered by the Otis Elevator Co.



In 1903, Comedian Sir Bob Hope was born Leslie Townes Hope in Eltham, England. He died July 27, 2003 at age 100.



In 1911, The first Indianapolis 500 car race, Ray Harroun wins at 74.59 mph (120 kph)



In 1912, 15 young women in Philadelphia, PA are fired by Curtis Publishing for dancing the "Turkey Trot" during their lunch break.



In 1914, The liner Empress of Ireland carrying 1,477 passengers and crew collided with the Norwegian freighter Storstadt in the St. Lawrence River in Canada. At least 1,012 people died in one of the worst maritime disasters ever.



In 1916, The official flag of the President of the United States is adopted.



In 1917, The 35th president of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was born in Brookline, Mass. He died November 22, 1963 at age 46.



In 1932, World War I veterans began arriving in Washington, D.C., to demand cash bonuses they weren't scheduled to receive for another 13 years.



In 1942, Adolf Hitler ordered all Jews in occupied Paris to wear an identifying yellow star on the left side of their coats.



In 1942, Bing Crosby, the Ken Darby Singers and the John Scott Trotter Orchestra recorded Irving Berlin's "White Christmas" in Los Angeles for Decca Records.



In 1942, Actor John Barrymore died in Hollywood at age 60. He was born February 15, 1882 in Philadelphia PA. His real last name was Blythe.



In 1943, Norman Rockwell's portrait of "Rosie the Riveter" appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post.



In 1945, US first Marine division conquerors Shuri-castle Okinawa.



In 1953, Mount Everest was conquered as Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tensing Norkay of Nepal became the first climbers to reach the summit.



In 1973, Former LAPD Chief of Police Tom Bradley was elected the first black mayor of Los Angeles, defeating incumbent Sam Yorty. He retired in 1993.



In 1974, President Nixon agreed to turn over 1,200 pages of edited Watergate transcripts.



In 1980, Larry Bird beats out Magic Johnson for NBA rookie of year



In 1989, Student protesters in Tiananmen Square China construct a replica of the Statue of Liberty.



In 1998, Republican elder statesman Barry Goldwater died in Paradise Valley, AZ at age 89. He was born January 1, 1909



In 2000, Fiji's military took control of the nation and declared martial law following a coup attempt by indigenous Fijians in mid-May.



In 2001, Four followers of Osama bin Laden were convicted in New York of a global conspiracy to murder Americans, including the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa that killed 224 people.



In 2002, FBI Director Robert Mueller said there may have been more missed clues before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and suggested for the first time that investigators might have uncovered the plot if they had been more diligent about pursuing leads.



Ten years ago (1994):



Khallid Abdul Muhammad, a former spokesman for the Nation of Islam, was shot and wounded after delivering a speech at the University of California, Riverside; a defrocked Nation of Islam minister, James Edward Bess, was charged. (Bess was later convicted of attempted murder and assault and sentenced to life in prison.)



Former East German leader Erich Honecker died in Chile at age 81.



Five years ago (1999):



The space shuttle Discovery completed the first-ever docking with the international space station.



Olusegun Obasanjo became Nigeria's first civilian president in 15 years, ending a string of military regimes.



One year ago (2003):



President Bush, in a wide-ranging interview with reporters at the White House, repeated his defense of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, and hinted that relations with France remained scarred over its opposition to the war.



AOL Time Warner and Microsoft announced a settlement in their battle over Internet browsers, with the software giant paying AOL $750 million.



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



Today's Birthdays:



Actor Clifton James is 83.



Former Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent is 66.



Race car driver Al Unser Sr.is 65.



CBS News Correspondent Bob Simon is 63.



Actor Kevin Conway is 62.



Actor Helmut Berger is 60.



Rock singer Gary Brooker (Procol Harum) is 59.



Actor Anthony Geary is 57.



Singer Maureen "Rebbie" Jackson is 54.



Movie composer Danny Elfman is 51.



Rock musician Michael Porcaro (Toto) is 49.



Singer LaToya Jackson is 48.



Actress Annette Bening is 46.



Actor Rupert Everett is 45.



Rock musician Mel Gaynor is 45.



Actor Adrian Paul is 45.



Singer Melissa Etheridge is 43.



Actress Lisa Whelchel is 41.



Actress Tracey Bregman is 41.



Rock musician Noel Gallagher (Oasis) is 37.



Singer Jayski McGowan (Quad City DJ's) is 37.



Rock musician Chan Kinchla (Blues Traveler) is 35.



Rock musician Mark Lee (Third Day) is 31.



Singer Melanie Brown (Spice Girls) is 29.



Rapper Playa Poncho is 29.



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



Thought for Today:

"What makes us discontented with our condition is the absurdly exaggerated idea we have of the happiness of others." -

- Anonymous

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

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

Today is Friday, May 28th.

The 149th day of 2004.

There are 217 days left in the year.



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



Today's Highlight in History:



On May 28, 1934, the Dionne quintuplets -- Annette Lilianne Marie, Cecile Marie Emilda, Emile Marie Jeanne (died 1954), Marie Reine Alma (died 1970), Yvonne Edouilda Marie (died 6-23-01)-- were born to Elzire Dionne at the family farm in Ontario, Canada.



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



On this date:



In 585, B.C.E., Lydians and Medes fought a battle in Mesopotamia (Iraq) in the first ever battle for which a date was established. The battle stopped at its height as there was a total solar eclipse on this day, as predicted by Thales Miletus.



In 1533, England's Archbishop declared the marriage of King Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn valid.



In 1664, The first Baptist Church was organized in Boston.



In 1672, Boston MA declared war on the Dutch.



In 1774, The first Continental Congress convened in Virginia.



In 1818, The "Walk-in-the-Water", the first steam-vessel to sail the Great Lakes, is launched from Black Rock N.Y.



In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signs into law the Removal Act, which mandates that all Indians resettle west of the Mississippi River.



In 1863, The first black regiment from the North left Boston to fight in the Civil War.



In 1888, The greatest American athlete of the half-century, James Francis "Jim" Thorpe, a full blooded Cherokee indian, was bprn in Prague OK. He was the first president of the NFL. He died March 28, 1953 at the age of 64.



In 1892, The Sierra Club was organized in San Francisco by John Muir.



In 1897, Jell-o is introduced.



In 1908, James Bond creator/author Ian Lancaster Fleming was born in London, England. He died August 12, 1964 at the age of 56.



In 1915, John B Gruelle patents Raggedy Ann doll



In 1923, The U.S. Attorney General decides it is legal for women to wear trousers where and when they please.



In 1928, Automobile builder Walter P. Chrysler merged his Chrysler Corporation with Dodge Brothers, Inc., founded by John and Horace Dodge; the merger was the largest automobile industry merger in history at the time, placing the newly consolidated firm third in production and sales, just behind General Motors and Ford Motor Company.



In 1929, The first all-color talking picture, "On with the Show," opened in New York City at the Winter Garden theater. .



In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt pushed a button in Washington, D.C., signaling that vehicular traffic could cross the just-opened Golden Gate Bridge in California.



In 1937, Neville Chamberlain became prime minister of Britain.



In 1940, During World War II, the Belgian army surrendered to invading German forces; King Leopold III gave himself up.



In 1945, William Joyce known in Britain as "Lord Haw Haw," a traitor who had broadcast from Nazi Germany throughout World War Two, was captured near Hamburg.



In 1951, After going 0-for-12, Willie Mays connects for his 1st homerun (also his 1st major league hit)



In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill which added the words "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance.



In 1955, "Billboard" reported that "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" was the most popular song in the U.S.



In 1956, President Dwight David Eisenhower signs a farm bill that allows the government to store agricultural surplus



In 1959, Monkeys Able & Baker zoom 300 miles (500 km) into space on board a Jupiter missile, and became the first animals retrieved from a space mission



In 1961, Amnesty International is founded (Nobel Peace Prize 1977) by lawyer Peter Berenson.



In 1964, The unmanned Apollo 2/Saturn test was launched into Earth orbit



In 1964, The Palestine National Congress met to form the PLO.



In 1972, King Edward VIII Of Great Britian, who became The Duke of Windsor after he had abdicated the English throne to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson, died in Paris at age 77.



In 1977, 165 people were killed when fire raced through the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Ky.



In 1979, The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund held a news conference to announce plans for a memorial honoring those who served in the war.



In 1982, The legendary train, "Orient Express", made popular through Agatha Christie's thrilling mystery novel, "Murder on the Orient Express", was reborn this day. The 26-hour train trip resumed across the European continent after a long respite.



In 1984, President Reagan led a state funeral at Arlington National Cemetery for an unidentified American soldier killed in the Vietnam War. (However, the remains were later identified as those of Air Force First Lieutenant Michael J. Blassie, and were sent to St. Louis for hometown burial.)



In 1985, The first issue of "Vanity Fair" magazine went on sale. The issue had a picture of U.S. President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy smooching on the cover.



In 1987, Mathias Rust (mah-TEE'-uhs rust), a 19-year-old West German pilot, stunned the world as he landed a private plane undetected in Moscow's Red Square after evading Soviet air defenses. Three days later, the Soviet defense minister and his deputy were fired. He was sentenced to four years of hard labor but was released after 11 months.



In 1991, U.S. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and other NATO defense chiefs agreed to create a rapid reaction corps as part of a broad plan to reshape the Western alliance in the post-Cold War era.



In 1998, Actor Phil Hartman was slain by his wife, Brynn, who also commited suicide. He was 49 years old. He was born in Brantford, Ontario, Canada on September 24, 1948.



Ten years ago (1994):



Palestine Liberation Organization officials announced that Yasser Arafat had named himself interior minister of the autonomous zones as part of an interim government; 14 other prominent Palestinians, mostly Arafat allies, were appointed to other positions.



Five years ago (1999):



Russia's Balkan envoy, Viktor Chernomyrdin, met face-to-face with Slobodan Milosevic for nine hours, declaring the Yugoslav president key to a Kosovo peace plan despite complications caused by Milosevic's indictment for war crimes.



One year ago (2003):



President Bush signed a 10-year, $350 billion package of tax cuts, saying they already were "adding fuel to an economic recovery."



Amnesty International released a report saying the U.S.-led war on terror had made the world a more dangerous and repressive place, a finding dismissed by Washington as "without merit."



Actress Martha Scott died in Southern California at age 90.



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



Today's Birthdays:



Actress Carroll Baker is 73.



Actor John Karlen is 71.



Basketball Hall-of-Famer Jerry West is 66.



Singer Gladys Knight is 60.



Singer Billy Vera is 60.



Singer John Fogerty is 59.



Actress-director Sondra Locke is 57.



Singer Roland Gift is 42.



Actor Brandon Cruz ("The Courtship of Eddie's Father") is 42.



Country singer Phil Vassar is 42.



Rapper Chubb Rock is 36.



Singer Kylie Minogue is 36.



Television personality Elisabeth Hasselbeck ("The View") is 27.



Actor Jesse Bradford is 25.



Actress Monica Keena is 25.



Actor Joseph Cross is 18.



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



Thought for Today:

"Like other spurious things, fastidiousness is often inconsistent with itself, the coarsest things are done, and the cruelest things said by the most fastidious people." -

- Caroline Matilda Stansbury Kirkland, American author (1801-1864).

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