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

Today is Monday, June 14th.

The 166th day of 2004.

There are 200 days left in the year.

This is Flag Day.



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



Today's Highlight in History



On June 14th, 1777, The Continental Congress in Philadelphia adopted the "Stars and Stripes" replacing the "Grand Union" as the national flag (effective Sept. 3).



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



On this date:



In 1381, The Peasant’s Revolt, led by Wat Tyler, climaxed when rebels marched on London. They plundered, burned and captured the Tower of London and killed the Archbishop of Canterbury. The revolt was in response to a statute intended to hold down wages during a labor shortage.



In 1642, Massachusetts passed the first compulsory education law.



In 1775, The United States Army was founded.



In 1789, Captain Bligh and 18 others, cast adrift after a mutiny aboard HMS Bounty, eventually reached Timor in the East Indies after a voyage of nearly 4,000 miles in an open boat.



In 1834, Hardhat (submarine) diving suit patented by Leonard Norcross, Dixfield, Maine.



In 1834, Sandpaper was patented by Isaac Fischer Jr. of Springfield, Vermont.



In 1841, The first Canadian parliament opened in Kingston.



In 1846, In the "Bear Flag Revolt", during the Mexican War, American settlers capture Sonoma from Mexican forces and declare an independent Republic of California. Mexico cedes the territory to the United States in 1848.



In 1864, Congress rules Black soldiers must receive equal pay.



In 1864, Alois Alzheimer was born. He was a psychiatrist/pathologist, and in 1907 he wrote an article describing the disease that is named for him.



In 1877, "Flag Day" was observed for the first time (presidential proclamation to mark the centennial).



In 1881, Player piano patented by John McTammany, Jr, Cambridge, MA



In 1900, The Hawaiian Republic was reorganized as the U.S. Territory of Hawaii.



In 1916, "Flag Day" was first observed as a holiday



In 1922, President Warren G. Harding became the first president heard on radio, as Baltimore station WEAR broadcast his speech dedicating the Francis Scott Key memorial at Fort McHenry.



In 1928, The Republican National Convention nominated Herbert Hoover for president on the first ballot.



In 1937, Pennsylvania became the first state in the United States to observe "Flag Day" as a legal holiday. PA is still the only state doing so today



In 1940, German troops entered Paris. As Paris became occupied loud speakers announced the implementation of a curfew being imposed for 8 p.m. A Swastika was raised on the Eiffel Tower. France will surrender in three days.



In 1940, In German-occupied Poland, the Nazis opened their concentration camp at Auschwitz, where an estimated three to four million people, many of them Jews, were exterminated as part of Adolf Hitler's "Final Solution"



In 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the freezing of all German and Italian assets in the U.S.



In 1942, The first bazooka rocket gun was produced at Bridgeport CT



In 1942, Walt Disney's "Bambi" is released



In 1943, The Supreme Court ruled schoolchildren could not be compelled to salute the flag of the United States if doing so conflicted with their religious beliefs.



In 1944, Sixty U.S. B-29 Superfortress' attacked an iron and steel works factory on Honshu Island. It was the first U.S. raid against "mainland" Japan.



In 1946, Canadian Library Association established



In 1951, Univac 1, designed by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, was unveiled by the Remington Rand company in Washington DC. Billed as the world's first commercial computer, Univac was designed for the U.S. Census Bureau. The massive computer was 8 feet high, 7-1/2 feet wide and 14-1/2 feet long. It has lots and lots of tubes that dimmed lights all over Washington when it cranked out information. Compared to today's computers, Univac was painfully slow.



In 1952, The keel is dedicated for first nuclear powered submarine, the "Nautilus," at Groton, Conn.



In 1953, President Eisenhower condemns Senator McCarthy's book burning proposal.



In 1953, Elvis Presley graduates from LC Humes High School in Memphis TN



In 1954, President Eisenhower signed an order adding the words "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance.



In 1954, America partakes in a nation-wide civil defense test against an atomic attack. "Duck & Cover!"



In 1968, U.S. childcare expert Dr. Benjamin Spock and three others were convicted of inciting draft-dodging.



In 1974, The "Heimlich Maneuver" was announced by Dr. Henry Heimlich.



In 1974, It was reported that the U.S. would supply Egypt with nuclear reactors.



In 1982, Argentine forces surrendered to British troops on the disputed Falkland Islands.



In 1984, President Reagan is asked at a press conference whether he supports federal civil rights legislation prohibiting job discrimination against gays and lesbians, and almost delivers an answer."Well.... I just have to say that I am opposed to discrimination period." "But would you support the measure?" "What?" "Would you support the measure?" "I want to see what else they have there." Reagan then decides its time to take another question.



In 1989, Former President Reagan received an honorary knighthood from Britain's Queen Elizabeth II.



In 1989, Zsa Zsa Gabor was arrested in Beverly Hills for slapping a motorcycle policeman.



In 1990, The U.S. Supreme Court upheld, by a 6-3 vote, police checkpoints that examine drivers for signs of intoxication.



In 1993, President Clinton chose Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg to serve on the Supreme Court.



Ten years ago (1994):



President Clinton unveiled a $9.3 billion-dollar welfare reform plan.



Academy Award-winning composer Henry Mancini died in Beverly Hills, California, at age 70. He was born in Cleveland OH on April 16, 1924.



The New York Rangers won hockey's Stanley Cup for the first time in 54 years as they defeated the Vancouver Canucks at Madison Square Garden.



Five years ago (1999):



About 15-thousand NATO peacekeepers spread out across Kosovo, including a convoy of about 12-hundred U-S Marines.



The Supreme Court opened the door to full broadcast advertising of casino gambling, ruling a federal ban aimed at protecting compulsive gamblers violated free-speech rights.



One year ago (2003):



A wave estimated at about 20 feet tall capsized the charter fishing boat "Taki-Tooo" off the northern Oregon coast; nine people were killed, two others are missing and presumed dead; eight survived by swimming to shore.



A car driven by Phoenix Bishop Thomas O'Brien struck and killed pedestrian Jim Reed; O'Brien was later convicted of leaving the scene of an accident and sentenced to probation.



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



Today's Birthdays:



Actor Gene Barry (Eugene Klass) is 81.



Former White House news secretary Pierre Salinger is 79.



Actress Marla Gibbs is 73.



Actor Jack Bannon is 64.



Rock singer Rod Argent (The Zombies; Argent) is 59.



Real estate developer Donald Trump is 58.



Singer Janet Lennon (The Lennon Sisters) is 58.



Rock musician Alan White (Yes) is 55.



Actor Eddie Mekka ("Laverne & Shirley"'s Carmine Ragusa 'The Big Ragu') is 52.



Actor Will Patton is 50.



Olympic gold-medal speed skater Eric Heiden is 46.



Singer Boy George (George Alan O'Dowd) is 43.



Rock musician Chris DeGarmo is 41.



Actress Yasmine Bleeth is 36.



Tennis player Steffi Graf is 35.



Actress Traylor Howard is 33.



Actor Daryl Sabara is 12.



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



Thought for Today:

"Think like a man of action, and act like a man of thought." -

- Henri Bergson, French philosopher (1859-1941).

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

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

Today is Sunday, June 13th.

The 165th day of 2004.

There are 201 days left in the year.



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



Today's Highlight in History:



On June 13, 1966, the Supreme Court issued its landmark "Miranda" (Miranda vs. Arizona) decision, ruling that criminal suspects had to be informed of their constitutional rights prior to questioning by police.



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



On this date:



In 323 B.C.E., Alexander The Great died at the age 32 in Babylon of a fever. Since his birth on September 20 356 B.C.E. he had conquered the entire known world.



In 1888, Congress created the Department of Labor.



In 1890, The Supreme Council of the Mystic Order of Veiled Prophets of the Enchanted Realm (Freemasons) is instituted.



In 1898, The Yukon Territory of Canada is organized, Dawson is chosen as the capital.



In 1900, China's Boxer Rebellion, by supporters of the Society of Harmonious Fists, in opposition to the growth of European influence, targeted foreigners, as well as Chinese Christians, and erupted into full-scale violence.



In 1912, Captain Albert Berry made the first successful parachute jump from an airplane in Jefferson, Mississippi.



In 1920, The U.S. Post Office Department ruled that children may not be sent by parcel post.



In 1927, Aviation hero Charles Lindbergh was honored with a ticker-tape parade in New York City.



In 1933, The first sodium vapor street lamps were installed in Schenectady NY.



In 1942, President Roosevelt created the Office of War Information, and appointed radio news commentator Elmer Davis to be its head.



In 1942, The Office of Strategic Services (OSS, forerunner of the CIA) is created.



In 1944, Nazi Germany launched 10 of its new "V1" (Fieseler Fi-103) rockets against Britain from a position near the Channel coast. Of the 10 rockets only 5 landed in Britain and only one managed to kill 6 people in London.



In 1944, Marvin Camras patented the wire recorder.



In 1951 U.N. troops seized Pyongyang, North Korea.



In 1956, The U.S. Army gets its first official flag.



In 1963, The USSR launched Vostok . It is piloted by cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first human female in space.



In 1967, President Johnson nominated Solicitor-General Thurgood Marshall to become the first black justice on the U-S Supreme Court.



In 1971, The New York Times publishes the Pentagon Papers, an internal government report on the Vietnam War that had been leaked by Daniel Ellsberg, a former Defense Department official.



In 1977, James Earl Ray, the convicted assassin of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Junior, was recaptured following his escape three days earlier from a Tennessee prison.



In 1979, Sioux Indians were awarded $105 million in compensation for the U.S. seizure in 1877 of their Black Hills in South Dakota.



In 1982, Prince Fahd becomes king of Saudi Arabia when King Khalid dies at 69



In 1983, The U-S space probe "Pioneer Ten," launched in 1972, became the first human made object to leave the solar system as it crossed the orbit of Neptune.



In 1993, Canada's Progressive Conservative Party chose Defense Minister Kim Campbell to succeed Brian Mulroney as prime minister; she was the first woman to hold the post.



In 2000, In Pyongyang, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il welcomed South Korea's President Kim Dae for a three-day summit. It was the first such meeting between the leaders of North and South Korea.



Ten years ago (1994):



Nicole Brown Simpson, the ex-wife of athlete-turned-actor O.J. Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, were found stabbed to death outside her condominium in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles. Simpson was questioned for several hours by Los Angeles police following the slashing deaths. Simpson initially cooperates with police but later flees. Simpson would be charged with the murders, but acquitted in Oct. 1995 following a long and highly publicized criminal trial. However, a civil court jury later would find him liable in the deaths and ordered him to pay more than $35 million to the estates of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.



Five years ago (1999):



NATO soldiers shot dead two armed men as peacekeepers tried to contain new violence in Kosovo; Russian troops, meanwhile, blocked British troops from entering the airport in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo.



One year ago (2003):



U-S forces killed 27 Iraqi fighters after the Iraqis attacked an American tank patrol north of Baghdad.



Israel broadened its campaign against Palestinian militants, saying it would strike political as well as military leaders who targeted Israel with terrorism.



Hundreds of pro-cleric militants and security forces in Tehran clashed with Iranians throughout the capital.



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



Today's Birthdays:



TV host Ralph Edwards is 91.



Singer Bobby Freeman is 64.



Actor Malcolm McDowell is 61.



Singer Dennis Locorriere (Dr. Hook) is 55.



Actor Richard Thomas is 53.



Actor Jonathan Hogan is 53.



Actor Stellan Skarsgard is 53.



Comedian Tim Allen (Timothy Allen Dick) is 51.



Actress Alexandra Elizabeth "Ally" Sheedy is 42.



"The Early Show" co-host Hannah Storm is 42.



Rock musician Paul deLisle (Smash Mouth) is 41.



Singer David Gray is 36.



Rhythm-and-blues singer Deniece Pearson (Five Star) is 36.



Rock musician Soren Rasted (Aqua) is 35.



Actor Jamie Walters is 35.



Singer-musician Rivers Cuomo (Weezer) is 34.



Actor Steve-O ("Jackass") is 30.



Actor Ethan Embry is 26.



Actress Sarah Schaub is 21.



Singer Raz B is 19.



Actress Kat Dennings is 18.



Actress Ashley Fuller Olsen is 18.



Actress Mary-Kate Olsen is 18.



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



Thought for Today:

"Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness." -

- Bertrand Russell, English mathematician and philosopher (1872-1970).

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

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

Today is Saturday, June 12th.

The 164th day of 2004.

There are 202 days left in the year.



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



Today's Highlight in History:



On June 12, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were slashed to death outside her Los Angeles home. (O.J. Simpson was later acquitted of the killings in a criminal trial, but was eventually held liable in a civil action.)



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



On this date:



In 1616, Pocahontas arrives in England



In 1667, The first successful blood transfusion was carried out by Jean-Baptiste Denys, personal physician to King Louis XIV of France, on a 15-year-old-boy using blood from a sheep.



In 1672, The British government made it illegal to utter any criticism of the British government.



In 1776, Virginia's colonial legislature became the first to adopt a Bill of Rights.



In 1812, Napoleon's invasion of Russia began.



In 1838, The Iowa Territory was organized, separated from the Wisconsin Territory.



In 1849, The gas mask was patented by Lewis Haslett of Louisville, Kentucky.



In 1897, Carl Elsener patented his penknife. The object later became known as the Swiss army knife.



In 1898, Philippine nationalists declared independence from Spain.



In 1917, The Secret Service extends protection of the president to his family as well.



In 1929, Anne Frank, Jewish wartime diarist, was born in Germany. Her diary has captivated millions with her account of growing up in occupied Amsterdam during World War II. She died in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March 1945.



In 1935, U.S. Senator Huey Long of Louisiana made the longest speech on Senate record. The speech took 15 1/2 hours and was filled by 150,000 words.



In 1936, The world's first radio station (KDKA - Pittsburgh PA) becomes the first 50 KW US radio station.



In 1939, The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum was dedicated in Cooperstown, N.Y.



In 1942, American bombers strike the oil refineries of Ploesti, Rumania for the first time.



In 1962, USAF Maj Robert M White takes X-15 to 56,270 m.



In 1963, Civil rights leader Medgar Evers was fatally shot in front of his home in Jackson, Miss.; he was 37. (In 1994, Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of murdering Evers and sentenced to life in prison; he died in 2001.)



In 1963, Movie company United Artists sells its Santa Monica Boulevard lot to a real estate developer. It will be turned into a shopping center.



In 1963, "Cleopatra" starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rex Harrison, and Richard Burton premiered at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City.



In 1965, Sonny and Cher performed "I Got You Babe" on "American Bandstand."



In 1967, The Supreme Court struck down state laws prohibiting interracial marriages, in the case of the Loving vs. Virginia Supreme Court.



In 1971, Tricia Nixon and Edward F. Cox were married in the White House Rose Garden.



In 1978, David Berkowitz was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for each of the six "Son of Sam" .44-caliber killings that had terrified New Yorkers.



In 1979, 26-year-old cyclist Bryan Allen flew the man-powered Gossamer Albatross across the English Channel.



In 1987, President Reagan, during a visit to the divided German city of Berlin, publicly challenged Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev to "tear down this wall."



In 1989, The Supreme Court rules the burning of the American flag as a political protest is protected by the First Amendment.



In 1996, The Southern Baptist church voted to boycott Disney theme parks and Disney products because of Disney's decision to give benefits to companions of gay employees.



Ten years ago (1994):



Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, the charismatic ultra-Orthodox Jewish leader, died in New York at age 92.



At the Tony Awards, "Angels in America: Perestroika" won best play while "Passion" won best musical.



Five years ago (1999):



Thousands of NATO peacekeeping troops poured into Kosovo by air and by land; but in a surprising move, a Russian armored column entered Pristina before dawn to a heroes' welcome from Serb residents.



Texas Gov. George W. Bush announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination.



One year ago (2003):



U.S. fighter jets bombed a suspected terrorist camp and troops stormed through Sunni Muslim towns in Iraq, seeking Saddam Hussein loyalists in one of the biggest American military assaults since the war began.



Israel killed seven Palestinians in its third rocket attack in 24 hours.



Air France turned the oldest of its Concordes over to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.



Academy Award-winning actor Gregory Peck died in Los Angeles at age 87.



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



Today's Birthdays:



Banker David Rockefeller is 89.



Former President George H.W. Bush is 80.



Singer Vic Damone is 76.



Actor-singer Jim Nabors is 74.



Jazz musician Chick Corea is 63.



Sportscaster Marv Albert is 63.



Singer Roy Harper is 63.



Rock singer Reg Presley (The Troggs) is 61.



Rock singer-musician Brad Delp (Boston) is 53.



Rock musician Bun E. Carlos (Cheap Trick) is 53.



Country singer-musician Junior Brown is 52.



Singer-songwriter Rocky Burnette is 51.



Actor Timothy Busfield is 47.



Singer Meredith Brooks is 46.



Actress Jenilee Harrison is 45.



Rock musician John Linnell (They Might Be Giants) is 45.



Rapper Grandmaster Dee (Whodini) is 42.



Actress Paula Marshall is 40.



Actress Frances O'Connor is 37.



Blues musician Kenny Wayne Shepherd is 27.



Actor Wil Horneff is 25.



Singer Robyn is 25.



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



Thought for Today:

"It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor." -

- Eric Hoffer, American philosopher (1902-1983).

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

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

Today is Friday, June 11th.

The 163rd day of 2004.

There are 203 days left in the year.



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



Today's Highlights in History:



On June 11, 1776, the Continental Congress formed a committee to draft a Declaration of Independence from Britain.



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



On this date:



In 1184 BCE, Greeks finally captured Troy



In 1509, England's King Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon.



In 1742, Benjamin Franklin invents his Franklin stove



In 1770, Captain James Cook, commander of the British ship Endeavour, discovered the Great Barrier Reef off Australia by running onto it.



In 1793, Robert Haeterick was issued the first patent for a stove.



In 1895, The first U.S. patent for a gasoline-driven automobile by a U.S. inventor is issued to Charles E. Duryea.



In 1896, A US Assay Office in Deadwood, South Dakota is authorized.



In 1901, The Cook Islands were annexed and proclaimed part of New Zealand.



In 1910, Explorer/Inventor/Author Jacques-Yves Cousteau was born in St. Andre-de-Cubzac, France. He died June 25, 1997 at age 87.



In 1913, Hall of Famer NFL coach (Green Bay Packers) Vincent Thomas Lombardi was born in New York City. He died September 3, 1970 at age 57. The Super Bowl's Lombardi Trophy is named for him.



In 1919, Sir Barton won the Belmont Stakes, becoming horse racing's first Triple Crown winner.



In 1927, In recognition of his solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, Charles Lindbergh was awarded the first Distinguished Flying Cross.



In 1927, Babe Ruth hits the 19th and 20th of his 60 home runs.



In 1937, The Marx Brothers' movie "A Day At The Races" was released.



In 1942, The United States and the Soviet Union signed a lend-lease agreement to aid the Soviet war effort in World War II.



In 1947, The government announced the end of household and institutional sugar rationing, to take effect the next day.



In 1953, The tv and radio comedy "Amos 'n Andy" last aired on CBS. It had been on the radio since 1929.



In 1955, In France, 80 people were killed and more than 100 were injured when three cars crashed on the Le Mans racetrack. The cars had ploughed into the spectator's grandstand.



In 1961, Roger Maris hits the 19th and 20th of his 61 home runs.



In 1963, Buddhist monk Quang Duc immolated himself on a Saigon street to protest the government of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem.



In 1969, Soviet and Chinese troops clash on Sinkiang border.



In 1970, The United States presence in Libya came to an end as the last detachment left Wheelus Air Base.



In 1975, The first test pumpings of oil from Britain's North Sea oilfields began.



In 1977, Seattle Slew won the Belmont Stakes, capturing the Triple Crown.



In 1977, In the Netherlands, a 19-day hostage situation came to an end when Dutch marines stormed a train and a school being held by South Moluccan extremist. Two hostages and the six terrorists were killed.



In 1978, Joseph Freeman Jr. became the first black priest ordained in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons).



In 1979, Actor John Wayne (Marion Michael Morrison) died at age 72. He was born in Winterset, IA on May 26, 1907.



In 1981, The first major league baseball player's strike began. It would last for two months.



In 1982, Steven Spielberg's "ET: The Extra-Terrestrial" was released



In 1985, Karen Ann Quinlan, the comatose patient whose case prompted a historic right-to-die court decision, died at a nursing home in Morris Plains, N.J. She was 31. She was born on March 29, 1954.



In 1991, Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted. The eruption of ash and gas could be seen for more than 60 miles. It forced the closure and abandonment of Clark AFB.



In 1993, Steven Spielberg's movie "Jurassic Park" opened.



In 2001, Timothy McVeigh was executed by injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people.



Ten years ago (1994):



The United States, South Korea and Japan agreed to seek punitive steps against North Korea over its nuclear program.



A car bomb blew up outside a luxury hotel in Guadalajara, Mexico, killing five people in an apparently drug-related attack.



Tabasco Cat won the Belmont Stakes.



Five years ago (1999):



The FBI was seeking the creator of Worm.Explore.Zip, a file-destroying computer virus which had hit some of the nation's biggest corporations.



Actor DeForest Kelley, "Star Trek"'s "Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy", died in Woodland Hills, California, at age 79. He was born in Atlanta, GA on January 20, 1920.



One year ago (2003):



A suicide bomber killed 17 people in a Jerusalem bus blast; two Israeli rocket strikes against Hamas fugitives killed 11 Palestinians in Gaza City.



Houston's Roy Oswalt, Pete Munro, Kirk Saarloos, Brad Lidge, Octavio Dotel and Billy Wagner combined for the first no-hitter against the New York Yankees in 45 years, winning 8-0.



Pioneering broadcast journalist David Brinkley died in Houston at age 82. He was born in Wilmington NC on July 10, 1920.



Actor (Eldred) Gregory Peck died at age 87. He was born in San Diego CA on April 5, 1916.



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



Today's Birthdays:



Opera singer Rise Stevens is 91.



Actor-producer Richard Todd is 85.



Author William Styron is 79.



Actor Gene Wilder is 71.



Actor Chad Everett is 67.



Comedian Johnny Brown is 67.



Former auto racer Jackie Stewart is 65.



Singer Joey Dee is 64.



Actress Adrienne Barbeau is 59.



Rock musician Frank Beard (ZZ Top) is 55.



Rock singer Donnie Van Zant (.38 Special) is 52.



Actor Peter Bergman is 51.



Football Hall of Famer Joe Montana is 48.



Actor Hugh Laurie is 45.



Country singer-songwriter Bruce Robison is 38.



Country musician Smilin' Jay McDowell is 35.



Rock musician Dan Lavery (Tonic) is 35.



Rock musician Tai Anderson (Third Day) is 28.



Actor Joshua Jackson is 26.



Actor Shia La Beouf ("Even Stevens") is 18.



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



Thought for Today:

"Forgetfulness is a form of freedom." -

- Khalil Gibran, American poet and artist (1883-1931).

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

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

Today is Thursday, June 10.

The 162nd day of 2004.

There are 204 days left in the year.



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



Today's Highlight in History:



On June 10, 1935, Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in Akron, Ohio, by William G. Wilson and Dr. Robert Smith, two recovering alcoholics, to help each other stay sober.



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



On this date:



In 1776, The Continental Congress appoints Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston to write a statement of independence from Britain.



In 1793, The first public zoo, the Jardin des Plantes, opened in Paris.



In 1801, The north African state of Tripoli declared war on the United States in a dispute over safe passage of merchant vessels through the Mediterranean.



In 1847, Chicago Tribune begins publishing.



In 1859, Peter O'Riley and Patrick McLaughlin discovered the Comstock Lode near Virginia City, Nevada. It was the richest mining discovery in U.S. history.



In 1865, The Richard Wagner opera "Tristan und Isolde" premiered in Munich, Germany.



In 1905, The first forest fire lookout tower is placed in operation at Greenville ME.



In 1909, The SOS distress signal was used for the first time. The Cunard liner SS Slavonia used the signal when it wrecked off the Azores.



In 1916, Mecca, under control of the Turks (Ottoman Empire), fell to the Arabs during the Great Arab Revolt.



In 1922, singer-actress Judy Garland (Frances Gumm) was born in Grand Rapids, MN (NOT Michigan). She died in London, England on June 22, 1969 at age 47.



In 1940, Italy declared war on France and Britain; Canada declared war on Italy.



In 1942, The Gestapo massacred 173 male residents of Lidice, Czechoslovakia, in retaliation for the killing of a Nazi official.



In 1943, The Allies began bombing Germany 24/7/365.



In 1943, the Ball Point Pen was patented by Lasalo Biro of Budapest, Hungary. The British Royal Air Force, who employed him, needed a pen that would write under low atmpspheric pressure at high altitudes during the war. It had been invented in 1938 while Biro was a journalist in Budapest, Hungary. Biro escaped the Nazis by travelling via Paris to Argentina in 1940. There, Englishman Henery Martin, in Buenos Aires on a mission for the British government, saw the invention and recognized its value for air crews making high altitude navigational calculations. Martin aquired the rights and began producing the ballpoint pens for the RAF.



In 1944, The youngest pitcher in major league baseball pitched his first game. Joe Nuxhall was 15 years old (and 10 months and 11 days).



In 1946, Italy replaced its abolished monarchy with a republic.



In 1948, Chuck Yeager exceeded the speed of sound in the Bell XS-1.



In 1954, PBS (then called NET) reaches San Francisco CA. KQED (Channel 9) starts broadcasting



In 1964, The Senate voted to limit further debate on a proposed civil rights bill, shutting off a filibuster by Southern states.



In 1965, Subway Sandwiches opened for business by Fred DeLuca.



In 1967, The Middle East War ended as Israel and Syria agreed to observe a United Nations-mediated cease-fire.



In 1977, Apple Computer ships its first Apple II



In 1978, Affirmed won the Belmont Stakes and with it, horse racing's Triple Crown.



In 1989, HBO aired the first episode of "Tales from the Crypt."



In 1993, It was announced by scientists that genetic material was extracted from an insect that lived when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.



In 2002, Organized crime figure John Gotti died at a prison hospital in Missouri at age 61.



Ten years ago (1994):



President Clinton intensified sanctions against Haiti's military leaders, suspending U.S. commercial air travel and most financial transactions between the two countries.



Five years ago (1999):



Yugoslav troops departed Kosovo, prompting NATO to suspend its punishing 78-day air war.



The Supreme Court ruled, 6-3, that the city of Chicago went too far in its fight against street gangs by ordering police to break up groups of loiterers.



One year ago (2003):



Israeli helicopters fired missiles at a car carrying Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a senior Hamas leader, wounding him and killing two others. (Israel succeeded in killing Rantisi last April.)



ImClone chief Sam Waksal was sentenced to more than seven years in prison in connection with a stock-trading scandal.



A rocket holding the first of two Mars rovers blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla.



Former treasury secretary and White House chief of staff Donald T. Regan died in Williamsburg, Va., at age 84.



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



Today's Birthdays:



Actor Barry Morse is 86.



Britain's Prince Philip is 83.



Columnist Nat Hentoff is 79.



Actress June Haver is 78.



Actor-director Lionel Jeffries is 78.



Author Maurice Sendak is 76.



Astronaut (Gemini 4, Apollo 9) James A. "Jim" McDivitt is 75.



Attorney F. Lee Bailey is 71.



Actress Alexandra Stewart is 65.



Singer Shirley Alston Reeves (The Shirelles) is 63.



Actor Jurgen Prochnow is 63.



Media commentator Jeff Greenfield is 61.



Country singer-songwriter Thom Schuyler is 52.



Actor Andrew Stevens is 49.



Singer Barrington Henderson is 48.



Singer Maxi Priest is 43.



Actress Gina Gershon is 42.



Actress Jeanne Tripplehorn is 41.



Actress Elisabeth Shue is 41.



Rock musician Jimmy Chamberlin is 40.



Model-actress Elizabeth Hurley is 39.



Actor Doug McKeon is 38.



Rock musician Emma Anderson is 37.



Country musician Brian Hofeldt (The Derailers) is 37.



Rapper The D.O.C. is 36.



Rock singer Mike Doughty is 34.



Rhythm and blues singer Jo-Jo is 33.



Rhythm and blues singer Faith Evans is 31.



Rhythm and blues singer Lemisha Grinstead (702) is 26.



Actor Shane West is 26.



Singer Hoku is 23.



Actress Leelee Sobieski is 22.



Olympic gold medal figure skater Tara Lipinski is 22.



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



Thought for Today:

"All the historical books which contain no lies are extremely tedious." -

- Anatole France, French writer (1844-1924).

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

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

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).

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