On this date in history

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Today is Wednesday, April 23, the 114th day of 2008 with 252 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Venus, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune. The evening stars are Mercury, Mars and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include English playwright William Shakespeare in 1564; James Buchanan, 15th president of the United States, in 1791; Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev in 1891; novelist Vladimir Nabokov in 1899; actress/diplomat Shirley Temple Black in 1928 (age 80); singer Roy Orbison in 1936; actors Lee Majors and David Birney, both in 1939 (age 69), Herve Villechaize in 1943; and actresses Sandra Dee in 1942, Joyce DeWitt in 1949 (age 59), Jan Hooks ("Saturday Night Live") in 1957 (age 51), Valerie Bertinelli in 1960 (age 48) and Melina Kanakaredes in 1967 (age 41).


On this date in history:

In 1635, the first public school in America, the Boston Latin School, opened.

In 1898, the first movie theater opened at Koster and Bials Music Hall in New York City.

In 1898, the U.S. government asked for 125,000 volunteers to fight against Spain in Cuba.

In 1965, more than 200 U.S. planes struck North Vietnam in one of the heaviest raids of the Vietnam War

In 1985, former U.S. Sen. Sam Ervin died at age 88. The North Carolina Democrat directed the Senate Watergate investigation that led to U.S. President Richard Nixon's resignation.

In 1987, an apartment building under construction in Bridgeport, Conn., collapsed, killing 28 construction workers.

In 1990, the West German government bowed to East German demands and agreed to a 1-1 exchange rate between East and West marks, clearing the path to a planned currency union.

In 1991, Virgilio Pablo Paz Romero was arrested for the 1976 car-bomb killing of Chilean Ambassador Orlando Letelier in Washington.

In 1992, former Washington Mayor Marion Barry was released from prison after serving a six-month term for cocaine possession.

Also in 1992, McDonald's opened its first restaurant in Beijing.

In 1993, United Farm Workers founder Cesar Chavez died at age 66 of apparent natural causes.

In 2002, Pope John Paul II met at the Vatican with U.S. cardinals to discuss the sexual abuse scandal that had rocked the Roman Catholic clergy. He expressed an apology to victims of abuse, saying what had happened to them was a crime and "an appalling act in the eyes of God."

In 2003, after a 10-day stalemate, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat reached agreement on a new Cabinet with his choice for prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas.

In 2004, U.S. Marines killed about 30 insurgents in a two-day firefight that began on this date outside Fallujah, Iraq.

In 2005, public health officials in Vietnam said they feared the South Asian outbreak of bird flu was likely to spawn a pandemic.

In 2006, Hungary's Socialist-Liberal coalition recaptured government control by a comfortable majority in parliamentary elections.

Also in 2006, the Roman Catholic Church and the Chinese Communist Party reportedly were moving slowly toward normal relations for the first time.

In 2007, former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who faced down army tanks during the fall of the Soviet Union, died of cardiac arrest at the age of 76.

Also in 2007, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said he was ordering a halt to construction of a wall separating a Sunni neighborhood from other parts of Baghdad.


A thought for the day: Douglas Adams observed, "I may not have gone where I intended to go but I think I have ended up where I intended to be."

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Today is Thursday, April 24, the 115th day of 2008 with 251 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Venus, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune. The evening stars are Mercury, Mars and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include English novelist Anthony Trollope in 1815; artist Willem de Kooning in 1904; U.S. poet laureate Robert Penn Warren in 1905; actresses Shirley MacLaine in 1934 (age 74) and Jill Ireland in 1936; singer, actress and director Barbra Streisand in 1942 (age 66); Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley in 1942 (age 66); and actors Eric Bogosian in 1953 (age 55) and Michael O'Keefe in 1955 (age 53).



On this date in history:

In 1704, the Boston News Letter became the first American newspaper to be published on a regular basis.

In 1800, the U.S. Congress established the Library of Congress.

In 1877, U.S. troops moved out of New Orleans, ending the North's military occupation of the South following the Civil War.

In 1981, IBM introduced its first personal computer.

In 1986, the Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Warfield Simpson, for whom England's King Edward VIII gave up his throne, died in Paris at age 89.

In 1987, genetically altered bacteria, designed to prevent frost damage, were sprayed on a California strawberry field in the first test of such biotechnology in nature.

In 1991, the first U.N. peacekeeping forces were deployed along the Kuwait-Iraq border.

Also in 1991, Freddie Stowers, a World War I corporal, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor to become the first African-American to receive the highest medal for valor in combat.

In 1993, an IRA bomb blast rocked London's financial district, injuring at least 35 people.

In 1995, the "UNAbomber" struck with a mail bomb that killed Gilbert Murray, president of the California Forestry Association, in Sacramento.

In 1996, the Palestinian National Council voted to drop its official commitment to the destruction of Israel.

In 1997, with ratification by the U.S. Senate, the United States became the 75th country to approve the Chemical Weapons Convention.

In 1998, after threats from Russian President Boris Yeltsin and two negative votes, the Russian parliament approved Yeltsin's nomination of Sergei Kiriyenko as the nation's premier.

In 2003, North Korea announced it had nuclear weapons and had begun making bomb-grade plutonium.

In 2004, Greek Cypriot voters overwhelmingly rejected a U.N. plan for the reunification of the divided Mediterranean island.

In 2005, Benedict XVI was installed in Rome as the 265th Roman Catholic pope, promising to continue the policies of John Paul II.

In 2006, three coordinated bomb blasts shattered part of the popular Egyptian resort town of Dahab, killing a reported 30 people and injuring more than 115 others.

Also in 2006, police in Kansas and Alaska report breaking up two plots by middle school and high school students for school massacres hours before they were to begin.

In 2007, Toyota overtook General Motors as No. 1 in global vehicle sales from January to March largely because of increased demand for fuel-efficient cars.

Also in 2007, Mexico City lawmakers voted to legalize abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, a landmark decision in the largely Roman Catholic country.



A thought for the day: Erica Jong wrote, "Everyone has a talent. What is rare is the courage to nurture it in solitude and to follow the talent to the dark places where it leads."

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Today is Friday, April 25, the 116th day of 2008 with 250 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Venus, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune. The evening stars are Mercury, Mars and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include Oliver Cromwell, lord protector of England, in 1599; Guglielmo Marconi, inventor of the radio telegraph, in 1874; U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan in 1906; pioneer broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow in 1908; singer Ella Fitzgerald in 1917; former Harlem Globetrotters basketball player George "Meadowlark" Lemon III in 1932 (age 76); and actors Al Pacino in 1940 (age 68), Talia Shire in 1946 (age 62), Hank Azaria in 1964 (age 44) and Renee Zellweger in 1969 (age 39).


On this date in history:

In 1507, German geographer and mapmaker Martin Waldseemuller published a book in which he named the newly discovered continent of the New World "America" after the man he mistakenly thought had discovered it, Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci.

In 1859, ground was broken for the Suez Canal at Port Said, Egypt.

In 1862, Union forces captured New Orleans during the Civil War.

In 1898, the U.S. Congress formally declared war on Spain in the battle over Cuba.

In 1901, New York became the first state to require license plates on automobiles.

In 1945, delegates of 46 countries gathered in San Francisco to organize a permanent United Nations.

In 1967, the first law legalizing abortion in the United States was signed into law by Colorado Gov. John Arthur Love.

In 1982, Israel turned over the final third of the occupied Sinai Peninsula to Egypt under the Camp David peace agreement.

In 1990, space shuttle Discovery astronauts released the $1.5 billion Hubble Space Telescope into orbit. The telescope was determined to be flawed, prompting another space mission to repair it.

Also in 1990, Violeta Chamorro assumed the Nicaraguan presidency, ending more than a decade of leftist Sandinista rule.

In 1991, the United States announced its first financial aid to Hanoi since the 1960s: $1 million to make artificial limbs for Vietnamese disabled during the war.

In 1993, an estimated 300,000 people took part in a gay rights march on the National Mall in Washington.

In 1994, the Japanese Diet elected Tsutomu Hata as prime minister.

In 1995, regular season play by major league baseball teams got under way, the first official action since the longest strike in sports history began in August 1994.

In 2000, Vermont approved a measure legalizing "civil unions" among same sex couples becoming the first state in the nation to give homosexual couples the same legal status as heterosexual married couples.

In 2001, the Japanese Diet elected Junichiro Koizumi, a former Health and Welfare minister, as the country's prime minister.

In 2002, Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia presented U.S. President George Bush with an Israeli-Palestinian peace proposal and reportedly warned that the United States must do more to stop Israeli incursions in Palestinian territory.

In 2003, Chinese health officials closed a second hospital and ordered about 4,000 people in Beijing to stay home as the number of cases and deaths from severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, continued to surge in the country.

Also in 2003, Farouk Hijazi, the former director of external operations for Iraqi intelligence and a former ambassador to Tunisia and Turkey, was arrested as a suspect in an alleged 1993 Kuwait plot to assassinate former U.S. President George H.W. Bush in Kuwait.

In 2004, hundreds of victims in the North Korea train explosion were reported being treated in an ill-equipped hospital lacking beds and medical equipment. At least 161 people were reported killed and about 1,300 others were wounded.

In 2005, U.S. President George Bush and Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia met with skyrocketing oil prices topping the agenda.

Also in 2005, the crash of a Japanese commuter train near Osaka killed more than 70 people and injured more than 300 others.

In 2006, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was greeted in Athens by masked rioters throwing gasoline bombs and stones to protest her arrival.

In 2007, the Dow Jones industrial average closed at more than 13,000 for the first time.

Also in 2007, astronomers in Chile discovered a planet they described as the "most Earth-like planet outside our solar system." Researchers said that Gliese 581 C, located 20.5 light-years from Earth, had temperatures similar to Earth's and could have water.



A thought for the day: U.S. President John F. Kennedy said, "History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside."

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Today is Sunday, April 27, the 118th day of 2008 with 248 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Venus, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune. The evening stars are Mercury, Mars and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include English historian Edward Gibbon in 1737; Samuel F.B. Morse, American artist and inventor of magnetic telegraphy, in 1791; Ulysses S. Grant, Civil War general and 18th president of the United States, in 1822; Wallace Carothers, inventor of nylon, in 1896; English poet C. Day Lewis in 1904; actor Jack Klugman in 1922 (age 86); Coretta Scott King, wife of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., in 1927; radio/TV host Casey Kasem in 1932 (age 76), actress Sandy Dennis in 1937; and pop singer Sheena Easton in 1959 (age 49).



On this date in history:

In 1521, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed by natives of the Philippine islands as he attempted to be the first to circumnavigate the world. His co-leader, Juan Sebastian de Elcano, completed the voyage in 1522.

In 1850, the American-owned steamship "The Atlantic" began regular trans-Atlantic passenger service. It was the first U.S. vessel to challenge what had been a British monopoly.

In 1865, the steamship Sultana, heavily overloaded with an estimated 2,300 passengers, most of them Union soldiers en route home, exploded on the Mississippi River just north of Memphis. The death toll in the worst maritime disaster in U.S. history was set at 1,450.

In 1937, the first Social Security payment was made in the United States.

In 1984, an 11-day siege ended at Libya's London embassy that began with the shooting of a policewoman. Britain broke diplomatic relations with Libya over the incident.

In 1987, U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese barred Austrian President Kurt Waldheim from the United States, citing the alleged role of the former U.N. secretary-general in Nazi war crimes.

In 1991, an estimated 70 tornadoes hit Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa, killing 23 people and leaving thousands homeless.

Also in 1991, the first group of Kurdish refugees to return to Iraq arrived by U.S. military helicopter at a safe haven near the Turkish border.

In 1993, Kuwait said it had foiled an Iraqi plot to assassinate former President George H.W. Bush during his visit earlier in the month.

Also in 1993, the final vote tallies showed Russia's Boris Yeltsin winning a solid victory in a referendum on his presidency and economic reforms.

In 1994, fighting flared anew in Rwanda only one day after separate cease-fires by rival tribes took effect.

Also in 1994, Virginia executed a condemned killer in the first case in which DNA testing was used to obtain a conviction.

In 2000, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani announced he had prostate cancer but said he hoped to continue is campaign for the U.S. Senate. He later dropped out of the race.

In 2003, Taiwan said it would bar visitors from China, Hong Kong, Canada and Singapore to prevent the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome, widely known as SARS.

In 2004, U.S. congressional Democrats rolled out a plan for winning the war on terror, calling for an intelligence czar and a "Marshall Plan" for the Middle East.

Also in 2004, U.S. military units moved into positions once held by Spanish troops outside the holy city of Najaf, sparking fighting that killed some 40 insurgents.

In 2005, the U.S. State Department said the number of major international terrorist incidents more than tripled to 655 the previous year.

In 2006, a seven-month U.S. Senate committee inquiry said the Federal Emergency Management Agency was "in shambles" and should be replaced with a new agency.

Also in 2006, a senior Israeli intelligence official said Iran has purchased missiles from North Korea with a 1,200-mile range, capable of reaching Europe.

In 2007, Saudi Arabia announced the arrest of 172 terrorist suspects in a series of raids after uncovering a plot for suicide air attacks on oil and military installations.



A thought for the day: it was Laurence J. Peter who said, "Fortune knocks but once, but misfortune has much more patience."

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Today is Monday, April 28, the 119th day of 2008 with 247 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Venus, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune. The evening stars are Mercury, Mars and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include James Monroe, fifth president of the United States, in 1758; actor Lionel Barrymore in 1878; novelist Harper Lee ("To Kill a Mockingbird") in 1926 (age 82); former Secretary of State James Baker in 1930 (age 78); Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 1937; actors Carolyn Jones in 1930, Madge Sinclair in 1938, Ann-Margret in 1941 (age 67), Marcia Strassman in 1948 (age 60) and Bruno Kirby in 1949; "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno in 1950 (age 58); and actress Penelope Cruz in 1974 (age 34).



On this date in history:

In 1788, Maryland ratified the Constitution, becoming the seventh state of the Union.

In 1789, the most famous of all naval mutinies took place aboard the HMS Bounty en route from Tahiti to Jamaica.

In 1945, fascist leader Benito Mussolini, his mistress and several of his friends were executed by Italian partisans.

In 1975, the last U.S. civilians were evacuated from South Vietnam as North Vietnamese forces tightened their noose around Saigon.

In 1986, the Soviet Union announced the Chernobyl nuclear reactor fire had killed two people, with 197 hospitalized. Nine months later, it reported 31 had died and 231 suffered radiation sickness.

In 1988, an Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 lost an 18-foot chunk of fuselage at 24,000 feet between Hilo and Honolulu, Hawaii, killing a flight attendant. The pilot landed on Maui with the remaining 94 passengers and crew, 61 of them injured.

In 1993, U.S. Defense Secretary Les Aspin opened combat aircraft to military service women and sought a change in the law to allow women to serve on naval combat vessels.

In 1994, the U.S. Navy expelled 24 midshipmen from the U.S Naval Academy in what was said to be the biggest cheating scandal in academy history.

Also in 1994, former CIA officer Aldrich Ames pleaded guilty to spying for the Soviet Union.

In 1996, U.S. President Bill Clinton testified via videotape as a defense witness in the Whitewater land trial.

Also in 1996, a rampage by a gunman in Port Arthur, Tasmania, Australia, killed 35 people.

In 2000, 17 U.S. states joined with the U.S. government in asking a federal judge in the Microsoft anti-trust case to break the company into two parts.

In 2001, California businessman Dennis Tito became the first tourist in space. He reportedly paid Russia's cash-strapped space agency as much as $20 million to give him a ride to the International Space Station.

In 2003, Iraqis said 15 people were killed and about 65 wounded when U.S. soldiers opened fire on a group holding an anti-America rally. U.S. officials said the soldiers were responding to gunfire.

Also in 2003, the SARS outbreak in Beijing escalated rapidly during April with the number of cases reaching 1,199 by month's end.

In 2004, about 100 people were killed when armed insurgents stormed police stations in southern Thailand.

In 2005, a Shiite-led Cabinet was approved by Iraq's National Assembly for its first freely elected government.

Also in 2005, the Japanese train wreck death toll hit 106. An express train derailed and smashed into an apartment near Osaka.

In 2006, the U.S. Army officer in charge of Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison in 2003 was charged with taking part in prisoner abuse.

In 2007, U.S. inspectors reported significant problems with reconstruction projects in Iraq, including plumbing and electric failures and apparent looting.

Also in 2007, Pakistan's interior minister was injured slightly in a suicide bombing that killed at least 28 people and injured dozens more in the northwest city of Charsadda.


A thought for the day: H. Jackson Brown Jr. said, "Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking."

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Today is Tuesday, April 29, the 120th day of 2008 with 246 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Venus, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune. The evening stars are Mercury, Mars and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include publisher William Randolph Hearst in 1863; bandleader and composer Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington in 1899; Japanese emperor Hirohito in 1901; actress Celeste Holm in 1919 (age 89); English skiffle group leader Lonnie Donegan in 1931; poet Rod McKuen in 1933 (age 75); conductor Zubin Mehta in 1936 (age 72); long-distance runner and former U.S. Rep. Jim Ryun, R-Kan., and golfer Johnny Miller, both in 1947 (age 61); auto racer Dale Earnhardt Sr. in 1951; comedians Nora Dunn ("Saturday Night Live") in 1952 (age 56) and Jerry Seinfeld in 1954 (age 54); actors Kate Mulgrew ("Star Trek: Voyager") in 1955 (age 53), Daniel Day-Lewis in 1957 (age 51) and Michelle Pfeiffer and Eve Plumb ("The Brady Bunch"), both in 1958 (age 50); and tennis player Andre Agassi and actress Uma Thurman, both in 1970 (age 38).



On this date in history:

In 1864, Ashmun Institute in Pennsylvania, the first college founded solely for African-American students, was officially chartered.

In 1885, women were admitted for the first time to examinations at England's Oxford University.

In 1913, Gideon Sundbach of Hoboken, N.J., was issued a patent for the zipper.

In 1945, U.S. troops liberated 32,000 prisoners from the Dachau concentration camp near Munich, Germany.

In 1985, four gunmen escaped with nearly $8 million in cash stolen from the Wells Fargo armored car company in New York.

In 1986, an arson fire destroyed more than 1 million books in the Los Angeles Central Library.

In 1988, the first condor conceived in captivity was born at San Diego Wild Animal Park.

In 1991, more than 100 people were killed when an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale rocked Soviet Georgia, destroying hospitals, schools, factories and 17,000 homes.

In 1992, rioting erupted in Los Angeles after a jury in Simi Valley, Calif., acquitted four white police officers of nearly all charges in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King. Fifty-three people died in three days of protest and violence.

Also in 1992, a Sarasota, Fla., judge denied custody rights to the biological parents of a 13-year-old girl, ruling she should remain with the man who raised her since the 1978 hospital mix-up of infants.

In 1994, an estimated 250,000 Rwandans fleeing the fighting crossed the border into neighboring Tanzania in one day.

In 2004, U.S. President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney underwent more than three hours of questioning about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Neither was under oath and the session wasn't recorded.

Also in 2004, the Defense Intelligence Agency concluded that many of the bombings and other attacks in Iraq were being coordinated by members of Saddam Hussein's secret service.

In 2005, U.S. spy agencies were reported to be convinced that North Korea had the capability to build missiles that could deliver nuclear weapons to targets in California.

Also in 2005, at least 27 people were killed and 100 wounded as insurgents targeted Iraqi forces with bombs in a horrific three-hour melee in and near Baghdad.

In 2006, the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center said international terror attacks numbered 11,111 attacks in 2005, nearly four times more than the previous year.

Also in 2006, the Sudanese government said it was ready to sign a peace agreement for the long embattled Darfur region where an estimated 180,000 people had died and at least 2 million became refugees.

In 2007, the Tamil Tiger rebels launched an air attack on Sri Lanka's two oil facilities near the capital city of Colombo.

Also in 2007, worldwide protests were staged on behalf of the fourth anniversary of the Darfur conflict in Sudan where death estimates have ranged as high as 400,000.



Thought for the day: William Randolph Hearst reportedly said, "A politician will do anything to keep his job -- even become a patriot."

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Today is Wednesday, April 30, the 121st day of 2008 with 245 days to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Venus, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune. The evening stars are Mercury, Mars and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss in 1777; Hungarian composer Franz Lehar, who wrote the operetta "The Merry Widow," in 1870; actresses Eve Arden in 1908 and Cloris Leachman in 1926 (age 82); country singer Willie Nelson in 1933 (age 75); actor Gary Collins in 1938 (age 70); actress Jill Clayburgh in 1944 (age 64); Sweden's King Carl Gustav XVI in 1946 (age 62); actor Perry King in 1948 (age 60); film director Jane Campion ("The Piano") in 1954 (age 54); and actors Johnny Galecki ("Roseanne") in 1975 (age 33) and Kirsten Dunst in 1982 (age 26).


On this date in history:

In 1789, George Washington was inaugurated as the first president of the United States.

In 1803, the United States more than doubled its land area with the Louisiana Purchase. It obtained all French territory west of the Mississippi River for $15 million.

In 1939, Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first U.S. president to appear on television when he was televised on opening day at the New York World's Fair.

In 1945, the burned body of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler was found in a bunker in the ruins of Berlin. Also that day, Soviet troops captured the Reichstag building in Berlin.

In 1948, 21 nations of the Western hemisphere formed the Organization of American States.

In 1967, Muhammad Ali was stripped of his world heavyweight boxing championship title when he refused to be drafted into the military.

In 1970, U.S. President Richard Nixon announced he was sending U.S. troops into Cambodia to destroy the "sanctuaries" from which communist forces from North Vietnam were sending men and material into South Vietnam.

In 1975, South Vietnam unconditionally surrendered to North Vietnam. The communists occupied Saigon and renamed it Ho Chi Minh City.

In 1990, U.S. educator Frank Reed was freed after a 3 1/2-year ordeal as hostage of extremists in Lebanon, becoming the second abducted American freed in Beirut in just more than a week.

Also in 1991, political talks between Roman Catholic nationalists and Protestant unionists in Northern Ireland opened. They were the first such discussions in 15 years.

And in 1991, Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui ended 43 years of emergency rule, authorized elections and renounced the use of force to reunify China.

In 1993, Monica Seles, the world's No. 1 women's tennis player, was stabbed in the back and wounded by a self-described fan of second-ranked Steffi Graf during a match in Germany.

In 1995, U.S. President Bill Clinton announced the suspension of all U.S. trade with Iran to protest funding of terrorism.

In 1998, a grand jury indicted Webster Hubbell and his wife on tax evasion charges, Hubbell, a close friend and associate of U.S. President Bill Clinton, accused Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr of having him indicted so he would lie about the president.

Also in 1998, the U.S. Senate approved the applications of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland to join NATO.

In 2002, the United States sent 1,000 more troops to eastern Afghanistan along the Pakistan border in an effort to prevent Taliban and al-Qaida forces from regrouping.

In 2003, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said his government wouldn't support the proposed "road map" peace plan until Palestinians stopped anti-Israel violence. But, he said he favored creation of a Palestinian state.

In 2004, the White House condemned alleged mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. troops at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad as intolerable and "despicable."

In 2005, the bodies of 113 people, nearly all women and children, were found in a mass grave in southern Iraq.

Also in 2005, Jennifer Wilbanks, a Georgia woman who attracted national attention when she vanished days before her wedding, turned up in New Mexico, claiming to have been abducted but later admitting she was a "runaway bride."

In 2006, Israel's Prime Minister-designate Ehud Olmert denounced the president of Iran as a psychopath in a newspaper interview and compared him to Adolf Hitler.

Also in 2006, two rebel factions in Sudan rejected a peace agreement in the Darfur conflict. Officials estimate the bloody fighting had killed at least 180,000 and driven more than 2 million from their homes.

In 2007, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was severely criticized by a government commission report for his leadership in the 2006 conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Also in 2007, a British judge sentenced five men to life in prison after they were convicted of plotting bombing attacks across the United Kingdom.



A thought for the day: an anonymous wag said, "Bad habits are like a comfortable bed, easy to get into, but hard to get out of."

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Today is Thursday, May 1, the 122nd day of 2008 with 244 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Venus, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune. The evening stars are Mercury, Mars and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include Arthur Wellesley, the first duke of Wellington, in 1769; American labor leader Mary Harris "Mother" Jones in 1830; U.S. Army Gen. Mark Clark in 1896; singer Kate Smith in 1907; actor Glenn Ford in 1916; television personality Jack Paar in 1918; author Joseph Heller in 1923; Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter in 1925 (age 83); and singers Sonny James in 1929 (age 79); Judy Collins in 1939 (age 69), Rita Coolidge in 1945 (age 63) and Tim McGraw in 1967 (age 41).



On this date in history:

In 1884, construction began on the world's first skyscraper -- the 10-story Home Insurance Company building in Chicago.

In 1893, U.S. President Grover Cleveland opened the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

In 1898, during the Spanish-American war, U.S. Navy Adm. George Dewey routed the Spanish fleet in the Philippines.

In 1931, the Empire State Building was dedicated in New York City. It remained the world's tallest building for 40 years.

In 1960, the Soviet Union shot down an American U-2 spy plane flown by Francis Gary Powers, who was captured.

In 1971, Amtrak, the national passenger rail service that combined the operations of 18 passenger railroads, went into service.

In 1992, U.S. President George H.W. Bush ordered 4,000 military troops into the riot-ravaged streets of Los Angeles.

In 1993, Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa and others in his entourage were killed in a suicide bomb blast.

In 1997, 18 years of Conservative Party rule in Great Britain ended with a Labor Party victory in elections, which allowed party leader Tony Blair to succeed John Majors as prime minister.

In 1999, Charismatic, a 31-1 long shot, won the 125th Kentucky Derby in Louisville. It was the third highest payoff in Derby history.

In 2001, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan was convicted in Birmingham, Ala., in the 1963 church bombing that killed four black girls. He was give four life-in-prison sentences.

In 2003, U.S. President George Bush, speaking from the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, declared that major combat in Iraq was over.

And, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced the end of major U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan.

Also in 2003, an earthquake killed 176 in Turkey, including scores of children in a school dormitory.

In 2004, the European Union added 10 member countries, including Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, running the total to 25.

In 2005, at least 35 Iraqis were killed by insurgents with car bombs at a Kurdish funeral near Mosul.

Also in 2005, five men in Madain, Iraq, confessed to the kidnapping and slaying of British aid worker Margaret Hassan, who was abducted in October.

In 2006, hundreds of thousands of immigrants and their supporters marched and rallied throughout the United States to focus attention on the importance of immigration.

In 2007, U.S. President George Bush vetoed the Iraq war funding bill because it contained deadlines he considered tantamount to setting a date for defeat. The measure would have required U.S. troops to start leaving Iraq by Oct. 1.

Also in 2007, the U.S. government announced plans to open millions of acres off the coasts of Alaska and Virginia to oil and gas drilling, some as early as 2008.


A thought for the day: "Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon." E.M. Forster said that.

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Today is Friday, May 2, the 123rd day of 2008 with 243 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Venus, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune. The evening stars are Mercury, Mars and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include Catherine the Great, empress of Russia, in 1729; Gen. Henry Robert, author of "Robert's Rules of Order," in 1837; pioneer Zionist Theodor Herzl in 1860; Broadway composer Lorenz Hart in 1895; child care specialist Dr. Benjamin Spock in 1903; singer/actor Theodore Bikel in 1924 (age 84); singer Engelbert Humperdinck, born Arnold Dorsey, in 1936 (age 72); activist/singer Bianca Jagger in 1945 (age 63); pop singer Leslie Gore in 1946 (age 62); country singer Larry Gatlin in 1948 (age 60); and actress Christine Baranski in 1952 (age 56).


On this date in history:

In 1519, Leonardo da Vinci, Italian artist, scientist and inventor, died at age 67.

In 1611, a new translation of the Bible in England, popularly called the King James Bible after King James I, was published.

In 1863, Confederate Gen. Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson was mistakenly shot by his own soldiers. He died eight days later.

In 1941, the Federal Communications Commission approved the regular scheduling of commercial television broadcasts.

In 1933, the modern legend of the Loch Ness monster surfaced when a sighting made the local news. There had been accounts of an aquatic beast living in Scotland's Loch Ness date back 1,500 years.

In 1972, 91 people were killed in a mine fire in Kellogg, Idaho.

Also in 1972, J. Edgar Hoover died after nearly five decades as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In 1989, some 60 Chinese students rode bicycles into Beijing to present demands for democratic reforms to Chinese leaders.

In 1993, Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic signed an internationally mediated peace plan to end the Bosnian conflict.

Also in 1993, a U.S. sailor pleaded guilty to murder charges in the 1992 beating death of a homosexual shipmate in a park restroom near Sasebo Naval Base in southwestern Japan.

In 1994, Nelson Mandela claimed victory in the South African elections held in late April. He was inaugurated as the country's first black president eight days later.

Also in 1994, a Wayne County, Mich., jury acquitted "Dr. Death" Jack Kevorkian of violating a state law forbidding assisted suicides.

In 1995, the Clinton administration announced that Cuban boat people seeking asylum would be henceforth returned to Cuba.

In 1999, a meeting between the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic led to the release of three U.S. soldiers captured a month earlier by Serbian troops.

In 2002, Israeli forces pulled out of the West Bank city of Ramallah allowing Yasser Arafat to leave his compound.

In 2003, India announced it was restoring diplomatic relations and transportation connections with Pakistan, which reciprocated a few days later.

In 2004, Nigerian Christian militants attacked the Muslim town of Yelwa with firearms and machetes. The Nigerian Red Cross put the death toll at 630.

In 2005, U.S. Army Pvt. Lynndie England pleaded guilty to seven counts related to alleged mistreatment of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

In 2006, already taking flak over high gasoline prices, U.S. Senate Republicans yanked a wide-ranging tax proposal that had been added to the pending energy bill.

In 2007, Afghan officials reported that 42 Afghan civilians had been killed in a U.S. military operation. President Hamid Karzai criticized U.S. and NATO forces for not being more careful in avoiding civilian casualties.

Also in 2007, Rupert Murdoch, chief executive officer of the News Corp., announced a $5 billion offer to take over Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal.


A thought for the day: Anatole France said, "To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe."

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Today is Saturday, May 3, the 124th day of 2008 with 242 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Venus, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune. The evening stars are Mercury, Mars and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include Italian political philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli in 1469; British explorer John Speke, who discovered the source of the Nile, in 1827; French perfume maker Francois Coty in 1874; Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in 1898; singer/actor Bing Crosby in 1903; actress Mary Astor in 1906; Broadway gossip columnist Earl Wilson in 1907; folk singer Pete Seeger in 1919 (age 89); boxer Sugar Ray Robinson, born Walker Smith Jr., in 1921; singers James Brown in 1933 and Frankie Valli in 1937 (age 71); TV personality Greg Gumbel in 1946 (age 62); magician Doug Henning in 1947; and singer/songwriter Christopher Cross in 1951 (age 57).



On this date in history:

In 1919, U.S. airplane passenger service began when pilot Robert Hewitt flew two women from New York to Atlantic City, N.J.

In 1946, the International Military Tribunals for the Far East began hearing the case in Tokyo against 28 Japanese military and government officials accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during World War II.

In 1948, the "CBS Evening News" premiered, with Douglas Edwards as anchor.

In 1952, a ski-modified U.S. Air Force C-47 piloted by Lt. Col. Joseph O. Fletcher of Oklahoma and Lt. Col. William P. Benedict of California became the first aircraft to land at the North Pole.

In 1968, the United States and North Vietnam agreed to open peace talks in Paris.

In 1979, Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative Party won the British general election, making her the first woman prime minister of a major European nation.

In 1989, Chinese leaders rejected students' demands for democratic reforms as some 100,000 students and workers marched in Beijing.

Also in 1989, former national security aide Oliver North was found guilty on three charges but innocent of nine others in the Iran-Contra scandal.

In 1990, U.S. President George H.W. Bush canceled the modernization of NATO short-range nuclear missiles and artillery, accelerating the pace of the removal of U.S. and Soviet ground-based nuclear weapons from "the transformed Europe of the 1990s."

In 1993, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi attacked Muslim fundamentalists, saying they should be killed "like dogs."

In 1994, a U.S. district judge in Seattle struck down Washington state's assisted-suicide law.

In 1997, a standoff by armed separatists near Fort Davis, Texas, ended with the surrender of six people, including leader Richard McLaren. Two escaped on foot; one was shot to death by police two days later.

In 1999, 76 tornadoes tore across the U.S. Plains states, killing about 50 people and injuring more than 700 more.

In 2000, the trial of two Libyan men accused in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, began in the Netherlands.

In 2002, the finance council of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Boston withdrew from an agreement to settle claims by 86 alleged sexual abuse victims against a former priest. The council said the archdiocese could not afford the anticipated costs of up $30 million.

In 2004, the U.S. military commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, reprimanded six commissioned and non-commissioned officers who supervised the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, where many reported abuses occurred.

In 2005, as violence continued, the Iraqi Cabinet was sworn in, more than three months after the elections.

In 2006, an Armenian A-320 aircraft plunged into the Black Sea off Russia's southern coast, killing all 113 people aboard. Officials said bad weather was the probable cause.

In 2007, tens of thousands of Israeli protesters in Tel Aviv called for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his government to resign over their handling of the 2006 Lebanon war.

Also in 2007, Queen Elizabeth II opened her U.S. visit by meeting with survivors and relatives of the victims of the Virginia Tech shooting rampage. She later addressed Virginia lawmakers on the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, Va., the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States.


A thought for the day: Gore Vidal said, "Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates."

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Today is Sunday, May 4, the 125th day of 2008 with 241 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Venus, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune. The evening stars are Mercury, Mars and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include educator Horace Mann in 1796; English biologist and agnostic Thomas Huxley in 1825; American landscape painter Frederick Church in 1826; New York Roman Catholic Cardinal Francis Spellman in 1889; Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in 1928 (age 80); musician Maynard Ferguson in 1928; actress Audrey Hepburn in 1929; opera singer Roberta Peters in 1930 (age 78); editor/columnist George Will in 1941 (age 67); singer Nickolas Ashford in 1942 (age 66); actress Pia Zadora in 1954 (age 54); and country singer Randy Travis in 1959 (age 49).


On this date in history:

In 1494, on his second expedition to the New World, Columbus discovered Jamaica.

In 1886, four police officers were killed when a bomb was thrown during a meeting of anarchists in Chicago's Haymarket Square protesting labor unrest. Four leaders of the demonstration, which became known as the Haymarket Square Riot, were convicted and hanged.

In 1942, the Battle of the Coral Sea began. It was a turning point in World War II, with Japan losing 39 ships and the United States one.

In 1970, National Guardsmen killed four students at Kent State University in Ohio during a demonstration against the Vietnam War.

In 1980, President Joseph Broz Tito of Yugoslavia died at age 87.

In 1982, an Argentine jet fighter sank the British destroyer HMS Sheffield during the Falkland Islands war.

In 1987, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 7-0 to uphold a California law requiring the state's all-male Rotary Clubs to admit women.

In 1990, Latvia became the third and last of the Baltic republics to take steps toward secession from the Soviet Union.

In 1993, jeans giant Levi Strauss said it would sever most ties with Chinese contractors because of alleged human rights violations in China.

In 1994, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chief Yasser Arafat signed an agreement, establishing the terms of limited Palestinian self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.

In 1997, FBI Director Louis Freeh indicated that "catastrophic mechanical failure" was the most likely cause of the crash of TWA Flight 800 the previous July.

In 2000, the "I Love You" computer virus crashed computers around the world.

In 2001, Pope John Paul II flew to Greece to begin a journey retracing the steps of the Apostle Paul through historic lands.

In 2004, the U.S. Army said it was conducting 35 criminal investigations into the treatment of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. Twenty-five of those are said to involve deaths of prisoners, including 13 possible homicides.

In 2005, two days after U.S. Army Pvt. Lynndie England pleaded guilty to charges related to alleged prisoner abuse at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison the judge threw out the plea and declared a mistrial. The judge said it was not clear whether the Army reservist knew at the time she was acting illegally.

In 2006, confessed terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui was sentenced to life in prison without parole. The 37-year-old Moroccan, who implicated himself in the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the United States, could have received the death penalty.

In 2007, Ban Ki-moon, the U.N. secretary-general, said Iraq's creditors had agreed to cancel $30 billion in debt. The announcement came as representatives of the United States and 59 other nations met in Egypt to discuss Iraq's future.

Also in 2007, a boat carrying nearly 150 Haitian migrants capsized in the Atlantic off the coast of one of the Turks and Caicos Islands, killing at least 20 people.


A thought for the day: Michel de Montaigne said, "There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees."

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Today is Monday, May 5, the 126th day of 2008 with 240 to follow.

The moon is new. The morning stars are Venus, Neptune, Uranus and Jupiter. The evening stars are Mars, Mercury and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include (Jackio – ts4ms); Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard in 1813; German political theorist Karl Marx in 1818; hatmaker John Stetson in 1830; crusading journalist Nelly Bly in 1864; author Christopher Morley in 1890; radio actor Freeman Gosden, Amos of "Amos and Andy," in 1899; actor Tyrone Power in 1914; singer/actress Alice Faye in 1915; actor Michael Murphy in 1938 (age 70); singer Tammy Wynette in 1942; and actors Michael Palin ("Monty Python's Flying Circus") in 1943 (age 65), Lance Henriksen ("Millennium"), in 1940, (age 68) and Tina Yothers ("Family Ties") in 1973 (age 35).




On this date in history:

In 1821, Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile on the island of St. Helena.

In 1847, the American Medical Association was founded in Philadelphia.

In 1862, Mexican troops, outnumbered 3-1, defeated the invading French forces of Napoleon III.

In 1893, Wall Street stock prices took a sudden drop, sparking the second-worst economic crisis in U.S. history.

In 1904, Cy Young pitched major league baseball's first perfect game to lead the Boston Americans to a 3-0 win over Philadelphia.

In 1925, biology teacher John Scopes was arrested for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution in violation of Tennessee state laws.

In 1945, Allied troops liberated the Netherlands from Nazi Germany.

Also in 1945, Elsie Mitchell and five neighborhood children were killed in Lakeview, Ore., when a Japanese balloon they had found in the woods exploded. They were listed as the only known World War II civilian fatalities in the continental United States.

In 1961, astronaut Alan Shepard became the United States' first man in space in a brief, sub-orbital flight from Cape Canaveral.

In 1981, imprisoned Irish-Catholic militant Bobby Sands died after refusing food for 66 days in protest of his treatment as a criminal rather than a political prisoner by British authorities.

In 1985, U.S. President Ronald Reagan ignored an international uproar and visited a cemetery at Bitburg, West Germany, that contained the graves of World War II Nazi S.S. storm troopers.

In 1993, the self-declared Bosnian-Serb parliament rejected the international peace plan that was supposed to end the yearlong war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Also in 1994, civil war erupted in Yemen.

In 1996, Jose Maria Aznar became prime minister of Spain.

In 2003, a wave of tornadoes killed 40 people in Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee.

Also in 2003, India and Pakistan agreed to renew diplomatic ties but India turned down Pakistan's offer of bilateral nuclear disarmament.

In 2004, Republican senators sought an investigation into charges that Iraq misused revenue from the U.N. oil-for-food program. A report estimated the Saddam Hussein regime collected $10.7 billion in illegal oil revenues.

In 2005, British Prime Minister Tony Blair was elected to a third term.

In 2006, 10 U.S. soldiers were killed in the crash of their helicopter in Afghanistan near the Pakistan border.

In 2007, a Newsweek poll indicated U.S. President Bush had fallen to 28 percent approval among the nation's voters, worst presidential rating since Jimmy Carter's 28 percent in 1979.


A thought for the day: "Nobody really cares if you're miserable, so you might as well be happy." Cynthia Nelms said that.

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Today is Tuesday, May 6, the 127th day of 2008 with 239 to follow.

The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Venus, Neptune, Uranus and Jupiter. The evening stars are Mars, Mercury and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include French revolutionary Maximilien Robespierre in 1758; Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and Arctic explorer Robert Peary, both in 1856; silent screen star Rudolph Valentino in 1895; actor Stewart Granger in 1913; actor-director-writer Orson Welles and author Theodore White, both in 1915; baseball legend Willie Mays in 1931 (age 77); rock musician Bob Seger in 1945 (age 63); former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1953 (age 55); Tom Bergeron in 1955 (age 53); and actors George Clooney in 1961 (age 47) and Roma Downey ("Touched by an Angel") in 1960 (age 48).



On this date in history:

In 1527, German troops sacked Rome, killing some 4,000 people and looting works of art and literature as part of a series of wars between the Hapsburg Empire and the French monarchy.

In 1863, Confederate forces commanded by Gen. Robert E. Lee routed Union troops under Gen. Joseph Hooker at the Battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia.

In 1915, Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox hit his first major league home run in a game against the New York Yankees in New York.

In 1935, in the depths of the Depression, the Works Progress Administration was established to provide work for the unemployed.

In 1937, the German dirigible Hindenburg burst into flames while docking in Lakehurst, N.J., killing 36 people.

In 1941, Josef Stalin became official leader of the Soviet government.

In 1954, 25-year-old British medical student Roger Bannister cracked track and field's most notorious barrier, the 4-minute mile, during a meet at Oxford, England. His time: 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds.

In 1975, U.S. President Gerald Ford broadcast an appeal to Americans to welcome the thousands of Vietnamese refugees moving to the United States.

In 1992, legendary actress Marlene Dietrich died at her Paris home at age 90.

In 1993, two postal workers, both apparently bitter over their treatment at work, allegedly shot co-workers in separate incidents in post offices in Michigan and California, leaving at least three dead and three wounded.

In 1994, Paula Jones accused U.S. President Bill Clinton of making an unwanted sexual advance during a meeting in a hotel room in 1991, when he was governor of Arkansas. It was believed to be the first lawsuit of its kind against a sitting president.

Also in 1994, the Channel Tunnel, a railway under the English Channel connecting Britain and France, was officially opened.

In 1997, U.S. President Bill Clinton and Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon signed an agreement for a broader mutual effort to fight drug trafficking.

In 2001, Pope John Paul II became the first pope to enter a mosque -- the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria.

In 2003, as civil disorder continued in Iraq, U.S. President George Bush named retired diplomat Paul Bremer III as his envoy to Iraq, making him the chief U.S. figure in the reconstruction.

Also in 2003, U.S. health officials reported 63 cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, but no deaths.

In 2004, the International Red Cross said it had found evidence of widespread mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by coalition forces in prisons across Iraq.

Also in 2004, as violence continued, U.S. forces in Iraq seized the governor's office in Najaf, a stronghold of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, and installed a new governor.

In 2005, a suicide bomber killed at least 58 people in a vegetable market south of Baghdad.

In 2006, the largest rebel group in Sudan's Darfur region and the government of Sudan signed a peace agreement ending their armed conflict in a three-year civil war that claimed an estimated 200,000 lives. However, two smaller rebel groups declined to sign an agreement.

And, unbeaten Barbaro won the 2006 Kentucky Derby by 6.5 lengths.

In 2007, conservative Nicolas Sarkozy was elected president of France with 53 percent of the vote in a runoff battle with Socialist Sergolene Royal.

Also in 2007, a wave of violence killed at least 53 people throughout Iraq. The worst was in Baghdad where a car bomb exploded near a market, destroying buildings and killing at least 27 people, police said.


A thought for the day: "England and America are two countries separated by the same language." George Bernard Shaw said that.

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Today is Wednesday, May 7, the 128th day of 2008 with 238 to follow.

The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Venus, Neptune, Uranus and Jupiter. The evening stars are Mars, Mercury and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include (Sue S – ts4ms ); English poet Robert Browning in 1812; German composer Johannes Brahms in 1833; Russian composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1840; Western actor Gabby Hayes in 1885; poet Archibald MacLeish and Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito, both in 1892; actor Gary Cooper in 1901; Edwin Land, inventor of the Polaroid instant camera, in 1909; actor Darren McGavin in 1922; singer Teresa Brewer in 1931 (age 77); Pro Football Hall of Famer Johnny Unitas in 1933; and filmmaker Amy Heckerling in 1954 (age 54).




On this date in history:

In 1763, Ottawa Indian chief Pontiac led a major uprising against the British at Detroit.

In 1789, the first presidential inaugural ball, celebrating the inauguration of George Washington, was held in New York City.

In 1824, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony was performed for the first time in Vienna, Austria.

In 1915, a German U-boat sank the British liner Lusitania off the coast of Ireland, killing nearly 1,200 people, including 124 Americans.

In 1945, U.S. Army Gen. Dwight Eisenhower accepted the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany from Gen. Alfred Jodl.

In 1960, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev announced that American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers, shot down over the Soviet Union on May 1, had confessed he was on a spying mission for the CIA.

In 1987, U.S. Rep. Stewart McKinney, R-Conn., died of AIDS at age 56, the first member of Congress identified as a victim of the disease.

In 1995, Jacques Chirac, mayor of Paris and former French premier, was elected president of France on his third try.

In 1997, a Bosnian Serb, Dusan Tadic, was convicted of war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal in the first case of its kind to go to trial since just after World War II.

In 1998, Daimler-Benz and the Chrysler Corp, announced plans to merge.

In 1999, a U.S. stealth bomber mistakenly bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, killing three people.

In 2000, Vladimir Putin was sworn in as Russia's second president in the first democratic transfer of executive power in the nation's 1,000-year history.

In 2004, Army Pfc. Lynndie England, the 21-year-old woman seen smiling next to naked Iraqi prisoners in widely circulated Abu Ghraib prison photographs, was charged by the military with assaulting Iraqi detainees and conspiring to mistreat them.

Also in 2004, crude oil prices hit a 13-year high of $40 a barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In 2005, Giacomo, a 50-to-1 shot, won the Kentucky Derby over Closing Argument, which went off at 71-1.

In 2006, Iraqi police found 43 bodies of apparent assassination victims in Baghdad while car bombs killed 14 others.

In 2007, officials reported no survivors in the crash of a Kenyan Airlines plane that went down in a Cameroon mangrove swamp with 114 aboard.


A thought for the day: Vladimir Lenin said, "A lie told often enough becomes truth."

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Today is Thursday, May 8, the 129th day of 2008 with 237 to follow.

The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Venus, Neptune, Uranus and Jupiter. The evening stars are Mars, Mercury and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include (Hophop4-ts4ms);( Susan-ts4ms); Jean Henri Dunant, Swiss founder of the Red Cross Society and a co-founder of the Young Men's Christian Association, in 1828; Harry Truman, 33rd president of the United States, in 1884; cornetist and bandleader Red Nichols in 1905; pianist Mary Lou Williams in 1910; blues guitarist Robert Johnson in 1911; author David Attenborough and comedian Don Rickles, both in 1926 (age 82); boxer Sonny Liston in 1932; actor/singer Rick Nelson in 1940; author Peter Benchley, also in 1940; singer Toni Tennille in 1940 (age 68); actors David Keith in 1954 (age 54) and Melissa Gilbert in 1964 (age 44); and singer Enrique Iglesias in 1975 (age 33).




On this date in history:

In 1541, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto discovered the Mississippi River.

In 1879, George Selden of Rochester, N.Y., filed for the first patent for an automobile. It was granted in 1895.

In 1945, U.S. President Harry Truman officially declared V-E Day, the end of World War II in Europe.

In 1970, the Beatles' final original album -- "Let It Be" -- was released.

In 1972, U.S. President Richard Nixon ordered the mining of North Vietnam ports in an effort to force the communists to end the Vietnam War.

In 1984, the Soviet Union declared it would not take part in the Los Angeles Olympics, citing fears over security for its athletes. However, the move was seen as retaliation for the U.S. boycott, called because of Soviet action in Afghanistan, of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.

In 1991, to pressure the government of El Salvador into agreeing to a cease-fire, Salvadoran leftist guerrillas sabotaged a power system, leaving the country with half its normal electrical supply.

In 1996, South Africa voted for a new constitution. Its bill of rights included the right to food, housing and education.

In 1998, the U.S. tobacco industry reached a settlement with Minnesota and with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota. The deal came as the first trial of a state lawsuit against cigarette makers was about to go to the jury.

In 2002, following up on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, FBI Director Robert Mueller told a Senate committee that the FBI had paid insufficient heed to a July memo from an agent who had warned about Arab men with possible terrorist ties taking flying lessons.

Also in 2002, Cardinal Bernard Law of the Boston Roman Catholic archdiocese said he had known in 1984 about sexual abuse charges against a former priest but had turned the matter over to aides and never followed up. The former priest, John Geoghan, was accused in 86 sexual abuse cases.

In 2003, more than 100 people were reported killed when the main cargo door of a cargo jet suddenly opened at a height of 33,000 feet over the Congo and passengers were sucked out of the plane.

Also in 2003, a tornado struck the Oklahoma City area, injuring at least 118 people and leveling hundreds of buildings and homes.

And, the World Health Organization reported the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, had reached 31 countries, including the United States, with a total of 7,053 cases.

In 2004, the body of Nick Berg, a U.S. businessman imprisoned by Iraqi militants, was found near Baghdad. A videotape depicting his beheading was shown on the Internet three days later.

In 2005, a U.S. Marine task force raided outposts in western Iraq, killing an estimated 100 insurgents.

Also in 2005, commemorations across Europe marked the 60th anniversary of the Allied victory over Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany in World War II.

In 2006, a Johannesburg judge cleared former South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma of raping a 31-year-old family friend.

And, the last known U.S. survivor of the 1912 sinking of the Titanic died of natural causes at her Shrewsbury, Mass., home. Lillian Asplund was 99.

In 2007, six Muslim men were arrested on charges of plotting a killing spree at the U.S. Army's Fort Dix in New Jersey.

Also in 2007, Northern Ireland installed a new power-sharing government linking Catholic and Protestant parties.

A thought for the day: Oscar Wilde wrote, "All that I desire to point out is the general principle that life imitates art far more than art imitates life."