News Briefs----

Tornadoes rake Dallas area, more than a dozen hurt
http://www.dallasnews.com/incoming/20120403-tornadoes-sweep-area-destroying-homes-and-cutting-power.ece

S&P raises 5 ratings from 2 Marlin Leasing Receivables
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/02/idUSWNA406620120402

Restaurant Industry Sales Up/Also buying more equipment
http://www.drinksmediawire.com/afficher_cdp.asp?id=10112&lng=2

March auto sales leave Hyundai looking for more cars to sell
http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-hyundai-toyota-honda-autos-sales-20120403,0,4109151.story

Freddie Mac: Typical 30-year mortgage rate back under 4%
http://www.latimes.com/business/money/fi-mo-mortgage-rates-20120329,0,2639976.story

Firefighters donate Mega Millions winnings to ailing fellow fireman
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/firefighters-donate-mega-millions-winnings-ailing-fellow-fireman-183135668.html

Surprise! 'Dancing with the Stars' sends home fan fave
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/entertainment/post/2012/04/surprise-dancing-with-the-stars-sends-home-fan-fave/1

 

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You May Have Missed---

8 rules of thumb for your financial life
http://www.bankrate.com/finance/retirement/8-rules-of-thumb-on-saving-and-retirement-1.aspx#ixzz1r2aN6ujb

[headlines]
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SparkPeople--Live Healthier and Longer

Jaw Shrinks with Age, 40-Year Study Finds
http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/health_news_detail.asp?health_day=658525

 

 

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Sports Briefs----

NFL unveils new uniforms for all 32 teams
http://www.ajc.com/sports/nfl-unveils-new-uniforms-1405907.html

 

 

[headlines]
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Spring Poem

Three Spring Notations on Bipeds

by Carl Sandburg (1920)

            1

The down drop of the blackbird,
The wing catch of arrested flight,
The stop midway and then off: off for triangles, circles, loops of new hieroglyphs—
This is April’s way: a woman:
“O yes, I’m here again and your heart
knows I was coming.”

            2

White pigeons rush at the sun,
A marathon of wing feats is on:
“Who most loves danger? Who most loves wings? Who somersaults for God’s
sake in the name of wing power in the sun and blue on an April Thursday.”
So ten winged heads, ten winged feet, race their white forms over Elmhurst.
They go fast: once the ten together were a feather of foam bubble,
a chrysanthemum whirl speaking to silver and azure.

            3

The child is on my shoulders.
In the prairie moonlight the child’s legs hang over my shoulders.
She sits on my neck and I hear her calling me a good horse.
She slides down—and into the moon silver of a prairie stream
She throws a stone and laughs at the clug-clug.

 

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California Nuts Briefs---

Rick Santorum thinks California universities don’t teach American history
http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05election/2012/04/03/rick-santorum-thinks-california-universities-dont-teach-american-history/?tsp=1

Jean-Pierre Moullé stepping down as Chez Panisse chef
http://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com/blog/2012/04/03/jean-pierre-moulle-stepping-down-as-chez-panisse-chef/

 

[headlines]
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“Gimme that Wine”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJnQoi8DSE8 

848,000 acres of California grapes in 2011
http://westernfarmpress.com/grapes/848000-acres-california-grapes-2011

Wine Lovers Want to Free Canada-America 1928 Cross-Border Sales Ban
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/free-my-grapes-wine-lovers-seek-to-repeal-1928-rule-on-cross-border-sales-ban/article2390464/

From Strife-Marked Vineyards, Lebanon
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/04/dining/chateau-musar-makes-wines-inlebanon.html?_r=1&ref=dining

Wine Authorities Explain Chinese Market
http://www.winesandvines.com/template.cfm?section=news&content=99154&htitle=
Wine%20Authorities%20Explain%20Chinese%20Market&

Free Mobile Wine Program
http://leasingnews.org/archives/Feb2010/2_26.htm#mobile

Wine Prices by vintage
http://www.winezap.com
http://www.wine-searcher.com/

US/International Wine Events
http://www.localwineevents.com/

Winery Atlas
http://www.carterhouse.com/atlas/\

Leasing News Wine & Spirits Page
http://two.leasingnews.org/Recommendations/wnensprts.htm

   1800- Congress enacted the Bankruptcy Act. It did not permit voluntary bankruptcy and applied to traders only. It was repealed three years later. 
    1802- Birthday of Dorthea Dix, American social reformer and author, born at Hampden, ME. Left home at age 10, was teaching at age 14 and founded a home for girls at Boston while still in her teens. In spite of frail health, she was a vigorous crusader for humane conditions in insane asylums, jails and almshouses and for the establishment of state-supported institutions to serve those needs. Named superintendent of women nurses during the Civil War. Died at Trenton, NJ, July 17, 1887.
http://www.dhhs.state.nc.us/mhddsas/DIX/dorothea.html
http://www.nursingadvocacy.org/press/pioneers/dix.html
    1804 -a large tornado crossed 6 counties in Georgia and killed 11 people near Augusta.
    1812 - The territory of Orleans became the 18th state and later became known as Louisiana.
    1818—Congress approves the U.S. flag with 13 stripes. On admission of each new state to the Union, another star would be added to the flag, the number and pattern of stripes remaining the same.
    1841-- President William Henry Harrison, aged 68, becomes the first president to die in office, just a month after being sworn in. Reportedly he attended his inauguration without the proper attire and it was very cold weather, where he became ill and later died of pneumonia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Harrison
    1859-“ I Wish I Was in Dixie’s Land” (better known as “Dixie” was introduced by Daniel DeCatur Emmett at Mechanics Hall, New York city, and was published by Firth Pond and Company, New York city. It was written and composed by Emmett, a Northerner, expressly for Bryant’s Minstrels, who performed at 472 Broadway, New York City. It was announced as a plantation song an dance.According to some sources, it was based on a song of lament sung by the slaves of a Dutch planter named Dixye, who sold them away to a farmer in Piedmont County, South Carolina, after tryingunsuccessfully to grow tobacco in Harlem, New Amsterdam( the future New York City). African-Americans in Knox County , Ohio, have long claimed that Daniel D. Emmett learned the song "Dixie" from the Snowdens, an African-American family of musicians who performed banjo and fiddle tunes and sang popular songs for black and white audiences throughout rural central Ohio from the 1850s to the early twentieth century.
It was sung at the inauguration of Jefferson Davis as president of the Confederate States on
February 18, 1861.
http://civilwarhome.com/dixie.htm
    1865 - President Abraham Lincoln visits the Confederate capital a day after Union forces capture it. Lincoln had been in the area for nearly two weeks. He left Washington at the invitation of general-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant to visit Grant's headquarters at City Point, near the lines at Petersburg south of Richmond. The trip was exhilarating for the exhausted president. Worn out by four years of war and stifled by the pressures of Washington, Lincoln enjoyed himself immensely. He conferred with Grant and General William T. Sherman, who took a break from his campaign in North Carolina. He visited soldiers, and even picked up an axe to chop logs in front of the troops. He stayed at City Point, sensing that the final push was near. Grant's forces overran the Petersburg line on April 2, and the Confederate government fled the capital later that day. Union forces occupied Richmond on April 3, and Lincoln sailed up the James River to see the spoils of war. His ship could not pass some obstructions that had been placed in the river by the Confederates so 12 soldiers rowed him to shore. He landed without fanfare but was soon recognized by some black workmen who ran to him and bowed. The modest Lincoln told them to "...kneel to God only, and thank him for the liberty you will hereafter enjoy." Lincoln, accompanied by a small group of soldiers and a growing entourage of freed slaves, walked to the Confederate White House and sat in President Jefferson Davis's chair. He walked to the Virginia statehouse and saw the chambers of the Confederate Congress. Lincoln even visited Libby Prison, where thousands of Union officers were held during the war. Lincoln remained a few more days in hopes that Robert E. Lee's army would surrender, but on April 8 he headed back to Washington. Six days later, Lincoln was shot as he watched a play at Ford's Theater.
    1873-Carrie S. Burnham began her argument, made before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. She had been stopped from voting in the October, 1871 and appealed to the Supreme Court, who told her she could not vote because she was a woman and the right to vote only applied to men. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/apr04.html
    1887- The first woman elected mayor in the US was Susanna Medora Salter, who was elected mayor of Argonia, Kansas. Her name had been submitted for election without her knowledge by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, and she did not know she was a candidate until she went to the polls to vote. She received a two-thirds majority vote. Argonia is a city located in Sumner County, Kansas. She received a two-thirds majority vote and served for one year for a salary of $1. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 534. Although her term was uneventful, her election generated worldwide interest from the press, sparking a debate regarding the feasibility of other towns following Argonia's lead, which ranged from objections to a "petticoat rule" to a "wait-and-see" attitude. After only a year in office, she declined to seek reelection. In 1893 she moved to Alva, Oklahoma with her husband and family.
She lived until she was 101. The house she lived in during her tenure as mayor was added to the National Register of Historic Places in September, 1971.
    1896 - Birthday of Arthur Murray (Moses Teichman), ballroom dance instructor; "Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing in a Hurry." (Bob Teichman's grandfather, and one of the reasons Bob is such a great dancer! ). http://www.ask.com/wiki/Arthur_Murray
    1896--Birthday of playwright Robert Sherwood. He was also one of the famous Algonquin Round Table participants; he won a Pulitzer for his biography "Roosevelt and Hopkins." He also won an Academy Award for Best Screenplay "The Best Years of Our Lives."
    1898-the first musical comedy written by African-Americans for African-American performers was “ A Trip to Coontown,” a musical comedy in two acts by Bob Cole and Billy Johnson, produced a the Third Avenue Theatre at 31st Street in New York City. Cole played the part of the tramp Willie Waysie, and Johnson played Jim Flimflammer, the bunco steerer. 
    1906--Birthday of trumpet player Frankie Newton, Emory, VA.
    1913-bassist Gene Ramey born, Austin, TX
    1915-Mobile telephone one-way communication was established by Bell System engineers from Montauk Point, NY, to Wilmington, DE, a distance of 250 miles.
    1915-bluesman Muddy Waters, whose real name was McKinley Morganfield, was born in Rolling Fork, Mississippi. He began recording in 1941, and his 1948 hit "I Can't Be Satisfied" helped bring the amplified guitar to the fore in blues music. His Chicago-based band included such notables as James Cotton, Buddy Guy, Willie Dixon and Otis Spann. Muddy Waters played a significant part in developing modern rhythm and blues that came to be known as Chicago or urban blues. It was predominantly from this music that later forms such as rock and roll and soul sprang. Waters' style had a profound effect on pop music in the 1950s and '60s, and he influenced such musicians as Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones. In fact the Stones took their name from a Waters' recording, "Rollin' Stone." And Waters was the one who brought Chuck Berry to the attention of Chess Records in 1955. Muddy Waters died in 1983.
    1917-birthday of singer Big Chief Jolley ( George Landry ) New Orleans, LA
    1917- The U.S. Senate votes 90-6 to enter World War I on Allied side.
    1922—Birthday of motion picture composer Elmer Bernstein, perhaps best known for ‘The Man with the Golden Arm.” 
http://www.classical-composers.org/comp/bernstein_elmer
    1923 - an F4 tornado killed 15 people and injured 150 at Alexandria and Pineville, Louisiana. 142 homes and businesses in Pineville were destroyed.
    1924-Gibert Ray “Gil” Hodges, baseball player and manager, born at Princeton, IN. Hodges was the first baseman on the famous Brooklyn Dodgers” Boys of Summer” teams. ( I got his autograph on a baseball when I was a kid.). He managed the New York Mets to the 1969 World Series title. Died at West Palm Beach, FL, April 2, 1972.
    1924--Birthday of Canadian conductor Victor Feldbrill was born in Toronto. Feldbrill conducted the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra from 1958 to '68, the Toronto Symphony from 1971 to '77 and has often conducted for the Canadian Opera Company. A champion of Canadian music, he has included at least one Canadian work in every concert he has conducted.
    1928- -- Birthday of Maya Angelou born Louis, Missouri. African-American poet whose autobiographical work explores economic, racial, & sexual oppression themes. Her first work, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970), is followed by Gather Together in My Name (1974), The Heart of a Woman (1981), & All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes.
    1932-Vitamin C was first isolated by C.C. King at the University of Pittsburgh.
    1933 - Pigeon River Bridge, MN, reported 28 inches of snow, which established the state 24 hour snowfall record.
    1935- Benny Goodman cuts his first Victor record session.
    1939-Glenn Miller records his theme “ Moonlight Serenade) Bluebird 19214)
    1939-trumpet player Hugh Masakela born Witbank, So. Africa
    1943-the nine-man crew of the World War II American Liberator bomber Lady Be Good bailed out 200 miles off course over the Sahara Desert and disappeared this day. They were returning to their base in Libya after a raid over southern Italy. On Nov 9,1958,15 years after the plane went down and more than 13 years after the war had ended, a pilot flying across the Sahara south of Tobruck sighted wreckage of an aircraft in the sand. Five skeletons and a diary describing the final days of the crew were recovered. The radio, guns and ammunition in the plane were in working order. Life Magazine devoted a full issue to this discovery.
    1946---Birthday of the “coach,” Craig T. Nelson, actor, born Spokane, Washington.
    1950- Birthday of Judith Resnik, astronaut. The 36-year-old electrical engineer mission specialist was the second US woman in space. She perished in the Challenger explosion, Jan. 28, 1986.
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/resnik.html
    1952- “Police Story” premiers on TV. Produced by Jerome Robinson, directed by David Rich and narrated by Norman Rose, "Police Story" was an early anthology series on CBS depicting incidents from real-life police files.
    1950—Birthday of Jim Lahti’s sister, Christine, acrtress (Emmys for “chicago Hope,” “Swing Shfit, director (Oscar for “LIberman in Love), born Birmingham, MI.
    1951—Birthday of Steve Gatlin of country's Gatlin Brothers Band.
    1953-the first scholastic fraternity chapter established at an African-American university was the Phi Beta Kappa, at Fisk University, Nashville, TN.
1957--Birthday of American composer Jeffery Cotton,San Fernando, CA.
    1960 - Elvis Presley records ``Are You Lonesome Tonight.''
    1960 - Eleven Academy Awards were presented to one movie at the 32nd Annual Academy Awards at the RKO Pantages Theater, Los Angeles. "Ben-Hur", the Best Picture of 1959, was the first motion picture to receive that many Oscars. The other categories for which the MGM film, produced by Sam Zimbalist, was honored were: Best Director (William Wyler); Best Actor (Charlton Heston); Best Supporting Actor (Hugh Griffith); Best Cinematography/Color (Robert L. Surtees); Best Art Direction-Set Direction/Color (Edward Carfagno, William A. Horning, Hugh Hunt); Best Costume Design/Color (Elizabeth Haffenden); Best Sound (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio Sound Department, Franklin E. Milton, Sound Director); Best Film Editing (John D. Dunning, Ralph E. Winters); Best Effects/Special Effects (visual-A. Arnold Gillespie, Robert MacDonald III; audible-Milo B. Lory); and Best Music/Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (Miklos Rozsa). "Ben-Hur" lost only one nomination: Best Writing/Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium. "Room at the Top" (Neil Paterson) took that Oscar home and the Best Actress award, too (Simone Signoret). The Best Supporting Actress award went to Shelley Winters for her performance in "The Diary of Anne Frank", her second Oscar. The moviemakers of "Anatomy of a Murder" had high hopes with six nominations in the ring; but that’s all they were. However, the Best Music/Song Oscar went to "High Hopes" (James Van Heusen-music, Sammy Cahn-lyrics) from "A Hole in the Head". It would be 38 years and a lot of high hopes before one film won 11 Academy Awards again ("Titanic"). And who knows how long before the host is an Award recipient again! (Bob Hope received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.)
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0148797.html
    1961- The Marcels' "Blue Moon" hits #1
    1963 - No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: ``He's So Fine,'' The Chiffons. In 1976 the estate of songwriter Ronnie Mack wins a lawsuit against former Beatle George Harrison. A judge rules that Harrison subconsciously copied his No. 1 song ``My Sweet Lord'' from ``He's So Fine.''
    1964 - The Beatles set an all-time record on the Top 100 chart of "Billboard" magazine this day. All five of the top songs were by the British rock group. In addition, The Beatles also had the number one album as "Meet the Beatles" continued to lead all others. The LP was the top album from February 15 through May 2, when it was replaced by "The Beatles Second Album". It was estimated at the time that The Beatles accounted for 60 percent of the entire singles record business during the first three months of 1964. The top five singles by The Beatles this day were:
1) Can’t Buy Me Love
2) Twist and Shout
3) She Loves You
4) I Want to Hold Your Hand
5) Please Please Me
    1965 - Actor Robert Downey Jr. is born in New York, NY. Downey Jr. has penned more than 30 original songs, and his version of Charley Chaplin's theme song, "Smile," is included on the soundtrack to the film "Chaplin."
    1967 - Johnny Carson quit "The Tonight Show". He returned three weeks later with an additional $30,000 a week! Here’s Johnnnnnnny!!!
http://www.jonnycarson.com/carson4.htm
    1967-speaking before the Overseas Press Club at New York City, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, announced his opposition to the Vietnam War. That same day, at the Riverside Church at Harlem, King suggested that those who saw the war as dishonorable and unjust should avoid military service. He proposed that the US take new initiatives to conclude the war.
    1968-Martin Luther King, Jr., born on 15 January 1929, is shot and killed by a sniper while standing on the balcony outside his second-story room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis TN. On this night,April 4, presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, just two months away from his own assassination, announced King's death at a political rally in Indianapolis. Urging calm, Kennedy fell into quoting the Ancient Greek tragedian Aeschylus in an effort to articulate the inexplicable tragedy of King's murder: "In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God." As word of the assassination spread, riots broke out in several major cities, and in Washington, D.C., fires set by enraged protestors devastated portions of the downtown area. The National Guard was subsequently called in, and for several days the armed troops patrolled the streets of the nation's capital. James Earl Ray was convicted of his assassination, but King’s family to this day believe he was killed by others.
    1968- Bobby Goldsboro was awarded a gold record for "Honey." The record sold one-million copies within three weeks, and eventually sales were over three-million. "Honey" topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for five weeks.
    1969-CBS canceled the “Smothers Brothers” comedy series. The hour-long show strongly influenced television humor during the two years it aired. Tom and Dick, however, frequently found themselves at odds with the censors over material that would be considered tame today. Guests and cast members frequently knocked the Vietnam War and the Nixon Administration. Acts featuring antiwar protestors such as Harry Belafonte were often cut.
    1969-the first heart transplant using an artificial heart took place at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital in Houston, Texas ( an exhibit is now at Herman Hospital, University of Texas at Houston ). Dr. Denton A. Cooley ( still in practice), implanted the world’s first entirely artificial heart into Haskell Karpk, age 49, from Skokie, IL. The prosthetic heart was made of Dacron and plastic. Karp lived with the hear for three days, when it was replaced by a transplanted heart. He died on April 8.
    1970-Diana Ross makes her first solo concert appearance, in Framingham, Massachusetts.
    1970- Crosby Stills Nash & Young's LP Deja Vu hits #1
    1971- The Temptations' "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)" hits #1
    1971 - Veterans stadium in Philadelphia, PA was dedicated this day. It was the largest baseball park in the National League. A total of 56,371 fans could come out to see the Phillies play baseball or the Eagles play football. The stadium has been nicknamed the Vet. Seating was later increased to 63,000. 
    1973 - Sandia Crest, NM, reported a snow depth of 95 inches, a record for the state of New Mexico.
    1973 - No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: ``The Night the Lights Went out in Georgia,'' Vicki Lawrence. Lawrence is probably best known as the look-alike to the star of ``The Carol Burnett Show.'' The song debuts at No. 100 on the Hot 100.
    1973- A taped Elvis Presley concert entitled Elvis: Aloha from Hawaii is telecast on NBC and proves to be a huge success. The total worldwide audience for the show, the first commercial worldwide satellite broadcast, amounts to over a billion people.
    1974-- Hank Aaron ties Babe Ruth's home-run record.
    1976- Johnnie Taylor's "Disco Lady" hits #1
    1978--Birthday of American composer Kevin Ure.
    1981-first mayor of a major city of Mexican descent was Henry Gabriel Cisnernos, San Antonio, Texas.
    1983 -a snowstorm in the midwest left 11 inches of snow on the ground at Liberal, Kansas and 14 inches at Trousdale, Kansas. Further to the west in Colorado, the storm was in its 2nd day and by the time it was all over on the 5th, 21 inches of new snow was recorded at Fort Collins and Buckhorn Mountain, not to far from Fort Collins, was buried under 64.4 inches.
    1984 - Bob Bell retired as Bozo the Clown on WGN-TV in Chicago, IL. Bell was an institution in the Windy City since making his first appearance in 1960. Pinto Colvig was the original Bozo.
    1987-Denis Potvin of the New York Islander, the highest-scoring defenseman in NHL history at the time, scored the 1,000th point of his career. Potvin entered the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1991.
    1987-- one of the most famous record companies in the world, RCA Records, officially became the Bertelsmann Music Group - BMG for short - upon its takeover by the giant West German publishing, broadcasting and recording company. The new owners said Nipper, the famous Radio Corporation of America dog, would continue as the new firm's logo, and the names RCA, Arista and Red Seal would still appear on BMG record labels.
    1987 -New England was in the middle of its second heavy rainstorm in 5 days. Ten persons were killed in a bridge collapse over Schoharie Creek. This was the same storm that produced record snows in the Appalachians. This storm dumped 4 to 7 inches of rain over the area and this, combined with snowmelt and rivers already at bankfull, produced record flooding, especially in Maine. 2300 homes were flooded in Maine with 215 totally destroyed. Record water levels were reached at many dams. Damage in the state alone reached 100 million dollars.
    1987-Grace Slick's lead vocals helped Starship reach Billboard's number one spot for the third time with "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now". The song was co-written by Albert Hammond, who had scored a number 5 hit of his own in 1972 with "It Never Rains in Southern California".
    1990 - A deep low pressure system in northern New York State brought heavy snow to parts of western and central New York during the day. The snowfall total of 5.8 inches at Buffalo was a record for the date, and 9.5 inches was reported at Rochester. Snowfall totals ranged up to 11 inches at Warsaw.
    1996- Jerry Garcia's widow, Deborah, and Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir sprinkled a small portion of Garcia's ashes into India's holy Ganges River. Deborah Garcia kept her plans secret because she feared thousands of fans might have travelled to India and disrupted the ceremony. The rest of Garcia's ashes were released off San Francisco later that month. The Grateful Dead leader had died of a heart attack following a drug overdose in a rehabilitation facility, Forrest Farm, in Marin County.
    1996-- The former general manager of Daiwa Bank's New York branch pleaded guilty to aiding a $1.1 billion cover-up.
    1996-- In its IPO, just two days after Lycos and a week before Yahoo!, Search engine Excite's stock opens at $17 and closen at $20.
    2000-Michigan State beats Florida 89-76 to win NCAA Title.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/college/2001/ncaa_tourney/news/
2001/04/02/final_gamer_ap/
    2003 -- SMITH, PAUL RAY Medal of Honor
Rank and Organization: Sergeant First Class, 2nd Platoon, B Company, 11th Engineer Battalion, 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division. Place and Date: At Baghdad, Iraq, 4 April 2003. Citation: Sergeant First Class Paul R. Smith distinguished himself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action with an armed enemy near Baghdad International Airport, Baghdad, Iraq on 4 April 2003. On that day, Sergeant First Class Smith was engaged in the construction of a prisoner of war holding area when his Task Force was violently attacked by a company-sized enemy force. Realizing the vulnerability of over 100 fellow soldiers, Sergeant First Class Smith quickly organized a hasty defense consisting of two platoons of soldiers, one Bradley Fighting Vehicle and three armored personnel carriers. As the fight developed, Sergeant First Class Smith braved hostile enemy fire to personally engage the enemy with hand grenades and anti-tank weapons, and organized the evacuation of three wounded soldiers from an armored personnel carrier struck by a rocket propelled grenade and a 60mm mortar round. Fearing the enemy would overrun their defenses, Sergeant First Class Smith moved under withering enemy fire to man a .50 caliber machine gun mounted on a damaged armored personnel carrier. In total disregard for his own life, he maintained his exposed position in order to engage the attacking enemy force. During this action, he was mortally wounded. His courageous actions helped defeat the enemy attack, and resulted in as many as 50 enemy soldiers killed, while allowing the safe withdrawal of numerous wounded soldiers. Sergeant First Class Smith’s extraordinary heroism and uncommon valor are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, the Third Infantry Division “Rock of the Marne,” and the United States Army.
    2010-The Boston Red Sox opened their 2010 campaign in style by having Neil Diamond sing "Sweet Caroline", which plays over the loudspeakers during the 8th inning of every Red Sox home game. Aerosmith front man Steven Tyler took the field during the 7th inning stretch to sing "God Bless America".

NCAA Basketball Champions This Date

    1983---North Carolina State
    1988---Kansas
    1994---Arkansas
    2000---Michigan State