ood. Rioting spread as the death toll in India's religious strife topped 400.
Five years ago: A charter bus carrying a college baseball team from Bluffton University in Ohio plunged off an Atlanta highway ramp and slammed into the pavement below, killing seven people. Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey resigned following a scandal over substandard conditions for wounded Iraq soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The bodies of 14 kidnapped policemen were found northeast of Baghdad. Anna Nicole Smith was buried in the Bahamas following a lavish memorial service.
One year ago: The Supreme Court ruled, 8-1, that a grieving father's pain over mocking protests at his Marine son's funeral had to yield to First Amendment protections for free speech in a decision favoring the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan. A man armed with a handgun attacked a bus carrying U.S. Air Force troops at Frankfurt airport, killing two airmen before being taken into custody. (Arid Uka, an Islamic extremist, was later sentenced to life in prison.) Militants gunned down the only Christian in Pakistan's Cabinet outside his widowed mother's home.
(Stations: Rock musician Casey, one name, is correct)
Today's Birthdays: Actor John Cullum is 82. Author Tom Wolfe is 82. Former Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev is 81. Actress Barbara Luna is 73. Actor Jon Finch is 71. Author John Irving is 70. Singer Lou Reed is 70. Actress Cassie Yates is 61. Actress Laraine Newman is 60. Former Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., is 59. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is 57. Singer Jay Osmond is 57. Pop musician John Cowsill (The Cowsills) is 56. Tennis player Kevin Curren is 54. Country singer Larry Stewart (Restless Heart) is 53. Rock singer Jon Bon Jovi is 50. Blues singer-musician Alvin Youngblood Hart is 49. Actor Daniel Craig is 44. Rock musician Casey (Jimmie's Chicken Shack) is 36. Rock singer Chris Martin (Coldplay) is 35. Actress Heather McComb is 35. Actress Bryce Dallas Howard is 31. NFL quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is 30. Actor Robert Iler ("The Sopranos") is 27.
Thought for Today: "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." — Theodor Seuss Geisel (aka "Dr. Seuss"), American children's author (born this day, 1904; died 1991).
(Above Advance for Use Friday, March 2)
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