The almanac

Today is Sunday, July 5, the 186th day of 2009 with 179 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include David Farragut, the first U.S. Navy admiral, in 1801; showman P.T. Barnum in 1810; British colonialist Cecil Rhodes, founder of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), in 1853; Dwight Davis, founder of the Davis Cup tennis tournament, in 1879; French writer and film director Jean Cocteau in 1889; politician and diplomat Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. in 1902; actor Milburn Stone ("Gunsmoke") in 1904; former football coach John McKay in 1923; actor Warren Oates in 1928; actress Katherine Helmond in 1928 (age 81); Robbie Robertson, composer, musician, member of The Band, in 1943 (age 66); Julie Nixon Eisenhower in 1948 (age 61); and rock singer Huey Lewis in 1950 (age 59).

On this date in history:

In 1865, William Booth founded the Salvation Army in London.

In 1916, children under 16 were banned from New York City theaters due to an outbreak of polio. Some 200 theaters shut down throughout the summer.

In 1935, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt signed the National Labor Relations Act.

In 1945, U.S. Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur announced the liberation of the Philippines as World War II approached its end.

In 1946, French designer Louis Reard introduced the bikini swimsuit.

In 1954, newcomer Elvis Presley recorded "That's All Right (Mama)," a song he had not intended to do when he began his first recording session at Sun Records in Memphis and it became an instant local sensation.

In 1982, the Penn Square Bank of Oklahoma was declared insolvent, touching off a bank crisis that affected much of the United States.

In 1991, BCCI, with $20 billion in assets, was seized by regulators in the United States, Cayman Islands, France, Great Britain, Luxembourg, Spain and Switzerland.

In 1994, the United States stopped accepting Haitian refugees and asked that other countries provide them with "safe havens."

In 1997, Martina Hingis, 16, of Switzerland became the youngest in 100 years to win the women's singles tennis championship at Wimbledon.

In 2002, baseball great Ted Williams died at the age of 83. Williams, who played his entire, war-interrupted but outstanding career with the Boston Red Sox, was the last man to hit .400 in a major league baseball season (.406 in 1941).

In 2003, 16 people died during Russia's biggest rock concert in Moscow when two female suicide bombers detonated explosives.

In 2006, former Enron Chairman Ken Lay died of a heart attack while awaiting sentencing on a six-count conviction in one of the biggest business scandals in U.S. history.

In 2007, a group identifying itself as 45 Muslim doctors reportedly threatened to attack the United States with car bombs and other weapons. A group of doctors earlier had been accused in a British bomb plot.

In 2008, investigators were looking at all the ingredients in fresh salsa as they sought to find the cause of the U.S. salmonella outbreak. Officials said tomatoes and jalapeno peppers were suspect but the investigation had widened.

Also in 2008, police arrested a 21-year-old man in connection with what they call the "brutal and horrific" south London slayings of two French college students who had been stabbed a reported 250 times.

A thought for the day: Emily Dickinson wrote, "There is no Frigate like a Book to take us Lands away."