The Almanac

Today is Saturday, July 5, the 186th day of 2003 with 179 to follow.

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

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 in 1904; football coach John McKay in 1923 (age 80); actor Warren Oates in 1928; actress Katherine Helmond in 1934 (age 69); Robbie Robertson, composer, musician, member of The Band, in 1944 (age 59); Julie Nixon Eisenhower in 1948 (age 55); and rock singer Huey Lewis in 1951 (age 52).

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, President Roosevelt signed the National Labor Relations Act.

In 1945, 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 swim suit.

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. It didn't take long for the word to spread.

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."

Also in 1994, Yasser Arafat took the oath as head of the new Palestinian National Authority. The swearing-in ceremony took place in Jericho on the West Bank.

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

In 2000, President Clinton announced that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat had agreed to meet at Camp David to discuss peace.

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

Also in 2002, Elizabeth Smart, 14, was kidnapped from her bedroom at her home in Salt Lake City. She was found alive and well eight months later in a Salt Lake suburb where her alleged abductors, a man and a woman, were arrested.

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