Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Today is Saturday, July 5, the 187th day of 2008 with 179 to follow. The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Neptune, Mercury, Jupiter and Uranus. The evening stars are Venus, Mars and Saturn. Advertisement 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 80); Robbie Robertson, composer, musician, member of The Band, in 1943 (age 65); Julie Nixon Eisenhower in 1948 (age 60); and rock singer Huey Lewis in 1950 (age 58). Advertisement 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. Advertisement 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 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. Also in 2003, the World Health Organization said the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, appeared to be contained. In 2006, in response to North Korea's test launch of seven ballistic missiles, the U.N. Security Council called an emergency meeting to deal with the situation and the international uproar it had caused. Also 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. Also in 2007, private contractors outnumbered U.S. troops in Iraq by about 20,000 people, a published report says. Advertisement A thought for the day: Emily Dickinson wrote, "There is no Frigate like a Book to take us Lands away."
