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The almanac

By United Press International
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Today is Tuesday, July 5, the 186th day of 2011 with 179 to follow.

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

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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; football coach John McKay in 1923; actors Warren Oates in 1928 and Katherine Helmond, also in 1928 (age 83); Robbie Robertson, composer, musician, member of The Band, in 1943 (age 68); Julie Nixon Eisenhower in 1948 (age 63); rock singer Huey Lewis in 1950 (age 61); baseball Hal of Fame member Richard "Goose" Gossage in 1951 (age 60); actor Edie Falco in 1953 (age 58).

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On this date in history:

In 1687, Isaac Newton's "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy" wsas published.

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 1937, Hormel Foods introduced canned meat product Spam.

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 1947, Larry Doby became the first African-American player in Major League Baseball's American League with the Cleveland Indians 11 weeks after Jackie Robinson broke the baseball color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers of the National League.

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

In 1975, Arthur Ashe became the first black man to win a Wimbledon singles title.

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

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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 most recent 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 2009, Uighurs and Han Chinese clashed at Urumqi in northwestern China in a long-festering dispute between the two ethnic factions that left at least 156 dead and more than 1,700 injured. Uighurs are predominantly Muslim while Han represent China's majority.

Also in 2009, a center-right opposition party led by Sofia Mayor Bolko Borisov claimed victory over the ruling Socialists in Bulgaria's parliamentary elections.

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In 2010, Bronislaw Komorowski was declared the winner in Poland's presidential runoff with 53.01 percent of the vote, beating Jaroslaw Kaczynski, twin brother of the former president killed in a plane crash with several state officials three months earlier.


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

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