Today is Saturday, Aug. 4, the 216th day of 2007. There are 149 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Aug. 4, 1944, Nazi police raided the secret annex of a building in Amsterdam and arrested eight people, including 15-year-old Anne Frank, whose diary became a famous account of the Holocaust. (Anne died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp some seven months later.)
On this date:
In 1735, a jury acquitted John Peter Zenger of the New York Weekly Journal of seditious libel.
In 1790, the Coast Guard had its beginnings as the Revenue Cutter Service.
In 1792, English romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley was born at Field Place near Horsham, England.
In 1830, plans for the city of Chicago were laid out.
In 1892, Andrew and Abby Borden were axed to death in their home in Fall River, Mass. Lizzie Borden, Andrew Borden’s daughter from a previous marriage, was accused of the killings, but acquitted at trial.
In 1914, Britain declared war on Germany while the United States proclaimed its neutrality.
In 1916, the U.S. reached agreement with Denmark to purchase the Danish Virgin Islands for $25 million.
In 1964, the bodies of missing civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney were found buried in an earthen dam in Mississippi.
In 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed a measure establishing the Department of Energy.
In 1987, the Federal Communications Commission voted to abolish the Fairness Doctrine, which required radio and television stations to present balanced coverage of controversial issues.
Ten years ago: Teamsters went on a 15-day strike against United Parcel Service after talks broke down with the nation’s largest package delivery service. Jeanne Calment, at age 122 the world’s oldest person, died at a retirement home in Arles, France.
Five years ago: A Palestinian suicide bomber blew up a bus in northern Israel during rush hour, killing himself and nine passengers. Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada won the presidency of Bolivia for a second time.
One year ago: Israeli warplanes destroyed four key bridges on Lebanon’s last untouched highway, severing the country’s final major connection to Syria. Authorities in Phoenix announced the arrests of two suspects in a string of apparently random late-night killings that had terrorized residents for months.
Today’s Birthdays: Journalist Helen Thomas is 87. Singer Frankie Ford is 68. Actor-comedian Richard Belzer is 63. Attorney Gen. Alberto Gonzales is 52. Actor-screenwriter Billy Bob Thornton is
52. Actress Kym Karath (“The Sound of Music”) is 49. Track star Mary Decker Slaney is 49. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is 46. TV producer Michael Gelman (“Live with Regis and Kelly”) is 46. Baseball pitcher Roger Clemens is 45. Rock musician Rob Cieka (Boo Radleys) is 39. Actor Daniel Dae Kim is 39. Actor Michael DeLuise is 38. Actor Andy Hallett is 32. Rhythm-and-blues singer-actor Marques Houston is 26. Actors Dylan and Cole Sprouse are 15.
Thought for Today: “Every man is dangerous who only cares for one thing.” — G.K. Chesterton, English poet-essayist (1874-1936).