JULY 8TH

Today is Tuesday, July 8, the 190th day of 2008. There are 176 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

One hundred years ago, on July 8, 1908, businessman and philanthropist Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, a liberal Republican who served as governor of New York and then as vice president of the United States, was born in Bar Harbor, Maine.

On this date:

• In 1663, King Charles II of England granted a Royal Charter to Rhode Island.
• In 1776, Col. John Nixon gave the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence, in Philadelphia.
• In 1853, an expedition led by Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in Yedo Bay, Japan, on a mission to seek diplomatic and trade relations with the Japanese.
• In 1889, The Wall Street Journal was first published.
• In 1907, Florenz Ziegfeld staged his first "Follies," on the roof of the New York Theater.
• In 1919, President Wilson received a tumultuous welcome in New York City after his return from the Versailles Peace Conference in France.
• In 1947, demolition work began in New York City to make way for the new permanent headquarters of the United Nations.
• In 1950, President Truman named Gen. Douglas MacArthur commander-in-chief of United Nations forces in Korea.
• In 1958, President Eisenhower began a visit to Canada, where he conferred with Prime Minister John Diefenbaker and addressed the Canadian Parliament.
• In 1994, Kim Il Sung, North Korea's communist leader since 1948, died at age 82.

Ten years ago:

A federal bankruptcy judge announced a tentative settlement under which an estimated 170,000 women who said silicone breast implants had made them sick would get $3.2 billion from Dow Corning Corp.

Five years ago:

• In Senegal at the start of a five-nation tour of Africa, President Bush called American slavery one of history's greatest crimes as he stood at the very spot where hundreds of thousands of Africans had been bought and sold like cargo.
• A factory worker opened fire at a Lockheed Martin plant in Meridian, Miss., leaving five dead before he committed suicide.
• Twenty-nine-year-old Iranian twins joined at the head died following surgery in Singapore to separate them.
• A triple-deck ferry capsized in Bangladesh; more than 500 people drowned.
  
• A Sudanese Boeing 737 crashed on the northeastern Red Sea coast, killing 116 people.

One year ago:

• Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell ordered a range of state government services shut down and placed about a third of the state work force on indefinite unpaid furlough after last-minute negotiations failed to break a budget stalemate. (A budget deal was hammered out the following night.).
• Roger Federer won his fifth straight Wimbledon tennis championship, beating Rafael Nadal 7-6 (7), 4-6, 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-2.

Today's Birthdays:

• Actor Mickey Carroll is 89.
• Singer Jerry Vale is 76.
• Singer Steve Lawrence is 73.
• Actor Jeffrey Tambor is 64.
• Ballerina Cynthia Gregory is 62.
• Actress Kim Darby is 61.
• Children's performer Raffi is 60.
• Actress Anjelica Huston is 57.
• News columnist Anna Quindlen is 56.
• Actor Kevin Bacon is 50.
• Rock musician Andy Fletcher (Depeche Mode) is 47.
• Country singer Toby Keith is 47.
• Rock musician Graham Jones (Haircut 100) is 47.
• Rock singer Joan Osborne is 46.
• Writer-producer Rob Burnett is 46.
• Actor Corey Parker is 43.
• Actor Billy Crudup is 40.
• Actor Michael Weatherly is 40.
• Singer Beck is 38.
• Country singer Drew Womack (Sons of the Desert) is 38.
• Christian rock musician Stephen Mason (Jars of Clay) is 33.
• Actor Milo Ventimiglia is 31.
• Rock musician Tavis Werts (Reel Big Fish) is 31.
• Singer Ben Jelen is 29.
• Actor Lance Gross is 27.
• Actress Sophia Bush is 26.
• Rock musician Jamie Cook (Arctic Monkeys) is 23.
• Actor Jake McDorman is 22.

Thought for Today:

"You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure about you."
Nelson A. Rockefeller, American politician and businessman (1908-1979).

"Let's all be careful out there!"