AUGUST 4TH

***

Today is Monday, August 4, the 217th day of 2008.
There are 149 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• On August 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's daughter from a previous marriage, was accused of the killings, but acquitted at trial.
• In 1900, Britain's Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, was born.
• In 1916, the United States 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 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:

• Turning aside an urgent White House appeal, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist cleared the way for prosecutors to question White House lawyers about their advice to President Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky case.
• The Dow Jones industrial average plunged 299.43 points, finishing at 8,487.31.

Five years ago:

• California Gov. Gray Davis asked the state Supreme Court to delay his Oct. 7 recall election until the following March (the recall went ahead as originally scheduled).
• West African forces arrived in Liberia to oversee the departure of President Charles Taylor.
• Chung Mong-hun, a top executive of South Korea's Hyundai conglomerate embroiled in a scandal over a historic 2000 summit between the two Koreas, committed suicide.

One year ago:

• President Bush toured the site of a collapsed highway bridge in Minneapolis, pledging to cut red tape that could delay rebuilding.
• Three students, Iofemi Hightower, Terrance Aeriel and Dashon Harvey, were shot to death execution-style in Newark, N.J.
• Barry Bonds tied Hank Aaron's 755 career home runs as his San Francisco Giants lost 3-2 to the San Diego Padres.
• Alex Rodriguez became, at age 32, the youngest player in major league history to hit 500 home runs with a first-inning homer in a 16-8 victory over Kansas City.

Today's Birthdays:

• Journalist Helen Thomas is 88.
• Singer Frankie Ford is 69.
• Actress-singer Tina Cole is 65.
• Actor-comedian Richard Belzer is 64.
• Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is 53.
• Actor-screenwriter Billy Bob Thornton is 53.
• Actress Kym Karath ("The Sound of Music") is 50.
• Track star Mary Decker Slaney is 50.
• Actress Lauren Tom is 49.
• Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is 47.
• TV producer Michael Gelman ("Live with Regis and Kelly") is 47.
• Baseball pitcher Roger Clemens is 46.
• Actress Crystal Chappell is 43.
• Author Dennis Lehane is 43.
• Rock musician Rob Cieka (Boo Radleys) is 40.
• Actor Daniel Dae Kim is 40.
• Actor Michael DeLuise is 39.
• Actor Ron Lester is 38.
• Rapper-actress Yo-Yo is 37.
• Country singer Jon Nicholson is 35.
• Actor Andy Hallett is 33.
• Rhythm-and-blues singer-actor Marques Houston is 27.
• Actors Cole and Dylan Sprouse are 16.

Thought for Today:

"Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds."
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822).

"Let's all be careful out there!"