July 5 birthdays & history

Famous people born on July 5

• 1911Georges Pompidou, French banker and politician, 19th President of France
• 1889Jean Cocteau, French novelist, poet, and playwright
• 1857Clara Zetkin, German theorist and activist
• 1810P. T. Barnum, American businessman, co-founded Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus
• 1975Hernán Crespo, Argentinian footballer and coach
• 1946Gerard 't Hooft, Dutch physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1891John Howard Northrop, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1985Megan Rapinoe, American soccer player
• 1979Amélie Mauresmo, French-Swiss tennis player
• 1958Veronica Guerin, Irish journalist

What happened on July 5

• 1811The Venezuelan Declaration of Independence is adopted by a congress of the provinces.
• 1841Thomas Cook, the founder of the British travel company Thomas Cook & Son, organised his first excursion, escorting about 500 people from Leicester to Loughborough.
• 1859The United States discovers and claims Midway Atoll.
• 1865The United States Secret Service begins operation.
• 1884Germany takes possession of Cameroon.
• 1915The Liberty Bell leaves Philadelphia by special train on its way to the Panama–Pacific International Exposition. This is the last trip outside Philadelphia that the custodians of the bell intend to permit.
• 1935The National Labor Relations Act, which governs labor relations in the United States, is signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
• 1937The Hormel Foods Corporation introduced Spam, the canned precooked meat product that would eventually enter into pop culture, folklore, and urban legend.
• 1954Elvis Presley recorded his first single, "That's All Right", at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee.
• 2004Indonesia held its first direct presidential elections, which resulted in the election of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as President of Indonesia after the second round on September 20.
• 2009The Staffordshire Hoard, the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon gold ever discovered, consisting of more than 1,500 items, was found near Hammerwich in Staffordshire.
• 2012The Shard in London was inaugurated as the tallest building in Europe, with a height of 310 m (1,020 ft), but was surpassed by Moscow's Mercury City Tower four months later.

Also observed on July 5

• Independence Day (Algeria), celebrating the independence of Algeria from France in 1962.
• Independence Day (Cape Verde), celebrating the independence of Cape Verde from Portugal in 1975.
• Tynwald Day, if July 5 is on a weekend, the holiday is the following Monday. (Isle of Man)