Today is Thursday, Aug. 5, the 217th day of 2010. There are 148 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History

On Aug. 5, 1962, actress Marilyn Monroe, 36, was found dead in her Los Angeles home; her death was ruled a probable suicide from an overdose of sleeping pills.

On this date

In 1864, during the Civil War, Union Adm. David Farragut led his fleet to victory in the Battle of Mobile Bay, Ala.

In 1884, the cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal was laid on Bedloe’s Island in New York Harbor.

In 1924, the comic strip “Little Orphan Annie,” by Harold Gray, made its debut.

In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the National Labor Board, which was later replaced with the National Labor Relations Board.

In 1963, the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union signed a treaty in Moscow banning nuclear tests in the atmosphere, in space and underwater.

In 1968, the Republican national convention convened in Miami Beach.

In 1984, actor Richard Burton died in Geneva, Switzerland, at age 58.

Today’s Birthdays

Former astronaut Neil Armstrong is 80. Basketball Hall-of-Famer Patrick Ewing is 48. Rapper MCA (The Beastie Boys) is 46. Country singer Terri Clark is 42. Former MLB player John Olerud is 42. Rock musician Eicca Toppinen (Apocalyptica) is 35.

Thought for Today

“We are all snobs of the Infinite, parvenus of the Eternal.”

— James Gibbons Huneker,

American author and critic (1860-1921)