Good morning, it’s Thursday, July 9, the 190th day of 2009. There are 175 days left in the year. We’ll start the day in the upper 70s and it only gets worse from there. By this afternoon, we’re expecting highs of around 102 and heat indices several degrees warmer than that.

On July 8, 1850, Zachary Taylor, the 12th president of the United States, died after serving 16 months of his term. Taylor, who took a hard line against Southern states that were threatening to secede, died five days after an Independence Day snack of milk and cherries. The cause of death was listed as gastroenteritis, but some questioned whether he may have been poisoned by arsenic placed in one of the dishes he sampled on the Fourth of July.

His remains were exhumed in 1991 and tests failed to detect significant levels of arsenic, but some skeptics still think he may have been assassinated. With his death, those favoring compromise over slavery prevailed, delaying, but not averting the war he said he was prepared to fight.

The woman behind Waco's Helen Marie Taylor museum is related to the late president through his great-great grandfather.

Helen Marie Taylor, a Waco native who lives in Virginia, founded the museum in 1982.

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What’s Going On Today
Check The Community Calendar For Today’s Events In Central Texas

Today's Highlight in History:
On July 9, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was read aloud to Gen. George Washington's troops in New York.

On This Date:
In 1540, England's King Henry VIII had his 6-month-old marriage to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, annulled.
In 1816, Argentina declared independence from Spain.
In 1896, William Jennings Bryan delivered his famous "cross of gold" speech at the Democratic national convention in Chicago.
In 1918, 101 people were killed in a train collision in Nashville, Tenn. The Distinguished Service Cross was established by an Act of Congress.
In 1938, Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo died in Port Chester, N.Y., at age 68.
In 1947, the engagement of Britain's Princess Elizabeth to Lt. Philip Mountbatten was announced.
In 1951, President Harry S. Truman asked Congress to formally end the state of war between the United States and Germany.
In 1974, former U.S. Chief Justice Earl Warren died in Washington D.C. at age 83.
In 1982, a Pan Am Boeing 727 crashed in Kenner, La., killing all 145 people aboard and eight people on the ground.

Ten years ago:
A jury in Los Angeles ordered General Motors Corp. to pay $4.9 billion to six people severely burned when their Chevrolet Malibu exploded in flames in a rear-end collision. (A judge later reduced the punitive damages to $1.09 billion, while letting stand $107 million in compensatory damages; GM settled the lawsuit in July 2003 for an undisclosed amount.)

Five years ago:
A Senate Intelligence Committee report concluded the CIA had provided unfounded assessments of the threat posed by Iraq that the Bush administration had relied on to justify going to war. The International Court of Justice ruled that Israel's planned security barrier in the West Bank violated international law. Paul Klebnikov, the American editor of Forbes magazine's Russian edition, was gunned down near his Moscow office. Actress Isabel Sanford died in Los Angeles at age 86.

One year ago:
Prosecutors cleared JonBenet Ramsey's parents and brother in the 1996 killing of the 6-year-old beauty queen in Boulder, Colo. Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, battling a brain tumor, walked into the Senate to cast a dramatic vote in favor of long-stalled Medicare legislation. Iran test fired nine missiles including ones capable of hitting Israel. Gunmen stormed a guard post at the U.S. consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, touching off a firefight that killed three police officers and three assailants.

Today's Birthdays:
Actor-singer Ed Ames is 82. Actor James Hampton is 73. Actor Brian Dennehy is 71. Actor Richard Roundtree is 67. Author Dean Koontz is 64. Football Hall-of-Famer O.J. Simpson is 62. Actor Chris Cooper is 58. TV personality John Tesh is 57. Country singer David Ball is 56. Rhythm-and-blues singer Debbie Sledge (Sister Sledge) is 55. Actor Jimmy Smits is 54.
Actress Lisa Banes is 54. Actor Tom Hanks is 53. Singer Marc Almond is 52. Actress Kelly McGillis is 52. Rock singer Jim Kerr (Simple Minds) is 50. Actress-rock singer Courtney Love is 45. Rock musician Frank Bello (Anthrax) is 44. Actor David O'Hara is 44. Rock musician Xavier Muriel (Buckcherry) is 41. Actor Scott Grimes is 38. Actor Enrique Murciano is 36. Rock musician Dan Estrin (Hoobastank) is 33. Actor-director Fred Savage is 33. Country musician Pat Allingham is 31. Actress Megan Parlen is 29. Rhythm-and-blues singer Kiely Williams (3lw) is 23. Actor Mitchel Musso is 18. Actress Georgie Henley (Film: "The Chronicles of Narnia" films) is 14.

Thought for Today:
"Invest in the human soul. Who knows, it might be a diamond in the rough." -- Mary McLeod Bethune, American educator and reformer (1875-1955).

(Source: Associated Press)

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