July 5 Birthday
On July 5, 1954, a nineteen-year-old Elvis Presley walked into Sun Records in Memphis and recorded "That's All Right." The session was almost an accident — Elvis was messing around between takes, and producer Sam Phillips heard something he liked. Phillips called a local DJ, who played the song repeatedly on his show. Phone calls flooded in. Elvis's first record was born. The song was not a hit nationally, but it launched a career that would define popular music. Phillips had been looking for a white singer who sounded Black. He found one. Arthur Ashe won Wimbledon on July 5, 1975, defeating Jimmy Connors in four sets. Ashe was thirty-one. He was the first Black man to win Wimbledon, and the only one until today. He had already won the US Open (1968) and the Australian Open (1970). Ashe contracted HIV from a blood transfusion during heart surgery in 1983 and died in 1993. He spent his last years as an AIDS activist, founding the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS. People born on July 5 fall under the zodiac sign of Cancer. The birthstone is Ruby and the birth flower is Larkspur. Historical events on July 5 include 1946: First bikini modeled at Paris fashion show by Micheline Bernardini, 1975: Arthur Ashe wins Wimbledon, first Black man to win the men's singles, 1954: Elvis Presley records "That's All Right" at Sun Records in Memphis. Famous people born on July 5 include P.T. Barnum (1810), Jean Cocteau (1889), Robbie Robertson (1943).