On this Day...April 5

¦ In 1908, “The witch queen of Hollywood,” Bette Davis, was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, descended from Pilgrims who had once been accused of sorcery. She ran screaming from his first screen test and said that if she didn’t make it in the movies, she’d be “the best secretary in the world.” Claiming she was treated like a factory worker, she made so many outstanding performances in terrible movies that one critic said, “Only bad films are good enough for her.” When her career was at its lowest, she put an ad in the trade press asking for work. She got “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane,” and though the fee was small, she also got a share of the profits. It made her a million dollars.

¦ In 1960, the original Peter Pan died. All his life Peter Llewellyn Davies suffered from his association with the character that J. M. Barrie had created out of his strange relationship with the boy and his three brothers. Peter referred to the play as “that terrible masterpiece” and said, “If that boy so fatally committed to an arrestation of his development had only been dubbed George, or Jack, or Michael, or Nicholas, what miseries would have been spared me.” At the age of 63, Davies threw himself under a train. — from Today’s the Day! By Jeremy Beadle

In Christian history

¦ In 1953, in Washington D.C., President Dwight D. Eisenhower inaugurated the Presidential Prayer Breakfast (later called the National Prayer Breakfast). In 1956 Eisenhower signed an act making “In God We Trust” the national motto. — from This Day in Christian History By William D. Blake

In the Philippines

¦ In 1973, the so-called Golden Buddha owned by Rogelio Roxas of Baguio City was seized by unidentified government agents. Roxas worked as a locksmith in Baguio City. He was also an amateur coin collector and treasure hunter. In 1961, Roxas met a man named Fuchugami in Baguio City, who claimed that his father had been in the Japanese army and had drawn a map identifying the location of the legendary “Yamashita Treasure.” The treasure purportedly consisted of booty, which had been plundered from various Southeast Asian countries, during World War II, by Japanese troops under the command of General Tomoyuki Yamashita and which was allegedly buried in the Philippines during the final battle for the islands in order to keep it out of the hands of the Americans. — www.kahimyang.info

In Cebu

¦ Fiesta of Bogo, Cebu

¦ In 1898, insurgents occupied the town of Carcar, Cebu and held the priests in the town convent captive. — from Cebuano Studies Center, University of San Carlos