Today is Thursday, July 30, the 211th day of 2015. There are 154 days left in the year.
Today’s highlight:
On July 30, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a measure creating Medicare, which began operating the following year.
On this date:
In 1729, Baltimore, Maryland, was founded.
In 1864, during the Civil War, Union forces tried to take Petersburg, Virginia, by exploding a gunpowder-laden mine shaft beneath Confederate defense lines; the attack failed.
In 1918, poet Joyce Kilmer, a sergeant in the 165th U.S. Infantry Regiment, was killed during the Second Battle of the Marne in World War I. (Kilmer is remembered for his poem “Trees.”)
In 1932, the Summer Olympic Games opened in Los Angeles.
In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill creating a women’s auxiliary agency in the Navy known as “Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service” — WAVES for short.
In 1945, the Portland class heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis, having just delivered components of the atomic bomb to Tinian in the Mariana Islands, was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine; only 317 out of nearly 1,200 men survived.
In 1953, the Small Business Administration was founded.
In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a measure making “In God We Trust” the national motto, replacing “E Pluribus Unum” (“Out of many, one”).
In 1963, the Soviet Union announced it had granted political asylum to Harold “Kim” Philby, the “third man” of a British spy ring.
In 1975, former Teamsters union president Jimmy Hoffa disappeared in suburban Detroit; although presumed dead, his remains have never been found.
In 1980, Israel’s Knesset passed a law reaffirming all of Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state.
In 1990, British Conservative Party lawmaker Ian Gow was killed in a bombing claimed by the Irish Republican Army.
Ten years ago: President George W. Bush was pronounced “fit for duty” after a checkup that showed that the 59-year-old commander-in-chief, an avid mountain bike rider, had lost 8 pounds since his last physical exam in December 2004.
Five years ago: President Barack Obama toured Chrysler and General Motors assembly plants, where he offered an upbeat assessment of the U.S. auto industry a year after the big government bailouts. A 12-year-old Florida girl was seriously injured when she plunged about 100 feet to the ground from an amusement park free-fall ride in Lake Delton, Wisconsin. (Nets and air bags that were supposed to catch Teagan Marti had not been deployed.)
One year ago: The House overwhelmingly approved, 420-5, a landmark bill to refurbish the Veterans Affairs Department and improve veterans’ health care. Three Israeli artillery shells slammed into a United Nations school in Gaza crowded with some 3,300 people; the shells, which Israel said came in response to mortar fire nearby, killed 17 people.
Today’s birthdays: Actor Edd “Kookie” Byrnes is 82. Former Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig is 81. Blues musician Buddy Guy is 79. Movie director Peter Bogdanovich is 76. Feminist activist Eleanor Smeal is 76. Former U.S. Rep. Patricia Schroeder is 75. Singer Paul Anka is 74. Jazz musician David Sanborn is 70. Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is 68. Actor William Atherton is 68. Actor Jean Reno is 67. Blues singer-musician Otis Taylor is 67. Actor Frank Stallone is 65. Actor Ken Olin is 61. Actress Delta Burke is 59. Law professor Anita Hill is 59. Singer-songwriter Kate Bush is 57. Country singer Neal McCoy is 57. Actor Richard Burgi is 57. Movie director Richard Linklater is 55. Actor Laurence Fishburne is 54. Actress Lisa Kudrow is 52. Bluegrass musician Danny Roberts (The Grascals) is 52. Country musician Dwayne O’Brien is 51. Actress Vivica A. Fox is 51. Actor Terry Crews is 47. Actor Simon Baker is 46. Actor Donnie Keshawarz is 46. Movie director Christopher Nolan is 45. Actor Tom Green is 44. Rock musician Brad Hargreaves (Third Eye Blind) is 44. Actress Christine Taylor is 44. Actor-comedian Dean Edwards is 42. Actress Hilary Swank is 41. Olympic gold medal beach volleyball player Misty May-Treanor is 38. Actress Jaime Pressly is 38. Alt-country singer-musician Seth Avett is 35. Actress April Bowlby is 35. Actress Yvonne Strahovski is 33. Actress Gina Rodriguez is 31. Actor Nico Tortorella is 27. Actress Joey King is 16.
Thought for today: “Individualism is rather like innocence; there must be something unconscious about it.” — Louis Kronenberger, American drama critic (1904-1980).
Associated Press
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