Today In History

Today is Thursday, July 30, the 211th day of 2015. There are 154 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1965: President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a measure creating Medicare, which began operating the following year.

ON THIS DATE

1729: Baltimore, Maryland, was founded.

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.”)

1932: The Summer Olympic Games opened in Los Angeles.

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.

1953: The Small Business Administration was founded.

1956: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a measure making “In God We Trust” the national motto, replacing “E Pluribus Unum” (“Out of many, one”).

1975: Former Teamsters union president Jimmy Hoffa disappeared in suburban Detroit; although presumed dead, his remains have never been found.

1980: Israel’s Knesset passed a law reaffirming all of Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Actor Edd “Kookie” Byrnes is 82. Former Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig is 81. Blues musician Buddy Guy is 79. 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 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 Simon Baker is 46. Actor Donnie Keshawarz is 46. Movie director Christopher Nolan is 45. Actor-comedian Dean Edwards is 42. Actress Hilary Swank is 41. Olympic gold medal beach volleyball player Misty May-Treanor is 38. 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.