TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS THURSDAY, JULY 30, the 212th day of 2020. There are 154 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY:
On this date in 1945, the Portland class heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis, having just delivered atomic bomb components to Tinian in the Mariana Islands, was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine; only 317 out of nearly 1,200 men survived.
In 1619, the first representative assembly in America convened in Jamestown in the Virginia Colony.
In 1792, the French national anthem, “La Marseillaise,” by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, was first sung in Paris by troops arriving from Marseille.
In 1908, the first round-the-world automobile race, which had begun in New York in February, ended in Paris with the drivers of the American car, a Thomas Flyer, declared the winners over teams from Germany and Italy.
In 1916, German saboteurs blew up a munitions plant on Black Tom, an island near Jersey City, New Jersey, killing about a dozen people.
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 1960, the recently founded American Football League had its first pre-season game, in which the Boston Patriots defeated the host Buffalo Bills 28-7.
In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a measure creating Medicare, which began operating the following year. In 1975, former Teamsters union president Jimmy Hoffa disappeared in suburban Detroit; although he is 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 2001, Robert Mueller, President George W. Bush’s choice to head the FBI, promised the Senate Judiciary Committee that, if confirmed, he would move forcefully to fix problems at the agency. (Mueller became FBI director on Sept. 4, 2001, a week before the 9/11 attacks.)
In 2003, President George W. Bush took personal responsibility for the first time for using discredited intelligence in his State of the Union address but predicted he would be vindicated for going to war against Iraq.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Former Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig is 86. Blues musician Buddy Guy is 84. Movie director Peter Bogdanovich and feminist activist Eleanor Smeal are 81. Singer Paul Anka is 79. Jazz musician David Sanborn is 75. Arnold Schwarzenegger and actor William Atherton are 73. Actor Jean Reno and blues singer-musician Otis Taylor are 72. Actor Frank Stallone is 70. Actress Delta Burke and law professor Anita Hill are 64. Singersongwriter Kate Bush, country singer Neal McCoy and actor Richard Burgi are 62. Movie director Richard Linklater is 60. Actor Laurence Fishburne is 59. Actress Lisa Kudrow, bluegrass musician Danny Roberts (The Grascals) and country musician Dwayne O’Brien are 57. Actress Vivica A. Fox is 56. Actor Terry Crews is 52. Actors Simon Baker and Donnie Keshawarz are 51. Movie director Christopher Nolan is 50. Actor Tom Green and rock musician Brad Hargreaves (Third Eye Blind) are 49. Actor-comedian Dean Edwards is 47. Actress Hilary Swank is 46. Olympic gold medal beach volleyball player Misty May-Treanor and actress Jaime Pressly are 43. Alt-country singermusician Seth Avett and actress April Bowlby are 40. Soccer player Hope Solo is 39. Actress Gina Rodriguez is 36. Actress Joey King is 21.