TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Monday, July 30, the 211th day of 2018. There are 154 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On July 30, 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.
On this date:
In 1619, the first representative assembly in America convened in Jamestown in the Virginia Colony.
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 1916, German saboteurs blew up a munitions plant on Black Tom, an island near Jersey City, New Jersey, killing about a dozen people.
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 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 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 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.
Ten years ago: Ex-Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was extradited to The Hague to face genocide charges after nearly 13 years on the run. President George W. Bush quietly signed a housing bill he’d once threatened to veto; it was intended to rescue some cashstrapped homeowners in fear of foreclosure.
Five years ago: U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning was acquitted of aiding the enemy—the most serious charge he faced—but was convicted of espionage, theft and other charges at Fort Meade, Maryland, more than three years after he’d spilled secrets to WikiLeaks. (The former intelligence analyst, now known as Chelsea Manning, was later sentenced to up to 35 years in prison. The sentence was commuted by President Barack Obama in his final days in office.)
One year ago: Three days
after the U.S. Congress approved sanctions against Russia in response to its meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and its military aggression in Ukraine and Syria, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the United States would have to cut the number of embassy and consulate staff in Russia by 755.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Edd “Kookie” Byrnes is
85. Former Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig is 84. Blues musician Buddy Guy is 82. Movie director Peter Bogdanovich is 79. Singer Paul Anka is 77. Jazz musician David Sanborn is 73. Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is 71. Actor William Atherton is 71. Actor Frank Stallone is 68. Actor Ken Olin is 64. Actress Delta Burke is 62. Movie director Richard Linklater is 58. Actor Laurence Fishburne is 57. Actress Lisa Kudrow is 55. Bluegrass musician Danny Roberts (The Grascals) is 55. Actress Vivica A. Fox is 54. Actor Simon Baker is 49. Actress Hilary Swank is
44. Actress Yvonne Strahovski is 36. Actor Martin Starr is 36. Actress Joey King is 19.
Thought for Today:
“Individualism is rather like innocence; there must be something unconscious about it.”— Louis Kronenberger, American drama critic (1904-1980).