Today in History, July 30th
On July 30, 1965, President Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into law. Plus the House of Burgesses and the sinking of the USS Indianapolis.
Published · Last updated
July 30 is best known for 1965, when President Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into law, with former President Harry Truman at his side. The date also saw Virginia’s House of Burgesses, the first elected legislature in the American colonies, meet in 1619, and a Japanese submarine torpedo the USS Indianapolis in 1945.
The big story: LBJ signs Medicare into law (1965)
Harry Truman had asked Congress for national health insurance back in 1945, the first president to do so, and lawmakers turned him down. Twenty years later, Lyndon Johnson made sure Truman got the credit anyway. On July 30, 1965, Johnson traveled to the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, to sign the new law in front of the man who had first pushed the idea. Truman was enrolled as Medicare’s first beneficiary and handed card number one. Written as amendments to the Social Security Act of 1935, the law created two programs. Medicare offered hospital and medical insurance to Americans 65 and older. Medicaid, paid for jointly by the states and Washington, covered certain people with low incomes. When Medicare started up in 1966, about 19 million people signed on. Congress widened it in 1972 to include some younger people with disabilities and patients with permanent kidney failure, and a 2003 law added coverage for outpatient prescription drugs.
More events on July 30
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1619 | Virginia’s House of Burgesses, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World, convened at Jamestown. |
| 1777 | George Clinton took office as New York’s first elected governor. |
| 1864 | A Union attempt to break through Confederate lines at Petersburg, Virginia, failed at the Battle of the Crater. |
| 1866 | A white mob in New Orleans attacked African Americans gathered for a political meeting, killing dozens. |
| 1945 | A Japanese submarine torpedoed and sank the USS Indianapolis shortly after the ship had delivered parts for an atomic bomb. About 900 men died. |
| 1956 | President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a law making “In God We Trust” the official national motto. |
| 1966 | The Troggs’ “Wild Thing” reached No. 1 on the charts. |
| 1971 | A military fighter jet collided with All Nippon Airways Flight 58 over Japan, killing 162 people. |
| 1976 | Bruce Jenner (now Caitlyn Jenner) won the men’s decathlon gold medal at the Montreal Olympics. |
| 1999 | The low-budget horror film The Blair Witch Project opened in U.S. theaters. |
| 2003 | The last classic Volkswagen Beetle rolled off the production line. |
Born on July 30
- 1818: Emily Brontë, English author of Wuthering Heights, born in Thornton, Yorkshire.
- 1863: Henry Ford, industrialist who pioneered assembly-line car production, born in Wayne County, Michigan.
- 1958: Kate Bush, English singer-songwriter, born in Bexleyheath, Kent.
Sources
- Johnson signs Medicare into law, History.com
- This Day in History: July 30, History.com
- On This Day: July 30, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Emily Brontë, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Henry Ford, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Kate Bush, Encyclopaedia Britannica
