This day in history

[July 30, 2011]  (AP)  Today is Saturday, July 30, the 211th day of 2011. There are 154 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On July 30, 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a measure making "In God We Trust" the national motto, replacing "E Pluribus Unum" ("Out of many, one").

On this date:

In 1511, painter and architect Giorgio Vasari, known for his biographies of Italian artists, was born in Arezzo, Tuscany.

In 1619, the first representative assembly in America convened in Jamestown in the Virginia Colony.

In 1729, Baltimore, Md., was founded.

In 1864, during the Civil War, Union forces tried to take Petersburg, Va., by exploding a gunpowder-filled mine under 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 perhaps best remembered for his poem "Trees.")

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 was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine during World War II; only 316 out of some 1,200 men survived.

In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Medicare bill, which went into effect 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: Robert Mueller (MUHL'-ur), 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. Typhoon Toraji churned through Taiwan, killing some 200 people. Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe's ruling party won a special parliamentary election.

Five years ago: Israel agreed to a 48-hour suspension of aerial activity over southern Lebanon after its bombing of a Lebanese village that killed 29 people. Congo held its first multiparty election in four decades (incumbent President Joseph Kabila later won a runoff).

One year 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 Florida girl was seriously injured when she plunged about 100 feet to the ground from an amusement park free-fall ride in Lake Delton, Wis. (Nets and air bags that were supposed to catch Teagan Marti (TEE'-gehn MAHR'-tee) had not been deployed.)

Today's birthdays: Actor Richard Johnson is 84. Actor Edd (correct) "Kookie" Byrnes is 78. Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig is 77. Blues musician Buddy Guy is 75. Movie director Peter Bogdanovich is 72. Feminist activist Eleanor Smeal is 72. Former U.S. Rep. Patricia Schroeder, D-Colo., is 71. Singer Paul Anka is 70. Jazz musician David Sanborn is 66. Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is 64. Actor William Atherton is 64. Actor Jean Reno (zhahn rih-NOH') is 63. Blues singer-musician Otis Taylor is 63. Actor Frank Stallone is 61. Actor Ken Olin is 57. Actress Delta Burke is 55. Singer-songwriter Kate Bush is 53. Country singer Neal McCoy is 53. Actor Richard Burgi is 53. Movie director Richard Linklater is 51. Actor Laurence Fishburne is 50. Actress Lisa Kudrow is 48. Bluegrass musician Danny Roberts (The Grascals) is 48. Country musician Dwayne O'Brien is 47. Actress Vivica A. Fox is 47. Actor Terry Crews is 43. Actor Simon Baker is 42. Movie director Christopher Nolan ("Inception") is 41. Actor Tom Green is 40. Rock musician Brad Hargreaves (Third Eye Blind) is 40. Actress Christine Taylor is 40. Actor-comedian Dean Edwards is 38. Actress Hilary Swank is 37. Olympic gold medal beach volleyball player Misty May-Treanor is 34. Actress Jaime Pressly is 34. Alt-country singer-musician Seth Avett (AY'-veht) is 31. Actress April Bowlby is 31. Actress Yvonne Strahovski (TV: "Chuck") is 29.

Thought for today: "Individualism is rather like innocence; there must be something unconscious about it." -- Louis Kronenberger, American drama critic (1904-1980)

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.