On This Day in History: July 30

The "First Defenestration" of Prague, took place on July 30, 1419, marking the start of the Hussite Wars in Bohemia. Hussites, led by Jan Želivský, threw seven anti-Hussite magistrates from the New Town Hall windows, leading to a widespread revolt against Catholic authority and Royal power. Expand +

The first representative assembly in America, the House of Burgesses, meets in Jamestown, Virginia on July 30,1619 with 22 elected representatives from 11 plantation. It was constituted of the Governor (Sir George Yeardley), councilors, and elected burgesses and it met for six days.  It was the first, and now the oldest, continuously operating law-making body in the New World, evolving into the Virginia General Assembly.

The New Orleans Massacre: a mob of ex-Confederates led an armed attack on a group of Louisiana Republicans and their African American supporters as they convened in the Mechanics Institute Building in New Orleans, site of a reconvened Louisiana Constitutional Convention, resulting in 38 people dead and 146 wounded. More

The U.S. Navy heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis is torpedoed by a Japanese submarine and sinks within minutes. Only 316 of the 1,196 men on board survived. The Indianapolis had just completed its major mission; the delivery of a key components of the atomic bomb that would be dropped a week later at Hiroshima to the Tinian Island in the South Pacific. More

Two years after pushing to have the phrase “under God” inserted into the pledge of allegiance, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a law officially declaring “In God We Trust” to be the nation’s official motto. The law, also mandated that the phrase be printed on all American paper currency. The phrase had been placed on U.S. coins since the Civil War.

Medicare is signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson at the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri. The occasion drew attention to the 20 years it had taken Congress to enact government health insurance for senior citizens after Harry Truman had proposed it. In fact, Medicare’s history dated back even further. More

Japanese Air Force Fighter F-86F Sabre Jet collides with a passenger plane, Boeing 727 operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA). causing both aircraft to crash. All 162 people aboard the airliner were killed. The Sabre pilot, a trainee with the JASDF, freed himself from his airplane after the collision and parachuted to safety. More

Former labor leader and Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa disappears under mysterious circumstances in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. He was declared "presumed dead on July 30, 1982. His disappearance remains one of the most mysterious disappearances of the 20th century. More

Vanuatu, officially the Republic of Vanuatu. achieves independence under Prime Minister Walter Lin from the United Kingdom and France (The British-French Condominium) The day is celebrated as its National Day. Vanuatu is an island country in Melanesia located in the South Pacific Ocean.  Expand +