July 30 Birthday
On July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in the Philippine Sea. The ship had just delivered components for the atomic bomb to Tinian Island. It sank in twelve minutes. 300 of 1,196 crew went down with the ship. The remaining 900 were left in the water for four days — the Navy did not know the ship was missing. Shark attacks killed many. Of the 900 who entered the water, only 317 survived. It was the worst naval disaster in US history. The captain, Charles McVay, was court-martialed for failing to zigzag. He committed suicide in 1968. Henry Ford, born this day in 1863, did not invent the automobile or the assembly line. He combined them. He was forty when he founded the Ford Motor Company. He was a pacifist during World War I and an anti-Semite who published The Dearborn Independent. He ran for Senate and lost. He accepted a medal from Nazi Germany. He built a rubber plantation in the Amazon called Fordlândia that failed completely. He was also the man who put America on wheels. People born on July 30 fall under the zodiac sign of Leo. The birthstone is Ruby and the birth flower is Larkspur. Historical events on July 30 include 1945: USS Indianapolis torpedoed after delivering atomic bomb components, 1971: Apollo 15 lands on the Moon (first mission with lunar rover), 2003: Last vintage Volkswagen Beetle produced in Mexico. Famous people born on July 30 include Emily Brontë (1818), Henry Ford (1863), Arnold Schwarzenegger (1947).