On July 30, 2003, the last of 21,529,464 Volkswagen Beetles
built since World War II rolled off the production line at
Volkswagen’s plant in Puebla, Mexico.
One of a 3,000-unit final edition, the baby-blue vehicle was
sent to a museum in Wolfsburg, Germany, where Volkswagen
is headquartered.
On July 30, 1956, two years after pushing to have the phrase
“under God” inserted into the Pledge of Allegiance, President
Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a law officially declaring “In God
We Trust” to be the nation’s official motto. The law, P.L. 84-140,
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
when, according to the historical association of the United
States Treasury, religious sentiment reached a peak.
Eisenhower’s treasury secretary, George Humphrey, had
suggested adding the phrase to paper currency as well.
George Magoffin Humphrey
(March 8, 1890 – January 20, 1970)
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower
(October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969)
The U.S. Congress passed legislation establishing the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA),
a civilian agency responsible for coordinating America’s
activities in space, on July 29, 1958. The agency opened
for business on Oct. 1, 1958.
NASA has since sponsored space expeditions, both human
and mechanical, that have yielded vital information about
the solar system and universe.
It has also launched numerous earth-orbiting satellites
that have been instrumental in everything from weather
forecasting to navigation to global communications.
President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics
and Space Act of 1958 into law on July 29, creating
NASA.
On July 28, 1978, National Lampoon’s Animal House, a movie
spoof about 1960s college fraternities starring John Belushi,
opened in U.S. theaters. It was the first film produced by
National Lampoon.
Produced with an estimated budget of $3 million, Animal House
became a huge, multi-million-dollar box-office hit, spawned a
slew of cinematic imitations and became part of pop-culture
history.
On July 28, 1868: Following its ratification by the necessary three-
quarters of U.S. states, the 14th Amendment, granting citizenship
to all persons born or naturalized in the United States—including formerly enslaved people—was officially adopted into the U.S. Constitution. Secretary of State William Seward (below) issued a
proclamation certifying the amendment.
