From the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral, Florida,
the U.S. unmanned spacecraft Explorer 6 was launched into
an orbit around the earth. The spacecraft, commonly known
as the “Paddlewheel” satellite, featured a photocell scanner
that transmitted a crude picture of the earth’s surface and
cloud cover from a distance of 17,000 miles. The photo,
received in Hawaii, took nearly 40 minutes to transmit.

Released by NASA in September, the first photograph ever
taken of the earth by a U.S. satellite (below) depicted a
crescent shape of part of the planet in sunlight. It was
Mexico, captured by Explorer 6 as it raced westward over
the earth at speeds in excess of 20,000 miles an hour. 

First satellite image of the Earth from space, taken by
Explorer 6 in 1959.

Explorer 6 Satellite (Reconstructed Replica) at the National Space Museum.

MIKE GRACIA

President Lyndon Johnson signs Medicare Bill into law as former President Harry Truman watches.

On July 30, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare,
a health insurance program for elderly Americans, into law. At the
bill-signing ceremony, which took place at the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, former President Harry Truman was
enrolled as Medicare’s first beneficiary and received the first
Medicare card.

Johnson wanted to recognize Truman, who, in 1945, had become
the first president to propose national health insurance, an initiative
that was opposed at the time by Congress.

On July 29, 1921, Adolf Hitler became the leader of the National
Socialist German Workers’ (Nazi) Party. Under Hitler, the Nazi
Party grew into a mass movement and ruled Germany as a
totalitarian state from 1933 to 1945.

Hitler’s early years did not seem to predict his rise as a political
leader. Born on April 20, 1889, in Braunau am Inn, Austria, he
was a poor student and never graduated from high school.

During World War I, he joined a Bavarian regiment of the German
army and was considered a brave soldier, but his commanders
felt he lacked leadership potential and never promoted him beyond corporal.

While Porky’s Hare Hunt was the first Warner Bros. cartoon to
feature a prototype of Bugs Bunny, A Wild Hare, directed by
Tex Avery character designed by Bob Givensand released on
July 27, 1940, is widely considered to be the first official Bugs
Bunny cartoon. It is the first film where both Elmer Fudd and
Bugs, both redesigned by Bob Givens, are shown in their fully
developed forms as hunter and tormentor, respectively; the first
in which Mel Blanc (below) uses what became Bugs’ standard
voice; and the first in which Bugs uses his catchphrase, "What’s
up, Doc?" A Wild Hare was a huge success in theaters and
received an Academy Award nomination for Best Cartoon
Short Subject.