SANDY KOZEL

On August 6, 1945, the United States became the first and only
nation to use atomic weaponry during wartime when it dropped
an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

Approximately 80,000 people are killed as a direct result of the
blast, and another 35,000 are injured. At least another 60,000
would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the
fallout.

Though the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan marked the
end of World War II, many historians argue that it also ignited
the Cold War.

  
Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757 – July 12, 1804)

On August 4, 1790, the first U.S. Congress authorized
the construction of 10 vessels to patrol U.S. ports from
Massachusetts to Georgia.

The United States Coast Guard took form in this small
fleet of “cutters”—fast-moving, speedy sailboats—
tasked with intercepting marine smugglers and the
collecting of tariffs on imported goods.

It’s the brainchild of Alexander Hamilton, the first U.S.
secretary of the treasury under President George
Washington.

Originally called the “Revenue Marine” and then the
“Revenue Cutter Service,” the Coast Guard was one
of Hamilton’s many bold ideas for funding the U.S.
federal government, which was mired in debt after
the costly Revolutionary War.

President Lyndon Johnson (left) signed the Social Security Amendments with former President Harry Truman and his
wife Bess present. 

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 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.

Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower
(October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969)

                        
TIM MAGUIRE

1959