By The Associated Press

              - Today is Friday, July 30, the 211th day of 1999. There are 154 days
                left in the year.

              - On July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis, which had just delivered key
                components of the Hiroshima atomic bomb to the Pacific island of
                Tinian, was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. Only 316 of 1,196 men
                survived the sinking and shark-infested waters.
              - In 1619 the first representative assembly in America convened in
                Jamestown, Va.
              - In 1729 the city of Baltimore was founded. The French national
                anthem "La Marseillaise" by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, was first
                sung in Paris.
              - In 1844 the New York Yacht Club was founded.
              - In 1863 American automaker Henry Ford was born in Dearborn Township,
                Mich.
              - In 1864 during the Civil War, Union forces tried to take Petersburg,
                Va. by exploding a mine under Confederate defense lines. The attack
                failed.
              - In 1932 the Summer Olympic Games opened in Los Angeles.
              - In 1942 President Roosevelt signed a bill creating a women's
                auxiliary agency in the Navy known as "Women Accepted for Volunteer
                Emergency Service" - WAVES for short.
              - In 1965 President Johnson signed into law the Medicare bill, which
                took effect the following year.
              - In 1975 former Teamsters union president Jimmy Hoffa disappeared in
                suburban Detroit; although presumed dead, his remains have never
                been found.

              - Ten years ago in Lebanon, the pro-Iranian group Organization for the
                Oppressed on Earth threatened to kill an American hostage, Marine
                Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, unless Israel released Sheik
                Abdul-Karim Obeid, a cleric seized by Israeli commandos.
              - Five years ago the first U.S. troops landed in the Rwandan capital
                of Kigali to secure the airport for an expanded international aid
                effort.
              - One year ago Japan's Parliament declared Keizo Obuchi the country's
                next prime minister. "Buffalo Bob" Smith, the cowboy-suited host of
                "The Howdy Doody Show," died in Hendersonville, N.C., at age 80. A
                group of 13 Ohio machinists stepped forward to claim the $295.7
                million Powerball jackpot. (The workers opted to take the cash
                option: one payment of about $161.5 million.)
 

              *Happy Birthday*
              ----------------
              - Actor Dick Wilson ("Mr. Whipple") is 83.
              - Actor Richard Johnson is 72.
              - Actor Edd "Kookie" Byrnes is 66.
              - Blues musician Buddy Guy is 63.
              - Movie director Peter Bogdanovich is 60.
              - Feminist activist Eleanor Smeal is 60.
              - Former U.S. Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.) is 59.
              - Singer Paul Anka is 58.
              - Jazz musician David Sanborn is 54.
              - Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger is 52.
              - Actor William Atherton is 52.
              - Actor Jean Reno is 51.
              - Actor Frank Stallone is 49.
              - Actor Ken Olin is 45.
              - Actress Delta Burke is 43.
              - Singer-songwriter Kate Bush is 41.
              - Actor Richard Burgi is 41.
              - Actor Laurence Fishburne is 38.
              - Country singer Neal McCoy is 38.
              - Actress Lisa Kudrow is 36.
              - Country musician Dwayne O'Brien is 35.
              - Actress Vivica Fox is 35.
              - Actress Christine Taylor is 28.
              - Actress Hilary Swank is 25.