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Today’s Highlight in History: 

On July 30, 1945, during World War II, the U.S.S. Indianapolis was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine; only 316 out of 1,196 men survived the sinking and shark-infested waters. (The Navy recently exonerated the Indianapolis’ captain, Charles Butler McVay III, who was court-martialed and convicted for failing to evade the submarine that sank his ship.) 

On this date: 

In 1729, the city of Baltimore was founded. 

In 1932, the Summer Olympic Games opened in Los Angeles. 

In 1942, President Franklin 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 1975, former Teamsters union president Jimmy Hoffa disappeared in suburban Detroit. Although he is presumed dead, his remains have never been found. 

In 1975, representatives of 35 countries convened in Finland for a conference on security and human rights that resulted in the Helsinki accords. 

In 1980, the Israeli Knesset passed a law reaffirming all of Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state. 

Ten years ago: A TWA Lockheed L-1011 caught fire during takeoff from New York’s Kennedy International Airport; all 292 people aboard survived. At the Barcelona Summer Olympics, Shannon Miller won the silver medal in the women’s all-around gymnastics event. 

Five years ago: Two men bombed Jerusalem’s most crowded outdoor market, killing themselves and 16 others. Eighteen people, including two Americans, were killed in a landslide that swept one ski lodge onto another at the Thredbo Alpine Village in southeast Australia. 

One year ago: Typhoon Toraji churned through Taiwan, killing 61 people and leaving about 150 missing; Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe’s ruling party won a special parliamentary election. 

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Dick Wilson (“Mr. Whipple”) is 86. Blues musician Buddy Guy is 66. Singer Paul Anka is 61.