On July 1, 1966, the Medicare federal insurance program went into effect.

Ten years ago

Thunderstorms forced NASA to call off the launch of Discovery, delaying the first space shuttle flight in a year. (Discovery was launched three days later, on the Fourth of July.) A huge car bomb exploded at a bustling outdoor market in a Shiite district of Baghdad, killing more than 60 people.

Five years ago

Six weeks after ex-California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger revealed that he’d fathered a child with a member of his household staff, Maria Shriver filed divorce papers seeking to end their 25-year marriage. The Minnesota state government shut down after legislators could not agree on a budget; the shutdown lasted nearly three weeks. The NBA locked out its players, a long-expected move that put the 2011-12 season in jeopardy. (The lockout ended in December 2011 with the adoption of a new collective bargaining agreement.)

One year ago

After more than a half-century of hostility, the United States and Cuba declared they would reopen embassies in each other’s capitals, marking a historic full restoration of diplomatic relations between the Cold War foes.

— By The Associated Press