3.1965

Martin Luther King Jr. starts the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery.

4.8.1965

Medicare bill passes in the House of Representatives, 313-115.  John Dingell is asked to preside over the House during the vote. 

During the debate, Dingell says:  "Mr. Chairman, nowhere in the history of the whole amendatory process of the Social Security Act has there been a measure so desperately and vitally needed by the senior citizens of this Nation as that providing for Federal payment of hospitalization and medical care for the aged."

The gavel with which he presided sits on his desk to this day.

40 years later, Dingell will introduce a resolution celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Act.  The resolution notes that the successes the Act has had in improving the health of the elderly, as well as preventing them from falling into poverty. (H. Con. Res. 213, 109th Congress.)   

7.30.1965

Johnson signs the Medicare Law at the Truman Library in Missouri.  Dingell attends the ceremony. 

10.2.1965

Dingell witnesses signing of Water Quality Act of 1965.

The bill, first drafted in Dingell's office, was signed by President Johnson on October 2, 1965.  It authorized $50 million to fight water pollution, established a new Federal Water Pollution Control Administration, and set new standards for water quality. (The Flat Rock Guardian, March 1965)

12.13.1965

Dingell, age 39, reaches his 10 year anniversary representing the 16th District of Michigan in the US House of Representatives.