Social Security Act is adopted in Washington, D.C.

Drafted by Boston-born Francis Perkins, passed by Congress, and signed by President Franklin Roosevelt, the law establishes pension and unemployment insurance, and the Aid to Families with Dependent Children programs. The legislation is upheld by the Supreme Court on May 24, 1937. It becomes the most popular government entitlement program, so untouchable that Kirk O’Donnell, an aide to House Speaker Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill Jr., describes it to the Boston Globe as “The third rail of American politics” in 1981.