Watching Sicko today (go see it), heard in passing that the British National Health Service Act went into effect on July 5, 1948 — meaning UK citizens have essentially had free, universal health care for 59 years today. The NHS figures prominently in the movie as a point of comparison to our own system, and it was largely unknown to me. It hasn’t been perfect, but it seems a lot better for the great majority of the UK than what we have here in the US, which means the bad teeth jokes might start coming the other direction across the pond pretty soon.

Here’s BBC’s coverage from the 50th anniversary in 1998, and of course the Wikipedia entry for the NHS.