June 30
1859 - French acrobat Charles Blondin, AKA Jean Francois Gravelet, walked across Niagara Falls on a tightrope.
1908 - A powerful natural explosion from an unknown cause rocked the Tunguska Basin, in eastern Siberia, flattening hundreds of square miles of forest and resulting in tremors that could be felt hundreds of miles away.
1918 - Labor activist and socialist Eugene V. Debs was arrested in Cleveland, charged under the Espionage Act of 1917 for a speech he'd made two weeks earlier denouncing U.S. involvement in World War I. (Debs was sentenced to prison and disenfranchised for life.)
1921 - President Warren G. Harding appointed former President William Howard Taft to serve as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
1934 - Adolf Hitler secured his position in the Nazi party by a "blood purge," ridding the party of other leaders such as Ernst Roehm and Kurt von Schleicher.
1936 - Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind" was published.
1958 - The U.S. Senate passed the Alaska statehood bill by a vote of 64-20.
1971 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 6-3, that the government could not prevent The New York Times or The Washington Post from publishing the Pentagon Papers.
1971 - A Soviet space mission ended in tragedy when three cosmonauts aboard Soyuz 11 were found dead of asphyxiation inside their capsule after it had returned to Earth.
1971 - The 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age to 18, was ratified by the states.
1982 - The proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution expired, having failed to receive the required number of ratifications for its adoption, despite having its seven-year deadline extended by three years.
1985 - Thirty-nine American hostages from a hijacked TWA jetliner were freed in Beirut after being held 17 days.
1986 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Bowers v. Hardwick that states could outlaw homosexual acts between consenting adults. (However, the nation's highest court effectively reversed this decision in 2003 in Lawrence v. Texas.)
1998 - The remains of a Vietnam War veteran buried in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers were identified as those of Air Force pilot Michael J. Blassie.
2009 - American soldier Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl went missing from his base in eastern Afghanistan, and was later confirmed to have been captured by insurgents after walking away from his post. (Bergdahl was released on May 31, 2014 in exchange for five Taliban detainees; he pleaded guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, but was spared a prison sentence by a military judge.)
2013 - Nineteen elite firefighters known as members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots were killed battling a wildfire northwest of Phoenix after a change in wind direction pushed the flames back toward their position.
2016 - Saying it was the right thing to do, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced that transgender people would be allowed to serve openly in the U.S. military, ending one of the last bans on service in the armed forces.
2020 - Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed a landmark bill retiring the last state flag bearing the Confederate battle emblem.
2022 - Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn as the 116th justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the first Black woman to serve, and succeeding Stephen Breyer.
2022 - The U.S. Supreme Court limited how the nation's main anti-air pollution law could be used to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. By a 6-3 vote, the court said that the Clean Air Act did not give the Environmental Protection Agency broad authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants that contribute to global warming.
Birthdays
31 - Nicole Franzel (reality star)
35 - Sean Marquette (actor)
37 - Alicia Fox (professional wrestler)
38 - Michael Phelps (swimmer)
38 - Cody Rhodes (professional wrestler)
39 - Fantasia (singer)
40 - Katherine Ryan (comedian)
40 - Cole Swindell (singer)
40 - Cheryl Ann Tweedy (singer)
41 - Susannah Flood (actress)
41 - Lizzy Caplan (actress)
42 - Tom Burke (actor)
44 - Rick Gonzalez (actor)
51 - Molly Parker (actress)
52 - Monica Potter (actress)
53 - Brian Bloom (actor)
54 - Tony Rock (actor/comedian)
57 - Peter Outerbridge (actor)
57 - Mike Tyson (boxer)
60 - Rupert Graves (actor)
61 - Deirdre Lovejoy (actress)
67 - David Alan Grier (actor/comedian)
71 - David Garrison (actor)
73 - Leonard Whiting (actor)
79 - Glenn Shorrock (singer)
87 - Nancy Dussault (actress)
90 - Lea Massari (actress)
========================================
Today in Sports History - June 30
1934 - Detroit radio executive George Richards pays $7,952.08 to buy the NFL's Portsmouth Spartans and relocates the team to Detroit and renames them the "Lions".
1962 - Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers throws the first of his four career no-hitters.
1978 - Willie McCovey hit his 500th career home run.
1984 - The longest professional football game took place in the United States Football League (USFL). The Los Angeles Express beat the Michigan Panthers 27-21 after 93 minutes and 33 seconds.
1993 - The Orlando Magic selected Michigan center Chris Webber with the first pick in the NBA Draft and then immediately traded him to the Golden State Warriors.
1994 - The U.S. Figure Skating Association stripped Tonya Harding of the national championship and banned her for life for her role in the attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan.
1995 - Eddie Murray of the Cleveland Indians becomes the 20th player in MLB history to record 3,000 career hits.
1999 - The Chicago Bulls select Duke forward Elton Brand with the first pick in the NBA Draft.
2002 - Brazil defeats Germany 2-0 to win a record fifth World Cup championship.
2022 - UCLA and USC announced their plans to leave the Pac-12 Conference for the Big Ten Conference.
1859 - French acrobat Charles Blondin, AKA Jean Francois Gravelet, walked across Niagara Falls on a tightrope.
1908 - A powerful natural explosion from an unknown cause rocked the Tunguska Basin, in eastern Siberia, flattening hundreds of square miles of forest and resulting in tremors that could be felt hundreds of miles away.
1918 - Labor activist and socialist Eugene V. Debs was arrested in Cleveland, charged under the Espionage Act of 1917 for a speech he'd made two weeks earlier denouncing U.S. involvement in World War I. (Debs was sentenced to prison and disenfranchised for life.)
1921 - President Warren G. Harding appointed former President William Howard Taft to serve as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
1934 - Adolf Hitler secured his position in the Nazi party by a "blood purge," ridding the party of other leaders such as Ernst Roehm and Kurt von Schleicher.
1936 - Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind" was published.
1958 - The U.S. Senate passed the Alaska statehood bill by a vote of 64-20.
1971 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 6-3, that the government could not prevent The New York Times or The Washington Post from publishing the Pentagon Papers.
1971 - A Soviet space mission ended in tragedy when three cosmonauts aboard Soyuz 11 were found dead of asphyxiation inside their capsule after it had returned to Earth.
1971 - The 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age to 18, was ratified by the states.
1982 - The proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution expired, having failed to receive the required number of ratifications for its adoption, despite having its seven-year deadline extended by three years.
1985 - Thirty-nine American hostages from a hijacked TWA jetliner were freed in Beirut after being held 17 days.
1986 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Bowers v. Hardwick that states could outlaw homosexual acts between consenting adults. (However, the nation's highest court effectively reversed this decision in 2003 in Lawrence v. Texas.)
1998 - The remains of a Vietnam War veteran buried in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers were identified as those of Air Force pilot Michael J. Blassie.
2009 - American soldier Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl went missing from his base in eastern Afghanistan, and was later confirmed to have been captured by insurgents after walking away from his post. (Bergdahl was released on May 31, 2014 in exchange for five Taliban detainees; he pleaded guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, but was spared a prison sentence by a military judge.)
2013 - Nineteen elite firefighters known as members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots were killed battling a wildfire northwest of Phoenix after a change in wind direction pushed the flames back toward their position.
2016 - Saying it was the right thing to do, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced that transgender people would be allowed to serve openly in the U.S. military, ending one of the last bans on service in the armed forces.
2020 - Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed a landmark bill retiring the last state flag bearing the Confederate battle emblem.
2022 - Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn as the 116th justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the first Black woman to serve, and succeeding Stephen Breyer.
2022 - The U.S. Supreme Court limited how the nation's main anti-air pollution law could be used to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. By a 6-3 vote, the court said that the Clean Air Act did not give the Environmental Protection Agency broad authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants that contribute to global warming.
Birthdays
31 - Nicole Franzel (reality star)
35 - Sean Marquette (actor)
37 - Alicia Fox (professional wrestler)
38 - Michael Phelps (swimmer)
38 - Cody Rhodes (professional wrestler)
39 - Fantasia (singer)
40 - Katherine Ryan (comedian)
40 - Cole Swindell (singer)
40 - Cheryl Ann Tweedy (singer)
41 - Susannah Flood (actress)
41 - Lizzy Caplan (actress)
42 - Tom Burke (actor)
44 - Rick Gonzalez (actor)
51 - Molly Parker (actress)
52 - Monica Potter (actress)
53 - Brian Bloom (actor)
54 - Tony Rock (actor/comedian)
57 - Peter Outerbridge (actor)
57 - Mike Tyson (boxer)
60 - Rupert Graves (actor)
61 - Deirdre Lovejoy (actress)
67 - David Alan Grier (actor/comedian)
71 - David Garrison (actor)
73 - Leonard Whiting (actor)
79 - Glenn Shorrock (singer)
87 - Nancy Dussault (actress)
90 - Lea Massari (actress)
========================================
Today in Sports History - June 30
1934 - Detroit radio executive George Richards pays $7,952.08 to buy the NFL's Portsmouth Spartans and relocates the team to Detroit and renames them the "Lions".
1962 - Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers throws the first of his four career no-hitters.
1978 - Willie McCovey hit his 500th career home run.
1984 - The longest professional football game took place in the United States Football League (USFL). The Los Angeles Express beat the Michigan Panthers 27-21 after 93 minutes and 33 seconds.
1993 - The Orlando Magic selected Michigan center Chris Webber with the first pick in the NBA Draft and then immediately traded him to the Golden State Warriors.
1994 - The U.S. Figure Skating Association stripped Tonya Harding of the national championship and banned her for life for her role in the attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan.
1995 - Eddie Murray of the Cleveland Indians becomes the 20th player in MLB history to record 3,000 career hits.
1999 - The Chicago Bulls select Duke forward Elton Brand with the first pick in the NBA Draft.
2002 - Brazil defeats Germany 2-0 to win a record fifth World Cup championship.
2022 - UCLA and USC announced their plans to leave the Pac-12 Conference for the Big Ten Conference.