June 30
1859 - French acrobat Charles Blondin, aka Jean Francois Gravelet, walked across Niagara Falls on a tightrope in front of nearly 5,000 spectators.
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 H. Taft to be Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, succeeding the late Edward Douglass White.
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 on a 64-20 vote.
1963 - Pope Paul VI was crowned the 262nd head of the Roman Catholic Church.
1971 - The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, freed The New York Times and The Washington Post to resume immediate publication of articles based on the secret Pentagon Papers on the origins of the Vietnam War.
1971 - The 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which lowered the voting age to 18, was ratified when Ohio became the 38th state to approve it.
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.
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 for 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 its Lawrence v. Texas ruling).
1998 - The remains of a Vietnam War serviceman buried in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers, were identified as those of Air Force pilot Michael J. Blassie.
2001 - Vice President Dick Cheney underwent a surgical procedure to have a pacemaker installed.
2004 - The international Cassini spacecraft entered Saturn's orbit after a nearly seven-year journey.
2005 - Spain legalized same-sex marriage.
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.)
2012 - Islamist Mohammed Morsi became Egypt’s first freely elected president as he was sworn in during a pair of ceremonies.
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.
2017 - President Donald Trump and South Korea’s new leader, Moon Jae-in, concluding two days of talks at the White House, showed joint resolve on North Korea despite their divergent philosophies for addressing the nuclear threat.
2020 - Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed a landmark bill retiring the last state flag bearing the Confederate battle emblem.
2020 - Boston’s arts commission voted unanimously to remove a statue depicting a freed slave kneeling at Abraham Lincoln’s feet.
2021 - Pennsylvania’s highest court threw out Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction and released him from prison, ruling that the prosecutor who brought the case was bound by his predecessor’s agreement not to charge Cosby; the comedian had served nearly three years of a three- to 10-year sentence.
2021 - Sharply split along party lines, the House launched a new investigation of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, approving a special committee to probe the violent attack.
2021 - Actress Allison Mack was sentenced to three years in prison for manipulating women into becoming sex slaves for the spiritual leader of the cult-like group NXIVM.
Birthdays
30 - Nicole Franzel (reality star)
34 - Sean Marquette (actor)
36 - Alicia Fox (professional wrestler)
37 - Michael Phelps (swimmer)
37 - Cody Rhodes (professional wrestler)
38 - Fantasia (singer)
39 - Katherine Ryan (comedian)
39 - Cheryl Ann Tweedy (singer/TV personality)
40 - Susannah Flood (actress)
40 - Lizzy Caplan (actress)
41 - Tom Burke (actor)
43 - Rick Gonzalez (actor)
50 - Molly Parker (actress)
51 - Monica Potter (actress)
52 - Brian Bloom (actor)
53 - Tony Rock (actor/comedian)
56 - Peter Outerbridge (actor)
56 - Mike Tyson (boxer)
59 - Rupert Graves (actor)
60 - Deirdre Lovejoy (actress)
63 - Vincent D'Onofrio (actor)
66 - David Alan Grier (actor/comedian)
70 - David Garrison (actor)
72 - Leonard Whiting (actor)
78 - Glenn Shorrock (singer)
86 - Nancy Dussault (actress)
89 - 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; he moves the team to Detroit and renames it to "Lions".
1962 - Los Angeles Dodger Sandy Koufax pitched his first no-hitter in a game with the New York Mets.
1975 - Muhammad Ali retains the heavyweight championship with a unanimous decision over Joe Bugner in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
1978 - Willie McCovey hit his 500th career home run, the 12th player in MLB history to do so.
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 select University of Michigan center Chris Webber with the first pick in the NBA Draft. (The Magic then trade Webber to the Golden State Warriors.)
1994 - The United States Figure Skating Association stripped Tonya Harding of the national championship and banned her from the organization for life for her role in an 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 defeated Germany 2-0 in Yokohama, Japan to win its record fifth World Cup title.
2019 - The Brooklyn Nets load up on elite NBA talent on the first day of the free agency period by acquiring Kevin Durant from the Golden State Warriors, Kyrie Irving from the Boston Celtics and DeAndre Jordan from the New York Knicks.
2021 - American Abhimanyu Mishra becomes the youngest chess grandmaster ever at 12 years, 4 months old, surpassing Sergey Karjakin.
1859 - French acrobat Charles Blondin, aka Jean Francois Gravelet, walked across Niagara Falls on a tightrope in front of nearly 5,000 spectators.
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 H. Taft to be Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, succeeding the late Edward Douglass White.
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 on a 64-20 vote.
1963 - Pope Paul VI was crowned the 262nd head of the Roman Catholic Church.
1971 - The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, freed The New York Times and The Washington Post to resume immediate publication of articles based on the secret Pentagon Papers on the origins of the Vietnam War.
1971 - The 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which lowered the voting age to 18, was ratified when Ohio became the 38th state to approve it.
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.
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 for 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 its Lawrence v. Texas ruling).
1998 - The remains of a Vietnam War serviceman buried in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers, were identified as those of Air Force pilot Michael J. Blassie.
2001 - Vice President Dick Cheney underwent a surgical procedure to have a pacemaker installed.
2004 - The international Cassini spacecraft entered Saturn's orbit after a nearly seven-year journey.
2005 - Spain legalized same-sex marriage.
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.)
2012 - Islamist Mohammed Morsi became Egypt’s first freely elected president as he was sworn in during a pair of ceremonies.
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.
2017 - President Donald Trump and South Korea’s new leader, Moon Jae-in, concluding two days of talks at the White House, showed joint resolve on North Korea despite their divergent philosophies for addressing the nuclear threat.
2020 - Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed a landmark bill retiring the last state flag bearing the Confederate battle emblem.
2020 - Boston’s arts commission voted unanimously to remove a statue depicting a freed slave kneeling at Abraham Lincoln’s feet.
2021 - Pennsylvania’s highest court threw out Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction and released him from prison, ruling that the prosecutor who brought the case was bound by his predecessor’s agreement not to charge Cosby; the comedian had served nearly three years of a three- to 10-year sentence.
2021 - Sharply split along party lines, the House launched a new investigation of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, approving a special committee to probe the violent attack.
2021 - Actress Allison Mack was sentenced to three years in prison for manipulating women into becoming sex slaves for the spiritual leader of the cult-like group NXIVM.
Birthdays
30 - Nicole Franzel (reality star)
34 - Sean Marquette (actor)
36 - Alicia Fox (professional wrestler)
37 - Michael Phelps (swimmer)
37 - Cody Rhodes (professional wrestler)
38 - Fantasia (singer)
39 - Katherine Ryan (comedian)
39 - Cheryl Ann Tweedy (singer/TV personality)
40 - Susannah Flood (actress)
40 - Lizzy Caplan (actress)
41 - Tom Burke (actor)
43 - Rick Gonzalez (actor)
50 - Molly Parker (actress)
51 - Monica Potter (actress)
52 - Brian Bloom (actor)
53 - Tony Rock (actor/comedian)
56 - Peter Outerbridge (actor)
56 - Mike Tyson (boxer)
59 - Rupert Graves (actor)
60 - Deirdre Lovejoy (actress)
63 - Vincent D'Onofrio (actor)
66 - David Alan Grier (actor/comedian)
70 - David Garrison (actor)
72 - Leonard Whiting (actor)
78 - Glenn Shorrock (singer)
86 - Nancy Dussault (actress)
89 - 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; he moves the team to Detroit and renames it to "Lions".
1962 - Los Angeles Dodger Sandy Koufax pitched his first no-hitter in a game with the New York Mets.
1975 - Muhammad Ali retains the heavyweight championship with a unanimous decision over Joe Bugner in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
1978 - Willie McCovey hit his 500th career home run, the 12th player in MLB history to do so.
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 select University of Michigan center Chris Webber with the first pick in the NBA Draft. (The Magic then trade Webber to the Golden State Warriors.)
1994 - The United States Figure Skating Association stripped Tonya Harding of the national championship and banned her from the organization for life for her role in an 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 defeated Germany 2-0 in Yokohama, Japan to win its record fifth World Cup title.
2019 - The Brooklyn Nets load up on elite NBA talent on the first day of the free agency period by acquiring Kevin Durant from the Golden State Warriors, Kyrie Irving from the Boston Celtics and DeAndre Jordan from the New York Knicks.
2021 - American Abhimanyu Mishra becomes the youngest chess grandmaster ever at 12 years, 4 months old, surpassing Sergey Karjakin.
