Monday, June 30, 2014

On This Day in History - June 30 Congress Impugns Parliament and Adopts Articles of War

Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

Jun 30, 1775: Congress impugns Parliament and adopts Articles of War

On this day in 1775, the Continental Congress drafts its rationale for taking up arms against Great Britain in the Articles of War.  

In the Articles of War, written one year before the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, Congress referred to "his Majesty's most faithful subjects in these Colonies" and laid the blame for colonial discontent not on King George III, but on "attempts of the British Ministry, to carry into execution, by force of arms, several unconstitutional and oppressive acts of the British parliaments for laying taxes in America."  

By phrasing their discontent this way, Congress attempted to notify the king that American colonists were unhappy with parliamentary policy. By July 1776, the Declaration of Independence proclaimed something very different:  

"The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States."  

Congress language is critical to understanding the seismic shift that had occurred in American thought in just 12 months. Indeed, Congress insisted that Thomas Jefferson remove any language from the declaration that implicated the people of Great Britain or their elected representatives in Parliament. The fundamental grounds upon which Americans were taking up arms had shifted. The militia that had fired upon Redcoats at Lexington and Concord had been angry with Parliament, not the king, who they still trusted to desire only good for all of his subjects around the globe. This belief changed after King George refused to so much as receive the so-called Olive Branch Petition, sent to him by Congress in July 1775 in a final attempt to make him aware of the colonists grievances. Patriots had hoped that Parliament had curtailed colonial rights without the king's full knowledge, and that the petition would cause him to come to his subjects' defense. When George III refused to read the petition, Patriots realized that Parliament was acting with royal knowledge and support. The king became the central focus of the Americans patriotic rage when English-born radical Thomas Paine published his blistering attack on the monarchy, Common Sense, in January 1776.





















Jun 30, 1971: Soviet cosmonauts perish in reentry disaster     

The three Soviet cosmonauts who served as the first crew of the world's first space station die when their spacecraft depressurizes during reentry.  

On June 6, the cosmonauts Georgi Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev were launched into space aboard Soyuz 11 on a mission to dock and enter Salyut 1, the Soviet space station that had been placed in orbit in April. The spacecraft successfully docked with the station, and the cosmonauts spent 23 days orbiting the earth. On June 30, they left Salyut 1 and began reentry procedures. When they fired the explosive bolts to separate the Soyuz 11 reentry capsule from another stage of the spacecraft, a critical valve was jerked open.  

One hundred miles above the earth, the capsule was suddenly exposed to the nearly pressureless environment of space. As the capsule rapidly depressurized, Patsayev tried to close the valve by hand but failed. Minutes later, the cosmonauts were dead. As a result of the tragedy, the Soviet Union did not send any future crews to Salyut 1, and it was more than two years before they attempted another manned mission.

















Jun 30, 1934: Night of the Long Knives

In Germany, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler orders a bloody purge of his own political party, assassinating hundreds of Nazis whom he believed had the potential to become political enemies in the future. The leadership of the Nazi Storm Troopers (SA), whose four million members had helped bring Hitler to power in the early 1930s, was especially targeted. Hitler feared that some of his followers had taken his early "National Socialism" propaganda too seriously and thus might compromise his plan to suppress workers' rights in exchange for German industry making the country war-ready.  

In the early 1920s, the ranks of Hitler's Nazi Party swelled with resentful Germans who sympathized with the party's bitter hatred of Germany's democratic government, leftist politics, and Jews. In November 1923, after the German government resumed the payment of war reparations to Britain and France, the Nazis launched the "Beer Hall Putsch"--their first attempt at seizing the German government by force. Hitler hoped that his nationalist revolution in Bavaria would spread to the dissatisfied German army, which in turn would bring down the government in Berlin. However, the uprising was immediately suppressed, and Hitler was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison for high treason.  

Sent to Landsberg jail, he spent his time dictating his autobiography, Mein Kampf, and working on his oratorical skills. After nine months in prison, political pressure from supporters of the Nazi Party forced his release. During the next few years, Hitler and the other leading Nazis reorganized their party as a fanatical mass movement that was able to gain a majority in the German parliament--the Reichstag--by legal means in 1932. In the same year, President Paul von Hindenburg defeated a presidential bid by Hitler, but in January 1933 he appointed Hitler chancellor, hoping that the powerful Nazi leader could be brought to heel as a member of the president's cabinet.  

However, Hindenburg underestimated Hitler's political audacity, and one of the new chancellor's first acts was to use the burning of the Reichstag building as a pretext for calling general elections. The police, under Nazi Hermann Goering, suppressed much of the party's opposition before the election, and the Nazis won a bare majority. Shortly after, Hitler took on absolute power through the Enabling Acts. In 1934, Hindenburg died, and the last remnants of Germany's democratic government were dismantled, leaving Hitler the sole master of a nation intent on war and genocide.






















June 30, 1936: Gone with the Wind published   

Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, one of the best-selling novels of all time and the basis for a blockbuster 1939 movie, is published on this day in 1936.  

In 1926, Mitchell was forced to quit her job as a reporter at the Atlanta Journal to recover from a series of physical injuries. With too much time on her hands, Mitchell soon grew restless. Working on a Remington typewriter, a gift from her second husband, John R. Marsh, in their cramped one-bedroom apartment, Mitchell began telling the story of an Atlanta belle named Pansy O'Hara.  

In tracing Pansy's tumultuous life from the antebellum South through the Civil War and into the Reconstruction era, Mitchell drew on the tales she had heard from her parents and other relatives, as well as from Confederate war veterans she had met as a young girl. While she was extremely secretive about her work, Mitchell eventually gave the manuscript to Harold Latham, an editor from New York's MacMillan Publishing. Latham encouraged Mitchell to complete the novel, with one important change: the heroine's name. Mitchell agreed to change it to Scarlett, now one of the most memorable names in the history of literature.  

Published in 1936, Gone with the Wind caused a sensation in Atlanta and went on to sell millions of copies in the United States and throughout the world. While the book drew some criticism for its romanticized view of the Old South and its slaveholding elite, its epic tale of war, passion and loss captivated readers far and wide. By the time Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1937, a movie project was already in the works. The film was produced by Hollywood giant David O. Selznick, who paid Mitchell a record-high $50,000 for the film rights to her book.  

After testing hundreds of unknowns and big-name stars to play Scarlett, Selznick hired British actress Vivien Leigh days after filming began. Clark Gable was also on board as Rhett Butler, Scarlett's dashing love interest. Plagued with problems on set, Gone with the Wind nonetheless became one of the highest-grossing and most acclaimed movies of all time, breaking box office records and winning nine Academy Awards out of 13 nominations.  

Though she didn't take part in the film adaptation of her book, Mitchell did attend its star-studded premiere in December 1939 in Atlanta. Tragically, she died just 10 years later, after she was struck by a speeding car while crossing Atlanta's Peachtree Street. Scarlett, a relatively unmemorable sequel to Gone with the Wind written by Alexandra Ripley, was published in 1992.



The Conquistadors took gold from the Aztecs. Russian troops occupied Danzig. The Tower Bridge in London opened. French troops left Algeria. Rwanda and Burundi gained independence The Atlanta Falcons came into existence. The Beatles landed in Tokyo for a tour.  Brazil trounced Italy for the World Cup title. West and East Germany merged their economies on the incredibly quick path towards reunification.

Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:


296 - St Marcellinus begins his reign as Catholic Pope

350 - Roman usurper Nepotianus, of the Constantinian dynasty, is defeated and killed by troops of the usurper Magnentius, in Rome.

833 - Louis, king of Austria, crowned

949 - Otto I the Great gives away bishopdom of Utrecht "foreestrecht"

1294 - Jews are expelled from Berne Switzerland

1371 - Arnold II of Horne chosen bishop of Utrecht

1397 - Denmark, Norway & Sweden sign Union of Kalmar under Queen Margaretha

1422 - Battle of Arbedo between the duke of Milan and the Swiss cantons.

1520 - Spanish conquerors under Cortes take gold from Aztecs

1520 - The Spaniards are expelled from Tenochtitlan.

1528 - Burgundy army occupies Utrecht

1548 - Emperor Charles V orders Catholics to become Lutherans

1559 - King Henry II of France is seriously injured in a jousting match against Gabriel de Montgomery.

1596 - English/Dutch fleet reach Cadiz

1598 - King Philip II moves to Escorial palace

1607 - Annales Ecclesiastici (Scientific History of Catholicism) published

1643 - Battle at Atherton Moor: Royalists beat parliamentary armies

1648 - French premier cardinal Mazarin calls Saint Louis Chamber together

1651 - The Deluge: Khmelnytsky Uprising - the Battle of Beresteczko ends with a Polish victory.

1688 - Whig-Lords questions prince Willem III van Orange on Protestantism

1690 - Battle at Beachy Head: French under Tourville beat Neth/English fleet

1700 - Gelderland goes on Gregorian calendar (tomorrow is 12/7/1700)

1722 - Hungarian Parliament condemns emperor Karel VI's Pragmatic Sanctions

1734 - Russian army occupies Danzig

1741 - Pope Benedict XIV encyclical forbidding traffic in alms

1755 - Philippines close all non-catholic Chinese restaurants

1758 - Seven Years' War: The Battle of Domstadtl takes place.

1794 - Battle of Fort Recovery, Ohio

1815 - US naval hero Stephen Decatur ends attacks by Algerian pirates

1834 - Congress creates Indian Territory (now Oklahoma)

1859 - Charles Blondin is first to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope

1860 - The 1860 Oxford evolution debate at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History takes place.

1861 - CSS Sumter slips past USS Brooklyn blockade

1862 - Battle at Nelson's Farm/Glendale/Frayser's Farm, Virginia: Confederate assault attack. 6th day of 7 days battles US Civil War

1862 - Gustave Flaubert completes "Salammbo"

1863 - Battles in Hanover Pennsylvania: 80 casualties

1863 - Dutch colony Suriname counts population of 33,000 slaves

1863 - Skirmish at Sporting Hill Pennsylvania

1865 - 8 alleged conspirators in assassination of Lincoln are found guilty

1870 - Ada Kepley becomes 1st female law college graduate

1871 - Guatemala revolts for agrarian reforms

1876 - Serbia declared war on Turkey

1879 - Ex-khedive Ismael Pasha leaves Cairo with train full stolen goods

1881 - Henry Highland Garnet, named minister to Liberia

1893 - Excelsior diamond (blue-white 995 carats) discovered

1894 - Korea declares independence from China, asks for Japanese aid

1894 - London Tower Bridge opens

1896 - W S Hadaway patents electric stove

1899 - Jack Hearne takes a hat-trick Eng v Australia at Headingley

1900 - 4 German liners burn at Hobokon Docks NJ, 326 die

1902 - Cleveland is 1st AL team to hit 3 consecutive HRs in same inning

1906 - John Hope becomes 1st black president of Morehouse College

1906 - Pure Food & Drug Act & Meat Inspection Act adopted

1908 - Boston's Cy Young's 2nd no-hitter, beats NY Highlanders, 8-0

1908 - Giant fireball most likely caused by the air burst of a large meteoroid or comet impacts in Siberia (Tunguska Event)

1909 - Jack Johnson fights Tony Ross to no decision in 6 for hw boxing title

1910 - Russia absorbs Finland

1911 - Adolphe Messimy appointed French minister of War

1911 - US Assay Office in St Louis, Missouri closes

1913 - 2nd Balkan War begins

1913 - NY Giants score 10 in 10th to beat Phillies 11-1

1914 - Mahatma Gandhi's 1st arrest, campaigning for Indian rights in South Africa

1916 - General Douglas Haig reports "The men are in splendid spirits"

1923 - NZ claims Ross Dependency in Antarctica

1924 - England score 2-503 in day's play v South Africa at Lord's

1927 - Augusto Cesar Sandino issues his Manifesto Politico

1927 - US Assay Office in Deadwood, South Dakota closes

1928 - Radio Service Bulletin lists radio stations call signs that are to be changed to conform with international standards

1930 - 1st round-the-world radio broadcast Schenectady NY

1930 - Bradman scores 254 at Lord's v England, 320 mins, 25 fours

1933 - 50,000 demonstrate in Antwerp against fascism/war

1933 - Card's Dizzy Dean strikes out 17 Cubs to win 8-2

1933 - US Assay Offices in Helena Mon, Boise Id & Salt Lake City Utah closes

1934 - "Night of Long Knives," Hitler stages bloody purge of Nazi party

1934 - French Equatorial Africa constituted a single administrative unit

1934 - NFL's Portsmouth Spartans become Detroit Lions

1935 - Danno O'Mahoney beats Ed George in Boston, to become wrestling champ

1935 - The Senegalese Socialist Party holds its first congress.

1936 - "Gone With the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell, published

1936 - 40 hour work week law approved (federal)

1936 - Haile Selassie asks League of Nations for sanctions against Italy

1936 - Margaret Mitchell's novel "Gone with the Wind" published

1938 - Superman 1st appears in DC Comics' Action Comics Series issue #1

1938 - Final game at Phila's Baker Bowl, Giants beat Phils 14-1

1939 - Heinkel He 176 rocket plane flies for 1st time, at Peenemunde

1940 - "Brenda Starr" cartoon strip, by Dale Messick, first appears

1940 - 58 U-boats (284,000 ton) sunk this month

1940 - US Fish & Wildlife Service forms

1941 - 61 U-boats (310,000 ton) sunk this month

1941 - Pro-Nazi group declares Ukraine independence

1941 - World War II: Operation Barbarossa - Germany captures Lviv, Ukraine.

1942 - 144 U boats (700,000 ton) sunk this month

1942 - Col-gen Von Paul' 6th Army enters Ukraine

1942 - US Mint in New Orleans ceases operation

1942 - US bombs Celebes & Timor

1943 - Gen MacArthur begins Operation Cartwheel (island-hopping)

1944 - Allies land on Vogelkop, New Guinea

1944 - French Cotentin Peninsula in allied hands

1944 - Universal strike against nazi terror in Copenhagen

1944 - World War II: The Battle of Cherbourg ends with the fall of the strategically valuable port to American forces.

1945 - 17-day newspaper strike in NY begins

1948 - Cleve Indian Bob Lemon no-hits Detroit Tigers, 2-0

1948 - Last British armies leave Israel

1948 - Transistor as a substitute for Radio tubes announced (Bell Labs)

1949 - Dutch troops evacuate Djakarta

1950 - US Gen MacArthur visits front in South Korea/asks for US troops

1951 - "Victor Borge Show," last airs on NBC-TV

1951 - NAACP begins attack on school segregation & discrimination

1952 - "Guiding Light" soap opera moves from radio to TV

1952 - Hussein Sirri Pasha forms Egyptian government

1953 - First Corvette manufactured

1954 - Largest check: Internal US Treasury check at $4,176,969,623.57

1954 - Yank pitcher Tom Morgan ties record by hitting 3 batters in 1 inning This was also Bobby Brown's last game; he retired to become a doctor

1955 - "Johnny Carson Show," debuts on CBS-TV

1956 - "Pipe Dream" closes at Shubert Theater NYC after 245 performances

1956 - "Shangri-La" closes at Winter Garden Theater NYC after 21 performances

1956 - Lenins politics testament (1923) published in Moscow

1956 - United DC-7 & TWA collide over Grand Canyon killing 128 1958 - "No Chemise, Please" by Gerry Grenahan peaks at #24

1958 - Dutch government of Drees ends obligatory dismissal of married teachers

1959 - During a game in Wrigley Field, 2 balls were in play at same time

1960 - US stops sugar import from Cuba

1960 - Zaire (formerly Belgian Congo) declares independence from Belgium

1961 - Buddy Rogers beats Pat O'Conner in Chicago, to become NWA champ

1961 - Explorer (12) fails to reach Earth orbit

1962 - French Foreign Legion leaves Algeria

1962 - LA Dodger Sandy Koufax no-hits NY Mets, 5-0

1962 - Premier Ben Khedda disbands Algerian Liberation Army fighters

1962 - Rwanda & Burundi become independent

1963 - Cardinal Montini elected Pope Paul VI, 262nd head of RC Church

1963 - Ciaculli massacre: A car bomb, intended for Mafia boss Salvatore Greco, kills seven police and military officers near Palermo.

1964 - Centaur 3 launch vehicle fails to make Earth orbit

1964 - Last UN troops leave Congo

1965 - NFL grants Atlanta Falcons a franchise

1966 - Beatles land in Tokyo for a concert tour

1966 - Leopoldville Congo is renamed Kinshasa

1966 - Richath Helms, promoted from deputy director to 8th director of CIA

1966 - Test cricket debut of Derek Underwood, v WI Trent Bridge, wicketless

1966 - Vice Adm William F Raborn Jr, USN, ends term as 7th director of CIA

1967 - Maj Robert H Lawrence Jr named 1st black astronaut 1967 - Moise Tsjombe kidnapped to Algeria

1967 - Phillies Cookie Rojas pitches, plays 9th position since joining Phils

1968 - E German party leader Ulbricht receives "Order of October Revolution"

1968 - Gaullists win French parliamentary election, 358 of 458 chairs

1969 - Derek Clayton of Australia sets Marathon record at 2:08:34 1969 - Spain cedes Ifni to Morocco

1970 - Brazil beats Italy 4-1 in soccer's 9th World Cup at Mexico City

1970 - Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium opens, Braves beat Reds 8-2

1971 - Biesheuvel government forms

1971 - Dutch Biesheuvel government begins [or May 6]

1971 - Ohio becomes 38th state to approve of lower voting age to 18, thus ratifying 26th amendment

1972 - 1st leap second day; also 1981, 1982, 1983, 1985

1972 - Cincinnati Reds are 11 games back in NL, & go on to win pennant

1972 - One leap second is added to the UTC time system.

1973 - "Burns & Schreiber Comedy Hour," TV Variety; debut on ABC

1973 - Biggest US tanker "Brooklyn" christened (230,000 ton)

1973 - Observers aboard Concorde jet observe 72-min solar eclipse

1974 - 2nd du Maurier Golf Classic (Peter Jackson Classic): Carole Jo Skala

1974 - Petty thief Peter Leonard sets fire to cover burglary that torches "Gulliver's" nightclub killing 24 (Port Chester NY)

1974 - Soviet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov defects to west

1975 - Bundy victim Shelley Robertson disappears in Colorado

1975 - Heavyweight Muhammad Ali defeats Joe Bugner in Malaysia

1975 - University of California reports galaxy 3C123 at 8 billion light years distance

1976 - John Walker of NZ sets record for 2000 m, 4:51.4

1977 - Jimmy Carter cans B-1A bomber later "B-1's the B-52"

1977 - Marvel Comics publish "Kiss book" tributing rock group Kiss

1977 - US Railway Post Office final train run (NY to Wash DC)

1977 - Yankee DH Cliff Johnson hit 3 consecutive HRs in Toronto

1978 - Giants' Willie McCovey becomes 12th to hit 500 HRs

1978 - Larry Doby becomes manager of Chicago White Sox

1979 - "Got To Go Disco" closes at Minskoff Theater NYC after 8 performances

1979 - Johnny Rotten & Joan Collins appear together on BBC's Juke Box Jury

1980 - West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt visits Moscow

1981 - China's Communist Party condemns late Mao Tse-tung's policy

1982 - "Lena Horne: Lady, Music" closes at Nederlander NYC after 333 perfs

1982 - Federal Equal Rights Amendment fails 3 states short of ratification

1982 - Orbiter Challenger (OV-099) rolled out at Palmdale

1982 - NJ NHL franchise officially named Devils by fan balloting, runner-up names are Blades, Meadowlanders & Americans

1984 - Failed coup by cocaine growers in Bolivia

1984 - Last sixpence minted in Great-Britain (in use since 1551)

1984 - Longest pro football game, LA Express beats Mich Panthers 27-21 in USFL playoffs, games lasts 93 minutes 33 seconds

1985 - "King & I" closes at Broadway Theater NYC after 191 performances

1985 - 39 remaining hostages from Flight 847 are freed in Beirut

1985 - LA Dodger Pedro Gonzalez sets NL record of 15 HRs in June

1986 - Georgia sodomy law upheld by Supreme Court (5-4)

1987 - Emmy 14th Daytime Award presentation - Susan Lucci loses for 8th time

1987 - Patrik Sjoberg of Sweden set a new world record in high jump

1987 - The Royal Canadian Mint introduces the $1 coin, known as the Loonie.

1988 - "Sledge Hammer!" last aires on ABC-TV

1988 - Brooklyn dedicates a bus depot honoring Jackie Gleason

1988 - Chicago agrees to build a new stadium so White Sox won't move to Fla

1988 - French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre is excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church.

1989 - "Les Miserables," opens at Theatre Muzyczyny, Gdynia

1989 - Attorney General Thornburgh orders Joseph Doherty deported to UK

1989 - Congressman Lukins found guilty of having sex with a 16 year old girl

1989 - NASA closes down tracking stations in Santiago, Chile & Guam

1989 - NY State Legislature passes Staten Island secession bill

1989 - Sudan suspends interim constitution following coup

1990 - East & West Germany merge their economies

1992 - 1st pay bathrooms in US open: 25 cents (NYC)

1992 - Fidel Ramos installed as president of Philippines

1992 - Total solar eclipse in Uruguay (5m21s)

1992 - Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher joins the House of Lords as Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven.

1993 - "Les Miserables," opens at Point Theatre, Dublin

1993 - Richard Jacobs announces Chief Wahoo will go to Jacobs Field

1994 - Airbus A330 crash at Toulouse France (7 killed)

1994 - Giants outfielder Darren Lewis errors after record 392 flawless games

1994 - Pre-trial hearings open in LA against OJ Simpson

1994 - US Ice Skating Federation bars Tonya Harding for life

1995 - Indians' Eddie Murray, is 20th to reach 3,000 hits

1996 - "Buried Child" closes at Brook Atkinson Theater NYC after 77 perfs

1996 - "Moon Over Buffalo" closes at Martin Beck Theater NYC after 308 perfs

1996 - "State Fair," closes at Music Box Theater NYC after 118 performances

1996 - Caroline Frolic (Miss Ontario), crowned Miss Renaissance USA

1997 - Leap Second to synchronize atomic clocks

1998 - Sega Channel, cable's 1st on-demand video game service, closes down

2005 - Spain legalizes same-sex marriage.

2007 - A car crashes into Glasgow International Airport in Scotland, believed to be a terrorist attack.

2009 - Yemenia Flight 626 crashes off the coast of Moroni, Comoros killing 152 people and leaving 1 survivor

2012 - 30 people attending a funeral in Zamalka, Syria, are killed on a day that saw 83 civilian deaths

2012 - Mid-Atlantic storms in the United States kill 13 and leave millions without power in Ohio, Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia.

2012 - Mohamed Morsi is sworn in as President of Egypt


1097 - The Crusaders defeated the Turks at Dorylaeum.   1841 - The Erie Railroad rolled out its first passenger train.   1859 - Charles Blondin became the first person to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope.   1894 - Korea declared independence from China and asked for Japanese aid.   1908 - An explosion in Siberia, which knocked down trees in a 40-mile radius and struck people unconscious some 40 miles away. It was believed by some scientists to be caused by a falling fragment from a meteorite.   1912 - Belgian workers went on strike to demand universal suffrage.   1913 - Fighting broke out between Bulgaria and Greece and Spain. It was the beginning of the Second Balkan War.   1915 - During World War I, the Second Battle Artois ended when the French failed to take Vimy Ridge.   1922 - Irish rebels in London assassinate Sir Henry Wilson, the British deputy for Northern Ireland.   1930 - France pulled its troops out of Germany’s Rhineland.   1934 - Adolf Hitler purged the Nazi Party by destroying the SA and bringing to power the SS in the "Night of the Long Knives."   1935 - Fascists caused an uproar at the League of Nations when Haile Selassie of Ethiopia speaks.   1936 - Margaret Mitchell’s book, "Gone with the Wind," was published in New York City.   1950 - U.S. President Harry Truman ordered U.S. troops into Korea and authorizes the draft.   1951 - On orders from Washington, General Matthew Ridgeway broadcasts that the United Nations was willing to discuss an armistice with North Korea.   1952 - CBS-TV debuted "The Guiding Light."   1953 - The first Corvette rolled off the Chevrolet assembly line in Flint, MI. It sold for $3,250.   1955 - The U.S. began funding West Germany’s rearmament.   1957 - The American occupation headquarters in Japan was dissolved.   1958 - The U.S. Congress passed a law authorizing the admission of Alaska as the 49th state in the Union.   1960 - The Katanga province seceded from Congo (upon Congo's independence from Belgium).   1962 - Los Angeles Dodger Sandy Koufax pitched his first no-hitter in a game with the New York Mets.   1964 - The last of U.N. troops left Congo after a four-year effort to bring stability to the country.   1970 - The Cincinnati Reds moved to their new home at Riverfront Stadium.   1971 - The U.S. Supreme Court allowed the New York Times to continue publishing the Pentagon Papers.   1971 - The Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 11 returned to Earth. The three cosmonauts were found dead inside.   1971 - The 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified when Ohio became the 38th state to approve it. The amendment lowered the minimum voting age to 18.   1974 - Russian ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov defected in Toronto, Canada.   1974 - The July 4th scene from the Steven Spielberg movie "Jaws" was filmed.   1977 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced his opposition to the B-1 bomber.   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.   1985 - Yul Brynner left his role as the King of Siam after 4,600 performances in "The King and I."   1986 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that states could outlaw homosexual acts between consenting adults.   1994 - The U.S. Figure Skating Association stripped Tonya Harding of the 1994 national championship and banned her from the organization for life for an attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan.   1998 - Officials confirmed that the remains of a Vietnam War serviceman buried in the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery were identified as those of Air Force pilot Michael J. Blassie.   2000 - U.S. President Clinton signed the E-Signature bill to give the same legal validity to an electronic signature as a signature in pen and ink.


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. 1921 President Warren G. Harding appointed former president William H. Taft chief justice of the United States. 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. 1971 The 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age to 18, was ratified by the states. 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.



The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:

http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php

http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/jun30.htm

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory

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