TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – JUNE 30
1520 Spanish conquistadors are expelled from Tenochtitlan following an Aztec revolt against their rule under Hernán Cortés during “La Noche Triste” (the Night of Sadness). Many soldiers drown in the escape, and Aztec emperor Montezuma II dies in the struggle
1834 Congress creates Indian Territory (now Oklahoma)
1859 Jean Francois Gravelet aka Emile Blondin, a French daredevil, becomes the first man to walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope.
1860 Famous debate on Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution held at the Oxford University Museum and dominated by arguments between Thomas Henry Huxley and Bishop Samuel Wilberforce
1908 A mysterious explosion, possibly the result of a meteorite, levels thousands of trees in the Tunguska region of Siberia with a force approaching twenty megatons.
1921 President Warren G. Harding appointed former president William H. Taft chief justice of the United States.
1928 Radio Service Bulletin lists radio stations call signs that are to be changed to conform with international standards
1934 Adolf Hitler orders the purge of his own party in the “Night of the Long Knives.”
1934 NFL’s Portsmouth Spartans become Detroit Lions
1936 40 hour work week law approved (federal)
1940 US Fish & Wildlife Service established
1948 John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley demonstrate their invention, the transistor, for the first time.
1950 Pres Truman orders US troops into Korea
1953 The first all-fiberglass-bodied American sports car, the Corvette was produced on this day and with it’s sleek lines is among the best car design ever produced by the American Car Industry.
1955 The U.S. began funding West Germany’s rearmament.
1971 Three Soviet cosmonauts die when their spacecraft depressurizes during reentry.
1971 The 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age to 18, was ratified by the states.
1977 Marvel Comics publish the “Kiss book” tributing the rock group Kiss
1986 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that states could outlaw homosexual acts between consenting adults.
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.
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.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
