Milestones for June 30

1520 Mexico City, Mexico

Montezuma II 1466-1520 is stoned to death by his own people; last emperor of the Aztec people, the most advanced civilization in North America, became leader in 1502, succeeding Ahuizotl, who reigned from 1486; when the Spanish conqueror Hernando Cortez and his troops arrived in Mexico's capital city, Tenochtitlán, Nov. 8, 1519, Montezuma welcomed them as descendants of the god Quetzalcoatl, but Cortez made him a hostage and established the city as headquarters for the Spanish conquest; in 1520 Cortez briefly left Tenochtitlán to put down a rising, and when he returned on June 27, thousands of Aztecs attacked his army; when he brought out Montezuma to quiet the people, they threw stones at their emperor, wounding him gravely, and he died three days later; on August 13 Montezuma's successor surrendered, and the Aztec empire came to an end.
[picture: US Capitol frieze]

1859 Niagara Falls

Watched by 25,000 people, French circus acrobat Charles Blondin (Jean Francois Gravelet) walks across the Niagara Gorge from the United States to Canada on a tightrope, balancing a 38 foot pole; halfway across, he lowered a rope to the Maid of the Mist, pulled up a bottle and sat down for a drink; starting his ascent toward the Canadian shore, he paused, steadied his balancing pole and suddenly executed a back somersault; Blondin later crossed his rope on a bicycle, walked across blindfolded, pushed a wheelbarrow, cooked an omelet in the centre and then made the trip with his hands and feet manacled; on August 19 he barely managed to cross the Gorge carrying his manager, Harry Colcord, on his back, after a gambler had cut one of the guy ropes.

1908 Tunguska River, Siberia

An exploding meteorite rocks the sky above eastern Siberia at about 7:30 am, centered on 101 E by 62 N near the Stony Tunguska River 92 kilometers north of Vanavara; the estimated 20 megaton ++ shock wave is felt as far away as London, England, and levels trees in an area nearly 75 km wide; it also causes a magnetic storm that knocks out compasses, and a firestorm followed by black rain and an illumination that, it is said, could be seen hundreds of miles away; for a month afterward, very bright nights were experienced world wide; the shaman-chief of the local Tungus (Evenk) people declared the area enchanted and sealed off. Recently, Christopher Chyba (now at NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center), Paul Thomas (University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire), and Kevin Zahnle (NASA-Ames Research Center) conducted a computer simulation that suggested that the Tunguska event was caused by a stony asteroid at least 30 m in diameter, moving at a speed of about 15 km per second, which disintegrated at a height of about 8 km above the ground; it was the most powerful, natural explosion in recorded history. [pictures: a decade after the event, and the overgrown site today]

1934 Munich, Germany

Adolf Hitler mounts a purge against Ernst Röhm's four million brown shirted Nazi storm troopers, the SA (Sturmabteilung) during "The Night of the Long Knives", arresting Röhm, a street thug who had been with Hitler from the beginning of the Nazi movement; many brownshirts wanted to become a true revolutionary army in place of the regular German Army, but Hitler promised the generals he would restore their former military glory and break the shackles of the Treaty of Versailles which limited the Army to 100,000 men and prevented modernization; within the SA was a highly disciplined organization known as the SS (Shutzstaffel), formed in 1925 as Hitler's personal body guard. SS chief Heinrich Himmler and his second-in-command, Reinhard Heydrich, and Hermann Göring, began plotting against Röhm, and spread rumours that Röhm and the SA were planning a violent takeover of power (putsch); Röhm and his supporters are sent to Stadelheim prison outside Munich to be later shot by the SS. SS execution squads along with Göring's private police force roared through the streets hunting down SA leaders and anyone on the prepared list of political enemies (known as the Reich List of Unwanted Persons), such as Gustav von Kahr, who opposed Hitler during the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923, Father Bernhard Stempfle, who had taken some of the dictation for Hitler's book Mein Kampf and knew too much about Hitler, Kurt von Schleicher, former Chancellor of Germany and master of political intrigue, who had helped topple democracy in Germany and put Hitler in power, and Berlin SA leader Karl Ernst, who was involved in torching the Reichstag building in February, 1933.

1936 New York CIty

Margaret Mitchell publishes her novel, Gone with the Wind; the 1,073 page toem became one of the fastest selling books in historym, with sales peaking in October that year when it sold 50,000 copies in one day; 1937 won the Pulitzer Prize; by the time Mitchell died in 1949, over 8 million copies had been sold.

1936 Geneva, Switerland

Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia appears before the League of Nations to appeal for help following Italy's invasion of Ethiopia and his exile; the League's response in ineffectual.

1948 Murray Hill, New Jersey

Ralph Brown, Head of Bell Labs, announces at a press conference held at Bell's West Street premises, that scientists Walter Brattain, John Bardeen and William Shockley had invented a substitute for radio vacuum tubes called the point-contact transistor; named because it is a resistor or semi-conductor device which can amplify electrical signals as they are transferred through it; the first version was made from a tiny slab of Germanium, some pieces of gold foil, a paper clip and some bits of plastic; around the edge of a triangular plastic wedge a small strip of gold foil was glued and this foil covered wedge pressed down into the Germanium surface with a makeshift spring, fashioned from a paper clip; the assembly, less than one inch high, was clamped together by a U-shaped piece of polystyrene resting upright on one of its arms; two copper wires were soldered to the edges of the gold foil and connected to batteries, transformers and an oscilloscope, needed to assess performanc; two years later, Bell scientists perfect the techniques needed to grow Germanium crystals with the correct characteristics to act as transistors; in 1956, the Bell team was rewarded with the Nobel Prize in Physics. [picture: the original transistor]

1953 Flint, Michigan

First Corvette built on a special Chevrolet assembly line in Flint; had a fiberglass body resting on a unique chassis with a 102-inch wheelbase, a chromed-framed grill with 13 heavy vertical chrome bars, rounded front fenders with recessed headlights, no side windows or outside door handles, a wraparound windshield and protruding fender integrated tailights. The engine was a high performance triple-carburetor Blue Flame Six version of the venerable Stovebolt 6-cylinder engine, producing 150 horsepower from its 235 cubic inches, and backed by a 2-speed Powerglide automatic transmission; The interior featured a floor mounted shifter and a full array of gauges including a tachometer; first models sold for $3,498; all '53 Vettes were painted white and had red interior.

Other Events

0296 06 30 St Marcellinus begins his reign as Catholic Pope
0833 06 30 Louis, king of Austria, crowned
0949 06 30 Otto I the Great gives away bishopdom of Utrecht
1294 06 30 Jews are expelled from Berne Switzerland
1371 06 30 Arnold II of Horne chosen bishop of Utrecht
1397 06 30 Denmark, Norway & Sweden sign Union of Kalmar under Queen Margaretha
1520 06 30 Spanish conquerors under Cortes take gold from Aztecs
1528 06 30 Burgundy army occupies Utrecht
1548 06 30 Emperor Charles V orders Catholics to become Lutherans
1559 06 30 Duke of Montgomery wounds king Henri II during tournament
1596 06 30 English/Dutch fleet reach Cadiz
1598 06 30 King Philip II moves to Escorial palace
1607 06 30 Annales Ecclesiastici (Scientific History of Catholicism) published
1643 06 30 Battle at Atherton Moor: Royalists beat parliamentary armies
1648 06 30 French premier cardinal Mazarin calls Saint Louis Chamber together
1688 06 30 Whig-Lords questions prince Willem III van Orange on Protestantism
1690 06 30 Battle at Beachy Head: French under Tourville beat Neth/English fleet
1700 06 30 Gelderland goes on Gregorian calendar (tomorrow is 12/7/1700)
1722 06 30 Hungarian Parliament condemns emperor Karel VI's Pragmatic Sanctions
1734 06 30 Russian army occupies Danzig
1741 06 30 Pope Benedict XIV encyclical forbidding traffic in alms
1755 06 30 Philippines close all non-catholic Chinese restaurants
1794 06 30 Battle of Fort Recovery, Ohio
1815 06 30 US naval hero Stephen Decatur ends attacks by Algerian pirates
1834 06 30 Congress creates Indian Territory (now Oklahoma)
1859 06 30 Charles Blondin is first to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope
1861 06 30 CSS Sumter slips past USS Brooklyn blockade
1862 06 30 Battle at Nelson's Farm, Virginia
1862 06 30 Battle at Turkey Bridge Virginia: Confederate assault attack
1862 06 30 Day 6 of 7 Days-Battle of White Oak Swamp VA (Frayser's Farm)
1862 06 30 Gustave Flaubert completes Salammbo
1863 06 30 Battles in Hanover Pennsylvania: 80 casualties
1863 06 30 Dutch colony Suriname counts population of 33,000 slaves
1863 06 30 Skirmish at Sporting Hill Pennsylvania
1865 06 30 8 alleged conspirators in assassination of Lincoln are found guilty
1870 06 30 Ada Kepley becomes first female law college graduate
1871 06 30 Guatemala revolts for agrarian reforms
1876 06 30 Serbia declares war on Turkey
1879 06 30 Ex-khedive Ismael Pasha leaves Cairo with train full stolen goods
1881 06 30 Henry Highland Garnet, named minister to Liberia
1893 06 30 Excelsior diamond (blue-white 995 carats) discovered
1894 06 30 Korea declares independence from China, asks for Japanese aid
1894 06 30 London Tower Bridge opens
1896 06 30 W S Hadaway patents electric stove
1899 06 30 Jack Hearne takes a hat-trick Eng v Australia at Headingley
1900 06 30 4 German liners burn at Hobokon Docks NJ, 326 die
1902 06 30 Cleveland is first AL team to hit 3 consecutive HRs in same inning
1906 06 30 John Hope becomes first black president of Morehouse College
1906 06 30 Pure Food & Drug Act & Meat Inspection Act adopted
1908 06 30 Boston's Cy Young's 2nd no-hitter, beats NY Highlanders, 8-0
1908 06 30 Giant fireball impacts in Siberia (Tunguska Event) (Enckes comet?)
1909 06 30 Jack Johnson fights Tony Ross to no decision in 6 for hw boxing title
1910 06 30 Russia absorbs Finland
1911 06 30 Adolphe Messimy appointed French minister of War
1911 06 30 US Assay Office in St Louis, Missouri closes
1913 06 30 2nd Balkan War begins
1913 06 30 NY Giants score 10 in 10th to beat Phillies 11-1
1914 06 30 Mahatma Gandhi's first arrest, campaigning for Indian rights in S Africa
1916 06 30 22nd US Golf Open: Chick Evans shoots a 286 at Minikahda Club MINN
1916 06 30 General Douglas Haig reports The men are in splendid spirits
1923 06 30 NZ claims Ross Dependency in Antarctica
1924 06 30 England score 2-503 in day's play v S Africa at Lord's
1927 06 30 Augusto Cesar Sandino issues his Manifesto Politico
1927 06 30 US Assay Office in Deadwood, South Dakota closes
1928 06 30 Radio Service Bulletin lists radio stations call signs that are to be changed to conform with international standards
1929 06 30 33rd US Golf Open: Bobby Jones shoots a 294 at Winged Foot CC NY
1930 06 30 First round-the-world radio broadcast Schenectady NY
1930 06 30 Bradman scores 254 at Lord's v England, 320 mins, 25 fours
1933 06 30 50,000 demonstrate in Antwerp against fascism/war
1933 06 30 Card's Dizzy Dean strikes out 17 Cubs to win 8-2
1933 06 30 US Assay Offices in Helena Mon, Boise Id & Salt Lake City Utah closes
1934 06 30 Night of Long Knives, Hitler stages bloody purge of Nazi party
1934 06 30 French Equatorial Africa constituted a single administrative unit
1934 06 30 NFL's Portsmouth Spartans become Detroit Lions
1935 06 30 Danno O'Mahoney beats Ed George in Boston, to become wrestling champ
1936 06 30 Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, published
1936 06 30 40 hour work week law approved (federal)
1936 06 30 Haile Selassie asks League of Nations for sanctions against Italy
1936 06 30 Margaret Mitchell's novel Gone with the Wind published
1938 06 30 Final game at Phila's Baker Bowl, Giants beat Phils 14-1
1939 06 30 Heinkel He 176 rocket plane flies for first time, at Peenem�nde
1940 06 30 Brenda Starr cartoon strip, by Dale Messick, first appears
1940 06 30 58 U-boats (284,000 ton) sunk this month
1940 06 30 US Fish & Wildlife Service forms
1941 06 30 61 U-boats (310,000 ton) sunk this month
1941 06 30 Pro-nazi group declares Ukraine independence
1942 06 30 144 U boats (700,000 ton) sunk this month
1942 06 30 Col-gen Von Paul' 6th Army enters Ukraine
1942 06 30 US Mint in New Orleans ceases operation
1942 06 30 US bombs Celebes & Timor
1943 06 30 Gen MacArthur begins Operation Cartwheel (island-hopping)
1944 06 30 Allies land on Vogelkop, New Guinea
1944 06 30 French Cotentin Peninsula in allied hands
1944 06 30 Universal strike against nazi terror in Copenhagen
1945 06 30 17-day newspaper strike in NY begins
1948 06 30 Cleve Indian Bob Lemon no-hits Detroit Tigers, 2-0
1948 06 30 Last British armies leave Israel
1948 06 30 Transistor as a substitute for Radio tubes announced (Bell Labs)
1949 06 30 Dutch troops evacuate Djakarta
1950 06 30 US Gen MacArthur visits front in South Korea/asks for US troops
1951 06 30 Victor Borge Show, last airs on NBC-TV
1951 06 30 NAACP begins attack on school segregation & discrimination
1952 06 30 Guiding Light soap opera moves from radio to TV
1952 06 30 Hussein Sirri Pasha forms Egyptian government
1953 06 30 First Corvette manufactured
1954 06 30 Largest check: Internal US Treasury check at $4,176,969,623.57
1954 06 30 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 06 30 Johnny Carson Show, debuts on CBS-TV
1956 06 30 Pipe Dream closes at Shubert Theater NYC after 245 performances
1956 06 30 Shangri-La closes at Winter Garden Theater NYC after 21 performances
1956 06 30 Lenins politics testament (1923) published in Moscow
1956 06 30 United DC-7 & TWA collide over Grand Canyon killing 128
1958 06 30 No Chemise, Please by Gerry Grenahan peaks at #24
1958 06 30 Dutch Govt of Drees ends obligatory dismissal of married teachers
1959 06 30 During a game in Wrigley Field, 2 balls were in play at same time
1960 06 30 US stops sugar import from Cuba
1960 06 30 Zaire (formerly Belgian Congo) declares independence from Belgium
1961 06 30 Buddy Rogers beats Pat O'Conner in Chicago, to become NWA champ
1961 06 30 Explorer (12) fails to reach Earth orbit
1962 06 30 17th US Women's Open Golf Championship won by Murle Lindstrom
1962 06 30 French Foreign Legion leaves Algeria
1962 06 30 LA Dodger Sandy Koufax no-hits NY Mets, 5-0
1962 06 30 Premier Ben Khedda disbands Algerian Liberation Army fighters
1962 06 30 Rwanda & Burundi become independent
1963 06 30 Cardinal Montini elected Pope Paul VI, 262nd head of RC Church
1963 06 30 Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Carvel Ladies Golf Open
1964 06 30 Centaur 3 launch vehicle fails to make Earth orbit
1964 06 30 Last UN troops leave Congo
1965 06 30 NFL grants Atlanta Falcons a franchise
1966 06 30 Beatles land in Tokyo for a concert tour
1966 06 30 Leopoldville Congo is renamed Kinshasa
1966 06 30 Richath Helms, promoted from deputy director to 8th director of CIA
1966 06 30 Test cricket debut of Derek Underwood, v WI Trent Bridge, wicketless
1966 06 30 Vice Adm William F Raborn Jr, USN, ends term as 7th director of CIA
1967 06 30 Maj Robert H Lawrence Jr named first black astronaut
1967 06 30 Mo�se Tsjombe kidnapped to Algeria
1967 06 30 Phillies Cookie Rojas pitches, plays 9th position since joining Phils
1968 06 30 E German party leader Ulbricht receives Order of October Revolution
1968 06 30 Gaullists win French parliamentary election, 358 of 458 chairs
1968 06 30 Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Lady Carling Golf Open
1969 06 30 Derek Clayton of Australia sets Marathon record at 2:08:34
1969 06 30 Spain cedes Ifni to Morocco
1970 06 30 Brazil beats Italy 4-1 in soccer's 9th World Cup at Mexico City
1970 06 30 Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium opens, Braves beat Reds 8-2
1971 06 30 Biesheuvel govt forms
1971 06 30 Dutch Biesheuvel government begins [or May 6]
1971 06 30 Ohio becomes 38th state to approve of lower voting age to 18, thus ratifying 26th amendment
1972 06 30 First leap second day; also 1981, 1982, 1983, 1985
1972 06 30 Cincinnati Reds are 11 games back in NL, & go on to win pennant
1973 06 30 Burns & Schreiber Comedy Hour, TV Variety; debut on ABC
1973 06 30 Biggest US tanker Brooklyn christened (230,000 ton)
1973 06 30 Observers aboard Concorde jet observe 72-min solar eclipse
1974 06 30 2nd du Maurier Golf Classic (Peter Jackson Classic): Carole Jo Skala
1974 06 30 Petty thief Peter Leonard sets fire to cover burglary that torches Gulliver's nightclub killing 24 (Port Chester NY)
1974 06 30 Soviet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov defects to west
1975 06 30 Bundy victim Shelley Robertson disappears in Colorado
1975 06 30 Cher, just 4 days after divorcing Sonny Bono marries Gregg Allman
1975 06 30 Heavyweight Muhammad Ali defeats Joe Bugner in Malaysia
1975 06 30 U of Calif reports galaxy 3C123 at 8 billion light years distance
1976 06 30 John Walker of NZ sets record for 2000 m, 4:51.4
1977 06 30 Jimmy Carter cans B-1A bomber later B-1's the B-52
1977 06 30 Marvel Comics publish Kiss book tributing rock group Kiss
1977 06 30 US Railway Post Office final train run (NY to Wash DC)
1977 06 30 Yankee DH Cliff Johnson hit 3 consecutive HRs in Toronto
1978 06 30 English prince Michael marries baroness Marie-Christine von Reibnitz
1978 06 30 Giants' Willie McCovey becomes 12th to hit 500 HRs
1978 06 30 Larry Doby becomes manager of Chicago White Sox
1979 06 30 Got To Go Disco closes at Minskoff Theater NYC after 8 performances
1979 06 30 Johnny Rotten & Joan Collins appear together on BBC's Juke Box Jury
1980 06 30 West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt visits Moscow
1981 06 30 China's Communist Party condemns late Mao Tse-tung's policy
1982 06 30 Lena Horne: Lady, Music closes at Nederlander NYC after 333 perfs
1982 06 30 Federal Equal Rights Amendment fails 3 states short of ratification
1982 06 30 Orbiter Challenger (OV-099) rolled out at Palmdale
1982 06 30 NJ NHL franchise officially named Devils by fan balloting, runner-up names are Blades, Meadowlanders & Americans
1984 06 30 Failed coup by cocaine growers in Bolivia
1984 06 30 Last sixpence minted in Great-Britain (in use since 1551)
1984 06 30 Longest pro football game, LA Express beats Mich Panthers 27-21 in USFL playoffs, games lasts 93 minutes 33 seconds
1985 06 30 King & I closes at Broadway Theater NYC after 191 performances
1985 06 30 39 remaining hostages from Flight 847 are freed in Beirut
1985 06 30 Juli Inkster wins LPGA Lady Keystone Golf Open
1985 06 30 LA Dodger Pedro Gonzalez sets NL record of 15 HRs in June
1986 06 30 Georgia sodomy law upheld by Supreme Court (5-4)
1987 06 30 Emmy 14th Daytime Award presentation - Susan Lucci loses for 8th time
1987 06 30 Patrik Sjoberg of Sweden set a new world record in high jump
1988 06 30 Sledge Hammer! last aires on ABC-TV
1988 06 30 Brooklyn dedicates a bus depot honoring Jackie Gleason
1988 06 30 Chicago agrees to build a new stadium so White Sox won't move to Fla
1989 06 30 Les Miserables, opens at Theatre Muzyczyny, Gdynia
1989 06 30 Attorney General Thornburgh orders Joseph Doherty deported to UK
1989 06 30 Congressman Lukins found guilty of having sex with a 16 year old girl
1989 06 30 NASA closes down tracking stations in Santiago, Chile & Guam
1989 06 30 NY State Legislature passes Staten Island secession bill
1989 06 30 Sudan suspends interim constitution following coup
1990 06 30 East & West Germany merge their economies
1991 06 30 37th Mazda LPGA Championship won by Meg Mallon
1992 06 30 First pay bathrooms in US open: 25� (NYC)
1992 06 30 Actress Cecil Hoffman (Zoe-LA Law) marries Paul Slye
1992 06 30 Fidel Ramos installed as president of Philippines
1992 06 30 Total solar eclipse in Uruguay (5m21s)
1993 06 30 Les Miserables, opens at Point Theatre, Dublin
1993 06 30 Richard Jacobs announces Chief Wahoo will go to Jacobs Field
1994 06 30 Airbus A330 crash at Toulouse France (7 killed)
1994 06 30 Giants outfielder Darren Lewis errors after record 392 flawless games
1994 06 30 Pre-trial hearings open in LA against OJ Simpson
1994 06 30 US Ice Skating Federation bars Tonya Harding for life
1995 06 30 Indians' Eddie Murray, is 20th to reach 3,000 hits
1996 06 30 Buried Child closes at Brook Atkinson Theater NYC after 77 perfs
1996 06 30 Moon Over Buffalo closes at Martin Beck Theater NYC after 308 perfs
1996 06 30 State Fair, closes at Music Box Theater NYC after 118 performances
1996 06 30 Caroline Frolic (Miss Ontario), crowned Miss Renaissance USA
1996 06 30 Dottie Pepper wins ShopRite LPGA Golf Classic
1997 06 30 Leap Second to synchronize atomic clocks
1998 06 30 Sega Channel, cable's first on-demand video game service, closes down

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