Today in History, 6/30

1520: The Spaniards are expelled from Tenochtitlan.1688: The Immortal Seven issue the Invitation to William III (aka William of Orange), inviting him to come to England and unseat the Papist King James II, thus kicking off the Glorious Revolution.1805: Michigan Territory is organized.
1859: French acrobat Charles Blondin crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope.1864: President Lincoln grants Yosemite Valley to California for "public use, resort and recreation."1883: Charles Guiteau is hanged in Washington, DC for the assassination of President James Garfield.1905: Albert Einstein publishes the article "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" where he introduces special relativity.
1906: The US Congress passes the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food & Drug Act.
1908: The Tunguska Impact Event occurs in Sibera. Most scientists these days think it was the explosion of a large meteor or comet 3-6 miles above the Earth's surface and had a blast power of 10-15 megatons.

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1917: Lena Horne is born.

1934: The Night of the Long Knives takes place takes place in Nazi Germany. The German paramilitary force the SA had been getting too big for their britches and the flaming homosexuality of their leader Ernst Roehm was getting embarrassing for the Nazi Party so Hitler had them all whacked. The story I learned in college history was that Hitler himself kicked down Roehm's hotel door while brandishing a Tommy gun and found Roehm in an embrace with the bell hop. Then Hitler growled "I am cleaning the filth from the Fatherland!" before ventillating Roehm (and, it is assumed, the bell hop). As I pointed out to my history prof, this sounds like a big fat load of crap. I'll buy that somebody else did that (I can see someone like Otto Skorzeny doing it, for example) but Hitler? Come on. He was not a "hands on" kind of leader in the best circumstances. I think it may just be a case of propaganda that got incorrectly passed on as fact.
1936: Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell is published.1943: Florence Ballard, singer with The Supremes, is born.

1950: Leonard Whiting is born. He played Romeo in the Zeffirelli version of Romeo and Juliet. Wait, there was a male part in that movie? All I remember from high school is Olivia Hussey.
1953: The first Corvette rolls off the line in Flint, Michigan.1959: Vincent D'Onofrio is born. He played the doomed Private Pyle in Full Metal Jacket.

1987: The Royal Canadian Mint introduces the 1 dollar coin, known as the Loonie. On Deep Space Nine, the Canadian turncoat Michael Eddington carried a Lucky Loonie with him whenever possible.1997: The United Kingdom transfers sovereignty of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China.

Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up.