June 30, Night of the Long Knives

Today is Monday, June 30, the 181st day of 2025. There are 184 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On June 30, 1934, Adolf Hitler initiated his “blood purge” of political and military adversaries in Germany during the infamous “Night of the Long Knives.”

Also on this date:

In 1918, labor activist and socialist Eugene V. Debs was arrested in Cleveland under the Espionage Act of 1917 for a speech denouncing U.S. involvement in World War I.

In 1921, former President William Howard Taft was nominated by President Warren G. Harding to be the chief justice of the United States.

In 1936, Margaret Mitchell’s novel “Gone With the Wind” was published.

In 1958, the U.S. Senate passed the Alaska statehood bill.

In 1971, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of The New York Times and The Washington Post, allowing them to publish the Pentagon Papers.

In 1971, a Soviet space mission tragically ended with the deaths of three cosmonauts aboard Soyuz 11.

In 1985, 39 American hostages from a hijacked TWA jetliner were freed in Beirut after 17 days of captivity.

In 1994, Tonya Harding was stripped of her national championship and banned for life by the U.S. Figure Skating Association for her involvement in the attack on Nancy Kerrigan.

In 2009, American soldier Bowe R. Bergdahl was confirmed to have been captured by insurgents in Afghanistan after going missing from his base.

In 2012, Mohammed Morsi was sworn in as Egypt’s first freely elected president.

In 2016, the U.S. military lifted the ban on transgender people serving openly.

In 2019, Donald Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to enter North Korea.

In 2020, Mississippi retired its state flag bearing the Confederate battle emblem, and a statue in Boston depicting a freed slave kneeling at Abraham Lincoln’s feet was removed.

In 2022, Ketanji Brown Jackson became the first Black woman to be sworn in as a U.S. Supreme Court justice.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Actor Lea Massari (“L’Avventura”) is 92.
• Actor Nancy Dussault is 89.
• Olympic track champion Billy Mills is 87.
• Oceanographer Robert Ballard is 83.
• Singer-songwriter Glenn Shorrock (Little River Band) is 81.
• Jazz musician Stanley Clarke is 74.
• Actor David Garrison is 73.
• Actor-comedian David Alan Grier is 69.
• Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen is 67.
• Actor Vincent D’Onofrio is 66.
• Actor Deirdre Lovejoy is 63.
• Actor Rupert Graves is 62.
• Boxer Mike Tyson is 59.
• Actor Monica Potter is 54.
• Actor Rick Gonzalez is 46.
• Actor Lizzy Caplan is 43.
• Country music singer-songwriter Cole Swindell is 42.
• Singer and actress Fantasia is 41.
• Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps is 40.
• Baseball player Trea Turner is 32.