HISTORY AT A GLANCE
TODAY is Friday, June 30, the 181st day of 2017. There are 184 days left in the year.
Highlights in history on this date:
1908 – The Tunguska event occurs in remote Siberia. 1934 – The Night of the Long Knives, Adolf Hitler’s violent purge of his political rivals in Germany, takes place. 1937 – The world’s first emergency telephone number, 999, is introduced in London 1944 – World War II: The Battle of Cherbourg ends with the fall of the strategically valuable port to American forces. 1956 – A TWA Super Constellation and a United Airlines DC-7 collide above the Grand Canyon in Arizona and crash, killing all 128 on board both airliners. 1959 – A United States Air Force F-100 Super Sabre from Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, crashes into a nearby elementary school, killing 11 students plus six residents from the local neighborhood. 1960 – Congo gains independence from Belgium. 1963 – Ciaculli massacre: a car bomb, intended for Mafia boss Salvatore Greco, kills seven police officers and military personnel near Palermo. 1966 – The National Organization for Women, the United States’ largest feminist organization, is founded. 1968 – Pope Paul VI issues the Credo of the People of God. 1971 – The crew of the Soviet Soyuz 11 spacecraft are killed when their air supply escapes through a faulty valve. 1971 – Ohio ratifies the 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, reducing the voting age to 18, thereby putting the amendment into effect. 1972 – The first leap second is added to the UTC time system. 1977 – The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization disbands. 1985 – Thirty-nine American hostages from the hijacked TWA Flight 847 are freed in Beirut after being held for 17 days. 1990 – East Germany and West Germany merge their economies. 1997 – The United Kingdom transfers sovereignty over Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China. 2013 – Mass protests are held in Egypt. 2013 – 19 firefighters die controlling a wildfire in Yarnell, Arizona. 2015 – A Hercules C-130 military aircraft with 113 people on board crashes in a residential area in the Indonesian city of Medan, resulting in at least 116 deaths.