TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Thursday, June 30.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On June 30, 1982, the proposed Equal Rights Amend- ment to the U.S. Constitu- tion expired, having failed to receive the required number of ratifications for its adop- tion, despite having its seven-year deadline extended by three years.
On this date:
In 1918, labor activist and socialist Eugene V. Debs was arrested in Cleveland, charged under the Espio- nage Act of 1917 for a speech he’d made two weeks earlier denouncing U.S. involvement in World War I. (Debs was sentenced to prison and disenfranchised for life.)
In 19 3 4, Adolf Hi t ler launched his “blood purge” of political and military rivals in Germany in what came to be known as “The Night of the Long Knives.”
In 1958, the U.S. Senate passed the Alaska statehood bill by a vote of 64-20.
In 1971, the Supreme Court ruled, 6-3, that the government could not prevent The New York Times or The Washington Post from publishing the Pentagon Papers.
In 1986, the Supreme Court, in Bowers v. Hardwick, ruled 5-4 that states could outlaw homosexual acts between consenting adults (however, the nation’s highest court effectively reversed this decision in 2003 in Lawrence v. Texas).
In 1994, the U.S. Figure Skating Association stripped Tonya Harding of the national championship and banned her for life for her role in the attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan.
In 2009, American sol- dier Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl went missing from his base in eastern Afghanistan, and was later confirmed to have been captured by insurgents after walking away from his post. (Bergdahl was released on May 31, 2014, in exchange for five Taliban detainees; he pleaded guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, but was spared a prison sentence by a military judge.)
In 2016, saying it was the right thing to do, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced that transgender people would be allowed to serve openly in the U.S. military, ending one of the last bans on service in the armed forces.
In 2020, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed a landmark bill retiring the last state flag bearing the Confederate battle emblem. Ten years ago: Islamist Mohammed Morsi became Egypt’s first freely elected president as he was sworn in during a pair of ceremonies. An international conference in Geneva accepted a U.n.-brokered peace plan calling for creation of a transitional government in Syria, but at Russia’s insistence the compromise left the door open to Syria’s president being a part of it. Former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir died at age 96.
Five years ago: President Donald Trump and South Korea’s new leader, Moon Jae-in, concluding two days of talks at the White House, showed joint resolve on North Korea despite their divergent philosophies for addressing the nuclear threat.
One year ago: Pennsylvania’s highest court threw out Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction and released him from prison, ruling that the prosecutor who brought the case was bound by his predecessor’s agreement not to charge Cosby.