The events happened on 30th June are :
1934 : Night of the Long Knives : In an event dubbed the “Night of the Long Knives,” Adolf Hitler summarily executed many of his leading SA officials on this day. Founded by Hitler in 1921 and nicknamed the storm troopers or Brownshirts, the SA was a paramilitary group that marched in Nazi Party rallies and carried out unchecked street violence against political opponents. As the SA swelled in size and power, its leadership, headed by Ernst Röhm, harboured aspirations to merge the SA with the regular army and carry out a second Nazi revolution, an idea that was eyed with suspicion by Hitler.
1974 : Soviet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov defected from the U.S.S.R. while on tour in Canada.
1960 : Zaire, formerly Belgian Congo and now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, declared its independence from Belgium.
1908 : An enormous aerial explosion, presumably caused by a comet fragment colliding with Earth, flattened approximately 2,000 square km (500,000 acres) of pine forest near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in central Siberia.
1893 : The Excelsior diamond, weighing 995 carats, the largest uncut diamond ever found to that time, was discovered in the De Beers mine at Jagersfontein, Orange Free State.
1859 : Jean-François Gravelet, known as Blondin, crossed Niagara Falls on a tightrope, which was 335 metres (1,100 feet) long and 49 metres (160 feet) above the water.
The events happened on 28th June are :
1934 : Night of the Long Knives : In an event dubbed the “Night of the Long Knives,” Adolf Hitler summarily executed many of his leading SA officials on this day. Founded by Hitler in 1921 and nicknamed the storm troopers or Brownshirts, the SA was a paramilitary group that marched in Nazi Party rallies and carried out unchecked street violence against political opponents. As the SA swelled in size and power, its leadership, headed by Ernst Röhm, harboured aspirations to merge the SA with the regular army and carry out a second Nazi revolution, an idea that was eyed with suspicion by Hitler.
1974 : Soviet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov defected from the U.S.S.R. while on tour in Canada.
1960 : Zaire, formerly Belgian Congo and now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, declared its independence from Belgium.
1908 : An enormous aerial explosion, presumably caused by a comet fragment colliding with Earth, flattened approximately 2,000 square km (500,000 acres) of pine forest near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in central Siberia.
1893 : The Excelsior diamond, weighing 995 carats, the largest uncut diamond ever found to that time, was discovered in the De Beers mine at Jagersfontein, Orange Free State.
1859 : Jean-François Gravelet, known as Blondin, crossed Niagara Falls on a tightrope, which was 335 metres (1,100 feet) long and 49 metres (160 feet) above the water.
The events happened on 28th June are :
1914 : Assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand : Having learned that Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, would pay an official visit to Sarajevo, Bosnia, six revolutionaries awaited his procession on this day in 1914. Among the six were Gavrilo Princip and his associate Nedjelko Čabrinović. Čabrinović threw a bomb that bounced off the archduke's car and exploded beneath the next vehicle. A short time later, while driving to a hospital to visit an officer wounded by the bomb, Francis Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, duchess von Hohenberg, were shot to death by Princip. Austria-Hungary held Serbia responsible and declared war July 28, precipitating the cataclysm of World War I.
1919 : The Treaty of Versailles was signed at the Palace of Versailles in France, signifying the end of World War I.
1902 : Notorious American bank robber John Dillinger was born in Indianapolis, Indiana.
1894 : Congress declared the first Monday of September as Labor Day, a holiday to honour the American worker.
1838 : Victoria was crowned queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1778 : Molly Pitcher earned her nickname by carrying water to her husband's regiment during the Battle of Monmouth Court House.
1712 : French philosopher, writer, and political theorist Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born in Geneva.