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By The Associated Press
Today in History
Today is Wednesday, June 30, the 181st day of 2021. There are 184 days left in the year.
Todayís Highlight in History:
On June 30, 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.
On this date:
In 1865, eight people, including Mary Surratt and Dr. Samuel Mudd, were convicted by a military commission of conspiring with John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln. (Four defendants, including Surratt, were executed; Mudd was sentenced to life in prison, but was pardoned by President Andrew Johnson in 1869.)
In 1908, the Tunguska Event took place in Russia as an asteroid exploded above Siberia, leaving 800 square miles of scorched or blown-down trees.
In 1917, singer, actor and activist Lena Horne was born in Brooklyn, New York.
In 1918, labor activist and socialist Eugene V. Debs was arrested in Cleveland, charged under the Espionage Act of 1917 for a speech heíd made two weeks earlier denouncing U.S. involvement in World War I. (Debs was sentenced to prison and disenfranchised for life.)
In 1934, Adolf Hitler launched his ìblood purgeî of political and military rivals in Germany in what came to be known as ìThe Night of the Long Knives.î
In 1958, the U.S. Senate passed the Alaska statehood bill by a vote of 64-20.
In 1971, a Soviet space mission ended in tragedy when three cosmonauts aboard Soyuz 11 were found dead of asphyxiation inside their capsule after it had returned to Earth.
In 1982, the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution expired, having failed to receive the required number of ratifications for its adoption, despite having its seven-year deadline extended by three years.
In 1985, 39 American hostages from a hijacked TWA jetliner were freed in Beirut after being held 17 days.
In 1986, the Supreme Court, in Bowers v. Hardwick, ruled 5-4 that states could outlaw homosexual acts between consenting adults (however, the nationís highest court effectively reversed this decision in 2003 in Lawrence v. Texas).
In 2009, American soldier Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl went missing from his base in eastern Afghanistan, and was later confirmed to have been captured by insurgents. (Bergdahl was released on May 31, 2014 in exchange for five Taliban detainees.)
In 2013, 19 elite firefighters known as members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots were killed battling a wildfire northwest of Phoenix after a change in wind direction pushed the flames back toward their position.
Ten years ago: The U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon issued an indictment naming four suspects in the assassination of Lebanonís former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri (rah-FEEKí hah-REERí-ee), including a high-ranking Hezbollah militant linked to the 1983 truck bombings at the U.S. and French embassies in Kuwait. Conservative TV commentator Glenn Beck said goodbye to Fox News Channel, airing his final show before going into business for himself.
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