Today is Wednesday, June 30, the 181st day of 2010. There are 184 days left in the year.
1607 _ Annales Ecclesiastici (Scientific History of Catholicism) published
1859 _ Charles Blondin is first to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope
1893 _ Excelsior diamond (blue-white 995 carats) discovered
1894 _ Korea declares independence from China, asks for Japanese aid
1908 _ Giant fireball impacts in Central Siberia (Tunguska Event)
1914 _ Mahatma Gandhi's first arrest, campaigning for Indian rights in S Africa
1934 _ ``Night of the Long Knives," Hitler stages bloody purge of Nazi party
1936 _ ``Gone With the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell, published
1936 _ 40-hour workweek law approved (federal)
1950 _ President Truman orders U.S. troops into Korea
1981 _ China's Communist Party condemns the late Mao Zedong's policy