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“If my theory of relativity is proven successful, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew.”
“Had I known that the Germans would not succeed in producing an atomic bomb, I would not have lifted a finger.”
~ Albert Einstein
Wikiquote (Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879 – April 18, 1955) was a theoretical physicist and humanist who is widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists of all time.)
June 30th, 350
Roman Empire:
350 - Roman usurper Nepotianus, of the Constantinian dynasty, is defeated and killed by troops of the usurper Magnentius in Rome.
Wikipedia Image: Relief from a 3rd-century sarcophagus depicting a battle between Romans and Germanic warriors; the central figure is perhaps the emperor Hostilian / Depiction of the Menorah on the Arch of Titus in Rome.
June 30th, 1422
Battle of Arbedo: between the duke of Milan and the Swiss cantons.
Wikipedia Painting: Peter Paul Rubens's copy of The Battle of Anghiari, 1440. Purportedly, from left to right is Francesco Piccinino, Niccolò Piccinino, Ludovico Trevisan, Giovanni Antonio Del Balzo Orsini.
June 30th, 1520
Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés fight their way out of Tenochtitlan.
Wikipedia Painting: Hernán Cortés Collage; In the early 16th century, the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II ruled from the city of Tenochitilan, situated in the location of present day Mexico City. His armies were feared by neighbouring states who paid tribute to the Aztecs and had hundreds of thousands of their citizens sacrificed in elaborate religious rituals to the Aztec gods. In scuttling the fleet, Cortés moved swiftly to squash mutineers. To make sure such a mutiny did not happen again, he decided to scuttle his ships, on the pretext that they were no longer seaworthy.
June 30th, 1559
King Henry II of France is mortally wounded in a jousting match against Gabriel de Montgomery.
Wikipedia Painting: Henry II of France
June 30th, 1651
The Deluge: Khmelnytsky Uprising; the Battle of Beresteczko ends with a Polish victory.
Wikipedia Painting: Khmelnytsky Uprising, Cossacks
June 30th, 1688
Glorious Revolution:
1688 - The Immortal Seven issue the Invitation to William (continuing the English rebellion from Rome).
Wikipedia Painting: Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688: James II King of England & James VII King of Scots, King of Ireland and Duke of Normandy ● William III, King of England, Scotland and Ireland, stadtholder of Guelders, Holland, Zealand, Utrecht and Overijssel ● Henry Sydney, author of the Invitation to William, which was signed by six noblemen (both Whigs and Tories) and one bishop. He has been described as "the great wheel on which the Revolution rolled" ● Francisco Lopes Suasso, who partly financed the invasion ● William of Orange launched a colossal armada to seize the throne from Catholic King James II ● New England's Siege of Louisbourg (1745) by Peter Monamy.
June 30th, 1758
Seven Years' War:
1758 - Battle of Domstadtl; takes place.
Wikipedia Painting: The Death of General Wolfe (1771) by Benjamin West, depicting the Battle of the Plains of Abraham; Battle of Hochkirch; Battle of Minorca of May 20, 1756, shortly after the French landing on Minorca; Siege of Kolberg (1761); Leibgarde battalion at Kolin, 1757; Battle of Zorndorf in August 1758 where Russian and Prussian armies suffered heavy casualties and both claimed a victory. Battle of Lagos, by Théodore Gudin.
June 30th, 1859
Charles Blondin French acrobat crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope.
Wikipedia Painting: Charles Blondin crossing Niagara Falls
June 30th, 1864
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln grants Yosemite Valley to California for "public use, resort and recreation".
Wikipedia Photo: Yosemite Falls and Half Dome in the winter and sunset from Yosemite Valley ● Yosemite National Park, Yosemite Valley. credit Moonjazz, April 22, 2009.
June 30th, 1886
The first transcontinental train trip across Canada departs from Montreal to arrive in Port Moody, British Columbia on July 4.
Wikipedia Image: Canadian Pacific Railway, an eastbound CPR freight at Stoney Creek Bridge in Rogers Pass as seen in a 1988 photo by David R. Spencer; Canadian Pacific Railway bridge Mountain Creek, British Columbia, 1880-1890 by Norman Denley PA-066576, credit Library and Archives Canada.
June 30th, 1905
Albert Einstein publishes the article On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, in which he introduces special relativity.
Wikipedia Picture: Albert Einstein Nobel Prize in Physics; Einstein at the age of three in 1882; The mathematician, physicist 1947; Einstein's theory of special relativity; Albert and Elsa Einstein in 1933; Conrad Habicht, Olympia Academy founders, Maurice Solovine and Einstein.
June 30th, 1906
The United States Congress passes the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act.
Wikipedia Political Cartoon: This helped ensure the status and effectiveness of the Pure Food and Drug Act
June 30th, 1934
Night of the Long Knives: Adolf Hitler's violent purge of his political rivals in Germany takes place.
Wikipedia Photo: Hitler and the Brownshirts; German Nazi activist Horst Wessel (left) at the head of a parade of S.A. stormtroopers, or “brownshirts”, in Nuremberg, Germany, 1929.
June 30th, 1937
The world's first emergency telephone number, 999, is introduced in London.
Wikipedia.org
June 30th, 1944
World War II:
1944 - Battle of Cherbourg; Ends with the fall of the strategically valuable port to American forces.
Wikipedia Photo: Bombing of Dresden in World War II; August Schreitmüller's sculpture 'Goodness' surveys Dresden after a firestorm started by Allied bombers in 1945. USS Bunker Hill was hit by kamikazes piloted by Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa and another airman on 11 May 1945. 389 personnel were killed or missing from a crew of 2,600; Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa, who flew his aircraft into the USS Bunker Hill during a Kamikaze mission on 11 May 1945; Kamikaze Missions - Lt Yoshinori Yamaguchi's Yokosuka D4Y3 (Type 33 Suisei) "Judy" in a suicide dive against USS Essex. The dive brakes are extended and the non-self-sealing port wing tank is trailing fuel vapor and/or smoke November 25th, 1944. German V1 flying-bomb and V2 Rockets - Preparations for a Salvo Launch of V-2 Rockets in the Heidelager near Blizna (Poland) (1944), credit German History in Documents and Images GHDI.
Eastern Front (World War II); Germans race towards Stalingrad. August 1942; Soviet children during a German air raid in the first days of the war, June 1941, by RIA Novosti archive; Soviet sniper Roza Shanina in 1944. About 400,000 Soviet women served in front-line duty units Caucasus Mountains, winter 1942/43; Finnish ski patrol: the invisible enemy of the Soviet Army with an unlimited supply of skis; Men of the German Engineers Corps cross a river which is swollen after the first autumn rains, to strengthen bridges linking the German positions on the central front in Russia. by Keystone / Getty Images. October 1942; Russian snipers fighting on the Leningrad front during a blizzard. Photo by Hulton Archive / Getty Images, 1943; German soldiers surrendering to the Russians in Stalingrad, the soldier holding the white flag of surrender is dressed in white so that there could be no doubt of his intentions, a Russian soldier is on the right of the photograph. by Keystone / Getty Images, January 1943.
June 30th, 1953
The first Chevrolet Corvette rolls off the assembly line in Flint, Michigan.
Wikipedia Photo: 1953 Chevrolet Corvette assembly ● 2013 427 Chevrolet Corvette, credit General Motors
June 30th, 1960
Congo gains independence from Belgium.
Wikipedia Photo: Republic of the Congo is Africa’s most important stronghold for wildlife (Located in the heart of the world’s second-largest rainforest, this 23,500-square-mile landscape encompasses two national parks and the Lac Télé Community Reserve)
June 30th, 1971
The crew of the Soviet Soyuz 11 spacecraft are killed when their air supply escapes through a faulty valve.
Wikipedia Photo: NASA
June 30th, 1985
Aviation accidents and incidents:
1985 - TWA Flight 847; Thirty-nine American hostages from the hijacked are freed in Beirut after being held for 17 days.
2009 - Yemenia Flight 626; crashes into the Indian Ocean near Comoros killing all but one of the 153 passengers and crew on board.
Wikipedia Photo: ● Pan AM 747 ● U.S. Airways flight 1549 also known as the "Miracle on the Hudson" navigates an exit ramp near Burlington, New Jersey, June 5, 2011 ● Passengers stand on the wings of a U.S. Airways plane as a ferry pulls up to it after it landed in the Hudson River in New York, Reuters ● US Airways plane crashes into New York Hudson River, Photo: AP
June 30th, 1986
1986 - In Bowers v. Hardwick the Supreme Court of the United States rules that states can outlaw homosexual acts between consenting adults.
Wikipedia Photo: United States Supreme Court building; Guardian of Law, by James Earle Fraser, US Supreme Court, Washington, DC, USA.
June 30th, 1990
East Germany and West Germany merge their economies.
Wikipedia Photo: Germany; Cologne Cathedral And Hohenzollern Bridge, Cologne, Germany ● Neuschwanstein castle Bavaria Germany
June 30th, 2013
Yarnell Hill Fire: Nineteen firefighters die controlling a wildfire in Yarnell, Arizona.
Wikipedia Photo: Yarnell Hill Fire: Nineteen firefighters die controlling a wildfire in Yarnell, Arizona.
June 30th, 2013
Modern conflicts in the Middle East, social unrest and terrorist attacks:
2013 - Egyptian protests: Protests begin around Egypt against President Mohamed Morsi and the ruling Freedom and Justice Party, leading to their overthrow during the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état.
Wikipedia Photo: Middle East satellite image, NASA. ● Camels are seen early morning on a beach in the Marina area of Dubai October 16, 2008. (Steve Crisp, Reuters) ● A portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad burns during clashes between rebels and Syrian troops in Selehattin, near Aleppo, on July 23, 2012. (Bulent Kilic, AFP / GettyImages) ● Egyptians gather in their thousands in Tahrir Square to mark the one year anniversary of the revolution on Jan. 25, 2012 in Cairo Egypt. Tens of thousands have gathered in the square on the first anniversary of the Arab uprising which toppled President Hosni Mubarak. (Jeff J Mitchell, Getty Images) ● Black smoke rises above the Tehran skyline as supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi burn tires and other material in the streets as they fight running battles with police to protest the declared results of the Iranian presidential election in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 13, 2009. (Ben Curtis, AP) ● The Iron Dome defense system fires to interecpt incoming missiles from Gaza in the port town of Ashdod, Thursday, Nov. 15, 2012. (Tsafrir Abayov, AP)
June 30th, 2015
Aviation accidents and incidents:
2015 - Sumatra Indonesian Air Force C-130 crash; A Hercules C-130 military aircraft with 113 people on board crashes in a residential area in Medan, Indonesia, resulting in at least 116 deaths.
Wikipedia Photo: ● Pan AM 747 ● U.S. Airways flight 1549 also known as the "Miracle on the Hudson" navigates an exit ramp near Burlington, New Jersey, June 5, 2011 ● Passengers stand on the wings of a U.S. Airways plane as a ferry pulls up to it after it landed in the Hudson River in New York, Reuters ● US Airways plane crashes into New York Hudson River, Photo: AP