Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

June 30

1985
Yul Brynner's 4,625th and last Broadway performance as the King of Siam in The King and I.

1980
U.S. Synthetic Fuels Corp. is established, provides incentives to produce synthetic substitutes for imported fuel.

1971
26th Amendment ratified, lowering the voting age to 18.

1953
First Chevrolet Corvette is produced. It was the first plastic-laminated fiberglass sports car.

1950
Pres. Truman authorizes ground and air strikes against North Korea, during the Korean War.

1948
The transistor is demonstrated by Drs. Bardeen and Brattain of Bell Laboratories.

1908
The Tunguska Event: A 12½ megaton explosion occurs in Central Siberia, the cause is undetermined.

1521
Gordillo lands near Cape Fear, North Carolina claiming it for Spain.

1966
Mike Tyson, American boxer, World Heavyweight Champion. In 1986 he became the youngest heavyweight champion ever. He was convicted (1992) and sentenced to prison for raping an 18-year-old beauty pageant contestant.

1942
Robert Ballard, American oceanographer, discoverer of the remains of the Titanic.

1936
Nancy Dussault, American actress. TV: Good Morning America (the original co-host) and Too Close for Comfort (Muriel).

1934
Harry Blackstone Jr., American magician.

1930     d. 1993
June Valli, American singer. Music: Crying in the Chapel (1954). TV: The Andy Williams and June Valli Show and the voice on the Chiquita banana commercials.

1919     d. 1975
Susan Hayward (Edythe Marrener), American Oscar-winning actress. Film: I Want To Live (1958). Her death was attributed to radiation exposure received from an A-bomb test near the filming of a movie in 1953.

1917
Lena Horne, American singer, actress. She was the first black person to sign a long-term contract with a major Hollywood studio.

1917     d. 1987
Buddy Rich (Bernard Rich), American jazz drummer. He was the second-highest-paid child performer of the 1930s.

1819     d. 1887
William Almon Wheeler, 19th U.S. Vice-President (1877-81).

1470     d. 1498
Charles VIII, King of France (1483-98).

2002     b. 1915
Pete Gray (Peter Wyshner), American one-armed pro baseball player. He batted a .218 as an outfielder for St. Louis (1945) and was the Southern Association's 1944 MVP. Having lost his right arm as child - he was a right-hander - he learned to bat and field with his left arm.

1993     b. 1928
Spanky McFarland (George McFarland), American actor. Film: The Little Rascals (Spanky). He appeared in 95 Our Gang films.

1974     b. 1903
Alberta Christine Williams King, mother of civil-rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. She was shot to death while playing the organ during a church service by a 21-year-old black man who proclaimed "all Christians are my enemies."

1961     b. 1873
Lee De Forest, American inventor, "Father of the Radio." He invented the triode (amplifier vacuum tube, 1907) and was a pioneer in the development of talking pictures and television.

1882     b. ????
Charles J. Guiteau, hanged for assassinating Pres. Garfield.

1785     b. 1696
James Edward Oglethorpe, English general, colonized Georgia and founded the city of Savannah (1733).

1660     b. 1574
William Oughtred, English mathematician, credited with inventing the slide rule (1621), and introduced the use of 'X' to denote multiplication.

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