GOOD MORNING – TODAY IS SATURDAY, June 30, the 181st day of 2018 with 184 to follow. Sunrise in the Boston area is @ 5:09 and sunset is @ 8:25. The moon is waning. The morning stars are stars are Jupiter, Mars, Mercury & Saturn. The evening stars are Neptune, Uranus & Venus.

ON THIS DAY IN: 1097 – The Crusaders defeated the Turks at Dorylaeum.

1841 – The Erie Railroad rolled out its first passenger train.

1859 – Charles Blondin became the first person to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope.

1894 – Korea declared independence from China and asked for Japanese aid.

1908 – A meteor explosion in Siberia knocked down trees in a 40-mile radius and struck people unconscious some 40 miles away.

1912 – Belgian workers went on strike to demand universal suffrage.

1913 – Fighting broke out between Bulgaria and Greece and Serbia. It was the beginning of the Second Balkan War.

1915 – During World War I, the Second Battle Artois ended when the French failed to take Vimy Ridge.

1921 – U.S. President Warren G. Harding appointed former President William Howard Taft chief justice of the United States.

1922 – Irish rebels in London assassinate Sir Henry Wilson, the British deputy for Northern Ireland.

1930 – France pulled its troops out of Germany’s Rhineland.

1934 – Adolf Hitler purged the Nazi Party by destroying the SA and bringing to power the SS in the “Night of the Long Knives.”

1935 – Fascists caused an uproar at the League of Nations when Haile Selassie of Ethiopia speaks.

1936 – Margaret Mitchell’s book, “Gone with the Wind,” was published.

1950 – U.S. President Harry Truman ordered U.S. troops into Korea and authorizes the draft.

1951 – On orders from Washington, General Matthew Ridgeway broadcasts that the United Nations was willing to discuss an armistice with North Korea.

1952 – CBS-TV debuted “The Guiding Light.”

1953 – The first Corvette rolled off the Chevrolet assembly line in Flint, MI. It sold for $3,250.

1955 – The U.S. began funding West Germany’s rearmament.

1957 – The American occupation headquarters in Japan was dissolved.

1958 – The U.S. Congress passed a law authorizing the admission of Alaska as the 49th state in the Union.

1960 – The Katanga province seceded from Congo (upon Congo’s independence from Belgium).

1962 – Los Angeles Dodger Sandy Koufax pitched his first no-hitter in a game with the New York Mets.

1964 – The last of U.N. troops left Congo after a four-year effort to bring stability to the country.

1970 – The Cincinnati Reds moved to their new home at Riverfront Stadium.

1971 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the government could not prevent the Washington Post or the New York Times from publishing the Pentagon Papers.

1971 – The Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 11 returned to Earth. The three cosmonauts were found dead inside.

1971 – The 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified when Ohio became the 38th state to approve it. The amendment lowered the minimum voting age to 18.

1974 – Russian ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov defected in Toronto, Canada.

1974 – The July 4th scene from the Steven Spielberg movie “Jaws” was filmed.

1977 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced his opposition to the B-1 bomber.

1984 – The longest professional football game took place in the United States Football League (USFL). The Los Angeles Express beat the Michigan Panthers 27-21 after 93 minutes and 33 seconds.

1985 – Yul Brynner left his role as the King of Siam after 4,600 performances in “The King and I.”

1986 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that states could outlaw homosexual acts between consenting adults.

1994 – The U.S. Figure Skating Association stripped Tonya Harding of the 1994 national championship and banned her from the organization for life for an attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan.

1998 – Officials confirmed that the remains of a Vietnam War serviceman buried in the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery were identified as those of Air Force pilot Michael J. Blassie.

2000 – U.S. President Clinton signed the E-Signature bill to give the same legal validity to an electronic signature as a signature in pen and ink.

2004 – The international Cassini spacecraft entered Saturn’s orbit. The craft had been on a nearly seven-year journey.