On June 30, 1865, eight people were convicted by a military commission of conspiring with John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln. Four defendants were executed.
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 1918, labor activist and socialist Eugene V. Debs was arrested, charged under the Espionage Act of 1917 for a speech he’d made denouncing U.S. involvement in World War I.
In 1934, Hitler purges members of his own Nazi party in Night of the Long Knives.
In 1974 Soviet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov defects from U.S.S.R..
In 1982, the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution expired, having failed to receive the required number of ratifications.