On This Day for June 30 - Night of the Long Knives, Lena Horne is featured, and more

This message contains graphics. If you do not see the graphics, click here to view. June 30 FEATURED BIOGRAPHY Lena Horne READ MORE   FEATURED EVENT 1934 Night of the Long Knives READ MORE   Advertisement Advertisement   MORE EVENTS ON THIS DAY 2001: American musician and record company executive Chet Atkins—who was a major figure in country music, often credited with developing the Nashville Sound of the 1960s—died in Nashville. [ Take our music quiz.] 1985: American swimmer Michael Phelps, the most-decorated Olympic athlete with 28 medals, was born. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about the Olympics.] 1936: American author Margaret Mitchell published Gone with the Wind, a sweeping romance set during the Civil War; the novel later won a Pulitzer Prize and was adapted into a hugely successful film. [ Take our quiz about famous authors.] 1960: Zaire, formerly Belgian Congo and now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, declared its independence from Belgium. [Test your knowledge of Africa.] 1908: An enormous aerial explosion, presumably caused by a comet fragment colliding with Earth , flattened approximately 2,000 square km (500,000 acres) of pine forest near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in central Siberia. [Read more about this and six other strange disasters.] 1893: The Excelsior diamond—which, weighing 995 carats, was the largest uncut diamond ever found to that time—was discovered in the De Beers mine at Jagersfontein, Orange Free State. SEE ALL EVENTS ON THIS DAY ALSO BORN ON THIS DAY 1966 Mike Tyson American boxer 1985 Michael Phelps American swimmer 1942 Robert Ballard American oceanographer 1917 Buddy Rich American musician 1917 Lena Horne American singer and actress 1917 Susan Hayward American actress SEE ALL BIOS ON THIS DAY   Advertisement   FOLLOW: To unsubscribe from Britannica e-mails, click here. Encyclopædia Britannica 325 N. LaSalle Street, Suite 200 Chicago, Illinois 60654 United States © 2020 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. Privacy Policy • Help