June 30, 1775 — The Second Continental Congress forges the rules of war
Amid the stirrings of revolution, Congress adopted 69 military regulations to shape a disciplined Continental Army. With George Washington en route to lead the troops, the delegates balanced British tradition with emerging American principles—laying the first legal foundation for a nation’s army in the making.

Image: Independence Hall interior, Antoine Taveneauxu via Wikimedia Commons, no known restrictions – CC BY SA 3.0

On June 30, 1863, Brig. Gen. John Buford carefully placed his Union cavalry units just outside Gettysburg, PA. Recognizing the strategic importance of the town’s high ground, Buford believed that his troopers would soon encounter Gen. Lee’s Confederate infantry. Buford was proven correct the next morning.

Image from LOC via Wikimedia Commons, public
domain in the US

On June 30, 1918, leading from the Front in Tartigny, France Major General Robert L. Bullard, commander of the U.S. First Division, meets with his staff in the destroyed village of Tartigny a few days after heavy fighting in the Montdidier sector.

As American forces increased their presence on the Western Front—not merely as reinforcements, but as active participants in the Allied campaign—this moment represented a growing change. During a crucial stage of the war, the First Division was reorganizing and getting ready for more operations after their valiant victory at Cantigny in late May.


Image from LOC via Wikimedia Commons, public
domain in the US

On June 30, 1921 President Harding nominated former U.S. President William Howard Taft to serve as Chief Justice of The Supreme Court of the United States.

Taft is the only American to serve as U.S. President and as Supreme Court Justice.

Image: William Howard Taft as Chief Justice c. 1920s via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

American entertainer Lena Horne was born on June 30, 1917, in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, NY.

Image: Members of the Tuskegee Airmen with Lena Horne in the 1940s via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Pres. & Mrs. Coolidge, 6/30/1924

The couple first met 21 years earlier in 1903.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain in the US.

26 years before Yosemite was established as a National Park, Abraham Lincoln authorized that Yosemite Valley in California was for “public use…” on June 30, 1864.

Image: Looking Down Yosemite Valley in 1872
via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

On June 30, 1859, French acrobat Charles Blondin walked a tightrope 1,100 feet long across the Niagara River Gorge near the current site of the Rainbow Bridge. In coming weeks he would repeat the feat, but blindfolded, or carrying his manager on his back, stopping to balance on a chair, or trundling a wheelbarrow.

Image by William England via Wikimedia Commons, public domain in the US.

Winner of Men’s Doubles at Wimbledon three years in a row (1929-1931), John Van Ryn, was born on June 30, 1905 in Newport News, Virginia.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Mass production of Chevrolet’s Corvette began on June 30, 1953 in Flint, Michigan. Three hundred were made that year.

Want it in red? Well you had to wait until the following year (1954) for Chevrolet to introduce other colors for their Corvette besides Polo White.

Image: First Corvettes exit the assembly line in 1953 from GM Chevrolet via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

On June 30, 1808, American inventor from Connecticut, Simeon North, received a contract to produce two thousand Naval boarding pistols from the U.S. Government.

Image via NYPL Digital Collection, no known restrictions

American author Margaret Mitchell, best known for her novel “Gone with the Wind,” pictured hard at work at her typewriter in the late 1930s.

On June 30, 1936, “Gone With The Wind” was first published.

Image via Alamy

American actress Susan Hayward was born on June 30, 1917 in Brooklyn, New York.

In 1937 she auditioned for the role of Scarlett O’Hara in “Gone With The Wind,” but as we know that part went to Vivien Leigh.

Hayward won an Academy Award for her role in the 1958 film
“I Want to Live!”

Image via Alamy

William A. Wheeler, born June 30, 1819, in Malone, New York, served as the 19th Vice President of the United States under President Rutherford B. Hayes (1877–1881). Though not a household name today, Wheeler was known in his time for his integrity and quiet influence during the contentious post–Civil War Reconstruction era. Hayes even called him “one of the few Vice Presidents who were actually consulted by the President.”

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain