This Day in History for June 30 – 26th Amendment Ratified and More

Here’s a look at some interesting events that took place on this day in history:

1859 – French acrobat Charles Blondin crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope (More info)

1921 – U.S. President Warren G. Harding appoints former President William Howard Taft as Chief Justice of the United States; Taft is the only person to have ever held both offices (More info)

1934 – The Night of the Long Knives, Adolf Hitler’s violent purge of his political rivals in Germany, takes place (More info)

1971 – The 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age to 18, is ratified by the states (More info)

1986 – The US Supreme Court rules in Bowers v. Hardwick that states can outlaw homosexual acts between consenting adults; 17 years later, in Lawrence v. Texas, the Court overturned the prior ruling and held that such laws are unconstitutional. (More info)