• Today is Sunday, June 30, the 181st day of 2013. There are 184 days left in the year.
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• Today's Highlight in History:
• On June 30, 1953, the first Chevrolet Corvette, with its innovative fiberglass body, was built at a General Motors assembly facility in Flint, Mich.
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• On this date:
• In 1859, French acrobat Charles Blondin (blahn-DAN') walked back and forth on a tightrope above the gorge of Niagara Falls as thousands of spectators watched.
• In 1886, Arturo Toscanini, a 19-year-old cellist, made his legendary conducting debut as he stepped in as a last-minute substitute to lead the orchestra of an Italian touring company's performance of the Verdi opera "Aida" in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• 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 1912, Canada's deadliest tornado on record occurred as a cyclone struck Regina, the provincial capital of Saskatchewan, killing 28 people.
• In 1921, President Warren G. Harding nominated former President William Howard Taft to be chief justice of the United States, succeeding the late Edward Douglass White.
• In 1933, the Screen Actors Guild was established.
• In 1934, Adolf Hitler carried out his "blood purge" of political and military rivals in Germany in what came to be known as "The Night of the Long Knives."
• In 1958, the U.S. Senate passed the Alaska statehood bill by a vote of 64-20.
• In 1963, Pope Paul VI was crowned the 262nd head of the Roman Catholic Church.
• In 1972, for the first time, a leap-second was added to Coordinated Universal Time to account for the slowing rotation of the Earth.
• In 1985, 39 American hostages from a hijacked TWA jetliner were freed in Beirut after being held 17 days.
• In 1993, actor George "Spanky" McFarland of "Our Gang" and "Little Rascals" fame died in Grapevine, Texas, at age 64.
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• Ten years ago: Israeli and Palestinian commanders shook hands as bulldozers

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