Saturday, June 30, is the 182d day of 2012. There are 184 days left in the year.
Today’s birthdays: Actor Tony Musante is 76. Actress Nancy Dussault is 76. Singer Glenn Shorrock is 68. Jazz musician Stanley Clarke is 61. Actor David Garrison is 60. Rock musician Hal Lindes (Dire Straits) is 59. Actor-comedian David Alan Grier is 56. Actor Vincent D’Onofrio is 53. Actress Deirdre Lovejoy is 50. Actor Rupert Graves is 49. Boxer Mike Tyson is 46. Rock musician Tom Drummond (Better Than Ezra) is 43. Actor Brian Bloom is 42. Actor Brian Vincent is 42. Actress Monica Potter is 41. Actor Rick Gonzalez is 33. Actress Lizzy Caplan is 30. Rhythm-and-blues singer Fantasia (“American Idol”) is 28. Olympic gold medal swimmer Michael Phelps is 27.
In 1859, French acrobat Charles Blondin walked back and forth on a tightrope above the gorge of Niagara Falls as thousands of spectators watched.
In 1860, the famous Oxford University Museum debate on Darwin’s theory of evolution took place as Anglican Bishop Samuel Wilberforce led his side in denouncing the concept, while biologist T.H. Huxley defended it.
In 1908, the Tunguska Event took place in Russia as an asteroid exploded above Siberia, leaving 800 square miles of toppled trees.
In 1912, Canada’s deadliest tornado on record occurred as a cyclone struck Regina, the provincial capital of Saskatchewan, killing 28 people and destroying or damaging 500 buildings.
In 1921, President Harding nominated former President William Howard Taft to be chief justice of the United States.
In 1934, Adolf Hitler carried out his ‘‘blood purge’’ of political and military rivals.
In 1936, the epic Civil War novel ‘‘Gone With the Wind’’ by Margaret Mitchell was first published by The Macmillan Co. in New York.
In 1958, the US Senate passed the Alaska statehood bill by a vote of 64-20.
In 1963, Pope Paul VI was crowned the 262d head of the Roman Catholic Church.
In 1985, 39 American hostages from a hijacked TWA jetliner were freed in Beirut after being held 17 days.
In 2007, two men rammed a jeep loaded with gasoline canisters into the main terminal at Glasgow Airport in Scotland, failing to set off an explosion, but seriously burning one suspect.