The Night of the Long Knives was a purge of elements within the Nazi Party - particularly the SA paramilitary arm - and other political opponents between 30 June and 2 July 1934. Officially almost 100 people died (although it's likely to be many more) and many others were arrested.
Night of the Long Knives
Fact of the Day
In the late 16th century, the legal age for marriage in Stratford-upon-Avon was 14 for men and 12 for women.
Quote of the Day
"Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please.
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~ Karl Marx
On This Day
41 Claudius was proclaimed Roman Emperor by the Praetorian Guard.
1327 Edward II was deposed by his wife, Isabella, and her lover, Roger Mortimer. They replaced him with his 10 year old son, Edward III, and for three years they ruled through him.
1533 King Henry VIII secretly married the newly-pregnant Anne Boleyn, even though he was still married to Catherine of Aragon.
1554 Thomas Wyatt gathered 4000 men in Kent, starting the Wyatt Rebellion against Queen Mary and her choice of Spanish husband.
1627 Father of modern chemistry, Robert Boyle, was born in Lismore, County Waterford, Ireland.
1942 Thailand declared war on the United States and Britain following intensive bombing by the Allies.
1945 The German offensive campaign in the Ardennes, which came to be known as the Battle of the Bulge, ended in Allied victory.