This week in history

On June 27, 1844, Joseph Smith, the founder and leader of the Mormon religion, is murdered along with his brother Hyrum when an anti-Mormon mob breaks into a jail where they are being held in Carthage, Ill.

• On June 30, 1859, Jean-Francois Gravelet, a Frenchman known as “The Great Blondin,” becomes the first daredevil to walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope. He later did tightrope walks across the falls blindfolded, with his manager on his back, sitting down midway to cook an omelet, and pushing a wheelbarrow across while dressed as an ape.

• On July 2, 1881, just months into his administration, President James Garfield is shot and mortally wounded by a disgruntled office-seeker as he walks through a railroad waiting room in Washington, D.C. Garfield died 80 days later of blood poisoning.

• On July 3, 1957, Nikita Khrushchev takes control in the Soviet Union by orchestrating the ouster of key opponents from positions of authority in the Soviet government. Khrushchev’s power began to wane after the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, and he was forced out in 1964.

• On June 28, 1975, television writer Rod Serling dies at age 50 after open-heart surgery. Born in Syracuse, N.Y., Serling became one of early TV’s most successful writers, and was best known for the anthology series “The Twilight Zone,” which he created, wrote and hosted.

• On June 29, 1989, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passes sanctions against the People’s Republic of China following the brutal massacre of protesters in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. U.S. indignation, however, was relatively short-lived, and most sanctions did not last long.