Germany, June 30 – Jul 2: “The Night of the Long Knives (German: Nacht der langen Messer) or “Operation Hummingbird,” was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany between June 30 and July 2, 1934, when the Nazi regime carried out a series of political executions, most of those killed being members of the Sturmabteilung (SA), a Nazi paramilitary organization. Adolf Hitler moved against the SA and its leader, Ernst Röhm, because he saw the independence of the SA and the penchant of its members for street violence as a direct threat to his power…
At least 85 people died during the purge, although the final death toll may have been in the hundreds, and more than a thousand perceived opponents were arrested. Most of the killings were carried out by the [Nazi] Schutzstaffel (SS), an elite Nazi corps, and the Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei), the regime’s secret police.”
Wikipedia Online, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Long_Knives (accessed March 11, 2008)