October 30 is the 303rd day of the year (304th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 62 days remaining.
Events
- 1270 - The Eighth Crusade and siege of Tunis end by an agreement between Charles I of Sicily (brother to King Louis IX of France, who had died months earlier) and the sultan of Tunis.
- 1340 - Battle of Rio Salado
- 1470 - Henry VI of England returns to the English throne after Earl of Warwick defeats Yorkists in battle.
- 1831 - In Southampton County, Virginia, escaped slave Nat Turner is captured and arrested for leading the bloodiest slave revolt in United States history.
- 1864 - Second war of Schleswig ends: Duke Frederick and the Danish Crown recognize Prussia's and Austria's annexation of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg.
- 1864 - Helena, Montana is founded after four prospectors discover gold at "Last Chance Gulch."
- 1894 - Domenico Menegatti obtains a patent for a procedure to be applied in producing pandoro industrially.
- 1905 - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia grants Russia's first constitution, creating a legislative assembly.
- 1918 - The Ottoman Empire signs an armistice with the Allies, ending the First World War in the Middle East
- 1920 - The Communist Party of Australia founded in Sydney.
- 1925 - John Logie Baird creates Britain's first television transmitter.
- 1938 - Orson Welles broadcasts his radio play of H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds, causing a nationwide panic.
- 1941 - World War II: Franklin Delano Roosevelt approves US$1 billion in Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union.
- 1944 - Anne Frank is deported from Auschwitz to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
- 1947 - The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which is the foundation of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is founded.
- 1953 - Cold War: US President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally approves the top secret document National Security Council Paper No. 162/2, which states that the United States' arsenal of nuclear weapons must be maintained and expanded to counter the communist threat.
- 1961 - Nuclear testing: The Soviet Union detonates the hydrogen bomb Tsar Bomba over Novaya Zemlya; at 58 megatons of yield, it is still the largest nuclear device ever detonated. Nikita Kruschev announces that the scientists had planned to make it 100 megatons, but had reduced the yield so as to avoid breaking all the windows in Moscow.
- 1961 - Due to "violations of Lenin's precepts", it is decreed that Josef Stalin's body be removed from its place of honour inside Lenin's tomb and buried near the Kremlin wall with a plain granite marker instead.
- 1965 - Vietnam War: Just miles from Da Nang, United States Marines repel an intense attack by wave after wave of Viet Cong forces, killing 56 guerrillas. Among the dead, a sketch of Marine positions was found on the body of a 13-year-old Vietnamese boy who sold drinks to the Marines the day before.
- 1966 - The Zodiac killer kills his first victim, 18-year old Cheri Jo Bates, in Riverside, California.
- 1968 - The film The Lion in Winter, starring Katharine Hepburn, debuts.
- 1970 - In Vietnam, the worst monsoon to hit the area in six years causes large floods, kills 293, leaves 200,000 homeless and virtually halts the Vietnam War.
- 1972 - US President Richard Nixon approves legislation to increase Social Security spending by US$5.3 billion.
- 1974 - "The Rumble in the Jungle": Muhammad Ali knocks out George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire to regain the World Heavyweight Boxing championship.
- 1975 - Prince Juan Carlos becomes Spain's acting head of state, taking over for the country's ailing dictator, Gen. Francisco Franco.
- 1980 - El Salvador and Honduras sign a peace treaty to put the border dispute fought over in 1969's Football War before the International Court of Justice.
- 1983 - The first democratic elections in Argentina after seven years of military rule are held.
- 1987 - In Japan, NEC releases the first 16-bit home entertainment system, the PC-Engine.
- 1988 - Philip Morris buys Kraft Foods for US$13.1 billion.
- 1991 - The Madrid Conference for Middle East peace talks opens.
- 1995 - Quebec sovereignists narrowly lose a referendum for a mandate to negotiate independence from Canada (vote was 50.6% to 49.4%).
- 1997 - British au pair Louise Woodward is found guilty of the baby-shaking death of 8-month-old Matthew Eappen.
- 2001 - George W. Bush throws out the first pitch at Game 3 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium, in what was intended to be a defiant gesture, coming just weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks.
- 2001 - Michael Jordan returns to the National Basketball Association with the Washington Wizards after 3 1/2 years (the Wizards lose 93-91 to the New York Knicks).
- 2002 - British Digital terrestrial television (DTT) Service Freeview starts transmitting throughout parts of the United Kingdom
- 2004 - A 163-metre high radio mast in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, UK collapses in a fire.
- 2004 - In Punjab, India the expelled BSP leader Satnam Singh Kainth launches Bahujan Samaj Party (Kainth).
- 2005 - The rebuilt Dresden Frauenkirche (destroyed in the firebombing of Dresden during World War II) was reconsecrated, after 13 years of rebuilding.
Births
- 1218 - Emperor Chukyo of Japan (d. 1234)
- 1513 - Jacques Amyot, French writer (d. 1593)
- 1624 - Paul Pellisson, French writer (d. 1693)
- 1735 - John Adams, American revolutionary leader and President of the United States (d. 1826)
- 1751 - Richard Sheridan, Irish playwright (d. 1816)
- 1762 - André Chénier, French writer (d. 1794)
- 1839 - Alfred Sisley, French artist (d. 1899)
- 1844 - Harvey W. Wiley, American chemist (d. 1930)
- 1861 - Antoine Bourdelle, French sculptor (d. 1929)
- 1871 - Paul Valery, French poet (d. 1945)
- 1882 - William Halsey, Jr, American admiral (d. 1959)
- 1882 - Günther von Kluge, German field marshal (d. 1944)
- 1885 - Ezra Pound, American poet (d. 1972)
- 1893 - Charles Atlas, Italian-born bodybuilder (d. 1972)
- 1893 - Roland Freisler, German Nazi politician (d. 1945)
- 1896 - Ruth Gordon, American actress (d. 1985)
- 1900 - Ragnar Granit Finnish neuroscientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1991)
- 1906 - Giuseppe Farina, Italian race car driver (d. 1966)
- 1911 - Ruth Hussey, American actress (d. 2005)
- 1914 - Richard E Holz, American composer
- 1915 - Fred Friendly, American journalist and network executive (d. 1998)
- 1916 - Leon Day, baseball player (d. 1995)
- 1917 - Maurice Trintignant, French race car driver (d. 2005)
- 1930 - Nestor Almendros, Spanish cinematographer (d. 1992)
- 1932 - Louis Malle, French film director (d. 1995)
- 1934 - Frans Brüggen, Dutch flutist, recorder player, and conductor
- 1935 - Agota Kristof, Hungarian writer
- 1936 - Polina Astakhova, Ukrainian gymnast (d. 2005)
- 1937 - Claude Lelouch, French film director
- 1939 - Grace Slick, American singer (Jefferson Airplane)
- 1940 - Ed Lauter, American actor
- 1941 - Theodor W. Hänsch, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1941 - Otis Williams, American singer
- 1945 - Henry Winkler, American actor
- 1951 - Harry Hamlin, American actor
- 1956 - Juliet Stevenson, English actress
- 1958 - Joe Delaney, American football player (d. 1983)
- 1960 - Diego Armando Maradona, Argentine footballer
- 1962 - Courtney Walsh, West Indian cricketer
- 1963 - Kristina Wagner, American actress
- 1966 - Scott Innes, American voice actor
- 1967 - Gavin Rossdale, English musician
- 1973 - Adam Copeland, Canadian professional wrestler
- 1973 - Silvia Corzo, Colombian newsreader
- 1978 - Martin Dossett, American football player
Deaths
- 1459 - Gian Francesco Poggio Bracciolini, Italian humanist (b. 1380)
- 1522 - Jean Mouton, French composer
- 1553 - Jacob Sturm von Sturmeck, German statesman and reformer (b. 1489)
- 1602 - Jean-Jacques Boissard, French poet (b. 1528)
- 1611 - King Charles IX of Sweden (b. 1550)
- 1626 - Willebrord Snell, Dutch astronomer and mathematician (b. 1580)
- 1632 - Henri II de Montmorency, French naval officer and Governor of Languedoc (b. 1595)
- 1654 - Emperor Go-Komyo of Japan (b. 1633)
- 1680 - Antoinette Bourignon, Flemish mystic (b. 1616)
- 1685 - Michel le Tellier, French statesman (b. 1603)
- 1816 - Frederick I of Württemberg (b. 1754)
- 1842 - Allan Cunningham, Scottish poet and author (b. 1784)
- 1853 - Pietro Raimondi, Italian composer (b. 1786)
- 1883 - Robert Volkmann, German composer (b. 1815)
- 1893 - John Joseph Caldwell Abbott, third Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1821)
- 1910 - Henry Dunant, Swiss founder of the Red Cross, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1828)
- 1912 - James S. Sherman, Vice President of the United States (b. 1855)
- 1915 - Charles Tupper, sixth Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1821)
- 1918 - Egon Schiele, Austrian painter (b. 1890)
- 1968 - Rose Wilder Lane, American journalist and author (b. 1886)
- 1968 - Ramon Novarro, Mexican actor (b. 1899)
- 1969 - Pops Foster, American musician (b. 1892)
- 1975 - Gustav Ludwig Hertz, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1887)
- 1978 - Edgar Bergen, American ventriloquist (b. 1903)
- 1979 - Barnes Wallis, British aeronautical engineer (b. 1887)
- 2000 - Steve Allen, American comedian, author, and composer (b. 1921)
- 2002 - Jam Master Jay, American rapper and musician (Run DMC) (murdered) (b. 1965)
- 2004 - Peggy Ryan, American actress (b. 1924)
- 2005 - Al Lopez, baseball player and manager (b. 1908)
Holidays and observances
- Calendar of Saints - October 30th is the feast day of the following Roman Catholic Saints:
- Also see October 30 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- USA - Devil's Night also known as Mischief night in Detroit; National Candy Corn Day
External links
October 29 - October 31 - November 30 - September 30 - more historical anniversaries