30 October

Events

• 1470 - Henry VI of England returns to the 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."
• 1905 - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia grants Russia's first constitution, creating a legislative assembly.
• 1925 - John Logie Baird creates Great 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.
• 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 a 58 megaton yield hydrogen bomb over Novaya Zemlya (this is still the largest nuclear device to ever be detonated).
• 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.
• 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 King of Spain after dictator Francisco Franco concedes that he is too ill to govern.
• 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.
• 1995 - Quebec separatists 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 - 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).

Births

• 1735 - John Adams, American revolutionary leader and President of the United States († 1826)
• 1751 - Richard Sheridan, playwright († 1816)
• 1839 - Alfred Sisley, artist († 1899)
• 1844 - Harvey W. Wiley, American chemist († 1930)
• 1861 - Antoine Bourdelle, sculptor († 1929)
• 1871 - Paul Valery,Franch, poet,(† 1945)
• 1882 - Guenter von Kluge, German,Field Marshal,(† 1944)
• 1882 - William Halsey, Jr, American admiral († 1959)
• 1885 - Ezra Pound, American poet († 1972)
• 1893 - Charles Atlas, bodybuilder († 1972)
• 1893 - Roland Freisler, German Nazi politician († 1945)
• 1896 - Ruth Gordon, American actress († 1985)
• 1915 - Fred Friendly, journalist († 1998)
• 1916 - Leon Day, baseballer († 1995)
• 1930 - Nestor Almendros, cinematographer († 1992)
• 1932 - Louis Malle, director († 1995)
• 1937 - Claude Lelouche, director
• 1939 - Grace Slick, singer with Jefferson Airplane
• 1941 - Otis Williams, singer
• 1945 - Henry Winkler, actor
• 1951 - Harry Hamlin, actor
• 1956 - Juliet Stevenson, actress
• 1960 - Diego Maradona, Argentinian football player
• 1967 - Gavin Rossdale, musician

Deaths

• 1816 - Frederick I of Württemberg
• 1842 - Allan Cunningham, poet and author (* 1784)
• 1883 - Robert Volkmann, composer
• 1893 - John Joseph Caldwell Abbott, third prime minister of Canada
• 1910 - Henry Dunant, founder of the Red Cross
• 1912 - James S. Sherman, Vice President of the United States
• 1915 - Charles Tupper, sixth prime minister of Canada
• 1918 - Egon Schiele, Austrian painter
• 1968 - Rose Wilder Lane, author
• 1968 - Ramon Novarro, actor
• 1978 - Edgar Bergen, American ventriloquist
• 1988 - John Houseman, actor, director, teacher
• 2000 - Steve Allen, comedian, author, and composer
• 2001 - Matthias Seefelder, chemist, BASF CEO
• 2002 - Juan Antonio Bardem, movie director
• 2002 - Jam Master Jay, Rap and Hip Hop musician

Holidays

• Devil's Night also known as Angel's Night

See Also: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

Referenced By