1930 in the United States

Events from the year 1930 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal government">Federal government of the United States">Federal government

President: Herbert Hoover
[Vice President of the United States|President of the United States|Vice President]: Charles Curtis
Chief Justice:
Speaker of the House of Representatives: Nicholas Longworth
Senate Majority Leader: James Eli Watson
Congress: 71st

Events

January–March

January 6
*The first diesel engine automobile trip is completed.
*The first literary character licensing agreement is signed by English author A. A. Milne, granting Stephen Slesinger U.S. and Canadian merchandising rights to the Winnie-the-Pooh works.
January 13 – The Mickey Mouse comic strip makes its first appearance.
January 19–23 – Watsonville riots: violent assaults on Filipino American farm workers by white residents in California.
February 18
*Elm Farm Ollie becomes the first cow to fly in an airplane, and also the first cow to be milked in an airplane.
*While studying photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh confirms the existence of Pluto, a heavenly body considered a planet until 2006, when officially redefined as a dwarf planet.
March 6 – The first frozen foods of Clarence Birdseye go on sale in Springfield, Massachusetts.
March 17 - The Empire State Building begins construction in New York City.
March 20 - Colonel Sanders opens the first Kentucky Fried Chicken in North Corbin, Kentucky.
March 31 – The Motion Pictures Production Code is instituted, imposing strict guidelines on the treatment of sex, crime, religion and violence in motion pictures for the next 40 years.

April–June

April 3 – The 2nd Academy Awards, hosted by William C. DeMille, are presented at the Ambassador Hotel (Los Angeles), with Harry Beaumont's The Broadway Melody winning the Academy Award for Best Picture. Irving Cummings and Raoul Walsh's In Old Arizona and Ernst Lubitsch's The Patriot jointly receive the most nominations with five.
April 6 – Jimmy Dewar invents Hostess Twinkies.
April 19 – Warner Bros. in the United States release their first cartoon series, called Looney Tunes, which runs until 1969.
April 21 – A fire in the Ohio Penitentiary near Columbus kills 320 people.
April 22 – The United States, United Kingdom and Japan sign the London Naval Treaty regulating submarine warfare and limiting shipbuilding.
April 28 – The first night game in organized baseball history takes place in Independence, Kansas.
May 10 – The National Pan-Hellenic Council is founded in Washington, D.C.
May 14 - Carlsbad Caverns National Park is established in New Mexico.
May 15 – Ellen Church becomes the first airline stewardess, aboard a Boeing tri-motor flying from Oakland, California, to Chicago, Illinois.
May 27 – The Chrysler Building is completed in New York City, becoming the world's first man-made structure taller than.
May 30
* Film director Sergei Eisenstein arrives in Hollywood to work for Paramount Pictures; they part ways by October.
* Shedd Aquarium, one of the first inland aquariums in the world, opens in Chicago.
June 9 – Chicago Tribune journalist Jake Lingle is shot in Chicago. Newspapers promise $55,000 reward for information. Lingle is later found to have had contacts with organized crime.
June 14 – An act of Congress establishes the Federal Bureau of Narcotics as a replacement for the Narcotics Division of the Prohibition Unit.
June 17 – U.S. President Herbert Hoover signs the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act into law.

July–September

July 4 – Nation of Islam founded by Wallace Fard Muhammad in Detroit.
July 21 – The United States Department of Veterans Affairs is established.
July 26 – Charles Creighton and James Hargis leave New York City for Los Angeles on a roundtrip journey, driving 11,555 km using only a reverse gear; the trip lasts the next 42 days.
July 30 – New York City television station W2XBS is put in charge of NBC broadcast engineers.
July 31 – The radio drama The Shadow airs for the first time.
August 6 – Judge Joseph Force Crater steps into a taxi in New York City and disappears.
August 7 – Lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana. They are hanged; James Cameron survives. This will be the last recorded lynching of African Americans in the Northern United States.
August 9 – Cartoon character Betty Boop premieres in the animated film Dizzy Dishes.
September 8 – 3M introduces Scotch Tape.
September 9 – Governor of Louisiana Huey P. Long wins the 1930 Democratic Senate primary election in Louisiana, he would later win the Senate election.

October–December

October 8 - The Philadelphia Athletics defeat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4 games to 2, to win their 5th World Series Title.
November 4
* W9XAP in Chicago, Illinois, broadcasts the U.S. senatorial election returns, the first time a senatorial race, with non-stop vote tallies, is televised.
* Benjamin M. Miller is elected the 39th governor of Alabama defeating Hugh A. Locke.
November 5 – The 3rd Academy Awards, hosted by Conrad Nagel, are presented at the Ambassador Hotel (Los Angeles). Lewis Milestone's All Quiet on the Western Front wins the Academy Award for Best Picture, with Milestone winning Best Director. The film and George Hill's The Big House both receive the most awards with two, while Ernst Lubitsch's The Love Parade receives the most nominations with six.
November 15 – Jean Harlow has her first major film role, in Howard Hughes' epic war film Hell's Angels. Her platinum hair and sensual persona cause an immediate sensation, turning her into one of the decade's most iconic and discussed film stars.
December 2 – Great Depression: U.S. President Herbert Hoover goes before Congress and asks for a US$150 million public works program to help generate jobs and stimulate the economy.
December 7 – W1XAV in Boston, Massachusetts, broadcasts video from the CBS radio orchestra program, The Fox Trappers. The broadcast also includes the first television commercial in the United States, an advertisement for I. J. Fox Furriers, who sponsored the radio show.

Undated

A Jamaican ginger paralysis outbreak occurs across the South and Midwest.
1930–1931 – Crazy Horse’s lifelong friend, He Dog, is interviewed by journalist Eleanor Hinman and Nebraska writer Mari Sandoz.
A record drought in the eastern part of the nation sees Upper Tract, West Virginia record only of precipitation for the year – the record lowest for a calendar year in the US east of the Mississippi. Averaged over the contiguous US the twelve months from July 1930 to June 1931 remains the driest such period on record.

Ongoing

Births

January

January 1 – Ty Hardin, actor
January 2 – Julius La Rosa, pop singer
January 3
* Ray Barra, ballet dancer and choreographer
* Robert Loggia, actor
* Barbara Stuart, actress
January 4
* Sorrell Booke, actor
* Don Shula, American football player and coach
January 5
* Edward Givens, United States Air Force officer, test pilot and NASA astronaut
* Don Rondo, singer
January 6
* W. Wallace Cleland, biochemist and educator
* Professor Tanaka, wrestler and actor
* Vic Tayback, actor
January 7
* Ann Bedsole, politician
* Jack Greene, country music singer-songwriter
* Eddie LeBaron, American football player, manager and sportscaster
January 8
* Dorothi Fox, actress
* Bill James (politician), politician
* Doreen Wilber, archer
January 10 – Roy E. Disney, film and television executive
January 12 – Glenn Yarbrough, singer
January 13 – Frances Sternhagen, actress
January 14 – C. Arlen Beam, judge
January 15
* James Millstone, journalist and editor
* Margaret Mary Vojtko, linguist
January 16 - Mary Ann McMorrow, judge
January 17
* Dick Contino, American accordionist
* Lucille Miller, American murderer
January 18 – James M. Bobbitt, chemist and professor
January 19 – Tippi Hedren, actress
January 20 – Buzz Aldrin, astronaut, Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 11 and second person to walk on the Moon
January 22 – David Rosen, businessman
January 23
* William R. Pogue, astronaut
* Benjamin Tatar, actor
January 24
* Edward Diego Reyes, politician
* Rita Lakin, screenwriter
* John Romita Sr., comic book artist
January 25 – Ruth Kligman, artist
January 26 – Thomas Gumbleton, Roman Catholic prelate
January 27 – Bobby Bland, African-American singer
January 28
* Ruth Cohen (actress), actress
* Ralph Engelstad, businessman
January 30
* Gene Hackman, actor and novelist
* Frank O'Bannon, politician, 47th governor of Indiana
January 31 – Al De Lory, record producer, arranger, musician

February

February 2
* Ruth M. Kirk, politician
* C. M. Newton, basketball player, coach and administrator
February 3 – David Edward Foley, Roman Catholic prelate
February 4 – Jim Loscutoff, basketball player
February 5 – Don Goldie, American jazz trumpeter
February 7 – Jack Biddle, politician d. 2022)
February 8
* Jim Dooley, American football player and coach
* Arlan Stangeland, American farmer and politician
February 10
* Anne Wexler, American political consultant and public policy advisor
* Robert Wagner, American actor
February 11 – James Polshek, American architect
February 12
* Bert Clark, American football player and coach
* Arlen Specter, American politician
February 13 – Frank Buxton, American actor, television writer, director and author
February 14 – Bernie Papy Jr., American politician
February 15
* Sara Jane Moore, attempted assassin of President Gerald Ford
* Robert Edward Mulvee, Roman Catholic Prelate
February 16
* Ricou Browning, stuntman and film director
* Noah Weinberg, American-born Israeli rabbi, founder of Aish HaTorah
February 17 – Roger Craig, American baseball player, coach and manager
February 18 – Pauline Bart, American sociologist
February 19 – John Frankenheimer, American film director
February 22
* James McGarrell, American painter
* Marni Nixon, American vocalist
February 24
* Joan Diener, American theater actress and singer
* Barbara Jo Lawrence, American actress and model
* Anita Steckel, American feminist artist
February 25
* Roger A. Madigan, American politician
* Delford M. Smith, American aviator
February 26 – Robert Francis, American actor
February 27
* Barney Glaser, American sociologist
* Peter Stone, American writer
* Joanne Woodward, American actress
February 28 – Leon Cooper, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

March

March 2
* John Cullum, actor and singer
* Tom Wolfe, author, journalist
March 5 – Del Crandall, baseball player and manager
March 6 – Allison Hayes, actress
March 9 – Ornette Coleman, jazz saxophonist
March 16
* Olen Lovell Burrage, American native businessman
* Hobie Landrith, baseball player
March 17 – James Irwin, astronaut
March 18 – Adam Maida, Roman Catholic prelate
March 19
* Wayne Fitzgerald, film title designer
* Richard Wald, American television executive
March 21 – James Coco, American actor
March 22
* Derek Bok, American lawyer and academic
* Pat Robertson, American televangelist, motivational speaker, author and television host
* Stephen Sondheim, American composer, lyricist
* Willie Thrower, American football player
March 24 – Steve McQueen, American actor
March 25
* John Keel, American journalist, urologist
* Russell Sherman, American pianist
March 26 – Sandra Day O'Connor, American politician, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
March 27 – James Tayoun, American politician
March 28
* Robert Ashley, American composer
* Jerome Isaac Friedman, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
* Joe Fortunato, American football player
March 30 – John Astin, actor
March 31 – Susan Weil, artist

April

April 1
* Betsy Jones-Moreland, actress
* Grace Lee Whitney, actress
April 3 – Lawton Chiles, politician
April 5 – Mary Costa, American opera singer and actress
April 9 – Jim Fowler, zoologist
April 10
* Dolores Huerta, labor leader and activist
* Frank Lary, baseball player
April 11
* Nicholas F. Brady, politician
* Anton LaVey, Satanist
April 14
* Bradford Dillman, actor and author
* Arnold Burns, lawyer
* Jay Robinson, actor
* William vanden Heuvel, lawyer and diplomat
April 19
* Curtis Roosevelt, writer
* Dick Sargent, actor and gay activist
April 21 – Donald J. Tyson, businessman
April 23 – Alan Oppenheimer, actor
April 24
* Richard Donner, film director and producer
* Conn Findlay, rower, Olympic champion
April 28
* James Baker, United States Secretary of State
* Carolyn Jones, actress
* Richard C. Sarafian, film-television director, writer and actor
April 29 – Irv Weinstein, broadcaster, television news anchor

May

May 1
* Ethel Ayler, American actress
* Ollie Matson, American sprinter
* Richard Riordan, American politician, 39th Mayor of Los Angeles
* Little Walter, African-American blues singer-songwriter and musician
May 3
* Bob Havens, American musician
* Edward Nixon, American entrepreneur
May 4
* Lois de Banzie, UK-born American actress
* Katherine Jackson, Jackson Family matriarch
* Roberta Peters, American soprano
May 5
* Michael J. Adams, aviator, aeronautical engineer and astronaut
* Douglas Turner Ward, playwright, actor and director
May 6
* George Tarasovic, American football player
* David Carpenter, serial killer
May 7 – Babe Parilli, American football player
May 8 – Gary Snyder, poet, essayist and translator
May 10
* Adam Darius, dancer and choreographer
* George E. Smith, physicist, engineer and Nobel Prize laureate
* Pat Summerall, American football player, broadcaster
May 11
* Bud Ekins, stuntman
* William Honan, journalist and author
May 12 – Tom Umphlett, baseball player and manager
May 13 – Mike Gravel, politician
May 15
* Cotton Ivy, author and politician
* Jasper Johns, painter
May 16 – Carolyn Conwell, actress
May 17 – Frank Price, film studio head and television writer
May 18 – Don L. Lind, naval aviator, astronaut and scientist
May 19 – Lorraine Hansberry, African-American playwright
May 22
* Harvey Milk, politician, San Francisco gay rights activist
* Tiny Topsy, African-American rhythm and blues singer
May 23 – Charles Kelman, ophthalmologist
May 27
* John Barth, fiction writer
* Bruce Halle, American businessman
* William S. Sessions, American civil servant and judge
May 28 – Frank Drake, radio astronomer, pioneer in SETI
May 29 – Gerry Lenfest, lawyer, media executive and philanthropist
May 30
* Clint Eastwood, actor, filmmaker, musician and political figure
* Morton L. Janklow, literary agent

June

June 1
* Pat Corley, actor
* Richard Levins, ecologist and geneticist
June 2
* Pete Conrad, astronaut
* Bob Lillis, baseball player, coach and manager
* Stewart and Cyril Marcus, gynecologists
June 3 – Marion Zimmer Bradley, writer
June 4
* Morgana King, jazz singer and actress
* Paul Pressler, politician and judge
June 8 – Richard Paul Matsch, federal judge
June 9 – Dorothy Cotton, civil rights activist
June 11 – Charles B. Rangel, African-American politician
June 12
* Jim Nabors, actor, musician and comedian
* Dutch Rennert, baseball umpire
June 14 – Charles McCarry, novelist
June 16 – Thyrsa Frazier Svager, African-American mathematician and academic
June 17 – Shatzi Weisberger, activist
June 19
* James O. Mason, medical doctor and public health administrator
* Gena Rowlands, actress
* Diana Sowle, actress
June 21 – John E. McCarthy, Roman Catholic bishop
June 22
* Fred Benners, American football player
* Roy Drusky, country music singer-songwriter
June 23 – Ben Speer, singer, musician, music publisher and record company executive
June 24
* Herb Klein, businessman, attorney and politician
* Peter Mazzaferro, American football coach
June 25 – James Sedin, ice hockey player
June 26 – Jackie Fargo, wrestler, trainer
June 27 – Ross Perot, computer billionaire, politician
June 28 – Maureen Howard, writer, editor and lecturer
June 29
* Robert Evans, producer
* Edward Johnson III, investor, businessman
* Viola Léger, Acadian-Canadian actress and politician
June 30
* Ben Atchley, politician
* W. C. Gorden, American football player, coach
* Isaac Levi, philosopher
* Thomas Sowell, economist, author

July

July 1
* Jerome A. Cohen, professor of law
* Frank Joranko, American football and baseball player and coach
July 2
* Pete Burnside, baseball player
* Ahmad Jamal, jazz pianist
* Jane Moffet, utility baseball player
* Magdalen Redman, baseball player
* Randy Starr, singer-songwriter and dentist
* Joe Scudero, American football safety
July 3 – Ronnell Bright, jazz pianist
July 4
* George Steinbrenner, businessman, baseball team owner
* Jack Van Mark, politician
July 5
* Tommy Cook, actor
* Billy Howton, American football player
* Donald Wilhelms, United States Geological Survey geologist
July 7
* Sherwin Carlquist, botanist, photographer
* Theodore McCarrick, Roman Catholic cardinal
July 8
* Chris Adams, author and retired United States Air Force officer
* Jim Mooney, basketball player
* Frank Slay, songwriter, record producer
* Jerry Vale, singer and actor
July 9
* Buddy Bregman, musical arranger
* Patricia Newcomb, producer and publicist
July 10 – Pete Carril, basketball coach
July 11
* Dick Beyer, professional wrestler
* Harold Bloom, literary critic
* Ezra Vogel, professor
July 13 – Dick Bunt, basketball player
July 14 – Polly Bergen, American actress
July 15 – Betty Wagoner, American baseball player
July 16
* Michael Bilirakis, politician
* Bert Rechichar, American football defensive back, kicker
July 18 – Sammy Masters, singer-songwriter
July 20 – Ronnie MacGilvray, American basketball player
July 23 – Moon Landrieu, lawyer and politician, Mayor of New Orleans
July 24 – Jacqueline Brookes, actress
July 25 – Mitzi Shore, comedy club owner
July 29 – Paul Taylor, choreographer
July 30
* A. D. King, civil rights activist and minister
* Gus Triandos, baseball player

August

August 2
* Eddie Locke, jazz drummer
* Carolyn Warner, politician
August 5
* Neil Armstrong, astronaut, mission commander on Apollo 11 and the first person to walk on the Moon
* Damita Jo DeBlanc, actress, comedian, singer
August 6 – Abbey Lincoln, singer
August 8 – Joan Mondale, socialite, Second Lady of the United States
August 10 – Fakir Musafar, performance artist, body modification pioneer
August 13
* Don Ho, singer and musician
* Bob Wiesler, pitcher
* Jack Daugherty, musician
* Wilmer Mizell, pitcher
August 14
* W. Brantley Harvey Jr., lawyer and politician
* Earl Weaver, baseball player and manager
August 15 – Selma James, American-born feminist writer
August 16
* Robert Culp, actor
* Frank Gifford, American football player
* Tony Trabert, tennis player and commentator
August 19
* Jesse L. Douglas, civil rights activist
* Frank McCourt, writer
August 21 – Frank Perry, stage director and filmmaker
August 23 – Mickey McMahan, big band musician
August 28 – Ben Gazzara, actor
August 30
* Warren Buffett, billionaire entrepreneur
* Xernona Clayton, civil rights activist and broadcasting executive
August 31 – Raymond J. Donovan, businessman and politician, Secretary of Labor

September

September 2 – Rita Riggs, costume designer
September 4 – Norman Dorsen, civil rights activist
September 7 – Sonny Rollins, African-American jazz saxophonist
September 9 – Frank Lucas, African-American drug trafficker
September 11 – Cathryn Damon, actress
September 13
* Mary Baumgartner, female professional baseball player
* Jimmy McLane, American Olympic swimmer
September 16 – Anne Francis, actress
September 17
* David Huddleston, actor
* Edgar Mitchell, astronaut
* Thomas P. Stafford, American astronaut
September 23 – Ray Charles, African-American singer, musician and actor
September 24 – John Young, American astronaut
September 25 – Shel Silverstein, American poet, singer-songwriter, cartoonist, screenwriter and children's book author
September 26 – Philip Bosco, American actor
September 28
* Tommy Collins, American country music singer-songwriter
* Johnny "Country" Mathis, American country music singer-songwriter
September 29 – Billy Strange, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

October

October 1 – George F. Regas, Episcopal priest and activist
October 8 – Faith Ringgold, artist and author
October 10
* Doris Payne, jewel thief
* Adlai Stevenson III, politician
October 11
* Bill Fischer, baseball player
* Sam Johnson, politician
October 17
* Robert Atkins, nutritionist
* Nick Chickillo, American football player
October 18 – Frank Carlucci, politician
October 19 – Jody Lawrance, actress
October 20 - Leila Seth, Indian judge
October 24
* Big Bopper, disc jockey and singer-songwriter
* Jack Angel, voice actor
October 27 – Gladys West, mathematician
October 29 – Natalie Sleeth, composer
October 30 – Clifford Brown, jazz trumpeter
October 31 – Michael Collins, astronaut

November

November 3
* Mable John, blues singer
* D. James Kennedy, evangelist
November 4 – Dick MacPherson, American football coach
November 6
* Derrick Bell, law professor
* Wilma Briggs, American female baseball player
* Mark McCormack, lawyer and sports agent
November 7 – Rudy Boschwitz, politician
November 11 – Mildred Dresselhaus, scientist, educator
November 12 – Bob Crewe, singer-songwriter, manager and producer
November 13
* Richard A. Falk, international professor
* Fred R. Harris, politician
November 14 – Ed White, astronaut
November 16 – Paul Foytack, baseball player
November 17 – Bob Mathias, athlete
November 20 – Curly Putman, songwriter
November 21 – Anthony Downs, economist
November 22 – Owen Garriott, astronaut
November 23
* Bill Brock, politician
* Robert Easton, actor
* Jack McKeon, baseball player and manager
November 24 – Bob Friend, baseball player
November 25 – Clarke Scholes, freestyle swimmer
November 30 – G. Gordon Liddy, organizer of the Watergate burglaries

December

December 2 – Gary Becker, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
December 4
* Sheila Benson, American journalist and film critic
* Jim Hall, American jazz guitarist
December 5 – Warren Spannaus, American politician
December 11 – Jim Williams, American antique dealer, preservationist
December 19 – Peter Buck, American restaurateur
December 31
* Odetta, African-American singer and civil rights activist
* Jaime Escalante, American high school math teacher

Deaths

January 2 – Kenneth Hawks, film director
January 9 – Edward Bok, editor
January 13 – John Nathan Cobb, author, naturalist, conservationist, fisheries researcher, and educator
January 24 – Rebecca Latimer Felton, U.S. Senator from Georgia
February 7 – Jennie Anderson Froiseth, women's rights campaigner
February 14 – Fred Dubois, U.S. Senator from Idaho
February 27 – George Haven Putnam, author and publisher
March 2 – Marta Sandal, Norwegian-born singer
March 8 – William Howard Taft, 27th president of the United States from 1909 to 1913 and 10th chief justice of the United States from 1921 to 1930
March 11 – Alma Webster Hall Powell, opera singer, suffragist and inventor
March 13 – Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman, author
March 31 – James Marshall Head, politician and businessman
April 7 – Octaviano Ambrosio Larrazolo, politician
April 14 – John B. Sheridan, sports journalist
April 16 - Linda Richards, nurse
May 2 – Daniel V. Asay, iceboat racer
May 18 – Gottfried Blocklinger, admiral
May – Anna Margaret Urbas, criminal associate
June 16 – Ezra Fitch, businessman, co-founder of Abercrombie & Fitch
July 2 – Anders Randolf, silent film actor
August 6 – Luigi Fugazy, banker, businessman and philanthropist
September 5
* Carl Panzram, serial killer and rapist
* Robert Means Thompson, naval officer and president of the American Olympic Association
September 21 – John T. Dorrance, chemist
September 24 – William A. MacCorkle, lawyer, Governor of West Virginia
September 28 – Daniel Guggenheim, mining magnate and philanthropist
September 30 - Albert W. Grant, admiral
October 2 – Gordon Stewart Northcott, serial killer
October 15 – Herbert Henry Dow, industrial chemist
November 20 – William B. Hanna, sportswriter
November 29 – Anna DeCosta Banks, American nurse
December 9 – Rube Foster, Negro league baseball player
December 14 – F. Richard Jones, director
December 16 – Herman Lamm, bank robber