October 30
Events
Pre-1600
- 130 - Emperor Hadrian establishes the city of Antinoöpolis on the Nile in honour of his companion Antinous, creating a new Hellenizing foundation in Roman Egypt.
- 637 - Arab–Byzantine wars: Antioch surrenders to the Rashidun Caliphate after the Battle of the Iron Bridge.
- 758 - Guangzhou is sacked by Arab and Persian pirates.
- 1137 - Ranulf of Apulia defeats Roger II of Sicily at the Battle of Rignano, securing his position as duke until his death two years later.
- 1270 - The Eighth Crusade ends by an agreement between Charles I of Anjou and the Hafsid dynasty of Tunis, Tunisia.
- 1340 - Reconquista: Portuguese and Castilian forces halt a Muslim invasion at the Battle of Río Salado.
1601–1900
- 1657 - Anglo-Spanish War: Spanish forces fail to retake Jamaica at the Battle of Ocho Rios.
- 1806 - War of the Fourth Coalition: Convinced that he is facing a much larger force, Prussian General von Romberg, commanding 5,300 men, surrenders the city of Stettin to 800 French soldiers.
- 1817 - Simón Bolívar becomes President of the Third Republic of Venezuela.
- 1831 - Nat Turner is arrested for leading the bloodiest slave rebellion in United States history.
- 1836 - Louis Napoleon launches the unsuccessful Strasbourg Coup to overthrow the July Monarchy in France
- 1858 - Approximately 20 people die in Bradford, England, UK, after being poisoned from ingesting sweets that had been accidentally adulterated with arsenic trioxide.
- 1863 - Danish Prince Vilhelm arrives in Athens to assume his throne as George I, King of the Hellenes.
- 1864 - Second War of Schleswig: The Treaty of Vienna is signed, by which Denmark relinquishes one province each to Prussia and Austria.
- 1888 - The Rudd Concession is granted by Matabeleland to agents of Cecil Rhodes.
1901–present
- 1905 - Tsar Nicholas II issues the October Manifesto, nominally granting the Russian peoples basic civil liberties and the right to form a duma.
- 1918 - World War I: The Ottoman Empire signs the Armistice of Mudros with the Allies.
- 1918 - World War I: Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen, a state union of Kingdom of Hungary and Triune Kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia is abolished with decisions of Croatian and Hungarian parliaments.
- 1920 - The Communist Party of Australia is founded in Sydney.
- 1938 - Orson Welles broadcasts a radio adaptation of H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds, causing a massive panic in some of the audience in the United States.
- 1941 - President Roosevelt approves $1 billion in Lend-Lease aid to the Allied nations.
- 1941 - Holocaust: Fifteen hundred Jews from Pidhaytsi are sent by Nazis to Bełżec extermination camp.
- 1942 - World War II: Lt. Tony Fasson and Able Seaman Colin Grazier drown while taking code books from the sinking German submarine U-559.
- 1944 - Holocaust: Anne and Margot Frank are deported from Auschwitz to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they die from disease the following year, shortly before the end of WWII.
- 1947 - The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the foundation of the World Trade Organization, is founded.
- 1948 - A luzzu fishing boat overloaded with passengers capsizes and sinks in the Gozo Channel off Qala, Gozo, Malta, killing 23 of the 27 people on board.
- 1953 - President Eisenhower approves the top-secret document NSC 162/2 concerning the maintenance of a strong nuclear deterrent force against the Soviet Union.
- 1956 - Hungarian Revolution: The government of Imre Nagy recognizes newly established revolutionary workers' councils. Army officer Béla Király leads anti-Soviet militias in an attack on the headquarters of the Hungarian Working People's Party.
- 1959 - Piedmont Airlines Flight 349 crashes on approach to Charlottesville–Albemarle Airport in Albemarle County, Virginia, killing 26 of the 27 on board.
- 1961 - The Soviet Union detonates the Tsar Bomba, the most powerful explosive device ever detonated.
- 1968 - A squad of 120 North Korean Army commandos land in boats along a 25-mile long section of the eastern coast of South Korea in a failed attempt to overthrow the dictatorship of Park Chung Hee and bring about the reunification of Korea.
- 1973 - The Bosphorus Bridge in Turkey is completed, connecting the continents of Europe and Asia over the Bosphorus for the second time.
- 1975 - Prince Juan Carlos I of Spain becomes acting head of state, taking over for the country's ailing dictator, Gen. Francisco Franco.
- 1975 - Forty-five people are killed when Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 450 crashes into Suchdol, Prague, while on approach to Prague Ruzyně Airport in Czechoslovakia.
- 1980 - El Salvador and Honduras agree 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.
- 1983 - A magnitude 6.6 earthquake in the Turkish provinces of Erzurum and Kars leaves approximately 1,340 people dead.
- 1985 - Space Shuttle Challenger lifts off for mission STS-61-A, its final successful mission.
- 1991 - The Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The Madrid Conference commences in an effort to revive peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine.
- 1995 - Quebec citizens narrowly vote in favour of remaining a province of Canada in their second referendum on national sovereignty.
- 2005 - The rebuilt Dresden Frauenkirche is reconsecrated after a thirteen-year rebuilding project.
- 2013 - Forty-five people are killed and seven injured after a bus catches fire in Mahabubnagar district, Andhra Pradesh, India.
- 2014 - Sweden becomes the first European Union member state to officially recognize Palestine as an independent and sovereign state.
- 2014 - Four people are killed when a Beechcraft Super King Air crashes at Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport in Wichita, Kansas.
- 2015 - A fire in a nightclub in the Romanian capital of Bucharest kills sixty-four people and leaves more than 147 injured.
- 2020 - A magnitude 7.0 earthquake strikes the Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey, triggering a tsunami. At least 119 people die mainly due to collapsed buildings.
- 2022 - A pedestrian suspension bridge collapses in the city of Morbi, Gujarat, leading to the deaths of at least 135 people.
- 2023 - First rescue of a prisoner during the Israeli invasion of Gaza.
Births
Pre-1600
- 39 BC - Julia the Elder, Roman daughter of Augustus
- 1218 - Emperor Chūkyō of Japan
- 1327 - Andrew, Duke of Calabria
- 1447 - Lucas Watzenrode, Prince-Bishop of Warmia
- 1492 - Anne d'Alençon, French noblewoman
- 1513 - Jacques Amyot, French bishop and translator
- 1558 - Jacques-Nompar de Caumont, duc de La Force, Marshal of France
1601–1900
- 1624 - Paul Pellisson, French historian and author
- 1632 - Christopher Wren, English physicist, mathematician, and architect, designed St Paul's Cathedral
- 1660 - Ernest August, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg
- 1668 - Sophia Charlotte of Hanover
- 1712 - Giovanni Pietro Francesco Agius de Soldanis, Maltese linguist, historian and cleric
- 1728 - Mary Hayley, English businesswoman
- 1735 - John Adams, American lawyer and politician, 2nd President of the United States
- 1741 - Angelica Kauffman, painter
- 1751 - Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Irish-English poet, playwright, and politician, Treasurer of the Navy
- 1762 - André Chénier, Turkish-French poet and playwright
- 1786 - Philippe-Joseph Aubert de Gaspé, Canadian captain and author
- 1799 - Ignace Bourget, Canadian bishop
- 1839 - Alfred Sisley, French-English painter
- 1857 - Georges Gilles de la Tourette, French-Swiss physician and neurologist
- 1861 - Antoine Bourdelle, French sculptor and painter
- 1868 - António Cabreira, Portuguese polygraph
- 1871 - Buck Freeman, American baseball player
- 1871 - Paul Valéry, French poet and philosopher
- 1873 - Francisco I. Madero, Mexican businessman and politician, 33rd President of Mexico
- 1877 - Hugo Celmiņš, Latvian politician, Prime Minister of Latvia
- 1878 - Arthur Scherbius, German electrical engineer, invented the Enigma machine
- 1881 - Elizabeth Madox Roberts, American poet and author
- 1882 - Oldřich Duras, Czech chess player and composer
- 1882 - William Halsey Jr., American admiral
- 1882 - Günther von Kluge, Polish-German field marshal
- 1885 - Ezra Pound, American poet and critic
- 1886 - Zoë Akins, American author, poet, and playwright
- 1887 - Sukumar Ray, Indian-Bangladeshi author, poet, and playwright
- 1888 - Louis Menges, American soccer player, soldier, and politician
- 1888 - Konstantinos Tsiklitiras, Greek footballer and high jumper
- 1892 - Charles Atlas, Italian-American bodybuilder
- 1893 - Roland Freisler, German soldier, lawyer, and judge
- 1894 - Jean Rostand, French biologist and philosopher
- 1894 - Peter Warlock, English composer and critic
- 1895 - Gerhard Domagk, German pathologist and bacteriologist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1895 - Dickinson W. Richards, American physician and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1896 - Rex Cherryman, American actor
- 1896 - Ruth Gordon, American actress and screenwriter
- 1896 - Kostas Karyotakis, Greek poet and educator
- 1896 - Harry R. Truman, American soldier and inn keeper on Mount St. Helens, killed in the eruption
- 1896 - Antonino Votto, Italian conductor
- 1897 - Agustín Lara, Mexican singer-songwriter and actor
- 1898 - Bill Terry, American baseball player and manager
- 1900 - Ragnar Granit, Finnish-Swedish physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate