On This Day — 30 August

2000s

2023

Gabonese coup d'état: After Ali Bongo Ondimba's reelection, a military coup ousted him, ending 56 years of Bongo family rule in Gabon.

2023 Gabonese coup d'état

2021

The last remaining American troops leave Afghanistan, ending U.S. involvement in the war.

2020–2021 U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan

2014

Prime Minister of Lesotho Tom Thabane flees to South Africa as the army allegedly stages a coup.

Tom Thabane

2008

A Conviasa Boeing 737 crashes into Illiniza Volcano in Ecuador, killing all three people on board.

Conviasa

2002

Rico Linhas Aéreas Flight 4823 crashes on approach to Rio Branco International Airport, killing 23 of the 31 people on board.

Rico Linhas Aéreas Flight 4823

1900s

1998

Second Congo War: Armed forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and their Angolan and Zimbabwean allies recapture Matadi and the Inga dams in the western DRC from RCD and Rwandan troops.

Second Congo War

1995

Bosnian War: NATO launches Operation Deliberate Force against Bosnian Serb forces.

Bosnian War

1992

The 11-day Ruby Ridge standoff ends with Randy Weaver surrendering to federal authorities.

Ruby Ridge standoff

1991

Dissolution of the Soviet Union: Azerbaijan declares independence from Soviet Union.

Dissolution of the Soviet Union

1984

STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery takes off on its maiden voyage.

STS-41-D

1983

Aeroflot Flight 5463 crashes into Dolan Mountain while approaching Almaty International Airport in present-day Kazakhstan, killing all 90 people on board.

Aeroflot Flight 5463

1983

STS-8: The Space Shuttle Challenger takes off on the first night launch of the shuttle program. Guion Bluford becomes the first African-American in space on this mission.

STS-8

1981

President Mohammad-Ali Rajai and Prime Minister Mohammad-Javad Bahonar of Iran are assassinated in a bombing. The office of Iran's Prosecutor General blames the People's Mujahedin of Iran.

Mohammad-Ali Rajai

1974

A Belgrade–Dortmund express train derails at the main train station in Zagreb killing 153 passengers.

Belgrade

1974

A powerful bomb explodes at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries headquarters in Marunouchi, Tokyo. Eight are killed, 378 are injured. Eight left-wing activists are arrested on May 19, 1975, by Japanese authorities.

1974 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries bombing

📅

1974

The Third World Population Conference ends in Bucharest, Romania. At the end of the ceremony, the UN-Romanian Demographic Centre is inaugurated.

World Population Conference

1967

Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as the first African American Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Thurgood Marshall

1963

The Moscow–Washington hotline between the leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union goes into operation.

Moscow–Washington hotline

1962

Japan conducts a test of the NAMC YS-11, its first aircraft since World War II and its only successful commercial aircraft from before or after the war.

NAMC YS-11

1959

South Vietnamese opposition figure Phan Quang Dan was elected to the National Assembly despite soldiers being bussed in to vote for President Ngo Dinh Diem's candidate.

Phan Quang Đán

1945

The Japanese occupation of Hong Kong comes to an end.

Japanese occupation of Hong Kong

1945

The Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Douglas MacArthur lands at Atsugi Air Force Base.

Commander-in-chief

1945

The Allied Control Council, governing Germany after World War II, comes into being.

Allied Control Council

1942

World War II: The Battle of Alam el Halfa begins.

Battle of Alam el Halfa

1941

The Tighina Agreement, a treaty regarding administration issues of the Transnistria Governorate, is signed between Germany and Romania.

Tighina Agreement

1940

The Second Vienna Award reassigns the territory of Northern Transylvania from Romania to Hungary.

Second Vienna Award

1936

The RMS Queen Mary wins the Blue Riband by setting the fastest transatlantic crossing.

RMS Queen Mary

1922

Battle of Dumlupınar: The final battle in the Greco-Turkish War (Turkish War of Independence).

Battle of Dumlupınar

1918

Fanni Kaplan shoots and seriously injures Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, which along with the assassination of Bolshevik senior official Moisei Uritsky days earlier, prompts the decree for Red Terror.

Fanny Kaplan

1917

Vietnamese prison guards led by Trịnh Văn Cấn mutiny at the Thái Nguyên penitentiary against local French authority.

Vietnam

1916

Ernest Shackleton completes the rescue of all of his men stranded on Elephant Island in Antarctica.

Ernest Shackleton

1914

World War I: Germans defeat the Russians in the Battle of Tannenberg.

World War I

1909

Burgess Shale fossils are discovered by Charles Doolittle Walcott.

Burgess Shale

1800s

1896

Philippine Revolution: After Spanish victory in the Battle of San Juan del Monte, eight provinces in the Philippines are declared under martial law by the Spanish Governor-General Ramón Blanco y Erenas.

Philippine Revolution

1873

Austrian explorers Julius von Payer and Karl Weyprecht discover the archipelago of Franz Josef Land in the Arctic Sea.

Julius von Payer

1862

American Civil War: Battle of Richmond: Confederates under Edmund Kirby Smith rout Union forces under General William "Bull" Nelson.

American Civil War

1836

The city of Houston is founded by Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen.

Houston

1835

Australia: Melbourne, Victoria is founded.

Melbourne

1813

First Battle of Kulm: French forces are defeated by an Austrian-Prussian-Russian alliance.

Battle of Kulm

1813

Creek War: Fort Mims massacre: Creek "Red Sticks" kill over 500 settlers (including over 250 armed militia) in Fort Mims, north of Mobile, Alabama.

Creek War

1800

Gabriel Prosser postpones a planned slave rebellion in Richmond, Virginia, but is arrested before he can make it happen.

Gabriel's Rebellion

Before 1800

1799

The entire Dutch fleet is captured by British forces under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby and Admiral Sir Charles Mitchell during the War of the Second Coalition.

Vlieter incident

1791

HMS Pandora sinks after having run aground on the outer Great Barrier Reef the previous day.

HMS Pandora (1779)

1757

Battle of Gross-Jägersdorf: Russian force under Field Marshal Stepan Fyodorovich Apraksin beats a smaller Prussian force commanded by Field Marshal Hans von Lehwaldt, during the Seven Years' War.

Battle of Gross-Jägersdorf

Anne, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange

1727

Anne, eldest daughter of King George II of Great Britain, is given the title Princess Royal.

Anne, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange

1721

The Great Northern War between Sweden and Russia ends in the Treaty of Nystad.

Great Northern War

1594

King James VI of Scotland holds a masque at the baptism of Prince Henry at Stirling Castle.

James VI and I

1590

Tokugawa Ieyasu enters Edo Castle. (Traditional Japanese date: August 1, 1590)

Tokugawa Ieyasu

1574

Guru Ram Das becomes the Fourth Sikh Guru/Master.

Guru Ram Das

1535

With the papal bull Eius qui immobilis, Pope Paul III excommunicates King Henry VIII of England from the Catholic Church for approving the Acts of Supremacy, although the bull is likely never published.

Papal bull

1464

Paul II succeeds Pius II as pope of the Catholic Church.

Pope Paul II

📅

1363

The five-week Battle of Lake Poyang begins, in which the forces of two Chinese rebel leaders (Chen Youliang and Zhu Yuanzhang) meet to decide who will supplant the Yuan dynasty.

Battle of Lake Poyang