On This Day — 30 October
2000s
2023
First rescue of a prisoner during the Israeli invasion of Gaza.
Rescue of Ori Megidish
2022
A pedestrian suspension bridge collapses in the city of Morbi, Gujarat, leading to the deaths of at least 135 people.
2022 Morbi bridge collapse
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.
2020 Aegean Sea earthquake
2015
A fire in a nightclub in the Romanian capital of Bucharest kills sixty-four people and leaves more than 147 injured.
Colectiv nightclub fire
2014
Sweden becomes the first European Union member state to officially recognize Palestine as an independent and sovereign state.
European Union
2014
Four people are killed when a Beechcraft Super King Air crashes at Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport in Wichita, Kansas.
Beechcraft Super King Air
2013
Forty-five people are killed and seven injured after a bus catches fire in Mahabubnagar district, Andhra Pradesh (present-day Telangana), India.
2013 Mahabubnagar bus accident
2005
The rebuilt Dresden Frauenkirche (destroyed in the firebombing of Dresden during World War II) is reconsecrated after a thirteen-year rebuilding project.
Frauenkirche, Dresden
1900s
1995
Quebec citizens narrowly vote (50.58% to 49.42%) in favour of remaining a province of Canada in their second referendum on national sovereignty.
Quebec
1991
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The Madrid Conference commences in an effort to revive peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine.
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
1985
Space Shuttle Challenger lifts off for mission STS-61-A, its final successful mission.
Space Shuttle Challenger
1983
The first democratic elections in Argentina, after seven years of military rule, are held.
1983 Argentine general election
1983
A magnitude 6.6 earthquake in the Turkish provinces of Erzurum and Kars leaves approximately 1,340 people dead.
1983 Erzurum earthquake
1980
El Salvador and Honduras agree to put the border dispute fought over in 1969's Football War before the International Court of Justice.
El Salvador
1975
Prince Juan Carlos I of Spain becomes acting head of state, taking over for the country's ailing dictator, Gen. Francisco Franco.
Juan Carlos I
1975
Forty-five people are killed when Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 450 crashes into Suchdol, Prague, while on approach to Prague Ruzyně Airport (now Václav Havel Airport Prague) in Czechoslovakia (present-day Czech Republic).
Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 450
1973
The Bosphorus Bridge in Turkey is completed, connecting the continents of Europe and Asia over the Bosphorus for the second time.
Bosphorus Bridge
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.
Korean People's Army
1961
The Soviet Union detonates the Tsar Bomba, the most powerful explosive device ever detonated.
Soviet Union
1959
Piedmont Airlines Flight 349 crashes on approach to Charlottesville–Albemarle Airport in Albemarle County, Virginia, killing 26 of the 27 on board.
Piedmont Airlines Flight 349
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.
Hungarian Revolution of 1956
1953
President Eisenhower approves the top-secret document NSC 162/2 concerning the maintenance of a strong nuclear deterrent force against the Soviet Union.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
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.
Luzzu
1947
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the foundation of the World Trade Organization (WTO), is founded.
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
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.
Anne Frank
1942
World War II: Lt. Tony Fasson and Able Seaman Colin Grazier drown while taking code books from the sinking German submarine U-559.
World War II
1941
President Roosevelt approves $1 billion in Lend-Lease aid to the Allied nations.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
1941
Holocaust: Fifteen hundred Jews from Pidhaytsi are sent by Nazis to Bełżec extermination camp.
The Holocaust
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.
Orson Welles
1920
The Communist Party of Australia is founded in Sydney.
Communist Party of Australia
1918
World War I: The Ottoman Empire signs the Armistice of Mudros with the Allies.
World War I
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.
Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen
1905
Tsar Nicholas II issues the October Manifesto, nominally granting the Russian peoples basic civil liberties and the right to form a duma. (October 17 in the Julian calendar)
Nicholas II
1800s
1888
The Rudd Concession is granted by Matabeleland to agents of Cecil Rhodes.
Rudd Concession
1864
Second War of Schleswig: The Treaty of Vienna is signed, by which Denmark relinquishes one province each to Prussia and Austria.
Second Schleswig War
1863
Danish Prince Vilhelm arrives in Athens to assume his throne as George I, King of the Hellenes.
George I of Greece
1858
Approximately 20 people die in Bradford, England, UK, after being poisoned from ingesting sweets that had been accidentally adulterated with arsenic trioxide.
Bradford
1836
Louis Napoleon launches the unsuccessful Strasbourg Coup to overthrow the July Monarchy in France
Napoleon III
1831
Nat Turner is arrested for leading the bloodiest slave rebellion in United States history.
Nat Turner
1817
Simón Bolívar becomes President of the Third Republic of Venezuela.
Simón Bolívar
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.
War of the Fourth Coalition
Before 1800
1657
Anglo-Spanish War: Spanish forces fail to retake Jamaica at the Battle of Ocho Rios.
Anglo-Spanish War (1654–1660)
1340
Reconquista: Portuguese and Castilian forces halt a Muslim invasion at the Battle of Río Salado.
Reconquista
1270
The Eighth Crusade ends by an agreement between Charles I of Anjou (replacing his deceased brother King Louis IX of France) and the Hafsid dynasty of Tunis, Tunisia.
Eighth Crusade
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.
Ranulf II of Alife
758
Guangzhou is sacked by Arab and Persian pirates.
Guangzhou
637
Arab–Byzantine wars: Antioch surrenders to the Rashidun Caliphate after the Battle of the Iron Bridge.
Arab–Byzantine wars
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.
AD 130