January 30

Events

• 1649 - King Charles I of England is beheaded.
• 1790 - The first boat specialized as a lifeboat is tested on the River Tyne.
• 1820 - Edward Bransfield lands on the Antarctic mainland.
• 1835 - A mentally ill man named Richard Lawrence attempts to assassinate President Andrew Jackson in the United States Capitol -- the first assassination attempt against a President. Both of Lawrence's pistols misfire, and Jackson proceeds to beat his would-be assassin with his cane.
• 1847 - Yerba Buena, California is renamed San Francisco.
• 1862 - The first American ironclad warship, the USS Monitor is launched.
• 1889 - Archduke Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian crown, was found dead with his mistress Baroness Marie Vetsera in Mayerling. How they died remains a mystery.
• 1900 - United Kingdom forces fighting Boers in South Africa ask for reinforcements.
• 1911 - The destroyer USS Terry makes the first airplane rescue at sea saving the life of James McCurdy 10 miles from Havana, Cuba.
• 1911 - The Canadian Naval Service becomes the Royal Canadian Navy.
• 1913 - House of Lords rejects Irish Home Rule Bill.
• 1925 - Government of Turkey throws Patriarch Constantine VI out of Istanbul.
• 1933 - Adolf Hitler is sworn in as Chancellor of Germany.
• 1933 - The first of 2,956 episodes of The Lone Ranger radio series airs on station WXYZ in Detroit, Michigan.
• 1944 - United States troops invade Majuro, Marshall Islands.
• 1945 - KdF Ship Wilhelm Gustloff sunk in the Baltic Sea - deadliest maritime disaster in known history killing roughly 9,000.
• 1948 - Indian pacifist and leader Mahatma Gandhi is murdered by a Hindu extremist.
• 1948 - 1948 Winter Olympics open in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
• 1962 - Two of the high-wire Flying Wallendas are killed when their famous seven-person pyramid collapses during a performance in Detroit, Michigan.
• 1964 - Ranger 6 is launched by NASA. Its mission is to carry television cameras and to crash-land on the moon.
• 1968 - Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive begins when Viet Cong forces launch series of a surprise attacks in South Vietnam.
• 1969 - The Beatles' last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records. The impromptu concert was broken up by the police.
• 1972 - Bloody Sunday: United Kingdom forces kill thirteen Roman Catholic civil rights marchers in Northern Ireland.
• 1972 - Pakistan withdraws from the British Commonwealth.
• 1983 - Super Bowl XVII: The Washington Redskins defeat the Miami Dolphins, 27-17, thus winning their first NFL championship since 1942.
• 1989 - The American embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan closes.
• 1994 - Péter Lékó becomes the youngest grand master in chess.
• 1994 - The Dallas Cowboys win their fourth Super Bowl title, 30-13 over the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXVIII.
• 1995 - Workers from the National Institutes of Health announce the success of clinical trials testing the first preventative treatment for sickle cell anaemia.
• 1996 - Suspected leader of the Irish National Liberation Army Gino Gallagher is killed while in line for his unemployment benefit.
• 1999 - A 7-year old boy dies of choking on a Pokémon Power Bouncer ball toy.
• 2000 - In a dramatic finish to Super Bowl XXXIV, the St. Louis Rams defeat the Tennessee Titans, 23-16.
• 2002 - Slobodan Milosevic accuses the United Nations war crimes tribunal of an "evil and hostile attack" against him.
• 2003 - Belgium legally recognizes same-sex marriage.
• 2005 - Amid violence and threats to boycott the results, Iraq holds an election for its National Assembly, the country's first free election since 1953.
  

  Births

• 1616 - Thomas Rolfe, American colonial
• 1687 - Johann Balthasar Neumann, master builder (d. 1753)
• 1781 - Adelbert von Chamisso, poet (d. 1838)
• 1861 - Charles Martin Loeffler, American composer
• 1882 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President of the United States (d. 1945)
• 1894 - King Boris III of Bulgaria (d. 1943)
• 1901 - Rudolf Caracciola, driver of racing cars (d. 1959)
• 1902 - Nikolaus Pevsner, art historian (d. 1983)
• 1911 - Roy Eldridge, jazz musician (d. 1989)
• 1911 - Hugh Marlowe, American actor (d. 1982)
• 1912 - Barbara W. Tuchman, historian (d. 1989)
• 1914 - David Wayne, actor (d. 1995)
• 1914 - John Ireland, actor (d. 1992)
• 1915 - John Profumo, former British cabinet minister
• 1915 - Joachim Peiper, German military leader (d. 1976)
• 1920 - Delbert Mann, director
• 1922 - Dick Martin, comedian
• 1924 - Lloyd Alexander, writer
• 1925 - Douglas Engelbart, computer scientist
• 1925 - Dorothy Malone, actress
• 1927 - Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden 1969-1976, 1982-1986 (d. 1986)
• 1928 - Hal Prince, stage producer, director
• 1930 - Gene Hackman, actor
• 1930 - Magnus Malan, former South African minister
• 1930 - Don Brockett, actor (d. 1995)
• 1931 - Allan W. Eckert, historian, naturalist and author
• 1931 - Shirley Hazzard, Australian-American author
• 1932 - Knock Yokoyama, Japanese comedian and politician
• 1933 - Louis Rukeyser, financial journalist
• 1935 - Richard Brautigan, writer and poet (d. 1984)
• 1937 - Vanessa Redgrave, actress
• 1937 - Boris Spassky, chess grand master
• 1941 - Gregory Benford, author and scientist and Jim Benford
• 1941 - Dick Cheney, politician
• 1943 - Marty Balin, musician
• 1945 - Michael Dorris, author (d. 1997)
• 1947 - Les Barker, English poet
• 1947 - Steve Marriott, musician (The Small Faces) (d. 1991)
• 1951 - Phil Collins, musician
• 1951 - Charles S. Dutton, American actor
• 1955 - Judith Tarr, author
• 1957 - Payne Stewart, American golfer (d. 1999)
• 1959 - Jody Watley, American singer
• 1962 - Mary Kay Letourneau, pedophile teacher
• 1974 - Christian Bale, actor
• 1980 - Wilmer Valderrama, American actor
• 1987 - Richard Fortunato, mime
• 1990 - Jake Thomas, actor (Lizzie McGuire)
  

  Deaths

• 1030 - William V, Duke of Aquitaine
• 1649 - King Charles I of England (beheaded) (b. 1600)
• 1889 - Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria (b. 1858) and Baroness Mary Vetsera (b. 1871), at Mayerling
• 1948 - Mohandas Gandhi, Indian politician (b. 1869)
• 1948 - Orville Wright, aviation pioneer
• 1958 - Jean Crotti, Swiss artist (b. 1878)
• 1963 - Francis Poulenc, composer (b. 1899)
• 1980 - Professor Longhair, King of New Orleans music (b. 1918)
• 1982 - Lightnin' Hopkins, blues musician
• 1991 - John Bardeen, physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics twice (b. 1908)
• 1991 - John McIntire, actor
• 1994 - Pierre Boulle, author (b. 1912)
• 1995 - Gerald Durrell, naturalist, zookeeper, author and television presenter (b. 1925)
• 1996 - Dan Duva, boxing promoter
• 1999 - Huntz Hall, actor (b. 1919)
• 1999 - Ed Herlihy, narrator
• 2001 - Jean-Pierre Aumont, actor (b. 1911)
• 2002 - Daniel Pearl, journalist (one possible date) (b. 1963)
  

  External links

• BBC: On This Day