July 30Birthdays & History

On this day: July 30 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 30 BCMark Antony wins a final cavalry battle against Octavian in the battle of Alexandria, but his infantry is defeated and the next day his fleet and troops start to desert to Octavian.Middle East
2. 657Election of pope Vitalian following the death of pope Eugene I in the previous month.Europe
3. 762Baghdad is founded.Middle East
4. 1183The Mor Bar Sauma Monastery is destroyed by a fire.Middle East
5. 1419First Defenestration of Prague: A crowd of radical Hussites kill seven members of the Prague city council.Europe
6. 1502Christopher Columbus lands at Guanaja in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras during his fourth voyage.Latin America
7. 1609Beaver Wars: At Ticonderoga (now Crown Point, New York), Samuel de Champlain shoots and kills two Iroquois chiefs on behalf of his native allies.North America
8. 1619In Jamestown, Virginia, the first Colonial European representative assembly in the Americas, the Virginia General Assembly, convenes for the first time.North AmericaEurope
9. 1627An earthquake kills about 5,000 people in Gargano, Italy.Europe
10. 1635Eighty Years' War: The Siege of Schenkenschans begins; Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, begins the recapture of the strategically important fortress from the Spanish Army.Europe
11. 1645English Civil War: Scottish Covenanter forces under the Earl of Leven launch the Siege of Hereford, a remaining Royalist stronghold.Europe
12. 1656The Battle of Warsaw ends with a Swedish-Brandenburger victory over a larger Polish-Lithuanian force.Europe
13. 1676Nathaniel Bacon issues the "Declaration of the People of Virginia", beginning Bacon's Rebellion against the rule of Governor William Berkeley.North America
14. 1729Founding of Baltimore, Maryland.North America
15. 1733The first Masonic Grand Lodge in the future United States is constituted in Massachusetts.North America
16. 1756In Saint Petersburg, Bartolomeo Rastrelli presents the newly built Catherine Palace to Empress Elizabeth and her courtiers.Europe
17. 1811Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, leader of the Mexican insurgency, is executed by the Spanish in Chihuahua City, Mexico.Latin AmericaEurope
18. 1859First ascent of Grand Combin, one of the highest summits in the Alps.Europe
19. 1863American Indian Wars: Representatives of the United States and tribal leaders including Chief Pocatello (of the Shoshone) sign the Treaty of Box Elder.North America
20. 1863The Valuev Circular bans the publication of religious, educational and training books in Ukrainian in the Russian Empire.Europe
21. 1864American Civil War: Battle of the Crater: Union forces attempt to break Confederate lines at Petersburg, Virginia by exploding a large bomb under their trenches.North America
22. 1865The steamboat Brother Jonathan sinks off the coast of Crescent City, California, killing 225 passengers, the deadliest shipwreck on the Pacific Coast of the U.S. at the time.North America
23. 1866Armed Confederate veterans in New Orleans riot against a meeting of Radical Republicans, killing 48 people and injuring another 100.North America
24. 1871The Staten Island Ferry Westfield's boiler explodes, killing over 85 people.North America
25. 1912Japan's Emperor Meiji dies and is succeeded by his son Yoshihito, who is now known as the Emperor Taishō.Asia
26. 1916The Black Tom explosion in New York Harbor kills several people and destroys some $20,000,000 worth of military goods.North America
27. 1930In Montevideo, Uruguay wins the first FIFA World Cup by beating Argentina.Latin America
28. 1932Premiere of Walt Disney's Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon short to use Technicolor and the first Academy Award winning cartoon short.North America
29. 1945World War II: Japanese submarine I-58 sinks the USS Indianapolis, killing 883 seamen. Most die during the following four days, until an aircraft notices the survivors.Asia
30. 1956A joint resolution of the U.S. Congress is signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorizing In God We Trust as the U.S. national motto.North America
31. 1962The Trans-Canada Highway, the then-longest national highway in the world, is officially opened.North America
32. 1965U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid.North America
33. 1966England defeats West Germany to win the FIFA World Cup at Wembley Stadium 4–2 after extra time.Europe
34. 1969Vietnam War: U.S. president Richard Nixon makes an unscheduled visit to South Vietnam and meets with President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu and U.S. military commanders.AsiaNorth America
35. 1971Apollo program: On Apollo 15, David Scott and James Irwin in the Apollo Lunar Module Falcon land on the Moon with the first Lunar Rover.World
36. 1971An All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 and a Japanese Air Force F-86 collide over Morioka, Iwate, Japan, killing 162.Asia
37. 1974Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard Nixon releases subpoenaed White House recordings after being ordered to do so by the Supreme Court of the United States.North America
38. 1975Jimmy Hoffa disappears from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, at about 2:30 p.m. He is never seen or heard from again.North America
39. 1978The 730: Okinawa Prefecture changes its traffic on the right-hand side of the road to the left-hand side.Asia
40. 1980Israel's Knesset passes the Jerusalem Law.Middle East
41. 1980Vanuatu gains independence.Oceania
42. 1981As many as 50,000 demonstrators, mostly women and children, take to the streets in Łódź to protest food ration shortages in Communist Poland.Europe
43. 1990Ian Gow, Conservative Member of Parliament, is assassinated at his home by the IRA in a car bombing after he assured the group that the British government would never surrender to them.Europe
44. 2003Three years after the death of the last Pyrenean ibex, Celia, a clone of her is born only to subsequently die from lung defects. Within minutes, the Pyrenean ibex becomes the first and so far only species to have ever gone de-extinct as well as go extinct twice.Europe
45. 2003In Mexico, the last 'old style' Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the assembly line.Latin America
46. 2006The world's longest running music show Top of the Pops is broadcast for the last time on BBC Two. The show had aired for 42 years.Europe
47. 2006An Israeli airstrike kills 28 Lebanese civilians, including 16 children.Middle East
48. 2011Marriage of Queen Elizabeth II's eldest granddaughter Zara Phillips to former rugby union footballer Mike Tindall.Europe
49. 2012A train fire kills 32 passengers and injures 27 on the Tamil Nadu Express in Andhra Pradesh, India.Asia
50. 2012A power grid failure in Delhi leaves more than 300 million people without power in northern India.Asia
51. 2014Twenty killed and 150 are trapped after a landslide in Maharashtra, India.Asia
52. 2020NASA's Mars 2020 mission is launched on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.North America
53. 2024A series of landslides occurs in Kerala, India, causing over 420 fatalities.Asia
54. 2025A magnitude 8.8 earthquake hits Russia, causing tsunamis over the Pacific Ocean.Europe
55. 2026Around 50,000 Moroccan nationals storm the borders of Spanish enclaves in Africa, principally the city of Ceuta. As of August 1, 2026, 67 are confirmed to have died while crossing.AfricaEurope

Source: Wikipedia "July 30" / CC BY-SA 4.0