Skip to main content

‘War of the Worlds’ radio play is broadcast

Born on This Day

Grace Slick

1939 -

Singer, songwriter and counterculture icon who sang lead on Jefferson Airplane hits like “Somebody to Love.”

Henry Winkler

1945 -

American actor best known for playing the leather jacket-wearing Fonzie on the 1970s sitcom “Happy Days.”

Ashley Graham

1987 -

American model who in 2016 became the first plus-size model featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue.

Grace SlickGetty Images

Henry WinklerWireImage

Ashley GrahamFilmMagic

1896

OCT30

The Boston Symphony Orchestra debuts “Gaelic Symphony” by Amy Beach, the first symphony by an American woman composer to gain public attention. She said it was inspired by the “simple, rugged, and unpretentious beauty” of Irish melodies.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on October 30th

John Adams is born

On October 30, 1735, John Adams, the son of a farmer and a descendant of Plymouth Rock pilgrims, is born in Braintree, Massachusetts. He enrolled in Harvard University at 16 and went on to teach school and study law before becoming America’s second president. Adams did not fight in the Revolutionary War, but was instrumental […]

‘Sense and Sensibility’ is published

On October 30, 1811, Jane Austen’s ‘Sense and Sensibility’ is published anonymously. It was the British author’s first published novel.

The city of Helena, Montana, is founded after miners discover gold

On October 30, 1864, the town of Helena, Montana, is founded by four gold miners who struck it rich at the appropriately named “Last Chance Gulch.” The first major Anglo settlement of Montana had begun just two years before in the summer of 1862, when prospectors found a sizeable deposit of placer gold at Grasshopper […]

George Bernard Shaw’s “Mrs. Warren’s Profession” premieres in New York, causing a scandal

On October 30, George Bernard Shaw’s play Mrs. Warren’s Profession, which dealt frankly with prostitution, is performed at the Garrick Theater in New York. The play, Shaw’s second, had been banned in Britain. After only one performance, puritanical authorities in New York had the play closed. On October 31, the producer and players were arrested […]

Queen of American high society dies

Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, wife of businessman and racehorse breeder William Backhouse Astor, Jr., dies at the age of 78. Even before her union with William Astor—the grandson of the American fur magnate John Jacob Astor—Caroline Schermerhorn was prime American aristocracy: She was the daughter of a wealthy merchant and descended from Dutch nobles. Caroline’s death […]

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Ottoman Empire signs treaty with Allies

On October 30, 1918, aboard the British battleship Agamemnon, anchored in the port of Mudros on the Aegean island of Lemnos, representatives of Great Britain and the Ottoman Empire sign an armistice treaty marking the end of Ottoman participation in the First World War. Though the Ottoman Empire—in a period of relative decline since the […]

Killer smog claims elderly victims

On October 30, 1948, killer smog hovering over Donora, Pennsylvania claims its first two victims. Over a five-day period, the smog killed about 20 people and made thousands more seriously ill. Donora was a town of 14,000 people on the Monongahela River in a valley surrounded by hills. The town was home to steel mills […]

Muhammad Ali wins the Rumble in the Jungle

On October 30, 1974, 32-year-old Muhammad Ali becomes the heavyweight champion of the world for the second time when he knocks out 25-year-old champ George Foreman in the eighth round of the “Rumble in the Jungle,” a match in Kinshasa, Zaire. Seven years before, Ali had lost his title when the government accused him of […]

“Perfect storm” intensifies in the North Atlantic

On October 30, 1991, the so-called “perfect storm” intensifies in the North Atlantic, producing remarkably large waves along the New England and Canadian coasts. Over the next several days, the storm spread its fury over the ocean off the coast of Canada. The fishing boat Andrea Gail and its six-member crew were lost in the […]

Quebec separatists narrowly defeated

By a bare majority of 50.6 percent to 49.4 percent, citizens of the province of Quebec vote to remain within the federation of Canada. The referendum asked Quebec’s citizens, the majority of whom are French-speakers, to vote whether their province should begin the process that could make it independent of Canada. The French were the […]

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC is murdered

Jam Master Jay, DJ for the pioneering hip-hop trio Run-DMC, is shot and killed in his recording studio in Queens, New York.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement