What Happened This Day In History - August 30

Today in History
August 30

30 BC		Cleopatra VII, Queen of Egypt, commits suicide.
1617		Rosa de Lima of Peru becomes the first American saint to be canonized.
1721		The Peace of Nystad ends the Second Northern War between Sweden and Russia, giving Russia considerably more power in the Baltic region.
1781		The French fleet arrives in the Chesapeake Bay to aid the American Revolution.
1813		Creek Indians massacre over 500 whites at Fort Mims Alabama.
1860		The first British tramway is inaugurated at Birkenhead by an American, George Francis Train.
1861		Union General John Fremont declares martial law throughout Missouri and makes his own emancipation proclamation to free slaves in the state. President Lincoln overrules the general.
1892		The Moravia, a passenger ship arriving from Germany, brings cholera to the United States.
1932		Nazi leader Hermann Goering is elected president of the Reichstag.
1944		Ploesti, the center of the Rumanian oil industry, falls to Soviet troops.
1961		President John F. Kennedy appoints General Lucius D. Clay as his personal representative in Berlin.
1963		Hot Line communications link installed between Moscow and Washington, DC.
1967		US Senate confirms Thurgood Marshall as first African-American Supreme Court justice.
1976		Tom Brokaw becomes news anchor of Today Show.
1979		First recorded instance of a comet (Howard-Koomur-Michels) hitting the sun; the energy released is equal to approximately 1 million hydrogen bombs.
1982		Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) forced out of Lebanon after 10 years in Beirut during Lebanese Civil War.
1983		Lieutenant Colonel Guion S. Bluford, Jr., becomes the first African-American astronaut to travel in space.
1986		KGB arrest journalist Nicholas Daniloff (US News World Report) on a charge of spying and hold him for 13 days.
1983		Eiffel Tower welcomes its 150 millionth visitor, 33-year-old Parisian Jacqueline Martinez.
Born on August 30
1797		Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, novelist best known forFrankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus.
1871		Ernest Rutherford, physicist who discovered and named alpha, beta and gamma radiation and was the first to achieve a man-made nuclear reaction.
1893		Huey P. Long, Louisiana politician who served as governor and U.S. senator, known as "The Kingfish."
1918		Ted Williams, Hall of Fame outfielder for the Boston Red Sox, the last man to hit .400 in a season.
1919		Kitty Wells (Ellen Muriel Deason), first female singer to top the Country Music charts in US ("It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky-Tonk Angels," 1952).
1930		Warren Buffett, business magnate; listed as world’s wealthiest person in 2008.
1931		Carrie Saxon Perry, 1st black mayor of a major US city (Hartford CT).
1943		Robert Crumb (R. Crumb), satiric "underground" cartoonist (Fritz the Cat), musician.
1944		Molly Ivins, American political humorist, newspaper columnist.
1956		Jayne Irving, TV broadcaster (Good Morning Britain).
1958		Anna Politkovskaya (Anna Mazepa), New York-born Ukrainian journalist, writer, human rights advocate best known for her reporting from Chechnya.
1960		Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Lebanese political-paramilitary group Hezbollah since 1992.
1960		US Army Master Sgt. Gary Gordon, receives posthumorous Medal of Honor for his actions in the Battle of Mogadishu, Somalia.
1964		Gavin Fisher, mechanical engineer; chief designer of the Williams Formula One racing team (1997–2005).
1972		Cameron Diaz, model, award-winning actress (The Mask, There’s Something About Mary, Any Given Sunday).