What Happened on October 30

Historical Events

  • 1340 Battle of Rio Salado (or Tarifa): King Afonso IV of Portugal and King Alfonso XI of Castile defeat Sultan Abu al-Hasan 'Ali of Morocco and Yusuf I of Granada, last Marīnids invasion of Iberian Peninsula
  • 1899 Battle of Ladysmith, Natal: Boers defeat the British, leading to the Siege of Ladysmith

Oct 30 in Film & TV

  • 1940 "One Night in the Tropics", first film for Abbott and Costello, premieres in Paterson, New Jersey

Oct 30 in Music

  • 1944 Aaron Copland's ballet score "Appalachian Spring" premieres in Washington, D.C. with Martha Graham dancing lead role

Oct 30 in Sport

  • 1974 "The Rumble in the Jungle": Muhammad Ali KOs George Foreman in the 8th round in Kinshasa, Zaire; regains world heavyweight boxing title with famous "rope-a-dope" tactic

Did You Know?

Soviet Union tests a 58 megaton hydrogen bomb named Tsar Bomba, the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated

On October 30, 1961

Would You Believe?

A radio broadcast of H. G. Wells "The War of the Worlds", narrated by Orson Welles, allegedly causes a mass panic

On October 30, 1938

Famous Weddings

  • 1454 Duke of Burgundy Charles the Bold weds second wife Isabella of Bourbon
  • 1613 Astronomer Johannes Kepler marries his second wife Susanna Reuttinger
  • 1834 Anne Lister marries Anne Walker by taking Holy Communion together at Holy Trinity Church, York, England (not officially recognised)

More Weddings