Historical Events on January 30

  • 1703: Oi ÅŒishi Kuranosuke leads 47 Ronin on their vendetta to avenge the death of their master on this day.
  • 1835: Richard Lawrence attempts to assassinate U.S President Andrew Jackson but is not only subdued by the crowd but by the President himself.
  • 1847: The city of Yerba Buena in California has its name changed on this date to San Francisco, California.
  • 1862: The USS Monitor – the first U.S ironclad warship – is launched on this day.
  • 1911: The first airplane rescue at sea is accomplished when the USS Terry saves Douglas McCurdy just 10-miles from Havana in Cuba.
  • 1933: Future Nazi dictator, Adolf Hitler is sworn in as the Chancellor of Germany on this day.
  • 1942: Japanese Imperial forces invade the Ambon Island in the Dust East Indies. Over three hundred captured Allied soldiers and marines are massacred at Laha Airfield. Over 75 percent of the remaining prisoners of war do not survive the end of World War II.
  • 1943: During the second day of the Battle of Rennel Island during WWII, a United States destroyer is heavily damaged by enemy torpedoes and the USS Chicago is sunk.
  • 1944: The Battle of Cisterna – a key battle during Operation Shingle in World War II – starts on this day in central Italy.
  • 1945: The Wilhelm Gustloff, which is filled with German refugees, is sunk by a Soviet sub in the Baltic Sea. Over ninety-five hundred people are killed.
  • 1945: Over 120 American rangers and Filipino resistance fighters free over 500 Allied POWs from the Japanese Cabanatuan POW Camp during WWII.
  • 1956: In retaliation for the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the home of Martin Luther King, Jr. is bombed.

Famous Birthdays on January 30

  • American lawyer and 32nd President of the U.S., Franklin D. Roosevelt is born in 1882.
  • South African-American virologist and Nobel Prize laureate, Max Theiler is born in 1899.
  • American computer scientist and inventor of the computer mouse, Douglas Engelbart is born in 1925.
  • American actress Dorothy Malone is born in 1925.
  • American actor Gene Hackman is born in 1930.