A chronological timetable of historical events that occurred on this day in history. Historical facts of the day in the areas of military, politics, science, music, sports, arts, entertainment and more. Discover what happened today in history as HistoryNet reported.
1399 Richard II is deposed.
1568 Eric XIV, king of Sweden, is deposed after showing signs of madness.
1630 John Billington, one of the original pilgrims who sailed to the New World on the Mayflower, becomes the first man executed in the English colonies. He is hanged for having shot another man during a quarrel
1703 The French, at Hochstadt in the War of the Spanish Succession, suffer only 1,000 casualties to the 11,000 of their opponents, the Austrians of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I.
1791 Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute is performed for the first time in Vienna
1846 The first anesthetized tooth extraction is performed by Dr. William Morton in Charleston, Massachusetts.
1864 Confederate troops fail to retake Fort Harrison from the Union forces during the siege of Petersburg.
1911 Italy declares war on Turkey over control of Tripoli.
1918 Bulgaria pulls out of World War I.
1927 Babe Ruth hits his 60th home run of the season off Tom Zachary in Yankee Stadium, New York City.
1935 George Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess opens at the Colonial Theatre in Boston.
1938 Under German threats of war, Britain, France, Germany and Italy sign an accord permitting Germany to take control of Sudetenland–a region of Czechoslovakia inhabited by a German-speaking minority.
1939 The French Army is called back into France from its invasion of Germany. The attack, code named Operation Saar, only penetrated five miles.
1943 The Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps becomes the Women’s Army Corps, a regular contingent of the U.S. Army with the same status as other army service corps.
1949 The Berlin Airlift is officially halted after 277,264 flights.
1950 U.N. forces cross the 38th parallel separating North and South Korea as they pursue the retreating North Korean Army.
1954 The first atomic-powered submarine, the Nautilus, is commissioned in Groton, Connecticut.
1954 NATO nations agree to arm and admit West Germany.
1955 Actor and teen idol James Dean is killed in a car crash while driving his Porsche on his way to enter it into a race in Salinas, California.
1960 Fifteen African nations are admitted to the United Nations.
1962 U.S. Marshals escort James H. Meredith into the University of Mississippi; two die in the mob violence that follows.
1965 President Lyndon Johnson signs legislation that establishes the National Foundation for the Arts and the Humanities.
1965 The 30 September Movement unsuccessfully attempts coup against Indonesian government; an anti-communist purge in the aftermath results in over 500,000 deaths.
1966 Bechuanaland ceases to be a British protectorate and becomes the independent Republic of Botswana.
1972 Pro baseball great Roberto Clemente hits his 3,000th—and final—hit of his career.
1975 The AH-64 Apache attack helicopter makes its first flight.
1994 Aldwych tube station (originally Strand Station) of the London Underground transit system closes after 88 years.
1999 Japan’s second-worst nuclear accident occurs at a uranium processing facility in Tokaimura, killing two technicians.
2009 Earthquakes in Sumatra kill more than 1,115 people.
Born on September 30
1861 William Wrigley, Jr., founder of the Wrigley chewing gum empire and owner of the Chicago Cubs baseball team.
1863 Reinhard von Scheer, German admiral who commanded the German fleet at the Battle of Jutland.
1908 David Oistrakh, violinist.
1924 Truman Capote, author and playwright whose works include Breakfast at Tiffany’s and In Cold Blood.
1927 W.S. Merwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet.
1928 Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor, writer, best known for his first book Night about his own experiences in concentration camps.
1935 Johnny Mathis, singer.
1941 Samuel F. Pickering Jr., unconventional professor of English at the University of Connecticut in Storrs who was the inspiration for the character of Mr. Keating in the movie Dead Poets Society.
1955 Andy Bechtolsheim, engineer; co-founder of Sun Microsystems.
1958 Marty Stuart, singer, songwriter, musician (“Hillbilly Rock”); joined the renowned Lester Flatt’s Nashville Grass bluegrass group at age 14; at this writing he hosts The Marty Stuart Show on RFD-TV.
1974 Daniel Wu, Chinese-American actor, director, producer (City of Glass).
