A Brief History
This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on October 30th. For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event.
Digging Deeper
On October 30, 1501, the long history of sordid affairs involving popes and goings on in the Vatican reached a bizarre new level when Cesare Borgia, a cardinal in the Catholic Church and son of Pope Alexander VI, hosted “The Ballet of Chestnuts” at his father’s residence, the Papal Palace.
On October 30, 1806, 5,300 Prussian soldiers defending the city of Stettin surrendered to only 800 French soldiers commanded by General Lassalle, falling for the ruse that the French force was much larger.
On October 30, 1806, 5,300 Prussian soldiers defending the city of Stettin surrendered to only 800 French soldiers commanded by General Lassalle, falling for the ruse that the French force was much larger. (NOTE: The link in the date for this entry leads to a different article than the other mention to this same event above.)
On October 30, 1866, Fyodor Dostoevsky, one of the greatest writers in Russian literature, completed his novel The Gambler with help from his future wife, the then twenty-year-old Anna Grigoryevna Snitkina.
On October 30, 1942, the heroic efforts of three British sailors resulted in the capture of codebooks and key setting sheets for the top secret Enigma code machine used by the German military during World War II.
On October 30, 1961, the Soviet Union detonated the hydrogen bomb Tsar Bomba over an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean in the North of Russia; at 50 megatons of yield, it is still the largest explosive device ever detonated, nuclear or otherwise by humankind!
On October 30, 1961, former Soviet dictator Josef Stalin suffered the indignity of having his body removed from a place of honor in Lenin’s Tomb and parked in a regular grave with a plain granite marker.
On October 30, 1974, the unlikely venue of Kishasa, Zaire (Zaire is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) was the scene of one of the most memorable fights of all time.
On October 30, 1985, the American Space Shuttle Challenger lifted off on its 9th mission, a successful flight that lasted over seven days and was notable for having taken the first Dutch astronaut into space.
On October 30, 1995, the people of the Canadian province of Quebec voted by the narrow margin of 50.58% to 49.42% to remain a Canadian province.
On October 30, 2014, perhaps instead of going out terrorizing the land, dear reader, you curled up with a warm computer and watched some of the creepiest videos to appear on YouTube!
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Andrews, John and Matt Baker. Timeline of World History. Thunder Bay Press, 2020.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.