Today In History

1178-07-30 Frederick I (Barbarossa), Holy Roman Emperor, crowned King of Burgundy

1419-07-30 First defenestration of Prague: anti-Catholic Hussites, followers of executed reformer Jan Hus, storm Prague town hall and throw the judge, mayor and several city council members out the windows. They die in the fall or killed by crowd outside.

1619-07-30 House of Burgesses Virginia forms, 1st elective American governing body. First legislative assembly in America convenes in Jamestown. The first elected legislative assembly in the New World—the House of Burgesses—convenes in the choir of the town’s church.

1863-07-30 Indian Wars: Chief Pocatello of the Shoshone tribe signs the Treaty of Box Elder, promising to stop harassing the emigrant trails in southern Idaho and northern Utah

1864-07-30 Union forces stopped at the Battle of the Crater. The Union’s ingenious attempt to break the Confederate lines at Petersburg, Virginia, by blowing up a tunnel that had been dug under the Rebel trenches fails.

1869-07-30 The Charles, considered the world’s first "oil tanker", departs from the United States headed for Europe with a bulk capacity of 7,000 barrels of oil.

1935-07-30 1st Penguin book is published, starting the paperback revolution.

1937-07-30 Russian Politburo issues NKVD Order no. 00447, to repress former kulak and anti-soviets, 269,100 to be arrested, 76,000 to be shot. Part of the Great Purge.

1943-07-30  Hitler gets news of Italy’s imminent defection. Adolf Hitler learns that Axis ally Italy is buying time before negotiating surrender terms with the Allies in light of Mussolini’s fall from power.

1945-07-30 The USS Indianapolis torpedoed by a Japanese submarine and sinks within minutes in shark-infested waters. Only 316 of the 1,196 men on board survived.

1956-07-30 President Eisenhower signs “In God We Trust” into law, two years after pushing to have the phrase “under God” inserted into the pledge of allegiance.

1965-07-30 President Lyndon B. Johnson signs Medicare, a health insurance program for elderly Americans, into law.

1966-07-30 Troggs take their signature hit, “Wild Thing,” to #1.

1971-07-30 Fighter jet collides with passenger plane. A mid-air collision between a Boeing 727 and a fighter jet in Japan kills 162 people on July 30, 1971. The military plane was flying without radar.

1974-07-30  Watergate affair approaches climax. Under coercion from the U.S. Supreme Court, President Richard M. Nixon releases subpoenaed White House recordings—suspected to prove his guilt in the Watergate scandal—to special prosecutor Leon Jaworski.

1975-07-30 Murtala Mohammed overthrows General Gowon to become Nigerian Head of State.

1976-07-30 Caitlyn Jenner wins Olympic decathlon.

1994-07-30 Man charged in murder of Megan Kanka. Jesse Timmendequas is charged with the murder of seven-year-old Megan Kanka in New Jersey.

1999-07-30 “The Blair Witch Project”, a low-budget, independent horror film that will become a massive cult hit, is released in U.S. theaters.

2003-07-30 The last classic of 21,529,464 Volkswagen Beetles built since World War II rolls off the production line at Volkswagen’s plant in Puebla, Mexico.