Skip to content

Home arrow Trivia Resources arrow On this day in history

On this day in History Archives

 
At PaulsQuiz.com we aim to provide you with as much information as we possibly can. That's why we have built our On This Day in History section, to do just that. Our database is forever growing, we're adding more and more events from history to help you write your quiz questions.

Simply enter a date using the drop-down boxes below and click the 'Go' button to display events from the past that ocurred on that day.
 

 
30 January, 2003
Belgium legally recognizes same-sex marriage.
30 January, 2000
Off the coast of Ivory Coast, Kenya Airways Flight 431 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean, killing 169.
30 January, 1996
Gino Gallagher, the suspected leader of the Irish National Liberation Army, is killed while waiting in line for his unemployment benefit.
30 January, 1996
Comet Hyakutake is discovered by Japanese amateur astronomer Yuji Hyakutake.
30 January, 1995
Workers from the National Institutes of Health announce the success of clinical trials testing the first preventive treatment for sickle-cell disease.
30 January, 1994
Péter Lékó becomes the youngest chess grand master.
30 January, 1989
The American embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan closes.
30 January, 1982
Richard Skrenta writes the first PC virus code, which is 400 lines long and disguised as an Apple boot program called "Elk Cloner".
30 January, 1979
Varig 707-323C freighter, flown by the same commander as Flight 820, disappears over the Pacific Ocean 30 minutes after taking off from Tokyo.
30 January, 1976
George H. W. Bush becomes the 11th director of the CIA.
30 January, 1975
The first faroese stamp is issued.
30 January, 1972
Bloody Sunday: United Kingdom British Paratroopers kill fourteen civil rights/anti internment marchers in Northern Ireland.
30 January, 1972
Pakistan withdraws from the Commonwealth of Nations.
30 January, 1969
The Beatles last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert is broken up by the police.
30 January, 1968
Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive begins when Viet Cong forces launch a series of surprise attacks in South Vietnam.
30 January, 1964
Ranger program: Ranger 6 is launched.
30 January, 1962
Two of the high-wire Flying Wallendas are killed when their seven-person pyramid collapses during a performance in Detroit, Michigan.
30 January, 1956
American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.s home is bombed in retaliation for the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
30 January, 1948
Indian pacifist and leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is assassinated by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist.
30 January, 1945
The Wilhelm Gustloff, overfilled with refugees, sinks in the Baltic Sea after being torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, leading to the deadliest maritime disaster in known history, killing roughly 9,000 people.
30 January, 1945
World War II: Raid at Cabanatuan: 126 American Rangers and Filipino resistance liberate 500 prisoners from the Cabanatuan POW camp.
30 January, 1945
World War II: Hitler gives his last ever public address, a radio address on the 12th anniversary of his coming to power. (A subsequent address on February 24 was not read by Hitler.)
30 January, 1944
World War II: United States troops land on Majuro.
30 January, 1943
World War II: Second day of the Battle of Rennell Island. TheUSS Chicago (CA-29) is sunk and a U.S. destroyer is heavily damaged by Japanese torpedoes.
30 January, 1943
Holocaust in Letychiv, Ukraine: The Nazi Gestapo commences mass shootings of Jews from Letychiv Ghetto. 200 surviving Jews from Letychiv slave labor camp are ordered to undress and are shot with a machine-gun into a ravine. Some 7,000 Jews were murdered in Letychiv.
30 January, 1933
Adolf Hitler is sworn in as Chancellor of Germany.
30 January, 1930
The worlds first radiosonde is launched in Pavlovsk, USSR.
30 January, 1925
The Government of Turkey throws Patriarch Constantine VI out of Istanbul.
30 January, 1913
The United Kingdoms House of Lords rejects the Irish Home Rule Bill.
30 January, 1911
The destroyer USS Terry (DD-25) makes the first airplane rescue at sea saving the life of James McCurdy 10 miles from Havana, Cuba.
30 January, 1911
The Canadian Naval Service becomes the Royal Canadian Navy.
30 January, 1889
Archduke Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian crown, is found dead with his mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera in Mayerling.
30 January, 1862
The first American ironclad warship, the USS Monitor is launched.
30 January, 1858
The first Hallé concert is given in Manchester, England, marking the official founding of the Hallé Orchestra as a full-time, professional orchestra.
30 January, 1847
Yerba Buena, California is renamed San Francisco.
30 January, 1841
A fire destroys two-thirds of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.
30 January, 1835
In the first assassination attempt against a President of the United States, Richard Lawrence attempts to shoot president Andrew Jackson.
30 January, 1826
The Menai Suspension Bridge, considered the worlds first modern suspension bridge, connecting the Isle of Anglesey to the north West coast of Wales is opened.
30 January, 1820
Edward Bransfield sights the Trinity Peninsula and claims the discovery of Antarctica.
30 January, 1806
The original Lower Trenton Bridge (also called the Trenton Makes the World Takes Bridge), which spans the Delaware River between Morrisville, Pennsylvania and Trenton, New Jersey, is opened.
30 January, 1790
The first boat specializing as a lifeboat is tested on the River Tyne.
30 January, 1661
Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England is ritually executed after having been dead for two years.
30 January, 1649
King Charles I of England is beheaded.
30 January, 1648
Eighty Years War: The Treaty of Münster is signed, ending the conflict between the Netherlands and Spain.

Choose another day in history

January

01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15
16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31

February

01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15
16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29

March

01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15
16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31

April

01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15
16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30

May

01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15
16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31

June

01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15
16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30

July

01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15
16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31

August

01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15
16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31

September

01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15
16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30

October

01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15
16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31

November

01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15
16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30

December

01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15
16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31

Free Questions in Your Inbox

Join the PaulsQuiz.com Facebook Group
Copyright © 2008 - Paul Abrook and Dave Small
RSS Feed RSS Feed | Free Quiz Questions | Pub Quiz Questions - at our Sister site