30 July 2024 (MIA)

762 – Baghdad is founded by caliph Al-Mansur.

1419 – First Defenestration of Prague: A crowd of radical Hussites kill seven members of the Prague city council.

1502 – Christopher Columbus lands at Guanaja in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras during his fourth voyage.

1619 – In Jamestown, Virginia, the first representative assembly in the Americas, the House of Burgesses, convenes for the first time.

1626 – An earthquake in Naples, Italy, kills about 10,000 people.

1656 – Swedish forces under the command of King Charles X Gustav defeat the forces of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth at the Battle of Warsaw.

1733 – The first Masonic Grand Lodge in the future United States is constituted in Massachusetts.

1756 – In Saint Petersburg, Bartolomeo Rastrelli presents the newly built Catherine Palace to Empress Elizabeth and her courtiers.

1811 – Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, leader of the Mexican insurgency, is executed by the Spanish in Chihuahua City, Mexico.

1859 – First ascent of Grand Combin, one of the highest summits in the Alps.

1863 – American Indian Wars: Representatives of the United States and tribal leaders including Chief Pocatello (of the Shoshone) sign the Treaty of Box Elder.

1864 – American Civil War: Battle of the Crater: Union forces attempt to break Confederate lines at Petersburg, Virginia by exploding a large bomb under their trenches.

1866 – Armed Confederate veterans in New Orleans riot against a meeting of Radical Republicans, killing 48 people and injuring another 100.

1912 – Japan’s Emperor Meiji dies and is succeeded by his son Yoshihito, who is now known as the Emperor Taishō.

1930 – In Montevideo, Uruguay wins the first FIFA World Cup.

1932 – Premiere of Walt Disney’s Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon short to use Technicolor and the first Academy Award winning cartoon short.

1945 – World War II: Japanese submarine I-58 sinks the USS Indianapolis, killing 883 seamen.

1956 – A joint resolution of the U.S. Congress is signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorizing In God we trust as the U.S. national motto.

1962 – The Trans-Canada Highway, the longest national highway in the world, is officially opened.

1966 – England defeats West Germany to win the 1966 FIFA World Cup at Wembley after extra time.

1969 – Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon makes an unscheduled visit to South Vietnam and meets with President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu and U.S. military commanders.

1971 – Apollo program: Apollo 15 Mission: David Scott and James Irwin on the Apollo Lunar Module Falcon land on the Moon with the first Lunar Rover.

1971 – An All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 and a Japanese Air Force F-86 collide over Morioka, Iwate, Japan killing 162.

1974 – Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard Nixon releases subpoenaed White House recordings after being ordered to do so by the Supreme Court of the United States.

1974 – Six Canadian Army cadets are killed and fifty-four are injured in an accidental grenade blast at CFB Valcartier Cadet Camp.

1980 – Vanuatu gains independence.

1980 – Israel’s Knesset passes the Jerusalem Law.

2003 – In Mexico, the last ‘old style’ Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the assembly line.

2006 – The world’s longest running music show Top of the Pops is broadcast for the last time on BBC Two. The show had aired for 42 years.

2012 – A train fire kills 32 passengers and injures 27 on the Tamil Nadu Express in Andhra Pradesh, India.

2012 – A power grid failure in Delhi leaves more than 300 million people without power in northern India.

2014 – One hundred and fifty people are trapped after a landslide in the village of Ambe in the Pune district in India’s Maharashtra state with 20 killed.

2015 – Macedonian Canadian businessman John Louis Nicholas Bitove, Sr., born Lazar Nikola Bitov, dies. He built, operated and developed many restaurants across Canada, including the JB’s Big Boy Family Restaurants and Roy Rogers Restaurants. President Gjorge Ivanov awarded him the 8 September Medal for his life achievements and work dedicated to Macedonia.