What happened today
1703
Famous birthdays
1935
Get history's greatest tales
Subscribe to our HistoryNet Now! newsletter for a blast from the past each week in your inbox.
more events on September 30
-
2009
Earthquakes in Sumatra kill more than 1,115 people.
-
1999
Japan’s second-worst nuclear accident occurs at a uranium processing facility in Tokaimura, killing two technicians.
-
1994
Aldwych tube station (originally Strand Station) of the London Underground transit system closes after 88 years.
-
1975
The AH-64 Apache attack helicopter makes its first flight.
-
1974
Daniel Wu, Chinese-American actor, director, producer (City of Glass).
-
1972
Pro baseball great Roberto Clemente hits his 3,000th—and final—hit of his career.
-
1966
Bechuanaland ceases to be a British protectorate and becomes the independent Republic of Botswana.
-
1965
The 30 September Movement unsuccessfully attempts coup against Indonesian government; an anti-communist purge in the aftermath results in over 500,000 deaths.
-
President Lyndon Johnson signs legislation that establishes the National Foundation for the Arts and the Humanities.
-
1962
U.S. Marshals escort James H. Meredith into the University of Mississippi; two die in the mob violence that follows.
-
1960
Fifteen African nations are admitted to the United Nations.
-
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.
-
1955
Andy Bechtolsheim, engineer; co-founder of Sun Microsystems.
-
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.
-
1954
NATO nations agree to arm and admit West Germany.