July 30

Events
Up to 1900
634 Battle of Ajnadayn: Byzantine Empire forces under Theodore are defeated by the Rashidun Caliphate near Beit Shemesh in present-day Israel.
762 Baghdad is founded.
1419 First Defenestration of Prague: A crowd of radical Hussites kill 7 members of the Prague city council.
1502 Christopher Columbus lands at Guanaja in the Bay of Islands off present-day Honduras during his fourth voyage.
1619 Jamestown, Virginia, the first representative factory in the Americas, the House of Burgesses, meets for the first time.
1629 An earthquake in Naples, Italy, kills around 10,000 people.
1635 Eighty Years' War: The Siege of Schenkenschans begins. Frederick Henry, Prince Orange begins the recapture of the strategically important fortress from the Spanish army.
1656 Swedish forces under Charles X Gustaf of Sweden defeat forces of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the Battle of Warsaw.
1676 Nathaniel Bacon issues the "Declaration of the people of Virginia", beginning Bacon's Rebellion, against the rule of Governor William Berkeley.
1729 The city of Baltimore in Maryland is founded.
1775 James Cook returns to England from his second voyage to the Pacific Ocean.
1792 La Marseillaise, the current national anthem of France, is sung for the first time.
1811 The Mexican revolutionary Miguel Hidalgo is executed.
1859 First successful climb of Grand Combin in the Alps.
1863 American Indian Wars: Chief Pocatello of the Shoshone tribe signs the Treaty of Box Elder, agreeing to stop the harassment of emigrant trails in southern Idaho and northern Utah.
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.
1865 The steamboat Brother Jonathan sinks off Crescent City, California, killing 225 passengers.
1871 The Staten Island ferry Westfield'''s boiler explodes, killing over 85 people.
1901 2000
1912 Emperor Meiji of Japan dies, being succeeded by his son Yoshihito, now known as Emperor Taisho.
1917 An earthquake in China kills around 1,800 people.
1930 Uruguay wins the first FIFA World Cup, beating Argentina 4-2 in the final.
1932 The 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California, begin.
1932 Walt Disney's "Flowers and Trees" is shown for the first time. It is the first cartoon short to use Technicolor and the first Academy Award-winning short.
1945 World War II: Japanese submarine I-58 sinks the USS Indianapolis, killing 883 people.
1956 'In God We Trust' becomes the national motto of the United States.
1962 The Trans-Canada Highway opens.
1965 In the US, the Medicare insurance programme for senior citizens is signed into law.
1966 England wins the FIFA World Cup, beating West Germany 4-2, in a match that included the disputed Wembley Goal.
1971 An All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 aircraft and a Japanese Air Force F-86 plane collide over Morioka, Japan, killing 162 people.
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.
1975 Teamsters Union President Jimmy Hoffa disappears from a suburb of Detroit, Michigan, and is never seen or heard from again.
1978 Car traffic in Okinawa switches from the right to the left side of the road.
1980 The New Hebrides become independent, and change their name to Vanuatu.
1991 Luciano Pavarotti celebrates 30 years in opera by giving a free concert in Hyde Park, London.
2000 Norway gifts the Heimaey Stave Church to Iceland to mark the country's 1000 years of Christianity.
From 2001
2003 The last Old Style Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the assembly line in Mexico.
2004 Gas pipeline explodes in the village of Ghislenghien in Belgium, killing 24 people and injuring 132.
2006 The BBC music programme Top of the Pops is shown for the last time, after a run of more than 42 years.
2006 The Israeli air force bombs the town of Qana in Lebanon, killing 28 people.
2007 Movie directors Michelangelo Antonioni and Ingmar Bergman die on the same day as each other.
2008 Radovan Karadzic is transferred to The Hague after being arrested on war crimes charges.
2009 A bomb explodes in Palma Nova, Mallorca, killing 2 police officers. ETA carried out the attack.
2012 A massive power grid failure affects 22 states and over 700 million people in northern India.
2012 A train fire in Andhra Pradesh, India, kills 32 people.
2017 Russian President Vladimir Putin expels 755 American diplomats in response to US sanctions against Russia.
2018 Parliamentary and Presidential elections are held in Zimbabwe, the first ones to take place since the resignation of Robert Mugabe.
Births
Up to 1900
1470 Hongzhi Emperor of China's Ming Dynasty (d. 1505)
1511 Giorgio Vasari, Italian painter, writer and architect (d. 1574)
1549 Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1609)
1641 Regnier de Graaf, Dutch physician and anatomist (d. 1673)
1683 Countess Sophie of Erbach-Erbach, German aristocrat (d. 1742)
1751 Maria Anna Mozart, Austrian musician (d. 1829)
1763 Samuel Rogers, English poet (d. 1855)
1813 William Spurrell, Welsh printer and publisher (d. 1889)
1818 Emily Bronte, English writer (d. 1848)
1818 Jan Heemskerk, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 1897)
1825 Chaim Aronson, Lithuanian inventor, academic and memoirs writer (d. 1893)
1832 George Lemuel Woods, American lawyer, judge and politician, 3rd Governor of Oregon (d. 1890)
1833 Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria (d. 1896)
1855 Georg Wilhelm von Siemens, German industrialist (d. 1919)
1856 Richard Burton Haldane, Scottish philosopher, lawyer and statesman (d. 1928)
1857 Thorstein Veblen, American political economist (d. 1929)
1863 Henry Ford, American industrialist (d. 1947)
1872 Princess Clementine of Belgium (d. 1955)
1881 Smedley Butler, American marine general (d. 1940)
1887 Marquard Schwarz, American swimmer (d. 1968)
1888 Werner Jaeger, German classical philologist (d. 1961)
1888 Vladimir Zworykin, Russian-American physicist and inventor (d. 1982)
1890 Casey Stengel, American baseball manager (d. 1975)
1893 Fatimah Jinnah, sister of Muhammad Ali Jinnah (d. 1967)
1895 Wanda Hawley, American actress (d. 1963)
1898 Henry Moore, English sculptor (d. 1986)
1901 1950
1901 Alfred Lepine, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 1955)
1904 Salvador Novo, Mexican writer (d. 1974)
1909 C. Northcote Parkinson, English historian and writer (d. 1993)
1910 Edgar de Evia, Mexican-American photographer (d. 2003)
1914 Lord Killanin, Irish Olympic official (d. 1999)
1915 Francisco Urcuyo Malianos, Nicaraguan politician (d. 2001)
1919 Berniece Baker Miracle, American author
1920 Marie Tharp, American scientist (d. 2006)
1925 Antoine Duhamel, French composer (d. 2014)
1925 Jacques Sernas, Lithuanian-French actor (d. 2015)
1925 Stan Stennett, Welsh actor (d. 2013)
1926 Martin Nag, Norwegian writer (d. 2015)
1927 Tony Hiller, British songwriter (d. 2018)
1927 Richard Johnson, English actor, writer and producer (d. 2015)
1927 Victor Wong, American actor (d. 2001)
1928 Joe Nuxhall, American baseball player and sportscaster
1928 Chris Howland, British-German singer, presenter, actor and writer (d. 2013)
1930 Tony Lip, American actor (d. 2013)
1934 Bud Selig, American businessman and Commissioner of Baseball
1936 Buddy Guy, American Blues guitarist and singer
1936 Infanta Pilar of Spain
1938 Herve de Charette, French politician
1939 Peter Bogdanovich, American director
1940 Clive Sinclair, English entrepreneur and inventor
1941 Paul Anka, Lebanese-Canadian singer
1943 Giovanni Goria, 46th Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1994)
1943 Giuseppe Versaldi, Italian cardinal
1944 Peter Bottomley, English politician
1944 Frances de la Tour, English actress
1945 Patrick Modiano, French novelist
1945 David Sanborn, American jazz saxophonist
1947 Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, French virologist and Nobel Prize winner
1947 Arnold Schwarzenegger, Austrian-born actor, bodybuilder and former Governor of California
1947 William Atherton, American actor
1948 Jean Reno, Moroccan-French actor
1948 James H. Burnley IV, American politician
1950 Harriet Harman, British politician
1950 Frank Stallone, American singer
1951 1975
1954 Ken Olin, American actor, producer and actor
1955 Christopher Warren-Green, English violinist and conductor
1957 Bill Cartwright, American basketball player
1957 Nery Pumpido, Argentine footballer
1958 Kate Bush, British singer
1958 Daley Thompson, British athlete
1958 Neal McCoy, American singer-songwriter
1959 Petra Felke, German athlete
1960 Jennifer Barnes, American-English musicologist and academic
1960 Richard Linklater, American director
1961 Laurence Fishburne, American actor
1962 Yakub Memon, Indian terrorist (d. 2015)
1963 Lisa Kudrow, American actress
1963 Chris Mullin, American basketball player
1964 Jurgen Klinsmann, German footballer
1964 Alek Keshishian, Lebanese-American director
1966 Craig Gannon, English guitarist and songwriter
1966 Lisa Madigan, American politician
1968 Sean Moore, Welsh musician (Manic Street Preachers)
1968 Robert Korzeniowski, Polish race walker
1968 Terry Crews, American actor
1968 Sofie Grabol, Danish actress
1969 Simon Baker, Australian-American actor
1969 Errol Stewart, South African cricketer and lawyer
1970 Alun Cairns, Welsh politician
1970 Christopher Nolan, English movie director
1971 Claude Dambury, French footballer
1971 Tom Green, American actor and comedian
1971 Christine Taylor, American actress
1973 Sonu Nigam, Indian singer
1973 Dean Edwards, American actor and comedian
1973 Clementa C. Pinckney, American pastor and politician (d. 2015)
1974 Hilary Swank, American actress
1974 Jason Robinson, English rugby player
From 1976
1977 Diana Bolocco, Chilean model and journalist
1977 Misty May-Treanor, American volleyball player and coach
1977 Derek Mackay, Scottish politician
1977 Ian Watkins, Welsh singer
1977 Jaime Pressly, American actress
1979 Graeme McDowell, Northern Irish golfer
1980 Justin Rose, English golfer
1981 Nicky Hayden, American motorcycle racer (d. 2017)
1981 Hope Solo, American soccer player
1981 Lisa Goldstein, American actress
1982 Yvonne Strahovski, Australian actress
1982 James Anderson, English cricketer
1983 Sean Dillon, Irish footballer
1985 Daniel Friedheim Holm, Norwegian footballer
1988 Lara Jean Marshall, English-Australian actress, singer and dancer
1990 Coco Sumner, British singer-songwriter and guitarist
1991 Diana Vickers, British singer
1992 Fabiano Caruana, American chess player
1992 Hannah Cockroft, British Paralympic athlete
1993 Miho Miyazaki, Japanese singer (AKB48)
1995 Jorge Cori, Peruvian chess player
1995 Hirving Lozano, Mexican footballer
1999 Joey King, American actress
2002 Prince Hridayendra of Nepal, Nepalese Royal
Deaths
Up to 1900
578 Jacob Baradaeus, bishop of Edessa
579 Pope Benedict I
734 Tatwine, Archbishop of Canterbury
1540 Thomas Abel, English priest and martyr (b. 1497)
1540 Robert Barnes, English martyr and reformer (b. 1495)
1652 Charles Amedee de Savoie, 6th Duc de Nemours, French soldier (b. 1624)
1680 Thomas Butler, Earl of Ossory, Irish naval commander (b. 1634)
1683 Maria Theresa of Spain, queen of Louis XIV of France (b. 1638)
1691 Daniel Georg Morhof, German writer and scholar (b. 1639)
1715 Nahum Tate, Irish poet (b. 1652)
1718 William Penn, English founder of the Province of Pennsylvania (b. 1644)
1771 Thomas Gray, English poet and letter-writer (b. 1716)
1789 Giovanna Bonanno, Italian poisoner and alleged witch (b. 1713)
1811 Miguel Hidalgo, Mexican revolutionary (b. 1753)
1875 George Pickett, American Confederate general (b. 1825)
1898 Otto von Bismarck, German chancellor (b. 1815)
1900 Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (b. 1844)
1901 2000
1908 James Budd, Governor of California (b. 1851)
1912 Emperor Meiji, Japanese emperor (b. 1852)
1918 Joyce Kilmer, American poet (b. 1886)
1927 Albert Gustaf Dahlman, Swedish executioner (b. 1848)
1930 Joan Gamper, Swiss-Catalan businessman (b. 1877)
1938 John Derbyshire, English swimmer and water polo player (b. 1878)
1947 Joseph Cook, sixth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1860)
1949 Stoyan Danev, Prime Minister of Bulgaria (b. 1858)
1965 Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, Japanese writer (b. 1886)
1970 George Szell, Hungarian conductor (b. 1897)
1971 Kenneth Slessor, Australian poet (b. 1901)
1978 Umberto Nobile, Italian airship pioneer (b. 1885)
1983 Lynn Fontanne, stage and movie actress (b. 1887)
1985 Julia Hall Bowman Robinson, American mathematician (b. 1919)
1986 John N. Dalton, American politician, Governor of Virginia (b. 1931)
1992 Joe Shuster, Canadian comic artist (b. 1914)
1992 Brenda Marshall, American actress (b. 1915)
1996 Claudette Colbert, French-American actress (b. 1903)
1996 Magda Schneider, German actress and singer (b. 1909)
1997 Bao Dai, Vietnamese Emperor (b. 1913)
1998 Buffalo Bob Smith, American television host (b. 1917)
From 2001
2001 Anton Schwarzkopf, German engineer (b. 1924)
2003 Sam Phillips, American record producer (b. 1923)
2005 John Garang, South Sudanese politician (b. 1945)
2006 Murray Bookchin, American Libertarian socialist (b. 1921)
2007 Michelangelo Antonioni, Italian movie director (b. 1912)
2007 Ingmar Bergman, Swedish movie director (b. 1918)
2007 Teoctist Arapasu, Romanian Orthodox Church Patriarch (b. 1915)
2008 Anne Armstrong, American diplomat (b. 1927)
2009 Peter Zadek, German theatre director (b. 1926)
2009 Mohammed Yusuf, Nigerian Islamist militant (Boko Haram) (b. 1970)
2011 Mario Echandi Jimenez, President of Costa Rica (b. 1915)
2012 Chris Marker, French movie maker (b. 1921)
2012 Maeve Binchy, Irish writer (b. 1940)
2013 Harry F. Byrd, Jr., American politician (b. 1914)
2013 Antoni Ramallets, Catalan-Spanish footballer (b. 1924)
2013 Robert Neelly Bellah, American sociologist (b. 1927)
2014 Julio Grondona, Argentine football executive (b. 1931)
2014 Dick Wagner, American rock guitarist (b. 1942)
2014 Dick Smith, American special effects make-up artist (b. 1922)
2014 Peter Hall, British urban planner (b. 1932)
2014 Harun Farocki, German filmmaker and author (b. 1944)
2014 Manfred Roeder, German Wehrmacht soldier and far-right activist (b. 1929)
2015 Yakub Memon, Indian terrorist (b. 1962)
2015 Lynn Anderson, American country singer (b. 1947)
2015 Jerome Kohlberg, Jr., American businessman (b. 1925)
2015 Alana Vrzanova, Czech figure skater (b. 1931)
2017 Tato Cifuentes, Chilean-born Argentine actor and singer (b. 1925)
2017 Ciro Cirillo, Italian politician (b. 1921)
2017 H. Sayeeduddin Dagar, Indian singer (b. 1939)
2017 Paulo Garcia, Brazilian politician (b. 1959)
2017 Slim Mahfoudh, Tunisian actor (b. 1942)
2018 Andreas Kappes, German cyclist (b. 1965)
2018 Khayyam Mirzazade, Azerbaijani composer and professor (b. 1935)
2018 Ron Dellums, American politician (b. 1935)
2018 Michael A. Sheehan, American author (b. 1955)
2019 Marcian Bleahu, Romanian geologist, writer and politician (b. 1924)
Observances
Independence Day (Vanuatu)
International Friendship Day
Throne Day (Morocco)
Days of the year