30 July History
- 1619 - The House of Burgesses convenes for the first time at Jamestown, Va.
- 1787 - The French parliament refuses to approve a more equitable land tax.
- 1799 - The French garrison at Mantua, Italy, surrenders to the Austrians.
- 1864 - In an effort to penetrate the Confederate lines around Petersburg, Va. Union troops explode a mine underneath the Confederate trenches but fail to break through. The ensuing action is known as the Battle of the Crater.
- 1919 - Federal troops are called out to put down Chicago race riots.
- 1938 - George Eastman demonstrates his color motion picture process.
- 1940 - A bombing lull ends the first phase of the Battle of Britain.
- 1960 - Over 60,000 Buddhists march in protest against the Diem government in South Vietnam.
- 1965 - President Lyndon Johnson signs the Medicare Bill into law.
- 1967 - General William Westmoreland claims that he is winning the war in Vietnam, but needs more men.
- 1975 - Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa disappears, last seen coming out of a restaurant in Bloomingfield Hills, Michigan.
30 July Birthdays
- 1818 - Emily Bronte, author (Wuthering Heights).
- 1857 - Thorstein Veblen, economist and sociologist (The Theory of the Leisure Class).
- 1863 - Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company.
- 1889 - Casey Stengel, New York Yankees manager.
- 1898 - Henry Moore, English sculptor.
- 1909 - C. Northcote Parkinson, historian and author.
- 1924 - William H. Gass, writer (Omensetter's Luck).
- 1940 - Patricia Shroeder, U.S. congresswoman.