30 August History
- 30 BC - Cleopatra VII, Queen of Egypt, commits suicide.
- 1617 - Rosa de Lima of Peru becomes the first American saint to be canonized.
- 1721 - The Peace of Nystad ends the Second Northern War between Sweden and Russia, giving Russia considerably more power in the Baltic region.
- 1781 - The French fleet arrives in the Chesapeake Bay to aid the American Revolution.
- 1813 - Creek Indians massacre over 500 whites at Fort Mims Alabama.
- 1860 - The first British tramway is inaugurated at Birkenhead by an American, George Francis Train.
- 1861 - Union General John Fremont declares martial law throughout Missouri and makes his own emancipation proclamation to free slaves in the state. President Lincoln overrules the general.
- 1892 - The Moravia, a passenger ship arriving from Germany, brings cholera to the United States.
- 1932 - Nazi leader Hermann Goering is elected president of the Reichstag.
- 1944 - Ploesti, the center of the Rumanian oil industry, falls to Soviet troops.
- 1957 - In an effort to stall the Civil Rights Act of 1957 from passing, Senator Strom Thurmond (D-S.C.) filibusters for over 24 hours. The bill passed, but Thurmond's filibuster becomes the longest in Senate history.
- 1961 - President John F. Kennedy appoints General Lucius D. Clay as his personal representative in Berlin.
- 1983 - Lieutenant Colonel Guion S. Bluford, Jr., becomes the first African-American astronaut to travel in space.
30 August Birthdays
- 1797 - Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, novelist best known for Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus.
- 1871 - Ernest Rutherford, physicist who discovered and named alpha, beta and gamma radiation and was the first to achieve a man-made nuclear reaction.
- 1893 - Huey P. Long, Louisiana politician who served as governor and U.S. senator, known as "The Kingfish."
- 1918 - Ted Williams, Hall of Fame outfielder for the Boston Red Sox, the last man to hit .400 in a season.