August 30 facts for kids

August 30 is the 242nd day of the year (243rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 123 days remain until the end of the year. August 30th is a day filled with many important events throughout history, from ancient times to today. It's a day when leaders were chosen, battles were fought, and new discoveries were made. Many famous people, like writers, scientists, and artists, were born or passed away on this date. Let's explore some of the key moments and notable figures connected to August 30th.

Historic Events on August 30th

Early History (Before 1600)

• 70 – The city of Jerusalem was under attack. On this day, the Roman general Titus ended the long siege, which led to the destruction of Herod's Temple.
• 1282 – Peter III of Aragon arrived in Trapani, Italy, to join the War of the Sicilian Vespers. This was a big conflict over who would rule Sicily.
• 1363 – A huge naval battle, the Battle of Lake Poyang, began in China. It lasted five weeks and decided who would take over from the Yuan dynasty.
• 1464 – Pope Paul II became the 211th pope, following Pope Pius II.
• 1574 – Guru Ram Das became the Fourth Sikh Guru, a very important spiritual leader for the Sikh faith.
• 1590 – In Japan, Tokugawa Ieyasu, a powerful leader, entered Edo Castle. This was a significant step in his rise to power.

Major Events (1601–1900)

• 1721 – The Great Northern War ended with the Treaty of Nystad. This war was fought between Sweden and Russia.
• 1727 – Anne, the oldest daughter of King George II of Great Britain, was given the special title of Princess Royal.
• 1757 – During the Seven Years' War, Russian forces won the Battle of Gross-Jägersdorf against a smaller Prussian army.
• 1791 – The ship HMS Pandora sank near the Great Barrier Reef after hitting ground the day before.
• 1799 – The entire Dutch fleet was captured by British forces during the War of the Second Coalition. This event is known as the Vlieter Incident.
• 1800 – Gabriel Prosser had planned a slave rebellion in Richmond, Virginia. He had to postpone it and was later arrested.
• 1813 – In the First Battle of Kulm, French forces were defeated by an alliance of Austrian, Prussian, and Russian armies.
• 1835 – The city of Melbourne, Victoria, in Australia, was founded.
• 1836 – The city of Houston in the United States was founded by Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen.
• 1862 – During the American Civil War, Confederate soldiers won the Battle of Richmond against Union forces.
• 1873 – Explorers Julius von Payer and Karl Weyprecht discovered the group of islands called Franz Josef Land in the Arctic Sea.
• 1896 – After a battle, eight provinces in the Philippines were put under martial law by the Spanish Governor-General. This happened during the Philippine Revolution.

Modern Times (1901–Present)

• 1909 – Important Burgess Shale fossils were discovered by Charles Doolittle Walcott. These fossils show early life forms.
• 1914 – In World War I, German forces defeated the Russians in the Battle of Tannenberg.
• 1916 – Explorer Ernest Shackleton successfully rescued all his men who were stuck on Elephant Island in Antarctica.
• 1918 – Fanni Kaplan shot and seriously hurt Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin. This event, along with another official's death, led to the start of the Red Terror.
• 1922 – The Battle of Dumlupınar was the final battle of the Greco-Turkish War, which was part of the Turkish War of Independence.
• 1936 – The RMS Queen Mary ship won the Blue Riband award for being the fastest to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
• 1940 – The Second Vienna Award changed the borders, moving Northern Transylvania from Romania to Hungary.
• 1945 – The Japanese occupation of Hong Kong officially ended.
• 1945 – General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, landed in Japan after World War II.
• 1945 – The Allied Control Council was formed to govern Germany after World War II.
• 1963 – The Moscow–Washington hotline, a direct communication line between the U.S. and Soviet Union leaders, started working.
• 1967 – Thurgood Marshall was confirmed as the first African American Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States.
• 1974 – A train derailed in Zagreb, killing 153 passengers.
• 1981 – The President and Prime Minister of Iran were killed in a bombing.
• 1983 – Aeroflot Flight 5463 crashed in Kazakhstan, killing everyone on board.
• 1984 – The Space Shuttle Discovery took off on its very first trip into space.
• 1991 – Azerbaijan declared its independence from the Soviet Union.
• 1995 – NATO launched Operation Deliberate Force against forces in Bosnia during the Bosnian War.
• 2014 – The Prime Minister of Lesotho, Tom Thabane, left the country as the army took control.
• 2021 – The last American troops left Afghanistan, marking the end of U.S. involvement in the war there.
• 2023 – In Gabon, a military coup happened after the president was re-elected, ending 56 years of his family's rule.

Famous Birthdays on August 30th

Born Before 1900

• 1334 – Peter of Castile, a king of Castile.
• 1574 – Albert Szenczi Molnár, a Hungarian writer and translator.
• 1716 – Capability Brown, a famous English landscape architect. He designed many beautiful gardens.
• 1748 – Jacques-Louis David, a well-known French painter.
• 1797 – Mary Shelley, an English novelist who wrote the famous book Frankenstein.
• 1852 – Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, a Dutch chemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• 1855 – Evelyn De Morgan, an English painter.
• 1871 – Ernest Rutherford, a New Zealand-English physicist and chemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He is known as the "father of nuclear physics."
• 1884 – Theodor Svedberg, a Swedish chemist and physicist, also a Nobel Prize winner.
• 1893 – Huey Long, an American politician who served as the 40th Governor of Louisiana.
• 1898 – Shirley Booth, a popular American actress and singer.

Born After 1900

• 1906 – Joan Blondell, an American actress and singer.
• 1907 – John Mauchly, an American physicist who helped create one of the first computer companies.
• 1908 – Fred MacMurray, a famous American actor.
• 1912 – Edward Mills Purcell, an American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics.
• 1912 – Nancy Wake, a brave New Zealand-English captain who was a spy during World War II.
• 1918 – Ted Williams, a legendary American baseball player.
• 1919 – Maurice Hilleman, an American microbiologist who developed many important vaccines.
• 1920 – Arnold Green, an Estonian soldier and politician.
• 1925 – Laurent de Brunhoff, a French author and illustrator, known for the Babar the Elephant books.
• 1927 – Bill Daily, an American actor and comedian.
• 1930 – Warren Buffett, a very successful American businessman and philanthropist.
• 1937 – Bruce McLaren, a New Zealand race car driver and engineer who founded the McLaren racing team.
• 1939 – Elizabeth Ashley, an American actress.
• 1943 – Jean-Claude Killy, a French skier who won multiple Olympic gold medals.
• 1946 – Queen Anne-Marie of Greece.
• 1948 – Lewis Black, an American comedian and actor.
• 1951 – Cameron Diaz, a well-known American model, actress, and producer.
• 1954 – Alexander Lukashenko, the first President of Belarus.
• 1972 – Pavel Nedvěd, a famous Czech footballer.
• 1973 – Lisa Ling, an American journalist and author.
• 1977 – Shaun Alexander, an American football player.
• 1982 – Andy Roddick, an American tennis player.
• 1985 – Leisel Jones, an Australian swimmer who won Olympic medals.
• 1985 – Anna Ushenina, a Ukrainian chess player.
• 1989 – Bebe Rexha, an American singer-songwriter.
• 1996 – Mikal Bridges, an American basketball player.

Notable Deaths on August 30th

Passed Away Before 1900

• 526 – Theodoric the Great, a powerful Italian ruler.
• 1181 – Pope Alexander III.
• 1483 – Louis XI of France, a king of France.
• 1580 – Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy, a European duke.
• 1619 – Shimazu Yoshihiro, a Japanese samurai and warlord.
• 1751 – Christopher Polhem, a Swedish physicist and engineer.
• 1856 – Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, an English lawyer and author.
• 1879 – John Bell Hood, an American general during the Civil War.

Passed Away After 1900

• 1928 – Wilhelm Wien, a German physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics.
• 1935 – Henri Barbusse, a French journalist and author.
• 1938 – Max Factor, Sr., a Polish-born American make-up artist who founded the Max Factor Company.
• 1940 – J. J. Thomson, an English physicist and mathematician who won the Nobel Prize in Physics. He discovered the electron.
• 1961 – Charles Coburn, an American actor.
• 1970 – Abraham Zapruder, a witness to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
• 1979 – Jean Seberg, an American actress.
• 1981 – Mohammad-Ali Rajai, the second President of Iran.
• 1988 – Jack Marshall, the 28th Prime Minister of New Zealand.
• 1991 – Jean Tinguely, a Swiss painter and sculptor.
• 1995 – Fischer Black, an American economist.
• 2003 – Charles Bronson, a famous American actor.
• 2004 – Fred Lawrence Whipple, an American astronomer.
• 2006 – Glenn Ford, a Canadian-American actor.
• 2006 – Naguib Mahfouz, an Egyptian author who won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
• 2013 – Seamus Heaney, an Irish poet and playwright who won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
• 2015 – Wes Craven, an American director and screenwriter, known for horror films.
• 2015 – Oliver Sacks, an English-American neurologist and author.
• 2019 – Valerie Harper, an American actress and writer.
• 2022 – Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union.

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day:
  • Alexander of Constantinople (Eastern Orthodoxy)
  • Blessed Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster
  • Blessed Eustáquio van Lieshout
  • Blessed Stephen Nehmé (Maronite Church / Catholic Church)
  • Charles Chapman Grafton (Episcopal Church)
  • Fantinus
  • Felix and Adauctus
  • Fiacre
  • Jeanne Jugan
  • Narcisa de Jesús
  • Pammachius
  • Theodosius of Oria
  • August 30 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Constitution Day (Kazakhstan)
• Constitution Day (Turks and Caicos Islands)
• Independence Day (Tatarstan, Russia not formally recognized)
• International Day of the Disappeared
• International Whale Shark Day
• Popular Consultation Day (East Timor)
• Saint Rose of Lima's Day (Peru)
• Victory Day (Turkey)

See also

In Spanish: 30 de agosto para niños