Major Events
- Jan 5 Mao Zedong writes the essay "A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire" to criticize cadres not creating rural revolutionary base areas
- Mar 12 Mahatma Gandhi begins his famous 200 mile (300km) protest march against the widely hated British salt tax
- Mar 13 Clyde Tombaugh announces discovery of Pluto at Lowell Observatory
- Apr 2 Ras Tafari Makonnen proclaimed Emperor Haile Selassie of Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
- Jun 24 1st detection of an airplane using reflected radio waves, a precursor to radar, by US Naval Research Laboratory engineers in Anacostia, Washington, D.C.
- Aug 16 I British Empire Games open in Hamilton, Canada
- Nov 2 Coronation of Ras Tafari Makonnen as Haile Selassie I, 225th Emperor of Ethiopian Solmonic Dynasty
- More 1930 Events
1930 in Film & TV
- Mar 31 The Motion Pictures Production Code is instituted, imposing strict guidelines on the treatment of sex, crime, religion and violence in film for the next 38 years
- Apr 1 "The Blue Angel" starring Marlene Dietrich in her breakthrough role premieres in Germany
- Apr 21 "All Quiet on the Western Front" based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque, directed by Lewis Milestone, starring Louis Wolheim and Lew Ayres premieres in Los Angeles (Academy Awards Outstanding Production 1930)
- Aug 9 Animated character Betty Boop debuts in Max Fleischer's cartoon "Dizzy Dishes"
- Aug 16 The first color sound cartoon "Fiddlesticks" by Ub Iwerks (ex Walt Disney studio) is released
- Oct 14 George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin's musical "Girl Crazy" starring Ginger Rogers and featuring debut of Ethel Merman, opens at the Alvin Theater, NYC; runs for 272 performances
1930 in Sport
- Jul 13 1st-ever football World Cup competition begins in Uruguay
- Jul 30 1st FIFA World Cup Final, Estadio Centenario, Montevideo, Uruguay: Uruguay beats Argentina, 4-2 in the inaugural event
- Dec 12 Baseball Rules Committee greatly revises the rule book, ball bouncing into stands not a HR, now a double
- Dec 16 Golfer Bobby Jones is the first to win the James E. Sullivan Award (best US amateur athlete)
Did You Know?
Marguerite Perey discovers francium (Fr), the last naturally occurring element to be found
Buzz Aldrin
Sandra Day O'Connor
Helmut Kohl
Harvey Milk
Neil Armstrong
Mobutu Sese Seko
Gene Hackman
Joanne Woodward
Carolyn Jones
Clint Eastwood
Robert Evans
Sean Connery
Ornette Coleman
Stephen Sondheim
Sally Ann Howes
Ray Charles
Richard Harris
Don Shula
Tim Horton
Pat Summerall
George Steinbrenner
Sonny Liston
Tony TrabertMore People Born in 1930
D. H. Lawrence
William Howard Taft
Arthur Balfour
Vladimir Mayakovsky
Arthur Conan Doyle
Alfred WegenerMore 1930 Deaths
Articles About 1930
Birdseye – the Father of Frozen Food
Indigenous Canadians showed Clarence Birdseye how they preserved fish they had caught. Intrigued, he saw the possibilities and the frozen food industry was born.March 6
Salt March
Mahatma Gandhi during the Salt March to abolish the British salt lawsMarch 12
Istanbul – The Queen of Cities
On this day the ancient city of Constantinople was officially renamed Istanbul, while the town of Angora became Ankara, the new capital of Turkey.March 28
The Balloon Expedition to the North Pole
The discovery of Swedish engineer S. A. Andrée's tragic, long-lost polar expedition in 1930 led to more questions than answers.August 5
Famous Weddings in 1930
- Jan 8 Belgium Princess Marie-Jose marries Italian's crown prince Umberto
- Jan 14 American author John Steinbeck (27) weds Carol Henning (23) in Los Angeles, California (divorced 1942)
- Jan 15 Businesswoman Estee Mentzer (23) weds businessman Joseph Lauter (later Lauder)
More Weddings in 1930
George Arliss
Mahatma Gandhi
Norma Shearer
Herbert Hoover
Joseph Stalin
Ramsay MacDonald