October 30

637 – The Byzantine city of Antioch surrenders to the Rashidun Caliphate after failing to keep the moslem army from crossing the ‘Iron Bridge’ over the Orontes River about 12 miles from the city.

1270 – The Eighth Crusade ends by an agreement between Charles I of Anjou and the Hafsids of Tunis

1340 – During the Reconquista, the armies of King Afonso IV of Portugal and King Alfonso XI of Castile halt a Muslim invasion by the armies of Sultan Abu al-Hasan and Ali Yusuf I of Granada, at Río Salado near Tarifa, Spain

1817 – Simón Bolívar becomes President of the Third Republic of Venezuela.

1831 – Nat Turner is arrested for leading the bloodiest slave rebellion in U.S. States history.

1918 – The Ottoman Empire signs the Armistice of Mudros with the Allies during World War I.

1938 – Orson Welles broadcasts his radio play of H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds

1941 – President Roosevelt approves $1 billion in Lend-Lease aid to the Allied nations.

1945 – Jackie Robinson of the Kansas City Monarchs signs a contract to play with the Brooklyn Dodgers

1947 – The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the foundation of the World Trade Organization (WTO), is signed.

1953 – President Eisenhower approves the top secret document,  NSC 162/2 to create and maintain a strong nuclear deterrent force against the Soviet Union.

1959 – Piedmont Airlines Flight 349, a Douglas DC-3, crashes on approach to Charlottesville–Albemarle Airport in Albemarle County, Virginia, killing 26 of the 27 passengers and crew on board.

1961 – A U.S. KC-135R reconnaissance aircraft, flying near the Russian Novaya Zemlya archipelago on Operation Speedlight Delta, detects the Soviet Union’s detonation of the 50 megaton thermonuclear Tsar Bomba, the most powerful explosive device ever detonated

1985 – Shuttle Challenger lifts off in mission STS-61-A, its final successful mission.

2014 – A Gilliland Aviation Beechcraft Super King Air crashes into the FlightSafety International building at Wichita’s Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport shortly after takeoff, killing the only person aboard, the pilot, 3 more people on the ground and injuring another 6 people.