On this day: May 30

Events on May 30

• 1539 In Florida, Hernando de Soto lands at Tampa Bay with 600 soldiers with the goal of finding gold. Wikipedia
• 1588 The last ship of the Spanish Armada sets sail from Lisbon heading for the English Channel. Wikipedia
• 1723 Johann Sebastian Bach assumed the office of Thomaskantor in Leipzig, presenting the cantata Die Elenden sollen essen in St. Nicholas Church. Wikipedia
• 1723 Johann Sebastian Bach assumes the office of Thomaskantor in Leipzig, presenting his first new cantata, Die Elenden sollen essen, BWV 75, in the St. Nicholas Church on the first Sunday after Trinity. Wikipedia
• 1796 War of the First Coalition: In the Battle of Borghetto, Napoleon Bonaparte manages to cross the Mincio River against the Austrian army. This crossing forces the Austrians to abandon Lombardy and retreat to the Tyrol, leaving the fortress of Mantua as the sole remaining Austrian stronghold in Northern Italy. Wikipedia
• 1845 The Fatel Razack, coming from India, lands in the Gulf of Paria in Trinidad and Tobago carrying the first Indians to the country. Wikipedia
• 1866 Bedřich Smetana's comic opera The Bartered Bride (cover of score pictured) premiered in Prague. Wikipedia
• 1866 Bedrich Smetana's comic opera The Bartered Bride premieres in Prague. Wikipedia
• 1913 The Treaty of London is signed, ending the First Balkan War between the Balkan allies and the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans cede all their European territories west of a straight line between Enos and Media and Albania becomes an independent nation. Wikipedia
• 1922 The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., featuring a sculpture of the sixteenth U.S. president Abraham Lincoln by Daniel Chester French, opened. Wikipedia
• 1940 Second World War: HMS Cambrian was sunk by a mine in The Solent, with the loss of 23 lives. Wikipedia
• 1941 World War II: Manolis Glezos and Apostolos Santas climb the Athenian Acropolis and tear down the German flag. Wikipedia
• 1963 Buddhist crisis: A protest against pro-Catholic discrimination was held outside the National Assembly of South Vietnam in Saigon, the first open demonstration against President Ngô Đình Diệm. Wikipedia
• 1966 Former Congolese Prime Minister, Évariste Kimba, and several other politicians are publicly executed in Kinshasa on the orders of President Joseph Mobutu. Wikipedia
• 1967 The Nigerian Eastern Region declares independence as the Republic of Biafra, sparking a civil war. Wikipedia
• 1971 Mariner program: Mariner 9 is launched to map 70% of the surface, and to study temporal changes in the atmosphere and surface, of Mars. Wikipedia
• 1972 In Ben Gurion Airport (at the time: Lod Airport), Israel, members of the Japanese Red Army carry out the Lod Airport massacre, killing 24 people and injuring 78 others. Wikipedia
• 1982 Cold War: Spain joins NATO. Wikipedia
• 1990 Croatian Parliament is constituted after the first free, multi-party elections, today celebrated as the National Day of Croatia. Wikipedia
• 1998 The 6.5 Mw Afghanistan earthquake shakes the Takhar Province of northern Afghanistan with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong), killing around 4,000–4,500. Wikipedia
• 2003 Depayin massacre: At least 70 people associated with the National League for Democracy are killed by government-sponsored mob in Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi flees the scene, but is arrested soon afterwards. Wikipedia
• 2012 Former Liberian president Charles Taylor is sentenced to 50 years in prison for his role in atrocities committed during the Sierra Leone Civil War. Wikipedia
• 2013 Nigeria passes a law banning same-sex marriage. Wikipedia
• 2020 Crew Dragon Demo-2 launches from Kennedy Space Center, becoming the first crewed orbital spacecraft to launch from the United States since 2011 and the first commercial flight to the International Space Station. Wikipedia
• 2024 Donald Trump was convicted of falsifying business records in a New York trial, becoming the first former U.S. president found guilty in a criminal case. Wikipedia
• 2024 Donald Trump is convicted of falsifying business records in his New York trial, the first time a former President of the United States has been found guilty in a criminal case. Wikipedia

Born on May 30

• 1757 Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1844) Wikipedia
• 1814 Mikhail Bakunin, Russian philosopher and theorist (died 1876) Wikipedia
• 1845 Amadeo I, Spanish king (died 1890) Wikipedia
• 1846 Peter Carl Fabergé, Russian goldsmith and jeweler (died 1920) Wikipedia
• 1887 Alexander Archipenko, Ukrainian-American sculptor and illustrator (died 1964) Wikipedia
• 1896 Howard Hawks, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1977) Wikipedia
• 1908 Hannes Alfvén, Swedish physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1995) Wikipedia
• 1909 Benny Goodman, American clarinet player, songwriter, and bandleader (died 1986) Wikipedia
• 1912 Julius Axelrod, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2004) Wikipedia
• 1924 Anthony Dryden Marshall, American CIA officer and diplomat (died 2014) Wikipedia
• 1926 Christine Jorgensen, American trans woman and actress (died 1989) Wikipedia
• 1928 Agnès Varda, Belgian-French director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2019) Wikipedia
• 1934 Alexei Leonov, Russian general, pilot, and cosmonaut (died 2019) Wikipedia
• 1951 Fernando Lugo, Paraguayan bishop and politician, President of Paraguay Wikipedia
• 1958 Marie Fredriksson, Swedish singer-songwriter and pianist (died 2019) Wikipedia
• 1962 Kevin Eastman, American author and illustrator, co-created the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Wikipedia
• 1968 Zacarias Moussaoui, French citizen, sentenced to life in prison related to September 11 attacks Wikipedia
• 1971 Idina Menzel, American singer-songwriter and actress Wikipedia
• 1975 CeeLo Green, American singer-songwriter Wikipedia
• 1975 Marissa Mayer, American computer scientist and businesswoman Wikipedia
• 1980 Steven Gerrard, English international footballer and manager Wikipedia
• 1996 Aleksandr Golovin, Russian footballer Wikipedia

Died on May 30

• 727 Hubertus, bishop Liège Wikipedia
• 1431 Joan of Arc, French martyr and saint (born 1412) Wikipedia
• 1469 Lope de Barrientos, Castilian bishop (born 1389) Wikipedia
• 1574 Charles IX of France (born 1550) Wikipedia
• 1593 Christopher Marlowe, English poet and playwright (born 1564) Wikipedia
• 1640 Peter Paul Rubens, German-Belgian painter (born 1577) Wikipedia
• 1744 Alexander Pope, English poet, essayist, and translator (born 1688) Wikipedia
• 1778 Voltaire, French philosopher and author (born 1694) Wikipedia
• 1912 Wilbur Wright, American pilot and businessman, co-founded the Wright Company (born 1867) Wikipedia
• 1918 Georgi Plekhanov, Russian philosopher and theorist (born 1856) Wikipedia
• 1960 Boris Pasternak, Russian poet, novelist, and literary translator, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1890) Wikipedia
• 2011 Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1921) Wikipedia
• 2012 Andrew Huxley, English physiologist and biophysicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1917) Wikipedia
• 2015 L. Tom Perry, American religious leader and member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (born 1922) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Anguilla Day, commemorates the beginning of the Anguillian Revolution in 1967. (Anguilla) Wikipedia
• Canary Islands Day (Spain) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Basil the Elder and Emmelia of Caesarea Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Dymphna Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Ferdinand III of Castile and León Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Isaac of Dalmatia Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Joan of Arc Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Joseph Marello Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Luke Kirby Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Matiya Mulumba Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Otto Neururer Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: May 30 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Indian Arrival Day (Trinidad and Tobago) Wikipedia
• Kaamatan, harvest festival in the state of Sabah and the federal territory of Labuan (Malaysia) Wikipedia
• Lod Massacre Remembrance Day (Puerto Rico) Wikipedia
• Mother's Day (Nicaragua) Wikipedia
• Statehood Day (Croatia) Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “May 30” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.