# On this day: May 30

May 30 is the 150th day of the year (151st in leap years), with 215 days left until the end of the year.

## May 30 in one line

Headline entries for May 30, from Wikipedia: in 1431, Hundred Years' War: After being convicted of heresy, Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in Rouen, France; born 1814: Mikhail Bakunin, Russian philosopher and theorist (died 1876); died 1778: Voltaire, French philosopher and author (born 1694). In 2026 it is a Saturday, in 2027 a Sunday.

## Events on May 30

- 1431 Hundred Years' War: After being convicted of heresy, Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in Rouen, France. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc)
- 1536 Jane Seymour, a former lady-in-waiting, married King Henry VIII, becoming the queen consort of England. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Seymour)
- 1588 The last ship of the Spanish Armada sets sail from Lisbon heading for the English Channel. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Armada)
- 1723 Johann Sebastian Bach assumed the office of Thomaskantor in Leipzig, presenting the cantata Die Elenden sollen essen in St. Nicholas Church. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Sebastian_Bach)
- 1806 In one of several violent incidents involving future U.S. president Andrew Jackson, Charles Dickinson was killed in a duel; Jackson was wounded and carried the bullet for the rest of his life. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Dickinson_(planter))
- 1854 The Kansas–Nebraska Act became law, establishing the U.S. territories of Nebraska and Kansas, and allowing their settlers to determine if slavery would be permitted. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas%E2%80%93Nebraska_Act)
- 1866 Bedřich Smetana's comic opera The Bartered Bride premiered in Prague. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bartered_Bride)
- 1876 Ottoman sultan Abdülaziz is deposed and succeeded by his nephew Murad V. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murad_V)
- 1899 Pearl Hart, one of the few female outlaws of the American Old West, committed one of the last recorded stagecoach robberies, about 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Globe, Arizona. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_Hart)
- 1914 RMS Aquitania, the last surviving four-funnel ocean liner, departed from Liverpool on her maiden voyage to New York City. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Aquitania)
- 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](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Memorial)
- 1940 Second World War: HMS Cambrian was sunk by a mine in The Solent, with the loss of 23 lives. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Cambrian_(1939))
- 1948 A dike holding the Columbia River broke, causing a flood that destroyed Vanport, Oregon, U.S., only five years after the city was built. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanport%2C_Oregon)
- 1959 The Auckland Harbour Bridge officially opened, connecting the suburbs of Saint Marys Bay and Northcote in Auckland, New Zealand, across Waitematā Harbour. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auckland_Harbour_Bridge)
- 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](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_crisis)
- 1968 Charles de Gaulle reappears publicly after his flight to Baden-Baden, West Germany, and dissolves the French National Assembly by a radio appeal. Immediately after, less than one million of his supporters march on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. This is the turning point of the May 1968 events in France. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_68)
- 1969 A demonstration by workers and activists on the Caribbean island of Curaçao escalated into a violent uprising which destroyed much of Willemstad. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_Cura%C3%A7ao_uprising)
- 1972 Members of the Japanese Red Army carried out the Lod Airport massacre in Tel Aviv, Israel, on behalf of PFLP External Operations, killing over 20 people and injuring almost 80 others. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lod_Airport_massacre)
- 1975 The European Space Agency is established. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Space_Agency)
- 1982 Cold War: Spain joins NATO. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain)
- 1998 A magnitude-6.5 earthquake struck northern Afghanistan, killing at least 4,000 people, destroying more than 30 villages, and leaving 45,000 people homeless. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_1998_Afghanistan_earthquake)
- 2005 American student Natalee Holloway disappeared on a high-school graduation trip to Aruba. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Natalee_Holloway)
- 2008 The Convention on Cluster Munitions, prohibiting the use, transfer, and stockpiling of cluster bombs, was adopted. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_Cluster_Munitions)
- 2012 Former Liberia president Charles Taylor was sentenced to 50 years in prison for his role in atrocities committed during the Sierra Leone Civil War. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Taylor_(Liberian_politician))
- 2020 Crew Dragon Demo-2 became the first commercial mission to the International Space Station. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crew_Dragon_Demo-2)
- 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](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosecution_of_Donald_Trump_in_New_York)

## Born on May 30

- 1757 Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1844) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Addington)
- 1814 Mikhail Bakunin, Russian philosopher and theorist (died 1876) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Bakunin)
- 1845 Amadeo I, Spanish king (died 1890) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amadeo_I_of_Spain)
- 1846 Peter Carl Fabergé, Russian goldsmith and jeweler (died 1920) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Carl_Faberg%C3%A9)
- 1875 Giovanni Gentile, Italian philosopher and academic (died 1944) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Gentile)
- 1887 Alexander Archipenko, Ukrainian-American sculptor and illustrator (died 1964) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Archipenko)
- 1896 Howard Hawks, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1977) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Hawks)
- 1899 Irving Thalberg, American screenwriter and producer (died 1936) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Thalberg)
- 1908 Hannes Alfvén, Swedish physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1995) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannes_Alfv%C3%A9n)
- 1909 Benny Goodman, American clarinet player, songwriter, and bandleader (died 1986) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benny_Goodman)
- 1912 Julius Axelrod, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2004) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Axelrod)
- 1928 Agnès Varda, Belgian-French director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2019) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agn%C3%A8s_Varda)
- 1934 Alexei Leonov, Russian general, pilot, and cosmonaut (died 2019) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexei_Leonov)
- 1951 Fernando Lugo, Paraguayan bishop and politician, President of Paraguay [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Lugo)
- 1958 Marie Fredriksson, Swedish singer-songwriter and pianist (died 2019) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Fredriksson)
- 1971 Idina Menzel, American singer-songwriter and actress [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idina_Menzel)
- 1975 CeeLo Green, American singer-songwriter [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CeeLo_Green)
- 1975 Marissa Mayer, American computer scientist and businesswoman [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marissa_Mayer)
- 1980 Steven Gerrard, English international footballer and manager [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Gerrard)
- 1990 Im Yoon-ah, South Korean singer and actress [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lim_Yoona)
- 1996 Aleksandr Golovin, Russian footballer [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Golovin_(footballer))
- 1999 Guanyu Zhou, Chinese race car driver [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhou_Guanyu)

## Died on May 30

- 1431 Joan of Arc, French martyr and saint (born 1412) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc)
- 1574 Charles IX of France (born 1550) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_IX_of_France)
- 1593 Christopher Marlowe, English poet and playwright (born 1564) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Marlowe)
- 1640 Peter Paul Rubens, German-Belgian painter (born 1577) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Paul_Rubens)
- 1744 Alexander Pope, English poet, essayist, and translator (born 1688) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Pope)
- 1770 François Boucher, French painter and set designer (born 1703) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Boucher)
- 1778 Voltaire, French philosopher and author (born 1694) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltaire)
- 1912 Wilbur Wright, American pilot and businessman, co-founded the Wright Company (born 1867) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers)
- 1918 Georgi Plekhanov, Russian philosopher and theorist (born 1856) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgi_Plekhanov)
- 1960 Boris Pasternak, Russian poet, novelist, and literary translator, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1890) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Pasternak)
- 1961 Rafael Trujillo, Dominican soldier and politician, 36th President of the Dominican Republic (born 1891) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Trujillo)
- 1964 Leó Szilárd, Hungarian-American physicist and engineer (born 1898) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Szilard)
- 2011 Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1921) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalyn_Sussman_Yalow)
- 2012 Andrew Huxley, English physiologist and biophysicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1917) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Huxley)

## Holidays and observances

- Anguilla Day, commemorates the beginning of the Anguillian Revolution in 1967. (Anguilla) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_holidays_in_Anguilla)
- Canary Islands Day (Spain) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Canary_Islands)
- Christian feast day: Basil the Elder and Emmelia of Caesarea [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmelia_of_Caesarea)
- Christian feast day: Dymphna [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Dymphna)
- Christian feast day: Ferdinand III of Castile and León [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_III_of_Castile)
- Christian feast day: Isaac of Dalmatia [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_of_Dalmatia)
- Christian feast day: Joan of Arc [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc)
- Christian feast day: Joseph Marello [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Marello)
- Christian feast day: Luke Kirby [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luke_Kirby_(priest))
- Christian feast day: Matiya Mulumba [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matiya_Mulumba)
- Christian feast day: Blessed Otto Neururer [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Neururer)
- Christian feast day: May 30 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_30_(Eastern_Orthodox_liturgics))
- Indian Arrival Day (Trinidad and Tobago) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Arrival_Day)
- Kaamatan, harvest festival in the state of Sabah and the federal territory of Labuan (Malaysia) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaamatan)
- Lod Massacre Remembrance Day (Puerto Rico) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lod_Airport_massacre)
- Mother's Day (Nicaragua) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother's_Day)
- Statehood Day (Croatia) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statehood_Day_(Croatia))

## Sources

- [Wikipedia — “May 30”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_30) — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
- [Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/May 30”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Selected_anniversaries/May_30) — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
- [Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/) — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
- [vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence)](https://github.com/vacanza/holidays) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article [“May 30”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_30) and the articles it links to ([authors and history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_30?action=history)), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/); this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for May 30 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.

## May 30 in the calendar

| Year | Weekday | ISO week | Moon (UTC) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 2026 | Saturday | 2026-W22 | 🌔 Waxing Gibbous |
| 2027 | Sunday | 2027-W21 | 🌘 Waning Crescent |
| 2028 | Tuesday | 2028-W22 | 🌒 Waxing Crescent |
| 2029 | Wednesday | 2029-W22 | 🌖 Waning Gibbous |
| 2030 | Thursday | 2030-W22 | 🌘 Waning Crescent |

Moon phases are for the day in UTC; at the edges of a phase your local date can differ.

## Public holidays on May 30

None of the 28 countries we track has a public holiday on May 30 in 2026 or 2027.

[Today's holidays in 28 countries →](https://whathappen.today/holidays/)

## Nearby dates

[← May 29](https://whathappen.today/on-this-day/may-29/) · [May 31 →](https://whathappen.today/on-this-day/may-31/)

[All 366 days](https://whathappen.today/on-this-day/)

Last updated: 15 October 2026

---

Web page: https://whathappen.today/on-this-day/may-30/