Rumble in the Jungle

October 30, 1974

Muhammad Ali wins by a knockout against the overwhelming favorite George Foreman in Zaire for the heavyweight boxing championship. The fight was watched by a record estimated television audience of 1 billion viewers worldwide, becoming the world's most-watched live television broadcast at the time and the fight grossed an estimated $100 million in revenue.
It was during this fight that Ali introduced his "rope-a-dope" tactic, where Ali would back up against the ropes and use his arms to block Foreman's punches. Ali's trainer would later say it was called "rope-a-dope" because he was a dope to use it.
The government of Zaire staged the event and its president personally paid Ali and Foreman $5 million each just for showing up. He wanted to draw attention to Zaire's beauty and natural resources.
Ali had been stripped of his title in 1967 after he was convicted of draft-evasion, citing his religious beliefs and opposition to the Vietnam War. This victory made Ali only the second dethroned heavyweight champ in history to regain his belt.

First U.S. Warship Sunk in World War II

October 30, 1941

The destroyer USS Reuben James is sunk off of Iceland by a German U-boat, about a month before the attack on Pearl Harbor. While escorting a group of ships sailing to Great Britain, she was positioned between an ammunition ship and a group of German submarines. She was hit by a torpedo and her entire bow was blown off when a magazine exploded, sinking the bow immediately. The aft section sank five minutes later. Out of a crew of seven officers and 136 enlisted men plus one enlisted passenger, 100 were killed, including all officers aboard.
While most of the country ignored the sinking, Woody Guthrie memorialized it in his song, The Sinking of the Reuben James:
"Tell me, what were their names?
Tell me, what were their names?
Did you have a friend on the good Reuben James?"

Mars Invasion Causes National Panic

October 30, 1938

Orson Welles panics the nation with his radio adaption of The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells about a Martian alien invasion. Broadcast in the style of an on going news event, many people missed the opening disclaimer and believed it was a live broadcast of an actual alien invasion.

A Chicken for Every Pot

October 30, 1928

The "A Chicken for Every Pot" political ad is placed in the New York Times by a local committee during Republican candidate Herbert Hoover's presidential campaign of 1928. The advertisement was used by Hoover's opponents to claim that he had promised voters a chicken in every pot and two cars in every garage (the ad only mentions one car), although Hoover himself never made such a statement.
Hoover won the election, but the Great Depression began in 1929 and Hoover's opponents used this phrase against him in the 1932 presidential campaign. Hoover was decisively defeated by Democratic nominee Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Henry Winkler

Born October 30, 1945

American Emmy-winning actor. TV: Happy Days (1974-84, The Fonz) and Better Late Than Never (2016-18). Film: The Lords of Flatbush (1974) and Night Shift (1982, Chuck Lumley). The Fonz and Howard Cunningham were the only two characters to appear in all 255 episodes of Happy Days.
During the first season of Happy Days, ABC censors thought Fonzie's leather jacket made him look like a hoodlum so they wouldn't let him wear it unless he was wearing it as safety gear for his motorcycle. But, the show's producers wanted Fonzie to wear his jacket, so they began incorporating Fonzie's motorcycle into his scenes to get around the censors. This led to the iconic scene of Fonzie riding his motorcycle into Arnold's so that he could wear his leather jacket inside the restaurant. Winkler couldn't ride a motorcycle and crashed several times during shooting.
Winkler's parents were German Jews who immigrated to the U.S. in 1939 to escape Nazi Germany.

Grace Slick (Grace Barnett Wing)

Born October 30, 1939

American Hall of Fame singer/songwriter. With Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship. Music: White Rabbit (1967), Somebody to Love (1967), We Built This City (1985), Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now (1986).
In 2017, Grace Slick licensed the song Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now for use in a Chick-fil-A TV commercial. Slick, who disagrees with Chick-fil-A's corporate views on same-sex marriage, gave the proceeds to Lambda Legal, an organization that works to advance the civil rights of the LGBTQ community and people living with HIV.

John Adams

Born October 30, 1735 d. 1826

American politician. First U.S. Vice-President (1789-97) and 2nd U.S. President (1797-1801). Father of the 6th president John Quincy Adams. Both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, died on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.