On This Day: October 30
Today's History Show Notes - Episode 21
Since the 29th fell on a Sunday, we didn’t get to talk about how Matthew Perry died yesterday. Did you know that he is Canadian and once beat up Justin Trudeau? He will always be Chandler Bing to me.
It’s National Candy Corn Day! This is a controversial one in America, and I’m just gonna come out and say it. I love Candy Corn. Fight me if you want, but I think it’s delicious, and I love this set of 30 Candy Corn recipes from Holiday Hooplah!
Now let’s talk about the history of October 30…
In Government…
Today in colonizers, in 1451, Christopher Columbus was Born. On the same day in 1503, Queen Isabella of Spain banned violence against Indians in the Americas and, in 1772 Captain James Cook rolled into Cape Town, South Africa
In 1784, Napoléon Bonaparte started his military career when he was admitted to the elite École Militaire in Paris. This marked the start of his military career.
1893 US Senate approves repealing Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890. There was a free silver movement in the late 19th Century. This is important to know and revisit. From Britannica:
“The movement was precipitated by an act of Congress in 1873 that omitted the silver dollar from the list of authorized coins (the “Crime of ’73”). Supporters of free silver included owners of silver mines in the West, farmers who believed that an expanded currency would increase the price of their crops, and debtors who hoped it would enable them to pay their debts more easily. For true believers, silver became the symbol of economic justice for the mass of the American people.
The Free Silver Movement gained added political strength at the outset because of the sharp economic depression of the mid-1870s. Its first significant success was the enactment of the Bland-Allison Act in 1878, which restored the silver dollar as legal tender and required the U.S. Treasury to purchase each month between $2,000,000 and $4,000,000 worth of silver and coin it into dollars. When farm prices improved in the early 1880s, pressure for new monetary legislation declined, but the collapse of land and farm prices beginning in 1887 revived the demand by farmers for the unlimited coinage of silver. Congress responded in 1890 by enactment of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, which increased the government’s monthly silver purchases by 50 percent.
In the years immediately after 1890, a combination of pressures sharply reduced the amount of gold in the U.S. Treasury, precipitating a panic in the spring of 1893. Conservatives charged that the Sherman Act was the cause of the panic, and in the summer of 1893 Congress repealed that act. Farmers in the South and West condemned this action, blamed the greed of eastern bankers for the depressed state of the economy, and resumed their demand for the unlimited coinage of silver. This had been an important objective of the Populist Party in the election of 1892, and in 1896 the Democrats, despite strong opposition from President Grover Cleveland, made unlimited coinage of silver the principal plank in their platform. They then nominated William Jennings Bryan, the most effective champion of free silver (see Cross of Gold speech), as their candidate for president. The Republicans won the election, and in 1900 a Republican majority in Congress enacted the Gold Standard Act, which made gold the sole standard for all currency.”
In totalitarian history, on this day in 1920, the Communist Party of Australia was founded in Sydney, and in 1922, Benito Mussolini formed his government in Italy. A century later – exactly – several thousand black-clad fascist sympathizers marched in Predappio, Italy to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of his bloodless coup.
Almost two decades later, in 1939, the USSR and Germany agreed on partitioning Poland, and Adolf Hitler began deporting Jews. From Holocaust Explained:
“In the autumn of 1941, approximately 338,000 Jews remained in Greater Germany. Until this point, Hitler had been reluctant to deport Jews in the German Reich until the war was over because of a fear of resistance and retaliation from the German population. But, in the autumn of 1941, key Nazi figures contributed to mounting pressure on Hitler to deport the German Jews. This pressure culminated in Hitler ordering the deportation of all Jews still in the Greater German Reich and Protectorate between 15-17 September 1941.”
Exactly five years later in 1944, Anne Frank was deported from Auschwitz to Belsen. The same day that the last transport for Auschwitz arrived in Birkenau. Just in case you’re confused, Anne Frank is not the same person as Hellen Keller. <Facepalm>
In 1954, the US Defense Department announced elimination of all racially segregated regiments, and 41 years later in 1995, Québec voted in a referendum to remain part of Canada.
Finally, today in Trump, in 1981 Ivanka was born! Happy birthday, Ivanka! This is also the day that, in 2017, Paul Manafort was indicted on fraud charges, George Papadopoulos pled guilty for lying to the FBI, and a US federal judge blocked President Trump's ban on transgender people in the military.
In Culture…
Two big patents took place on this day: The ballpoint pen (1888) and the time clock (1894). In one of my favorite moments in radio history, in 1938, a radio broadcast of H. G. Wells "The War of the Worlds", narrated by Orson Welles, is said to have caused mass panic when people believed the world was being invaded. Wait, people reported seeing the invasion? I’ve never heard that part before. (I need to run out and get some tinfoil. I’m all out.)
In media and entertainment history, in 2003, Wicked launched. It went on to win two Tony Awards and a Grammy. In 2011, "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1" premiered at the Rome Film Festival. So witches and vampires are big on this day. Also space, as in 2012, Disney purchased Lucasfilm Ltd, including its rights for the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, and they went on to ruin both universes. They paid $4.05 billion for the privilege.
How’s that for defying gravity?
In 2017, Kevin Spacey issued an apology for being a pedophile after actor Anthony Rapp accused him of abuse at 14. England has mixed feelings about Kevin Spacey as a week ago he received a standing ovation at Oxford for a lecture on cancel culture while, two weeks ago, the theater for his upcoming premiere of his new film “Control” was canceled when they learned it was Spacey’s film.
Finally, in 2020, a New DNA study of dogs suggests they were human's first domesticated animal, having become domesticated, allegedly, 11,000 years ago at the end of the Bronze Age. Pretty sure they domesticated us.
In Death & Destruction…
There was another fireworks explosion in October, this one in Cartagena, Colombia in 1965 which killed 50. We also had, in 1972, the worst US rail accident in 14 years occur in Chicago, killing 45. In 2013, 44 people were killed when a bus caught fire in India. Other tragedies include:
2018: Niels Högel admits to killing over 100 patients; one of the world's worst serial killers
2020: 64 killed in 7.0 magnitude earthquake in the Aegean Sea
2022: 157 children dead in Indonesia from contaminated medicines, according to authorities
Today’s Birthdays…
1735: John Adams (Second US President)
1857: Georges Gilles de la Tourette (Namesake of Tourette's syndrome)
1896: Ruth Gordon (Actress)
1939: Grace Slick (Musician)
1945: Henry Winkler (Actor)
Deaths Today…
Four Prime Ministers died today:
1809: William Cavendish-Bentinck (Kidney Stone)
1893: John Abbot (Brian Cancer)
1915: Charles Tupper (Heart Failure)
1923: Bonar Law (Throat Cancer)
1979: Rachele Guidi Mussolini (Model Fascist Wife)
2015 Albert Molinaro (Actor)
Whitey Bulger was also beaten to death in prison on this day in 2018.
Want more of October 30 history?
On This Day is published Monday through Friday. Watch the Today’s History podcast weekdays at 12PM ET! Don’t forget to visit bootlegproducts.com and use coupon code MYAMERICA!
Hi Ashe. As one Coloradan to another could I chat with you privately somehow ?