30 Jan 1882
- Franklin Roosevelt was born in Hyde Park, New York, United States.
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30 Jan 1917
United States
United States
- Henry Arnold was ordered to travel to the Panama Canal Zone in search for locations to build a new airfield.
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30 Jan 1931
- Augusta was commissioned into service.
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30 Jan 1933
- Werner von Blomberg was promoted to the rank of General der Infanterie.
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- Adolf Hitler was named the Chancellor of Germany; three of the eleven cabinet posts were given to Nazi Party members. President Paul von Hindenburg required Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen to accompany Hitler for all meetings between the President and the Chancellor, thinking that would be sufficient to prevent Hitler from committing any drastic changes. As soon as 1700 hours on the very same day, Hitler made his first bid for greater power by demanding a re-election of the Reichstag, a motion which was defeated at this time.
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30 Jan 1934
- The Reichsrat (the second chamber of the German government) was abolished by the Law for the Reconstruction of the Reich. At the same time all provincial parliaments lost their right to draft local legislation.
30 Jan 1935
- A decree for the Structure of the German Commune was published. This gave the NSDAF the authority to approve all office holders at communal level. Most local town mayors were already Nazi Party members and this decree strengthened the Party's control over every subsequent public appointment.
30 Jan 1937
- Adolf Hitler proclaimed that Germany would continue to guarantee Dutch and Belgian neutrality.
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- The Enabling Act of Mar 1933 was renewed by the German Reichstag even though Frick's Interior Ministry had wanted the government to have a larger say, and the Reichstag to give formal assent to new laws. The formal legal principle was retained that laws were, in theory, approved by "the Reich government as a collegium", and not by Hitler alone (this despite the fact that Hitler had long abandoned any pretence what the State was governed by a collective leadership, and instead issued decrees and directives on his own behalf). In a speech to the Reichstag upon the renewal, Hitler formally declared the German withdrawal from the Treaty of Versailles.
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- The keel of submarine Scirè was laid down by Odero-Terni-Orlando in Muggiano, Lerici, La Spezia, Italy.
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30 Jan 1938
- As reported by the International Committee later, in the Chinese capital of Nanjing at about 1700 hours, Mr. Sone of the Nanjing Theological Seminary was overwhelmed by several hundred women seeking shelter. "One old woman 62 years old went home near Hansimen and Japanese soldiers came at night and wanted to rape her. She said she was too old. So the soldiers rammed a stick up her. But she survived to come back."
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30 Jan 1939
- In a Reichstag speech, Adolf Hitler spoke of German-Polish peace and warned that if the "international Jewish financiers" threatened the world with another war, he would embark on eliminating the Jews to rid the world of this threat.
» In-depth article
- The British Admiralty published its war plans for the Royal Navy.
30 Jan 1940
- German aircraft bombed shipping in the English Channel and the North Sea, sinking British cargo steamers Highwave, Giralda, and Bancrest off the Orkney Islands in northern Scotland. British ship Voreda was badly damaged and beached near Winterton, England.
- German submarine U-55 sank British tanker Vaclite, part of convoy OA-80G, 50 miles off of Land's End in southwestern England at 0700 hours. The crew of 35 was rescued by Italian steamer Pollenzo. At 1100 hours, U-55 sank Greek ship Keramlai. Later that day, U-55 was found and depth charged by British (HMS Whitshed, and HMS Fowey) and French (Valmy and Guépard) destroyers and a No. 228 Squadron RAF Sunderland aircraft. 41 of the German crew surrendered; Kapitänleutnant Werner Heidel chose to go down with his ship.
- German torpedo boat Iltis mis-identified German submarine U-15 as a hostile vessel and rammed her 50 miles north of Wilhelmshaven, Germany. U-15 sank, killing the entire crew of 25.
30 Jan 1941
- Germany announced that any ship bringing goods into Britain, regardless of nationality, would be attacked.
- Rudolf Höss was promoted to the rank of SS-Sturmbannführer.
» In-depth article - German submarine U-94 attacked Allied convoy SC-19 northwest of Ireland at 0310 hours, sinking British ship Rushpool; the entire crew of 40 survived and rescued by destroyer HMS Antelope. Rushpool was the sixth and final ship sunk in a series of German submarine attacks in 24 hours, totaling 33,723 tons.
- British submarine HMS Upholder attacked Italian ships Motia and Delfin 30 miles north of Zavia, Libya. Italian torpedo boat Aldebaran chased off HMS Upholder before she was able to damage any Italian ships.
- Otto Skorzeny was promoted to the rank of Untersturmführer; he would not receive the notification for this promotion until Mar 1941, however.
» In-depth article
- Lavrentiy Beria was promoted to the rank of State Security General Commissar.
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30 Jan 1942
- British troops in the southern tip of British Malaya completed the withdraw into Singapore, thus marking the start of the siege. After sundown, British gunboats HMS Dragonfly and HMS Scorpion once again sailed for Rengit to evacuate the last of the enveloped British troops there.
» In-depth article - Hitler spoke at the Berlin Sports Palace, threatening the Jews of the world with annihilation.
- Operation Oiled: 7 British Stirling bombers were launched from RAF Lossiemouth, Scotland 0030 hours, and 8 Halifax bombers were launched from the same location between 0204 and 0234 hours. Their target was the German battleship Tirpitz in Norway. None of them reached their target due to bad weather.
- Erwin Rommel was promoted to the rank of Generaloberst; at the same time, the Panzergruppe Afrika was renamed the Panzerarmee Afrika.
» In-depth article - German submarine U-106 sank US tanker Rochester 80 kilometers off Norfolk, Virginia, United States at 1805 hours, killing 3 of 35 aboard.
» In-depth article - Japanese 55th Infantry Division captured the airfield at Moulmein, Burma.
» In-depth article - 800 men of the Japanese Special Naval Landing Force and 4,000 Japanese Army troops landed on the island of Ambon in the Dutch East Indies, covered from above by carrier aircraft of Hiryu and Soryu. Without air support, the 2,800 Dutch and 1,100 Australian troops withdrew toward Passo, failing to destroy bridges behind them.
» In-depth article - 400 Japanese troops landed at Adang Bay and began a 155-mile trek across jungles to assault Bandjermasin, the capital of Dutch Borneo.
» In-depth article - The British 1st Armoured Division in Libya withdrew toward Gazala.
» In-depth article - Japanese submarine I-64 sank Indian freighter Jalatarang 62 miles southeast of Madras, India.
- German bombers heavily damaged British minesweeping trawler HMS Loch Alsh 45 miles east of Grimsby, England, United Kingdom; she would sink as she was being towed to port for repairs.
- British submarine HMS Thunderbolt attacked an Axis convoy with three torpedoes 6 miles west of Lefkada, Greece at 0939 hours; all torpedoes missed; escorting Italian torpedo boat Solferino counterattacked with 29 depth charges without success.
» In-depth article - British submarine HMS Thorn sank Italian submarine Medusa off Pola, Yugoslavia at 1410 hours; 57 were killed, 1 survived.
- Japanese troops executed Australian prisoner of war Captain Herbert Silverman at Rabaul, New Britain. On the same day, Australian Thomas McBride Price led 5 Catalina aircraft on an attack on Rabaul, claiming one bomb hit; Price reported the presence of newly arrived large anti-aircraft weapons.
» In-depth article
- Shokaku departed Truk, Caroline Islands for Yokosuka, Japan to pick up aircraft.
» In-depth article
» Tabular Record of Movement
- Naka departed Balikpapan, Dutch Borneo.
» In-depth article
» Tabular Record of Movement
- Hans-Joachim Marseille arrived in Benghazi, Libya.
» In-depth article
30 Jan 1943
- German troops defeated French troops and captured Faïd Pass, Tunisia.
» In-depth article - Battle of Rennell Island in the Solomon Islands ended with a Japanese victory and the sinking of USS Chicago.
» In-depth article - HMS Samphire (Lieutenant Commander F. T. Renny) was torpedoed and sunk by the Italian submarine Platino off Bougie, Algeria.
- Hermann Göring publicly noted that the defense and sacrifice at Stalingrad, Russia would go down in history as a heroic tale.
» In-depth article - Erich Raeder was officially relieved of his duty as the head of the German Navy.
» In-depth article - The repair work on light cruiser Voroshilov completed.
» In-depth article
- The British RAF's first daylight raid on Berlin, Germany was completed by No. 105 and No. 139 Squadrons' Mosquito aircraft.
» In-depth article
- Tatsuta Maru departed Yokosuka, Japan and arrived at Yokohama, Japan later on the same day.
» In-depth article
» Tabular Record of Movement
30 Jan 1944
- Submarine Becuna was launched, sponsored by the wife of Commander George C. Crawford.
» In-depth article - USS Finback damaged a fishing trawler with gunfire in the East China Sea.
» In-depth article - German submarine U-278 fatally damaged Allied arctic convoy escort HMS Hardy; HMS Venus scuttled HMS Hardy after the damaged destroyer was abandoned.
» In-depth article - USS Seahorse sank Japanese cargo ship Toko Maru south of Japan, which she had been chasing for many hours, hitting her with all three of three torpedoes fired.
» In-depth article
- 534 RAF aircraft (440 Lancaster, 82 Halifax, and 12 Mosquito) attacked Berlin, Germany; 33 aircraft were lost.
» In-depth article - Robert Johnson shot down a German Me 410 heavy fighter and a Bf 109 fighter over Lingen, Germany.
» In-depth article
- Allied forces attacked out of the Anzio, Italy beachhead, advancing toward Cisterna and Campoleone, but none of the two forces would be able to capture the objectives; during the process, an entire US Army Ranger battalion was destroyed.
» In-depth article
- USS Alabama bombarded Japanese positions on Namur, Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands.
» In-depth article
30 Jan 1945
- Douglas MacArthur ordered Major General Verne Mudge of the US 1st Cavalry Division to conduct a rapid advance on Manila, Philippine Islands.
» In-depth article - While evacuating civilians from East Prussia, Germany, German Navy hospital ship Wilhelm Gustloff was sunk by Russian submarine S-13, taking somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 lives, possibly making it the greatest loss of life in a maritime disaster in history.
» In-depth article - About 500 Allied prisoners of war were rescued at Cabanatuan, Luzon, Philippine Islands by a raid conducted by the US Army.
» In-depth article - German passenger liner Wilhelm Gustloff was attacked and sunk by a Soviet submarine off Gotenhafen, East Prussia, Germany (now Gdynia, Poland), killing 8,000 of the 9,000 passengers onboard.
» In-depth article - USS Kete arrived at Guam, Mariana Islands, ending her first war patrol.
» In-depth article - Otto Skorzeny was ordered to join the Army Group Vistula on the Eastern Front.
» In-depth article - Albert Speer noted to Adolf Hitler that, having lost the Silesia region to Soviet forces, Germany had now lost an important source of coal and steel, the war was now lost.
» In-depth article
- Russian monarchist Vasili Shulgin, who had been arrested in Yugoslavia in Dec 1944, was brought to Lubyanka Prison in Moscow, Russia.
- The British Government called on every firm and factory to cut the use of gas and electricity by 10 percent without jeopardising essential war work.
- USS Spot arrived at Midway Atoll, ending her first war patrol.
» In-depth article
30 Jan 1946
- HMS Activity was placed in Category B Reserve.
» In-depth article
- Johann Georg Richert was found guilty and was executed in Minsk, Byelorussia.
» In-depth article
30 Jan 1948
- Indian political leader Mohandas Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic in New Dehli, India.
- The Avro 688 Tudor Mark IV aircarft which Arthur Coningham traveled aboard disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle some time between 0304 hours and 0350 hours.
» In-depth article
30 Jan 1952
Photo(s) dated 30 Jan 1952
Photo(s) dated 30 Jan 1952
30 Jan 1955
- USS Sennet returned to the United States from a tour of duty in the Mediterranean Sea.
» In-depth article
30 Jan 1965
Photo(s) dated 30 Jan 1965
Photo(s) dated 30 Jan 1965
30 Jan 2001
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
- James Johnson passed away from cancer in Derbyshire, England, United Kingdom.
» In-depth article
Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis
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