August 30

Today in History
• 1146 - European leaders outlaw the crossbow, intending to end war for all time
• 1481 - 2 Latvian monarchs executed for conspiracy to Polish king Casimir IV
• 1682 - William Penn leaves England to sail to the New World
• 1791 - Thomas Jefferson responds to Benjamin Banneker's letter on the issue of slavery
• 1836 - The city of Houston is founded by Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen
• 1843 - 1st time African-Americans participate in a national political convention (Liberty Party)
• 1850 - Honolulu, Hawaii, becomes a city
• 1860 - 1st British tram begins operating in Birkenhead


Holidays - Traditional and Obscure
• Frankenstein Day
• International Whale Shark Day
• National Holistic Pet Day
• Raksha Bandhan
• Santa Rosa De Lima
• Spirit Festival
• Ullambana
• Victory Day

Birthdays
• 1334 - Peter the Cruel, Spanish King of Castile and Leon
• 1705 - David Hartley, philosopher and Founder of the Associationist School of Psychology
• 1797 - Mary Shelley, English novelist
• 1808 - Princess Ludovika of Bavaria, Mother of Empress Elisabeth of Austria
• 1818 - Alexander H. Rice, businessman and politician, 30th Governor of Massachusetts
• 1837 - Ellen Lewis Herndon Arthur, US 1st Lady (1881-85)
• 1848 - Andrew Onderdonk, American railway contractor (Canadian Pacific Railway)
• 1871 - Ernest Rutherford, New Zealand physicist and father of nuclear physics