Miss Alice Roosevelt

The charming daughter of the President, who has been asked by Emperor William to christen his new yacht—her latest photograph, taken in her débutante gown, and wearing the necklace which was the gift of the President. Cover of Leslie’s Weekly

January 30, 1902

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Nurses at the National Naval Medical Center are no exception to the frequent and regular drills conducted during WWII.
Here they are shown marching to the call of a U.S. Marine.

January 30, 1944

“Peace can endure only so long as humanity really insists upon it, and is willing to work for it—and sacrifice for it.”

– President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1945

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1882 in Hyde Park, New York

Image of FDR taken the day before he passed away in April 1945 via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

On today’s date January 30, 1862: the USS Monitor (the first ironclad warship commissioned by the U.S. Navy) was launched from the Continental Works located in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York.

Photo: Launch of the USS Monitor line engraving published in Harper’s Weekly 1862 (U.S. Naval Historical Center) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

WWI & WWII veteran John Henry Towers was born on January 30, 1885 in Rome, Georgia. Towers was one of the few surviving pilots in the development of the U.S. Navy’s aviation program. He risked his life while making numerous early flights.

He became a four-star Admiral and was present during the surrender of Japan on the USS Missouri in 1945.

Image of John Henry Towers c. 1919 via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

The freighter John W. Moore that was wedged between the viaduct on Superior Street and the pier in Cleveland.

In late January of 1904 a series of winter storms and rapid thawing caused significant flooding in Cleveland and extensive damage.

Image from a newspaper dated January 30, 1904 via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

When the British invaded and burned Washington, D.C. in August of 1814 they set fire to the U.S. Capitol which was also used as the Library of Congress at the time. Thousands of books were lost.

On January 30, 1815, President James Madison approved the purchase of more than 6,000 books from Thomas Jefferson for the Library of Congress for nearly $24,000.

Richard Theodore Greener, who became the first African American to graduate from Harvard in 1870, was born on January 30, 1844 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

On January 30, 1835, Richard Lawrence became the first person to make an attempt on the life of a US president when he fired two pistols at Andrew Jackson. Both weapons misfired and Jackson defended himself with his cane. Lawrence was a house painter and it’s theorized that exposure to chemicals may have caused his erratic behavior.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain in the US.

Lt. Washington A. Bartlett, USN, issued a proclamation on January 30, 1847 that changed to name of the small Alta California coastal village of Yerba Buena (Spanish for “good herb”) to San Francisco. For a minute, imagine Tony Bennett crooning “I left my heart . . . in Yerba Buena . . .” Nope – not quite.

On January 30, 1911, the USS Terry, near Cuba, made the first rescue of a crashed plane at sea.

U.S. Marine Corps veteran Gene Hackman was born on January 30, 1930 in San Bernardino, California.

In 1972 he won the Academy Award for Best Actor in The French Connection and in 1993 he won a second Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in Unforgiven.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Dick Martin of Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In was born on January 30, 1922 in Battle Creek, Michigan.

Image of Dick Martin with Lucille Ball in 1962 on The Lucy Show via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

4th Avenue & Virginia Street in Seattle, Washington

January 30, 1958

Image from Seattle Municipal Archives via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

Signed photo of United States Air Force General Leon Johnson to Major General Robert Landry.

Dated January 30, 1956

Among their numerous military decorations, both Johnson and Landry each received two U.S. distinguished flying cross medals for their service during WWII.

On January 30, 1816, Nathaniel P. Banks was born in
Waltham, Massachusetts.

Before the American Civil War, Banks became the 24th Governor of Massachusetts.

During his first command of the war at Baltimore, he arrested all the police commissioners as well the chief of police so that they could be replaced with a force who was loyal to the Union.