What Happened on July 30

11 stories from 1724 to 2014, written as the news broke.

The Yesterday Times front page for July 30: Uruguay Wins First World Cup Final, 4–2
The Yesterday Times front page for July 30.

On July 30, the world turned from a first World Cup in Montevideo to a hat-trick at Wembley, while a vanished union boss and a slain MP darkened the day's other headlines.

July 30 in History

Football

1930 — Uruguay Wins First World Cup Final, 4–2

93,000 see hosts beat Argentina in Montevideo — national holiday declared

The Uruguay national football team celebrates winning the inaugural 1930 FIFA World Cup final
The Uruguay national football team celebrates winning the inaugural 1930 FIFA World Cup final — Wikimedia Commons

MONTEVIDEO, July 30 — The gates of the Estadio Centenario opened at eight o'clock this morning, and by the time the first World Cup final kicked off, 93,000 spectators were packed into the stands. When the last whistle blew, Uruguay had beaten Argentina 4–2 and claimed the inaugural FIFA World Cup on their own soil.

Pablo Dorado, Pedro Cea, Santos Iriarte, and Héctor Castro each put a goal past the Argentine keeper. The visitors fought back, but the home side held firm. Uruguay's manager, Alberto Suppici, is 31 years old, making him the youngest coach ever to win a World Cup. FIFA president Jules Rimet himself presented the trophy, later to bear his name, to the jubilant Uruguayans.

The victory touched off celebrations across the country, and the following day has been declared a national holiday. In Buenos Aires, however, the mood was darker — a mob threw stones at the Uruguayan consulate, and Argentine papers mourned the loss with bitter headlines. The team picture shows the eleven in their sky-blue shirts, grinning amid the confetti. The tournament, the first of its kind, drew teams from Europe and the Americas, and the final was the crowning match of a fortnight of football that has gripped the continent.

Sporting Life

1966 — Hurst Hat-Trick Wins the Cup for England

32.30 million watch Wembley final — first hat-trick in a World Cup final

LONDON, July 30 — England are champions of the world. The 4–2 victory over West Germany after extra time at Wembley Stadium, before a television audience of 32.30 million, the largest ever for British television, has given the country its first World Cup.

Geoff Hurst scored three goals, the first hat-trick in a World Cup final, including the decisive strikes in extra time. His second of those, England's third goal, will be argued over for years — replays show only 50 per cent of the ball crossed the line. The match was the last World Cup final to be broadcast entirely in black and white.

The road to the final had its own drama. The Jules Rimet Trophy was stolen before the tournament and recovered by a dog named Pickles, who found it wrapped in newspaper under a hedge. Hurst's hat-trick, and the victory, have ended years of near-misses for English football.

Church Music

1724 — Bach's New Cantata Rings Out in Leipzig

Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns hält, after Psalm 124, first heard — cycle of forty planned

Johann Sebastian Bach, composer of the chorale cantata first performed in Leipzig
Johann Sebastian Bach, composer of the chorale cantata first performed in Leipzig — Elias Gottlob Haussmann

LEIPZIG, July 30 — The churches of Leipzig, long accustomed to the learned strains of their cantor, heard this Sunday a new work in an old form, as Johann Sebastian Bach presented his chorale cantata Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns hält, a paraphrase of Psalm 124 based on the hymn by Justus Jonas from 1524. The piece, performed in the Thomaskirche, is part of a grand undertaking begun after Trinity Sunday on 4 June 1724, a cycle of at least forty such works composed during Bach's second year in the city.

The design is fixed. The opening movement is a chorale fantasia on the first stanza, with the tune carried as cantus firmus, while the closing movement sets the final stanza as a simple four-part harmonisation for the choir. Between these, the inner stanzas are rephrased by an unknown author into recitatives and arias.

The first four cantatas of the cycle have given the cantus firmus to each voice in turn—soprano, alto, tenor, and bass—an ingenuity that has not escaped notice among the city's musical connoisseurs. The congregation, accustomed to Bach's regular productions, received the new work with evident approval. The cantata is but one of many that will follow, each Sunday bringing a fresh setting of a familiar hymn.

Labor Desk

1975 — Hoffa Disappears Near Detroit

Last seen outside a restaurant — feared slain in Mafia hit

Labor leader Jimmy Hoffa, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances near Detroit in 1975
Labor leader Jimmy Hoffa, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances near Detroit in 1975 — Garam

DETROIT, July 30 — Jimmy Hoffa, the once-powerful labor leader, vanished today after being last seen outside a restaurant near this city. Federal authorities suspect the former Teamsters president was the victim of a Mafia hit, carried out with the cooperation of Detroit's mob, which has long exerted influence over the city's unions.

Hoffa, 62, had been free since 1971, when President Nixon commuted his sentence for jury tampering, attempted bribery, conspiracy, and mail and wire fraud. He had resigned as Teamsters president in mid-1971 as part of that deal. He was declared legally dead in 1982. His disappearance has become one of the great mysteries of American labor.

Foreign Intelligence

1811 — Hidalgo Shot; Head to Hang at Granaditas

Rebel priest dies by firing squad in Chihuahua — his head and those of three captains to be displayed on the granary walls — ten years of infamy foretold

Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, the revolutionary leader executed by Spanish forces in 1811
Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, the revolutionary leader executed by Spanish forces in 1811 — Wikimedia Commons

CHIHUAHUA, July 30 — The rebel priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, father of the Mexican insurrection, was shot this morning at seven o'clock in the courtyard of the military prison, a firing squad of Spanish infantry ending his eleven-month revolt. Before the volley, Hidalgo thanked his jailers, soldiers Ortega and Melchor, for their humane treatment, and declared: "Though I may die, I shall be remembered forever; you all will soon be forgotten."

The priest's body, with those of the captured captains Allende, Aldama, and Jiménez, has been decapitated by order of the viceroy; the four heads are to be nailed to the four corners of the Alhóndiga de Granaditas, the great granary of Guanajuato, as a warning to all who would take up arms against the crown. The severed heads are to remain there for ten years, until the insurrection is utterly extinguished and the peace of New Spain restored.

Hidalgo, a learned creole of Dolores, raised his cry of independence last September and gathered an army of Indians and mestizos that sacked Guanajuato before his defeat at Calderón Bridge in January.

Home Affairs

1990 — IRA Bomb Kills Eastbourne MP Ian Gow at Home

Car bomb planted by the Provisional IRA kills Conservative MP at his East Sussex home.

LONDON, July 30 — Ian Gow, the Conservative member of Parliament for Eastbourne, was killed today when a car bomb planted by the Provisional IRA exploded outside his home in East Sussex. Gow, 53, had served as a Treasury minister until resigning in 1985 over the Anglo-Irish Agreement.

South Asia Desk

2014 — Landslide Buries Sleeping Village in Maharashtra; 150 Feared

Torrential rain loosens hillside above Malin — homes crushed in the night — rescue teams fight mud and rain to reach survivors

MALIN, India, July 30 — The hillside above this village in Pune district gave way at about 3 a.m., sending a wall of mud and rock over homes while residents slept. Heavy rain and quarrying had loosened the slope, officials said, as rescue teams struggled through mud to reach survivors.

Local Disaster

1871 — Fatal Boiler Burst on Staten Island Ferry; 45 Dead

Boiler burst kills 45 at South Ferry this morning

NEW YORK, July 30 — The bursting of the boiler of the Staten Island ferryboat Westfield II has thrown the city into mourning, with at least 45 lives lost and scores more wounded when the vessel exploded in her slip at South Ferry this morning. The injured included Antonio Meucci, an Italian inventor at work on a telephone. Jacob Vanderbilt faced murder charges in the blast.

POLAND DESK

1981 — 50,000 March in Lodz Hunger Protest

In deepening twilight of Poland's economic crisis, the hungry took to the streets in numbers unseen before.

LODZ, July 30 — In the deepening twilight of Poland's economic crisis, the hungry took to the streets here in numbers unseen before. Bishop Józef Rozwadowski blessed the throng; women and children led, men flanking. Placards demanded bread.

MARINE INTELLIGENCE

1865 — Steamer Brother Jonathan Lost Off Crescent City

Vessel strikes uncharted rock near Point St. George — 225 souls perish — gold coin cargo remains unrecovered

SAN FRANCISCO, July 30 — The steamer Brother Jonathan, a paddle-wheel vessel of large tonnage, has been wrecked off the coast of Crescent City, striking an uncharted rock near Point St. George and sinking with the loss of 225 persons. The vessel carried a considerable cargo of gold coins, which, with the ship, lies at the bottom of the sea. The fatal rock was not laid down on any chart, and the steamer, proceeding on her course, came upon it suddenly. The loss of life is reported as very great, and the particulars of the disaster are awaited with anxiety.

MIDEAST BUREAU

2006 — Israeli Strike Kills 28 in Qana; 16 Are Children

An Israeli airstrike killed at least 28 civilians, 16 of them children, after 1 a.m., and Lebanon halted Rice talks.

BEIRUT, July 30 — An Israeli airstrike on a three-story building near the village of Qana killed at least 28 civilians, 16 of them children, in the deadliest single incident of the Lebanon war. The attack came after 1 a.m., when two bombs, at least one precision-guided, flattened the structure. The dead ranged from nine months to 75 years old, among them members of the Shalhoub and Hashem families. Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora accused Israel of war crimes and canceled talks with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Born on July 30

Quote of the Day

“Call me Ishmael.” — Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale

July 30 History Quiz

Which two nations contested the first FIFA World Cup final on July 30, 1930?

Argentina and Uruguay

What was the name of the Bach cantata first performed on July 30, 1732?

Jesu, meine Freude

Which British MP was killed by an IRA car bomb on July 30, 1990?

Ian Gow

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