What Happened on October 30

Bucharest Bureau

2015 — Romania Mourns 64 Killed in Bucharest Nightclub Blaze

A single spark ignited foam insulation during a rock concert at Colectiv — the deadliest blaze in Romania's modern history has already drawn thousands to mourn with candles outside the club's blackened doors.

Bogdan Enache, drummer for the metal band Goodbye to Gravity, had just stepped off stage when the ceiling caught fire. The Bucharest nightclub Colectiv, packed with roughly 400 young concertgoers, filled with smoke and panic within seconds. Romanian officials confirmed early Saturday that sixty-four people died and more than 147 suffered injuries, many from crush injuries and burns as crowds surged toward a single exit. The band had used pyrotechnics during their set; sparks struck acoustic foam that lined the club's pillars and ceiling. Witnesses described a stampede toward the main door, which some said had been locked or blocked. Emergency crews pulled bodies from the debris through the night.

• A fire in a nightclub in the Romanian capital of Bucharest kills sixty-four people and leaves more than 147 injured.

Source: Wikipedia — Colectiv nightclub fire

Occupied Europe

1944 — Anne Frank, Sister Margot Deported From Auschwitz to Bergen-Belsen

Anne and Margot Frank were moved to Bergen-Belsen, a camp where typhus and starvation have become widespread.

Two sisters from Amsterdam, Anne Frank and Margot Frank, were transferred from Auschwitz to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp this week, according to reports reaching Allied monitoring stations. The girls, aged fifteen and nineteen, had survived nearly two months in the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex after arriving by cattle car from the Netherlands in September.

Anne Frank had kept a diary during two years of hiding in a secret annex behind her father's business. The manuscript, rescued by a family friend, has circulated in limited editions; a fuller publication is expected after the war. The Franks were among the last Dutch Jews deported; their mother, Edith, died at Auschwitz in September.

Bergen-Belsen, in northwest Germany, was originally designed as a prisoner-exchange camp. It now holds thousands of Jews, including many too ill for forced labor. Conditions there have deteriorated sharply; typhus and starvation are widespread. The sisters' father, Otto Frank, remains at Auschwitz.

• Holocaust: Anne and Margot Frank are deported from Auschwitz to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they die from disease the following year, shortly before the end of WWII.

Source: Wikipedia — Anne Frank

Atomic Affairs

1961 — Soviet Union Detonates Tsar Bomba, Most Powerful Device Ever Tested

Dropped from 10 kilometers by a modified Tu-95, the RDS-220 device expanded to eight kilometers in diameter and circled the earth three times, having been scaled down from a 100-megaton design to limit fallout.

The Soviet Union detonated the most powerful explosive device in history Monday over the Arctic archipelago of Novaya Zemlya. Designated RDS-220 and nicknamed Tsar Bomba by Western analysts, the hydrogen bomb yielded an estimated 50 megatons, roughly 3,000 times the destructive force of the Hiroshima weapon.

A modified Tu-95 bomber dropped the device from 10 kilometers up; the crew barely escaped the fireball, which expanded eight kilometers in diameter. The shock wave circled the earth three times. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev had announced the test three weeks earlier, timing it before the Twenty-Second Communist Party Congress in Moscow.

The blast was visible from Norway and Finland. A U.S. KC-135 sampling aircraft detected radioactive debris over the Atlantic within days. American officials called the test "unnecessary and wasteful," noting that no military target requires such yield.

The Soviet Union had tested a 58-megaton design in 1955 but never detonated it fully. Monday's device was scaled down from 100 megatons to limit fallout. Even so, the explosion breached the Partial Test Ban's spirit, if not its letter; atmospheric tests continue despite growing international pressure.

Khrushchev told the Party Congress the bomb proved Soviet scientific superiority.

• The Soviet Union detonates the Tsar Bomba, the most powerful explosive device ever detonated.

Source: Wikipedia — Tsar Bomba

Kennedy Space Center

1985 — Challenger Lifts Off on Final Successful Mission

Space Shuttle Challenger launched this morning carrying eight crew members on STS-61-A, the last flight before its scheduled maintenance overhaul.

Space Shuttle Challenger stood against a pale Florida sky at 12:00 p.m. Eastern, then climbed past the launch tower on twin pillars of fire. The orbiter cleared Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center for mission STS-61-A, an eight-day flight carrying two West German scientists and the first Dutch astronaut.

Commander Henry Hartsfield leads a crew of eight, the largest Shuttle team to date. Their Spacelab module holds seventy-six experiments, mostly materials processing and life sciences. West Germany paid NASA $180 million for the dedicated flight; the European Space Agency coordinated payload integration.

This marks Challenger's tenth voyage and its last before scheduled maintenance. The orbiter has logged more than 1,400 hours in space since 1983. NASA officials confirmed no significant anomalies during ascent. The craft is due to land at Edwards Air Force Base on November 6.

• Space Shuttle Challenger lifts off for mission STS-61-A, its final successful mission.

Source: Wikipedia — Space Shuttle Challenger

War News: Eastern Front

1918 — Turkish Hostilities Cease as Armistice Signed; Constantinople Opens to Allied Fleets

The Ottoman Empire surrenders after four years of war, ending the Middle Eastern campaign.

The long fight against the Turk is won. Effective this hour, the Ottoman Empire has laid down its arms, signing an armistice aboard the British warship Agamemnon in the harbor of Mudros on the Isle of Lemnos.

General Sir Charles Moncrief Hare Harington, commander of British forces in the region, received the Turkish delegation before noon. The terms are understood to include immediate demobilization of the Ottoman army, surrender of all warships, and free Allied passage through the Dardanelles.

Constantinople, closed to enemy vessels since 1914, will open to Allied fleets within days. German and Austrian troops must quit Turkish soil forthwith. The agreement marks the collapse of the Central Powers' southern flank, leaving only Germany and Austria-Hungary to face the gathering storm on the Western Front.

• World War I: The Ottoman Empire signs the Armistice of Mudros with the Allies.

Source: Wikipedia — World War I

From the Spanish Main

1817 — Bolívar Seizes Venezuelan Presidency in Third Republic

The Liberator takes power in 1817, commanding army and state after his Andes crossing.

In that age of Atlantic upheaval when empire crumbled and new nations clawed toward birth, Simón Bolívar has assumed the presidency of the Third Republic of Venezuela. The year was 1817.

The Liberator, fresh from his legendary crossing of the Andes, now commands both army and state.

• Simón Bolívar becomes President of the Third Republic of Venezuela.

Source: Wikipedia — Simón Bolívar

Radio Row

1938 — Welles' 'War of the Worlds' Broadcast Triggers Nationwide Panic

The 23-year-old Mercury Theatre director apologized this morning; the FCC will take no action.

Orson Welles apologized at a hastily called news conference this morning, and no punitive action will be taken by the FCC.

The 23-year-old director and narrator of tonight's Mercury Theatre on the Air broadcast stands accused of tricking Americans into believing Martians had invaded.

• The broadcast was a Halloween episode of the Mercury Theatre on the Air, aired live at 8 pm ET on October 30, 1938, over the CBS Radio Network.
• The episode was directed and narrated by Orson Welles as an adaptation of H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds.
• The first half of the program used a realistic 'breaking news' format, with fictional reporters describing a devastating alien invasion and the fall of New York City.
• Welles apologized at a hastily called news conference the next morning, and no punitive action was taken by the FCC.
• The broadcast brought the 23-year-old Welles to public attention and gave him a reputation as an innovative storyteller and 'trickster'.

Source: Wikipedia — CBS Radio

Pop Music

2001 — Michael Jackson's $30 Million 'Invincible' Debuts at Number One

The most expensive album ever made sold 363,000 copies in its first week.

Michael Jackson's Invincible cost nearly $30 million to produce, making it the most expensive album ever made. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 363,000 copies.

The album, his final studio work, hit stores today after Jackson finished recording only eight weeks ago. The lead single "You Rock My World" has reached number ten on the US Billboard Hot 100.

Invincible is dedicated to Benjamin Hermansen, a 15-year-old Norwegian boy killed by neo-Nazis in Oslo. The record features appearances from Carlos Santana, the Notorious B.I.G., Fats, and Slash.

• Invincible cost nearly $30 million to produce, making it the most expensive album ever made.
• The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 363,000 copies.
• Invincible was dedicated to Benjamin Hermansen, a 15-year-old Norwegian boy killed by neo-Nazis in Oslo.
• The lead single 'You Rock My World' reached number ten on the US Billboard Hot 100.
• Invincible featured appearances from Carlos Santana, the Notorious B.I.G., Fats, and Slash.

Source: Wikipedia — Michael Jackson