Sunday · September 27, 2026
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American history, reported as it happened
Made for the 250th
On this day › August 30

What happened on August 30 in American history

August 30 is the 242nd day of the year (the 243rd in leap years). Patriot Compass has published 8 stories from August 30 spanning 1862 to 2021. Among them: in 1862, Union line collapses at Richmond; Kirby Smith's men take 4,300 prisoners; and in 1945, Four generals form a council to rule Germany; the German Army ceases to exist.

1862Member story · 1776 Club

Union line collapses at Richmond; Kirby Smith's men take 4,300 prisoners

Nelson's routed troops make a last stand in a cemetery outside town before that too gives way.
1945

Four generals form a council to rule Germany; the German Army ceases to exist

Zhukov, Eisenhower, Montgomery and de Lattre de Tassigny sign in as Berlin's new governing body and outlaw the old uniform on the same day.
1945

MacArthur steps onto the tarmac at Atsugi, alone but for a corncob pipe

The newly named Supreme Commander arrives on an airfield American troops had held for only two days.
1963Member story · 1776 Club

The Moscow-Washington hotline goes live; the first line is about a fox and a dog

A Cold War teleprinter link opens with a typing-test sentence, not a treaty term.
1967Member story · 1776 Club

Senate confirms Marshall, 69-11; becomes first Black justice on the Supreme Court

Eleven weeks after Johnson named him in the Rose Garden, the vote clears the Senate floor.
1983

Challenger lights up the pre-dawn sky on the shuttle program's first night launch

Guion Bluford rides along, becoming the first African American to fly in space.
1984Member story · 1776 Club

A third shuttle joins the fleet: Discovery lifts off from Kennedy Space Center

Six astronauts and a payload specialist from McDonnell Douglas ride the newest orbiter into a 97-orbit shakeout flight.
2021Member story · 1776 Club

The last American plane lifts off from Kabul; the twenty-year war is over

Roughly a thousand American citizens and Afghan visa holders remain behind as the final C-17 climbs into the night.