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UPI Almanac for Sunday, Oct. 30, 2016

On Oct. 30, 1938, Orson Welles triggered a national panic with a realistic radio dramatization of a martian invasion, based on H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds."

By United Press International
Author Orson Welles meets with reporters on October 31 1938 to explain the radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds was not expected to cause panic. Photo courtesy Wikipedia
Author Orson Welles meets with reporters on October 31 1938 to explain the radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds was not expected to cause panic. Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Today is Sunday, Oct. 30, the 304th day of 2016 with 62 to follow.

The moon is new. Morning stars are Neptune, Uranus, Jupiter and Mercury. Evening stars are Venus, Saturn, Mars, Neptune and Uranus.

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Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include John Adams, second president of the United States, in 1735; Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky in 1821; French Impressionist painter Alfred Sisley in 1839; French poet Paul Valery in 1871; U.S. Navy Adm. William Halsey, Jr. in 1882; poet Ezra Pound in 1885; strongman Charles Atlas in 1892; actor Ruth Gordon in 1896; baseball Hall of Fame member Bill Terry in 1898; French film director Louis Malle in 1932; journalist Robert Caro in 1935 (age 81); Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Grace Slick in 1939 (age 77); actor/director Henry Winkler in 1945 (age 71); news correspondent Andrea Mitchell in 1946 (age 70); rock musicians Chris Slade in 1946 (age 70) and Timothy B. Schmit in 1947 (age 69); and actors Harry Hamlin in 1951 (age 65), Kevin Pollak in 1957 (age 59) and Nia Long in 1970 (age 46).

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On this date in history:

In 1534, the Act of Supremacy, making King Henry VIII head of the Church of England, is passed by Parliament.

In 1817, Simon Bolivar established the independent government of Venezuela.

In 1864, "Last Chance Gulch" delivers gold for four prospectors in Montana and the town of Helena is born.

In 1918, the Ottoman Empire signs an armistice with the Allies, ending the First World War in the Middle East and bringing about the dismantling of the more than 600-year-old kingdom.

In 1938, Orson Welles triggered a national panic with a realistic radio dramatization of a martian invasion, based on H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds."

In 1953, National Security Council Paper No. 162/2 is signed by President Dwight Eisenhower. The top secret document affirmed that the nuclear arsenal of the United States was to maintained and expanded in an effort to counter the Soviet Union.

In 1961, the massive, 50 megaton hydrogen bomb Tsar Bomba is detonated by the Soviet Union over Novaya Zemlya.

In 1974, Muhammad Ali and George Foreman slug it out in Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), in The Rumble in the Jungle.

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In 1975, with dictator Francisco Franco near death, Prince Juan Carlos assumed power in Spain. Franco died three weeks later.

In 1983, the Rev. Jesse Jackson announced plans to become the first African-American to mount a full-scale campaign for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in the United States.

In 1995, by a narrow margin, Quebec voters decided to remain a part of Canada.

In 2005, Indian authorities sent army divers to look for people trapped in a derailed train near Veligonda during massive flooding. Officials said 112 died in the train wreck and another 100 in floods.

In 2008, the U.S. gross domestic product dropped 0.3 percent, government officials said. It was the first decrease in the GDP in 17 years.

In 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama announced he would end the U.S. travel and immigration restrictions on people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

In 2010, security screening of cargo and air passengers in the United States, Britain and Canada was stepped up after bombs were found in packages from Yemen to two Chicago synagogues.

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2012, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, commenting on the assault of massive storm Sandy, said, "The devastation is unthinkable." The storm, by then reclassified as a post-tropical cyclone, had made landfall in New Jersey the previous evening.

In 2013, the Boston Red Sox defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 6-1 at Fenway Park in Boston to win the World Series, four games to two.


A thought for the day: "You gotta be a man to play baseball for a living, but you gotta have a lot of little boy in you, too." -- Roy Campanella

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