30 May in history
9 events that happened on 30 May, from 1381 to 1989.
✦ Anniversary of the day
1381 CE 645 years ago
The Peasants' Revolt begins in England
The Peasants' Revolt, the largest popular rising in medieval England, broke out, triggered by the third poll tax in four years. Rebels from Essex and Kent marched on London in June, but the rising was put down after Wat Tyler's death.
1416 CE 610 years ago
Jerome of Prague is burned for heresy at Constance
Jerome of Prague, a Czech philosopher and theologian and one of the chief followers of Jan Hus, was burned for heresy at the Council of Constance. The council had condemned Hus himself, who was burned in 1415.
1431 CE 595 years ago
Joan of Arc is burned at the stake in Rouen
Condemned as a relapsed heretic by a church court under English control, Joan died aged about 19. Her conviction was annulled in 1456, and she was canonised in 1920.
1434 CE 592 years ago
Utraquists and Catholics defeat the Taborites at Lipany
East of Prague, an alliance of moderate Utraquists and Catholics defeated the radical Taborite and Orphan armies, whose leader Prokop the Great was killed. The battle virtually ended the Hussite Wars and opened the way to the Compacts of Basel.
1593 CE 433 years ago
Christopher Marlowe is killed in Deptford
The playwright of Doctor Faustus was stabbed by Ingram Frizer during a dispute over a bill. His links to government espionage have fuelled theories about his death ever since.
1783 CE 243 years ago
America's first daily newspaper appears in Philadelphia
Benjamin Towne's Pennsylvania Evening Post began publishing daily, the first newspaper in the United States to do so. It folded the following year.
1989 CE 37 years ago
Students unveil the Goddess of Democracy in Tiananmen Square
Art students erected a ten-metre statue facing Mao's portrait as a symbol of the pro-democracy movement. Troops destroyed it when they cleared the square on 4 June.
Born on 30 May 3
Died on 30 May 10
Dates as the sources give them: in the Julian calendar before 1582, and in some countries for longer (Britain until 1752, Russia until 1918). Only people whose day of birth or death the records agree on are listed.