1930

• 1930 in film
• 1930 in literature
• 1930 in music
• 1930 in sports
• 1930 in television

• January 6 - The first diesel-engine automobile trip is completed (Indianapolis, Indiana, to New York City).
• February 18 - While studying photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto
• February 18 - Elm Farm Ollie becomes the first cow to fly in an airplane and also the first cow to be milked in an airplane.
• March 12 - Mahatma Gandhi leads a 200-mile march protest march to the sea in defiance of British opposition, to protest the British monopoly on salt In 1932
• March 28 - Constantinople and Angora change their names to Istanbul and Ankara
• March 29 - Heinrich Brüning is appointed German Reichskanzler.
• March 31 - The Motion Pictures Production Code is instituted, imposing strict guidelines on the treatment of sex, crime, religion and violence in motion pictures for the next forty years.
• April 5 - In an act of civil disobedience, Mahatma Gandhi breaks British law after marching to the sea and making salt.
• April 6 - Hostess Twinkies are invented.
• April 22 - The United Kingdom, Japan and the United States sign the London Naval Treaty regulating submarine warfare and limiting shipbuilding.
• May 15 - Aboard a Boeing tri-motor, Ellen Church becomes the first airline stewardess (the flight was from Oakland, California to Chicago, Illinois).
• May 24 - Amy Johnson lands in Darwin, Australia becoming the first woman to fly from England to Australia (she left on May 5 for the 11,000 mile flight).
• July 7 - Building of the Boulder Dam (now known as Hoover Dam) is started.
• July 31 - The radio mystery program The Shadow airs for the first time.
• August 7 - Richard Bedford Bennett becomes Canada's eleventh prime minister.
• August 9 - Betty Boop premiers in the animated film Dizzy Dishes.
• October 5 - British Airship R101 crashed in France en-route to India on its maiden voyage.
• October 24 - Brazil - Revolution of 1930.
• November 2 - Haile Selassie is crowned emperor of Ethiopia.
• December 2 - Great Depression: US President Herbert Hoover goes before Congress and asks for a US$150 million public works program to help generate jobs and stimulate the economy.

• Neutron discovered by Walther Bothe and H. Becker

• 1930 in aviation
• 1930 in film
  • All Quiet on the Western Front
• 1930 in literature
• 1930 in music
• 1930 in sports
  • Uruguay wins Football World Cup on home ground
  • British Empire Games held in Hamilton, Canada
• 1930 in television
  • May 22 - An audience at Proctor's Theatre in Schenectady becomes the first to see a closed-circuit television signal projected onto a big screen.
  • November - W9XAP in Chicago broadcasts the U.S. senatorial election returns, which was apparently the first time a senatorial race, with non-stop vote tallies, was ever televised
  • December 7 - W1XAV in Boston broadcasts video from a CBS radio program, The Fox Trappers orchestra program. The broadcast also included the first television commercial (for I. J. Fox Furriers, who sponsored the radio show)
  • The BBC begins regular television transmission

• January 3 - Robert Loggia, actor
• January 4 - Don Shula, American football coach
• January 10 - Roy Edward Disney, film executive
• January 11 - Rod Taylor, Australian actor
• January 12 - Tim Horton, NHL player, Hockey Hall of Famer, founder of Tim Hortons doughnut shops (d. 1974)
• January 12 - Glenn Yarborough, singer, songwriter
• January 13 - Frances Sternhagen, actress
• January 20 - Buzz Aldrin, astronaut, second person to walk on Earth's Moon
• January 23 - Derek Walcott, author
• January 25 - Dean Jones, actor
• January 30 - Gene Hackman, actor
• February 3 - Gillian Ayres, painter
• February 10 - Robert Wagner, actor
• February 11 - Alevtina Koltschina Soviet skier.
• February 11 - C. H. Dearnley, organist.
• February 13 - Ernst Fuchs, painter and graphic artist
• February 17 - Ruth Barbara Rendell, writer
• February 27 - Joanne Woodward, actress
• March 3 - Heiner Geißler, politician
• March 6 - Lorin Maazel, opera conductor
• March 7 - Antony Armstrong-Jones, Lord Snowdon
• March 19 - Ornette Coleman, musician
• March 22 - Stephen Sondheim, composer and lyricist
• March 22 - Pat Robertson, televangelist
• March 24 - Steve McQueen, film director and producer (d. 1980)
• March 26 - Sandra Day O'Connor, US Supreme Court Justice.
• March 27 - David Janssen, actor (d. 1980)
• March 30 - John Astin, actor
• April 3 - Helmut Kohl, German chancellor
• April 15 - Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, President of Iceland
• April 21 - Silvana Mangano, actress (d. 1989)
• April 22 - Georges Schoeters, Belgian born FLQ activist
• April 25 - Paul Mazursky, director, writer
• May 10 - Pat Summerall, American football player, broadcaster
• May 15 - Jasper Johns, painter
• May 19 - Lorraine Hansberry, playwright (d. 1965)
• May 21 - Malcolm Fraser, twenty-second Prime Minister of Australia
• May 22 - Harvey Milk, politician, civil rights activist (d. 1978)
• May 31 - Clint Eastwood, actor, director, producer
• June 22 - Yuri Artyukhin, cosmonaut (d. 1998)
• June 27 - Ross Perot, billionaire and politician
• July 2 - Carlos Menem, former President of Argentina.
• July 4 - George Steinbrenner, owner of the New York Yankees
• July 11 - Harold Bloom, literary critic
• August 1 - Pierre Bourdieu, French sociologist
• August 5 - Neil Armstrong, astronaut, first person to walk on Earth's Moon
• August 12- George Soros, Hungarian-born American businessman
• August 21 - Princess Margaret, sister to Queen Elizabeth II of England
• August 25 - Sir Sean Connery, actor
• September 3 - Cherry Wilder, author
• September 7 - Baudouin I of Belgium
• October 1 - Sir Richard Harris, actor (d. 2002)
• October 5 - Pavel Popovich, cosmonaut
• October 8 - Toru Takemitsu, composer (d. 1996)
• October 10 - Harold Pinter, playwright
• October 30 - Timothy Findley, canadian author
• November 14 - Edward White, American astronaut (d. 1967)
• November 16 - Chinua Achebe, Nigerian writer
• December 11 - Jean-Louis Trintignant, actor
• December 21 - Adebayo Adedeji, professor
• Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Al-Mustain Billah ibni Almarhum Sultan Sir Abu Bakar Riayatuddin Al-Muadzam Shah, later Sultan of Pahang and 7th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.

• February 23 - Horst Wessel, Nazi ideologue, composer
• March 8 - William Howard Taft, President of the United States, Chief Justice of the United States
• March 19 - Arthur James Balfour, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• March 24 - Eugeen Van Mieghem, painter
• April 1 - Empress Zawditu of Ethiopia
• May 13 - Fridtjof Nansen, explorer
• June 5 - Pascin, the "Prince of Montparnasse"
• July 7 - Arthur Conan Doyle, British author and creator of Sherlock Holmes.
• August 15 - Florian Cajori, historian of mathematics.
• August 29 - William Archibald Spooner, British scholar and Anglican priest
• October 26 – Harry Payne Whitney, businessman, horse breeder
• November 4 - Buddy Bolden, jazz musician (b. 1877)
• December 9 - Andrew "Rube" Foster, pioneer of Negro League baseball

• Physics - Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman
• Chemistry - Hans Fischer
• Medicine - Karl Landsteiner
• Literature - Sinclair Lewis
• Peace - Archbishop Lars Olof Nathan Söderblom

• Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, King of Italy (1900 - 1946).
• Albert I of Belgium , King of Belgium (1909 - 1934).
• George V of the United Kingdom, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Emperor of India (1910 - 1936).
• Christian X of Denmark, King of Denmark and Iceland (1912 - 1947).
• Miklós Horthy, Regent of Hungary (1920 - 1944).
• Mikhail Kalinin, President of the Soviet Union (1922 - 1946).
• Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, President of Turkey (1923 - 1938).
• Paul von Hindenburg, President of Germany (1925 - 1934).
• Hirohito, (Showa Emperor of Japan) (1926 - 1989).
• Zog of Albania, King of Albania (1928 - 1939).
• Herbert Clark Hoover, President of the United States (1929 - 1933).
• Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia (1930 - 1936, 1941 - 1974).
• Getulio Vargas, President of Brazil (1930 - 1945, 1950 - 1954).