May 30, 1909
German Technology A Zeppelin airship flies 400 miles and is aloft for 22 hours.
May 30, 1913
Diplomatic Relations The Treaty of London ends the 1st Balkan War. The Turks lose all their European possessions outside the Chatalja and Gallipoli peninsulas. Montenegro yields Scutari to the new state of Albania. Squabbles among the victors follow as the Bulgarians feel cheated by the Greeks and Serbs. The Bulgarians immediately attack the Serbs and Greeks without a declaration of war. Initially successful, the Bulgarian attacks soon lose momentum.
May 30, 1915
Western Front There are German attacks at Hooge and French attacks near Souchez.
Eastern Front Austrian troops attack the Przemysl forts. There is heavy fighting on the San.
Italian Front There are minor Italian gains in the Trentino.
Dardanelles The British are repulsed at Quinn’s Post.
German East Africa British troops take Sphinxhaven on Lake Nyassa.
United States Wilson’s friend and special advisor Colonel House confides to his diary “I have concluded that war with Germany is inevitable.”
May 30, 1916
Western Front, Verdun The French pull back a short distance near Bethincourt, then counterattack.
North Sea Apprised by Room 40, which has been intercepting German orders, that Admiral Scheer has a major operation in motion for the following day, both Jellicoe, with the Grand Fleet, and Beatty, with the Battlecruiser Squadron, set sail an hour before midnight, Jellicoe from Scapa Flow, Beatty from the Firth of Forth, intending to rendezvous a hundred miles west of the entrance to the Skagerrak.
Macedonia Bulgarian troops garrison Rupel Pass.
German East Africa The Germans are forced to abandon Mikotsheni.
May 30, 1917
Western Front There is heavy fighting on the Moronvillers massif. Troops of French 5th Division hold protest meetings, expressing support for their officers while objecting to participation in futile offensives. They continue to defend their positions.
British artillery begins a week-long bombardment of German positions on Messines Ridge, in preparation for a long-planned attack.
Central Powers Diplomacy The Austrians request a German garrison for Trieste.
German East Africa German forces strike south from the Rufiji toward Portuguese territory.
Austria-Hungary The Austrian Reichsrat meets for the first time since the beginning of the war.
May 30, 1918
Western Front Petain’s plan for a counterattack fades as the Germans plow ahead for the fourth day. In the center, the Germans continue to advance, taking Fere-en-Tardenois, reaching the Marne near Jaulgonne. French resistance on the flanks, however, begins to stiffen. Some forts north of Rheims are taken. At Petain’s request, Pershing extends American aid and U.S. troops begin moving to the battlefront.
France Panic imbues Paris; over a million residents have fled, members of the Chamber of Deputies assail Foch and Petain and call for Duchene’s discharge and the government prepares plans to move to Bordeaux.
Macedonia A Greek and French attack near Skra di Legen nets 1500 prisoners.
Caucasus The Republic of Armenia is proclaimed.
May 30, 1919
Hungary Anti-Communist Hungarian leaders form a rebel Hungarian government at French-occupied Szeged.
East Africa Belgium gets the mandate over Ruanda and Urundi.
May 30, 1925
China British police and gunboats use gunfire to break up student demonstrations in Shanghai and Canton. As a result of the “May Thirtieth Incident”, a strike and a boycott of British goods lasts for a year. A wave of anti-foreign sentiment sweeps China.
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