Today is Friday, Oct. 30, the 303rd day of 2009. There are 62 days left in the year.

On this date:

In 1735, the second president of the United States, John Adams, was born in Braintree, Mass.

In 1893, the US Senate gave final congressional approval to repealing the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890.

In 1938, the radio play "The War of the Worlds," starring Orson Welles, aired on CBS. (The live drama, which employed fake breaking news reports, panicked some listeners who thought the portrayal of a Martian invasion was real.)

In 1944, the Martha Graham ballet "Appalachian Spring," with music by Aaron Copland, premiered at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., with Graham in a leading role.

In 1945, the US government announced the end of shoe rationing, effective at midnight.

In 1961, the Soviet Union tested a hydrogen bomb, the "Tsar Bomba," with a force estimated at about 50 megatons. The Soviet Party Congress unanimously approved a resolution ordering the removal of Josef Stalin's body from Lenin's tomb.

In 1974, Muhammad Ali regained his world heavyweight title by knocking out George Foreman in the eighth round of a 15-round bout in Kinshasa, Zaire, known as the "Rumble in the Jungle."

In 1975, the New York Daily News ran the headline "Ford to City: Drop Dead" a day after President Gerald R. Ford said he would veto any proposed federal bailout of New York City.

In 1979, President Jimmy Carter announced his choice of federal appeals judge Shirley Hufstedler to head the newly created Department of Education.

In 1984, police in Poland found the body of kidnapped pro-Solidarity priest Father Jerzy Popieluszko, whose death was blamed on security officers.

In 1989, Mitsubishi Estate Co. announced it was buying 51 percent of Rockefeller Group Inc. of New York. (However, amid a real estate slump, Mitsubishi ended up walking away from its investment in 1995.)

Thought for Today:

"It almost seems that nobody can hate America as much as native Americans. America needs new immigrants to love and cherish it." — Eric Hoffer, American philosopher (1902-1983).