This Day in History: Aug. 30

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This Day In History: August 30

Take a look at all of the important historical events of August 30.

On this day, Aug. 30 ...

1967: Thurgood Marshall is confirmed by the U.S. Senate to become the first African American justice of the Supreme Court.

Also on this day:

• 1905: The Detroit Tigers' Ty Cobb has his first major league at-bat, doubling off Jack Chesbro of the New York Highlanders (which would become better known as the New York Yankees).
• 1941: The two-year siege of Leningrad during World War II begins.
• 1945: U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur arrives in Japan to set up Allied occupation headquarters.
• 1963: A hotline between the Kremlin and the White House goes into operation to reduce the chances of an accidental war.
• 1983 Guion S. Bluford Jr. becomes the first Black American astronaut to travel in space as he blasted off aboard the Challenger.
• 1989: A federal jury in New York finds "hotel queen" Leona Helmsley guilty of income tax evasion but acquits her of extortion. (Helmsley would end up serving 18 months in prison, a month at a halfway house and two months under house arrest.)

Princess Diana (BettmanViaGettyIMages)

• 1997: Americans receive word late at night that Princess Diana, her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, and their driver, Henri Paul, were killed in an early morning car crash in Paris. (Because of the time difference, date of the crash is Aug. 31 in France.)
• 1999: East Timor residents vote to secede from Indonesia.
• 2007: In a serious breach of nuclear security, a B-52 bomber armed with six nuclear warheads flies cross-country unnoticed; the Air Force would punish 70 people.

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• 2019: A California state appeals court overturns the lone conviction against an undocumented immigrant who shot and killed Kate Steinle on the San Francisco waterfront in 2015, a case that drew national attention and became a flashpoint in the debate over illegal immigration and sanctuary cities.

• 2019: Valerie Harper, best known as wise-cracking Rhoda on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," dies after a long bout with cancer.