TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Saturday, Oct. 30.

Today’s highlight:

On Oct. 30, 1974, Muhammad Ali knocked out George Foreman in the eighth round of a 15-round bout in Kinshasa, Zaire (zah-EER’), known as the “Rumble in the Jungle,” to regain his world heavyweight title.

On this date:

In 1912, Vice President James S. Sherman, running for a second term of office with President William Howard Taft, died six days before Election Day. (Sherman was replaced with Nicholas Murray Butler, but Taft, the Republican candidate, ended up losing in an Electoral College landslide to Democrat Woodrow Wilson.)

In 1921, the silent film classic “The Sheik,” starring Rudolph Valentino, premiered in Los Angeles.

In 1938, the radio play “The War of the Worlds,” starring Orson Welles, aired on CBS.

In 1945, the U.S. 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 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 1984, police in Poland found the body of kidnapped pro-Solidarity priest Father

Jerzy Popieluszko, whose death was blamed on security officers.

In 1995, by a razor-thin vote of 50.6 percent to 49.4 percent, Federalists prevailed over separatists in a Quebec secession referendum.

In 2001, Ukraine destroyed its last nuclear missile silo, fulfilling a pledge to give up the vast nuclear arsenal it had inherited after the breakup of the former Soviet Union.

In 2002, Jam Master Jay ( Jason Mizell), a rapper with the hip-hop group Run-DMC, was killed in a shooting in New York. He was 37.

In 2005, the body of Rosa Parks arrived at the U.S. Capitol, where the civil rights icon became the first woman to lie in honor in the Rotunda; President George W. Bush and congressional leaders paused to lay wreaths by her casket.

Ten years ago: Britain’s Sunday Telegraph published an interview with Syrian President Bashar Assad, who warned that a western intervention in Syria would lead to an “earthquake” that “would burn the whole region.”

Five years ago: The third powerful earthquake to hit Italy in two months spared human life but struck at the nation’s cultural identity, destroying a Benedictine cathedral, a medieval tower and other beloved landmarks.

One year ago: A day after Walmart said it had removed ammunition and firearms from displays in U.S. stores because of “civil unrest” in some areas of the country, the retailer said the items had been restored to displays because the unrest had remained isolated.