Today in History: October 30

1340: The last Islamic invasion of Spain from Africa is defeated by Kings Alfonso IV of Portugal and Alfonso XI of Castile at the Battle of Rio Salado.

1735: Boston lawyer, rebel, and future President John Adams is born at Braintree, Massachusetts.

1831: The leader of a failed slave rebellion, Nat Turner, is captured at Southampton County, Virginia.  He will later be hanged and skinned, with body parts kept by spectators as souvenirs.

1864: Four miners who struck it rich at Last Chance Gulch, Montana, found a new town on the site, called Crabtown.  For P.R. reasons, the name will later be changed to Helena.

1892: The father of the modern fitness industry, Angelo “Charles Atlas” Siciliano, is born at Arci, in southern Italy.  Thirty million people have bought his mail-order course.

1947: At Geneva, Switzerland, twenty-three countries sign a new General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

1961: Soviet authorities remove Josef Stalin’s body from Lenin’s tomb for his “violation of Lenin’s precepts.”  Yep, that shows him.

1988: Tobacco giant Philip Morris buys Kraft Foods for $13.1 billion.