On this day, October 30th: 45 people die in a train accident in Chicago

1 of 5 | On October 30, 1972, two commuter trains crashed in Chicago, killing 45 people and injuring more than 300. File photo courtesy of the National Transportation Safety Board

Oct. 30 (UPI) — On this date in history:

In 1534, Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy, which made King Henry VIII head of the Church of England.

In 1817, Simon Bolivar founded the independent government of Venezuela.

In 1864, Last Chance Gulch provided gold for four prospectors in Montana and the town of Helena was born.

In 1918, the Ottoman Empire signed an armistice with the Allies, ending World War I in the Middle East and causing the collapse of the more than 600-year-old kingdom.

In 1938, Orson Welles panicked some radio listeners with a realistic dramatization of a Martian invasion based on HG Wells' work. War of the Worlds.

In 1953, National Security Council Paper No. 162/2 is signed by President Dwight Eisenhower. The top-secret document confirmed that the United States' nuclear arsenal should be maintained and expanded to counter the Soviet Union.

In 1961, the Soviet Union detonated the massive 50-megaton hydrogen bomb “Tsar Bomba” over Novaya Zemlya.

In 1972, two commuter trains crashed in Chicago, killing 45 people and injuring more than 300. It was the country's worst rail disaster in 14 years and would not be eclipsed for another two decades.

In 1974, Muhammad Ali and George Foreman fought in “The Rumble in the Jungle” in Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo).

Muhammad Ali (right) hits George Foreman with a hard right during their heavyweight title fight on October 30, 1974 in Kinshasa, Zaire. Ali knocked out Foreman in the 8th round and regained his heavyweight title. File photo by Mike Feldman/UPI

In 1975, with dictator Francisco Franco near death, Prince Juan Carlos seized power in Spain. Franco died three weeks later.

In 1983, Rev. Jesse Jackson announced plans to become the first African American to launch a full-scale campaign for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in the United States.

File photo by Joe Mahoney/UPI

In 1995, voters in Quebec narrowly chose to remain part of Canada.

In 1997, Violet Palmer became the first woman to referee an NBA game

In 2005, Indian authorities sent army divers to search for people trapped in a derailed train near Veligonda during a massive flood. Officials said 112 died in the train crash and another 100 died in floods.

In 2008, U.S. gross domestic product fell 0.3 percent, administration officials said. It was the first decline in GDP in 17 years.

In 2009, US President Barack Obama announced that he would lift US travel and immigration restrictions on people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

In 2010, security checks on cargo and airline passengers in the US, UK and Canada were tightened after bombs were found in packages from Yemen at two synagogues in Chicago.

In 2018, notorious Boston Mafia boss James “Whitey” Bulger was found dead at USP Hazelton maximum security prison a day after he was transferred to Brockton Mills, West Virginia prison. A coroner said he died of blunt force injuries to the head – probably because a fellow inmate hit him with a prison lock in a sock.

In 2020, a magnitude 7 earthquake in the Aegean Sea struck Turkey and Greece, killing about 119 people and leaving 15,000 homeless.