Today in History: October 30, Muhammad Ali defeats George Foreman in the “Rumble in the Jungle”

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Today is Wednesday, Oct. 30, the 304th day of 2024. There are 62 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Oct. 30, 1974, Muhammad Ali knocked out George Foreman in the eighth round of a scheduled 15-round bout known as the "Rumble in the Jungle," in Kinshasa, Congo (then Zaire), to regain his world heavyweight title.

Also 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.

In 1938, the radio play "The War of the Worlds," starring Orson Welles, aired on the CBS Radio Network.

In 1961, the Soviet Union tested a hydrogen bomb, the "Tsar Bomba," with a force estimated at about 50 megatons (over 3,500 times that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima).

In 1972, 45 people were killed when an Illinois Central Gulf commuter train was struck from behind by another train on Chicago's South Side.

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

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

In 2013, the Boston Red Sox romped to their third World Series championship in 10 seasons, besting the St. Louis Cardinals 6-1 in Game 6 at Fenway Park.

In 2018, notorious gangster James "Whitey" Bulger was found beaten to death at a federal prison in West Virginia; the 89-year-old former Boston crime boss and longtime FBI informant had been transferred there just hours earlier.