October 30 in San Antonio history…

World War I – 1915
Secretary Lansing announces that the Navy Department has determined that the sinking of the liner RMS Hesperian on September 6.  The German government has persistently denied that the Hesperian was torpedoed.  (In fact, the Hesperian was torpedoed by German submarine U.20, the same sub that sunk the Lusitania.)

1938
Radio station KTSA broadcasts “Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre” featuring a radio drama of H. G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds” from 7 to 8 p.m (right).  Despite announcements before, during and after the program, some frightened radio listeners believe it is a real invasion of aliens from Mars.

1947
Police Chief Fred Palmer today ordered the silencing of ambulance sirens effective immediately. He said the city attorney’s office had ruled use of the sirens to be unnecessary.

1955
The associate editor of America magazine, a national Catholic weekly, gave San Antonio a good mark for racial tolerance in a New York speech. While criticizing northern Catholics for race prejudice, Rev. John LaFarge said few councils of the Knights of Columbus admit Negroes and of those that do, the first was in the South, in San Antonio.