History in my back yard.

[Michael Morris]

Name a couple things that have occured within a 30 air mile radius of your home that may, or may not, be famous. Here are mine.

Kentucky Fried Chicken was founded in Corbin Kentucky, less than 11 miles from where I live and 3 miles from where I was born.

15 miles from my home is the Jellico Narrows, site of the July 6th 1944 train wreck - second worst train accident during WWII (yes, it was a troop train). http://drwebman.com/trooptrainwreck/ for more on this.

 

[Eolin]

This isn't particularly uplifting history ...

But the Oklahoma City Bombing was definetly within 30 miles of my apartment. It was 2 miles from my then-high school.

Um... the Oklahoma Land Runs happened around here. The Oklahoma Seal is within that distance. And it has a history. Nearly a hundred years ago, Guthrie (little town) was the state capital. Then the seal was stolen and moved to Oklahoma City, which became the capital.

Most of Oklahoma's history is founded on thievery. The Sooners? Land thieves.

 

[megamania]

Arlington Vermont

founded in 1776

Vermont's FIRST Capital

Norman Rockwell's home when in Vermont (within eye sight of my house)

The tree used as the State seal grew here. It was destroyed by a lightning strike but seeds from it were planted in its spot in honor

Battenkill river- famous for Brown and Rainbow trout

Population about 2500.

Though he lived about 500 feet into Sunderland, Ethan Allan is credited to live in Arlington
He was a the leader / founder of the Green Mountain Boys whom caused a lot of havoc with the British in the 1770's winning America's Independence. His wife is buried within Arlington.

 

[Guillaume]

Well in 1914 the Empress of Ireland sank right of the coast of where I live. It is one of the largest tragedies involving liners in the 20th century. [font=verdana,geneva,arial,helvetica,sans-serif][size=-1]Of the 1,477 on board, 1,012 lost their lives, including 840 passengers, eight more than had died when the Titanic sank two years earlier.[/size][/font]

 

[mhacdebhandia]

The Australian novelist Thomas Keneally lives quite close to my place - about twenty minutes' drive away. He's probably best-known for writing The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and Schindler's Ark, the novel on which Schindler's List was based. He wrote some awful poetry about rugby league a few years ago for an ad campaign, but on the other hand he is an advocate for an Australian republic so he's not all bad.

 

[Crothian]

The first Wendy's isn't too far from me.

 

[Steve Jung]

The first intercollegiate football game was played between Rutgers and Princeton in New Brunswick.

Thomas Edison invented the incandescent light bulb in Menlo Park.

 

[billd91]

There's a lot of interesting history just outside that 30 mile radius of my home including the workshop of Frank Lloyd Wright, the home of the Ringling Brothers (of circus fame), and the site of the first kindergarten in the US.
But definitely within 30 miles (Madison is barely a stone's throw away) is the birthplace of Fighting Bob La Follette, champion of progressive politics.
And, very recently, the local zoo (still free to the public) has become home to a litter of 5 lion cubs. Maybe not particularly important for human history, but definitely significant for zoo breeding programs.
In pharmacology, researchers at the University of Wisconsin isolated the anticoagulant coumarin out of a sweet clover and eventually developed it into the widely used drug Coumadin.

 

[MonsterMash]

You do realise that for a lot of the European posters here this would be an excuse to write the longest post evar!

Within a 30 mile radius of home for me takes in all of London, England so its not exactly short of history!

Brief highlights (ones I can remember dates for)
1078 The White Tower (of the Tower of London) started construction
1708 Wren's St Pauls Cathedral completed
1755 Dr Samuel Johnson publishes his Dictionary of the English Language

 

[Maldur]

I live in arnhem, points for people that can tell what happened around here through the ages

hint: lotsa old men with red hats in july. allthough every year there are less and less.