On December 30th...

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1460 The Duke of York was killed and his forces soundly defeated by forces loyal to King Henry VI of England at Wakefield.

1591 Pope Innocent IX died.

1691 Physicist Robert Boyle died.

1703 An earthquake struck Tokyo, Japan, killing about 37,000 persons.

1799 Botanist David Douglas was born.

1803 The United States took formal possession of the Louisiana Territory.

1819 John White Geary, American Civil War general, was born.

1836 Hundreds were killed when fire struck the Lehman Theater in St. Petersburg, Russia.

1847 American politician John Peter Altgeld was born.

1853 The United States and Mexico signed the Gadsden Purchase agreement.

1861 U.S. banks stopped payments in gold.

1865 Poet and storyteller Rudyard Kipling was born.

1869 Painter Henri Matisse was born.

1873 The American Meteorological Society was formed in New York City.
1873 Politician Alfred E. Smith was born.

1877 Johannes Brahms' 2nd Symphony in , premiered in Vienna, Austria.

1884 William Morris, Eleanor Marx, and others formed the Socialist League in the United Kingdom.

1892 Dr. Miles V. Lynk published the first black medical journal.

1896 Filipino nationalist and reformist José Rizal was executed.

1897 The Province of Zululand was annexed to Natal Colony.

1903 An electric arc lamp set fire to the Iroquois Theaterin Chicao, Illinois, leaving 602 persons dead.
1903 The American Political Science Association was founded in New Orleans, Louisiana.

1905 Former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg was assassinated near his home in Caldwell.

1906 Iran became a constitutional monarchy.
1906 The All India Muslim League was founded in Dacca, East Bengal.

1907 A commission headed by Abraham Mills declared that Abner Doubleday invented baseball.

1911 Actress Jeannette Nolan was born.

1914 Bert Parks, long-time host of the Miss America Pageant, was born.
1914 Actress Jo Van Fleet was born.

1915 The British cruiser Natal exploded in Cromarty Harbour, Scotland, killing 405 persons.

1919 Lincoln's Inn in London, England, admitted its first female bar student.

1920 Actor Jack Lord was born.

1921 Rashid Karami, eight-time Prime Minister of Lebanon, was born.

1922 Creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was formally proclaimed in Moscow, Russia.

1924 Edwin Hubble announced the existence of other galactic systems.

1927 Japan dedicated the first subway in the Orient.

1928 Guitarist Bo Diddley was born.

1929 Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority was incorporated.

1931 Country singer Skeeter Davis was born.

1934 Musician Del Shannon was born.

1935 Italian bombers destroyed a Swedish Red Cross unit in Ethiopia.
1935 Baseball player Sandy Koufax was born.

1936 The United Auto Workers staged the first ever sit-down strike, at the Fisher Body Plant.

1938 V. K. Zworykin patented an electronic television system.

1939 The film Of Mice and Men was released.

1940 California's first freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway, opened.

1942 Musician Mike Nesmith was born.

1944 King George II of Greece abdicated his throne.

1945 Rock singer Davy Jones was born.

1947 King Michael of Romania was forced to abdicate his throne.

1948 "Kiss Me, Kate" opened at the New Century Theater in New York City, New York.

1950 Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia became independent states in the French Union.

1953 Game show host Meredith Vieira was born.

1956 Country singer Suzy Bogguss was born.

1957 The first Bomarc guided missile rolled off the assembly line.
1957 Talk show host Matt Lauer was born.

1959 The first ballistic missile submarine, George Washington, was commissioned.
1959 Comedian Tracey Ullman was born.
1959 Governor Clinton A. Clauson of Maine died.

1961 News commentator Sean Hannity was born.
1961 Sprinter Ben Johnson was born.

1963 The U.S. Congress authorized the Kennedy half-dollar.
1963 "Let's Make a Deal" premiered on NBC-TV.

1965 Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss was born.

1966 Christian Herter, former U.S. Secretary of State, died.

1968 Trygve Lie, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, died.

1970 Boxer Sonny Liston died.

1975 Golfer Tiger Woods was born.

1977 Boxer Laila Ali was born.

1979 The rock group Emerson, Lake & Palmer broke up.
1979 Togo adopted a constitution.
1979 Composer Richard Rodgers died.

1980 The last episode of "Wonderful World of Disney" aired on NBC-TV.

1984 Basketball player LeBron James was born.

1985 Pakistan restored its constitution.

1993 The Vatican formally recognized the nation of Israel.

1996 Actor Lew Ayres died.

2000 A series of bombs exploded in various places in Manila, Philippines, killing 22 persons and injuring about a hundred.

2004 A fire in the República Cromagnon nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killed 194 persons.
2004 Big band leader Artie Shaw died.

2006 Actor Frank Campanella died.
2006 Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein died.

2009 Abdurrahman Wahid, former President of Indonesia, died.

2010 Singer Bobby Farrell died.

2012 A suicide bomber killed 19 persons in Balochistan, Pakistan.

2013 A trolley-bus bomb attack killed 15 persons in Voglograd, Russia.

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This page was last updated on December 30, 2018.