30 December
December 30 is the 364th day of the year (365th in leap years) in the
Gregorian Calendar, with 1 day remaining.
Events
- 1460 - Wars of the
Roses: The Duke of York is defeated at the Battle of Wakefield
- 1853 - Gadsden Purchase:
The United States buys land from Mexico to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest
- 1853 - 20-strong dinner party held inside life-size model of Iguanodon created by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins and Sir Richard Owen in south London.
- 1862 - USS Monitor sinks off
Cape Hatteras, North Carolina
- 1879 - The
Pirates of Penzance is first performed (Paignton, Devon, England)
- 1880 - The Transvaal becomes a republic
and Paul Kruger, its first president
- 1896 - José Rizal was executed by firing
squad in Manila.
- 1897 - Natal
annexes Zululand.
- 1903 - A fire at the Iroquois
Theater in Chicago kills 600.
- 1919 - Lincoln's Inn in
London admits its first female bar student.
- 1922 - The Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics (USSR) is formed.
- 1924 - Edwin Hubble announces the
existence of other galaxies.
- 1927 - The Ginza
Line, the oldest subway line in Asia, opened in Tokyo.
- 1936 - The United Auto
Workers union stages its first sit-down strike.
- 1940 - California opens its first
freeway: the Arroyo
Seco Parkway.
- 1943 - Chandra Bose raises the flag of Indian independence at Port Blair.
- 1944 - King George II
of Greece declares a regency, leaving his throne vacant
- 1947 - King Michael of
Romania abdicates
- 1948 - The play Kiss Me,
Kate opens for the first of 1,077 performances.
- 1953 - The first color
television sets go on sale for about USD $1,175.
- 1965 - Ferdinand Marcos
becomes President of the Philippines
- 1972 - Vietnam War: The US halts heavy bombing of North Vietnam.
- 1976 - The Smothers
Brothers play their last show (Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas).
- 1980 - After 25 years, the longest-running prime-time TV series The Wonderful
World of Disney is cancelled by NBC.
- 1981 - Wayne Gretzky scores his
50th goal in 39 games, an NHL record to this day.
- 1993 - Israel and the Vatican establish diplomatic relations.
- 1996 - In the Indian state of Assam, a passenger train is bombed by Bodo separatists,
killing 26.
- 1996 - Proposed budget cuts by Benjamin Netanyahu spark
protests from 250,000 workers who shut down services across Israel.
- 1997 - In the worst incident in Algeria's
insurgency, 400 people are killed from four villages.
- 2000 - Rizal Day
Bombings: A series of bombs explode in various places in Metro Manila,
Philippines within a span of a few hours, killing 22 and injuring about a
hundred.
Births
- 39 - Titus, Roman
Emperor (d. 81)
- 1819 - Theodor Fontane,
poet (d. 1898)
- 1865 - Rudyard Kipling,
writer and recipient of the Nobel Prize in
literature 1907 (d. 1936)
- 1873 - Al Smith, U.S. politician (d. 1944)
- 1884 - Hideki Tojo, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1948)
- 1897 - Alfredo Bracchi,
Italian author (d. 1976)
- 1899 - Helge Ingstad, Norwegian explorer, discoverer of the only confirmed Viking settlement in America (d. 2001)
- 1906 - Johann Adolf Graf von Kielmannsegg, general
- 1906 - Carol Reed, film director (d. 1976)
- 1910 - Paul Bowles, composer,
author (d. 1999)
- 1911 - Jeanette Nolan, actress (d. 1998)
- 1914 - Bert Parks, television host (d. 1992)
- 1917 - Seymour Melman,
industrial engineer (d. 2004)
- 1920 - Jack Lord, actor (d. 1998)
- 1923 - Sara Lidman, Swedish writer (d. 2004)
- 1928 - Bo Diddley, singer,
musician
- 1931 - Skeeter Davis, singer
(d. 2004)
- 1934 - Del Shannon, singer (d.
1990)
- 1934 - Russ Tamblyn, actor, dancer, singer
- 1934 - Joseph P. Hoar, former commander of U.S. Central Command
- 1935 - Sandy Koufax, Baseball Hall of Famer
- 1937 - John Hartford, musician
(d. 2001)
- 1937 - Jim Marshall, American football player
- 1937 - Paul Stookey, folk
music singer
- 1938 - Joseph Bologna,
actor
- 1941 - Mel Renfro, Pro Football Hall of Famer
- 1942 - Vladimir
Bukovsky, author and civil rights activist
- 1942 - Michael Nesmith, singer, musician (The Monkees)
- 1942 - Fred Ward, actor
- 1945 - Davy Jones, singer (The Monkees)
- 1946 - Patti Smith, singer
- 1947 - Jeff Lynne, rock
singer-musician (ELO)
- 1956 - Suzy Bogguss, country
singer
- 1957 - Matt Lauer, newscaster
- 1959 - Tracey Ullman, actress,
singer
- 1961 - Douglas Coupland,
author
- 1961 - Sean Hannity, talk
radio host, political commentator
- 1961 - Ben Johnson, Canadian athlete
- 1965 - Heidi Fleiss, celebrity
prostitute
- 1969 - Dave England, cast member on MTV show Jackass
- 1969 - Jay Kay, musician, singer (Jamiroquai)
- 1972 - Kerry Collins, American football quarterback
- 1973 - Jason Behr, actor
- 1973 - Ato Boldon, Trinidad and Tobago athlete
- 1975 - Tiger Woods, golfer
- 1976 - Meredith Monroe,
actress
- 1977 - Laili Ali, boxer
- 1978 - Tyrese, singer
- 1980 - Eliza Dushku, actress
- 1982 - Kristin Kreuk,
actress
- 1984 - LeBron James, basketball player
Deaths
- 1460 - Richard, Duke of York (b. 1411)
- 1591 - Pope Innocent IX
(b. 1519)
- 1662 - Archduke Ferdinand Charles of Austria, Regent of the Tyrol and
Further Austria
- 1691 - Robert Boyle (b. 1627), Irish philosopher, physicist, and chemist
(discovered Boyle's law)
- 1896 - José Rizal, national hero,
Philippines (b. 1861)
- 1967 - Vincent Massey,
Governor General of Canada
- 1968 - Trygve Lie, the first United Nations Secretary General (b.
1896)
- 1970 - Sonny Liston, boxing champion (b. 1932)
- 1971 - Melba Rae, American soap opera actress (b. 1922)
- 1979 - Richard Rodgers,
composer (b. 1902)
- 1982 - John Main, Benedictine monk, meditation teacher
- 1995 - Doris Grau, actress, script
supivisor and voice actress
- 1996 - Lew Ayres, actor (b. 1908)
- 1998 - Joan Brossa, Catalan poet
- 2001 - Eileen Heckart,
American actress
- 2002 - Mary Wesley, novelist (b.
1912)
- 2003 - John Gregory
Dunne, American novelist and screenwriter
- 2003 - Anita Mui, singer, actress (b.
1963)
- 2004 - Artie Shaw (Arthur Jacob
Arshawsky) American jazz clarinetist, composer and
bandleader (b. 1910)
Holidays and observances
December 29 - December
31 - November 30 - January
30 -- listing of all days
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