January 30 is the 30th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 335 days remaining until the end of the year (336 in leap years).
Holidays
- Christian Feast Day:
- Martyrdom of Mahatma Gandhi-related observances:
- Martyrs’ Day (India)
- School Day of Non-violence and Peace (Spain)
History
In 516 BCE, The Second Temple of Jerusalem finishes construction.
In 1018, The Peace of Bautzen is signed between Poland and Germany.
In 1607, An estimated 200 square miles (51,800 ha) along the coasts of the Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary in England are destroyed by massive flooding, resulting in an estimated 2,000 deaths.
In 1648, Eighty Years’ War: The Treaty of Münster and Osnabrück is signed, ending the conflict between the Netherlands and Spain.
In 1649, King Charles I of England is beheaded.
In 1661, Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England is ritually executed two years after his death, on the anniversary of the execution of the monarch he himself deposed.
In 1667, The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth cedes Kiev, Smolensk, and left-bank Ukraine to the Tsardom of Russia in the Treaty of Andrusovo.
In 1703, The Forty-seven Ronin, under the command of Ōishi Kuranosuke, avenge the death of their master.
In 1790, The first boat specializing as a lifeboat is tested on the River Tyne.
In 1806, The original Lower Trenton Bridge (also called the Trenton Makes the World Takes Bridge), which spans the Delaware River between Morrisville, Pennsylvania and Trenton, New Jersey, is opened.
In 1820, Edward Bransfield sights the Trinity Peninsula and claims the discovery of Antarctica.
In 1826, The Menai Suspension Bridge, considered the world’s first modern suspension bridge, connecting the Isle of Anglesey to the north West coast of Wales, is opened.
In 1835, In the first assassination attempt against a President of the United States, Richard Lawrence attempts to shoot president Andrew Jackson, but fails and is subdued by a crowd, including several congressmen.
In 1836, Betsy Ross, American seamstress, designed the American Flag (b. 1752) dies. She born Elizabeth Griscom and also known by her second and third married names Elizabeth Ashburn and Elizabeth Claypoole, is widely credited with making the first American flag and changing the stars on the flag from six-pointed to easier-to-produce five-pointed stars. However, there is no archival evidence that this story is true
In 1841, A fire destroys two-thirds of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.
In 1847, Yerba Buena, California is renamed San Francisco.
In 1849, Jonathan Alder, American farmer (b. 1773) dies. He was an American pioneer, and the first white settler in Madison County, Ohio. As a young child living in Virginia, Alder was kidnapped by Shawnee Indians, and later adopted by a Mingo chief in the Ohio Country. He lived with the Native Americans for many years before returning to the white community. Alder settled near present-day Plain City, Ohio, where he became a farmer. He was reunited with his birth family, which moved to Ohio with him, and also had a short career as a military officer during the War of 1812. A middle school, high school, and school district in Plain City all bear his name.
In 1858, The first Hallé concert is given in Manchester, England, marking the official founding of The Hallé orchestra as a full-time, professional orchestra.
In 1862, The first American ironclad warship, the USS Monitor is launched.
In 1889, Archduke Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian crown, is found dead with his mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera in the Mayerling.
In 1902, The first Anglo-Japanese Alliance is signed in London.
In 1908, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is released from prison by Jan C. Smuts after being tried and sentenced to 2 months in jail earlier in the month.
In 1911, The destroyer USS Terry makes the first airplane rescue at sea saving the life of James McCurdy 10 miles from Havana, Cuba.
In 1911, The Canadian Naval Service becomes the Royal Canadian Navy.
In 1913, The British House of Lords rejects the Irish Home Rule Bill.
In 1925, The Government of Turkey throws Patriarch Constantine VI out of Istanbul.
In 1933, Adolf Hitler is sworn in as Chancellor of Germany.
In 1934, Frank Nelson Doubleday, American publisher, founded the Doubleday Publishing Company (b. 1862) dies. He was known to friends and family as “Effendi”, founded the eponymous Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897, which later operated under other names. Starting work at the age of 14 after his father’s business failed, Doubleday began with Charles Scribner’s Sons in New York. His son Nelson Doubleday, son-in-law John Turner Sargent, Sr. and grandson Nelson Doubleday, Jr. all worked in the company and led it through different periods. In 1986, after years of changes in the publishing business, his grandson Nelson Doubleday, Jr. as president sold the Doubleday Company to the German group Bertelsmann.
In 1942, World War II: Japanese forces invade the island of Ambon in the Dutch East Indies.
In 1943, World War II: Second day of the Battle of Rennell Island. The USS Chicago is sunk and a U.S. destroyer is heavily damaged by Japanese torpedoes.
In 1944, World War II: The Battle of Cisterna, part of Operation Shingle, begins in central Italy.
In 1944, World War II: American troops land on Majuro.
In 1945, World War II: The Wilhelm Gustloff, overfilled with German refugees, sinks in the Baltic Sea after being torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, leading to the deadliest known maritime disaster, killing approximately 9,500 people.
In 1945, World War II: Raid at Cabanatuan: 126 American Rangers and Filipino resistance fighters liberate over 500 prisoners from the Cabanatuan POW camp.
In 1948, Orville Wright, American aviation pioneer (b. 1871) dies.
In 1948, Indian pacifist and leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, known for his non-violent freedom struggle, is assassinated by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist.
In 1956, American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.‘s home is bombed in retaliation for the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
In 1959, MS Hans Hedtoft, said to be the safest ship afloat and “unsinkable” like the RMS Titanic, strikes an iceberg on her maiden voyage and sinks, killing all 95 aboard.
In 1960, The African National Party is founded in Chad, through the merger of traditionalist parties.
In 1964, Ranger program: Ranger 6 is launched.
In 1964, In a bloodless coup, General Nguyễn Khánh overthrows General Dương Văn Minh‘s military junta in South Vietnam.
In 1968, Vietnam War: Tet Offensive launch by forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army against South Vietnam, the United States, and their allies.
In 1969, The Beatles‘ last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert is broken up by the police.
In 1971, Carole King‘s Tapestry album is released to become the longest charting album by a female solo artist and sell 24 million copies worldwide.
In 1972, Bloody Sunday: British Paratroopers open fire on and kill fourteen unarmed civil rights/anti-internment marchers in Derry, Northern Ireland.
In 1972, Pakistan withdraws from the Commonwealth of Nations.
In 1975, The Monitor National Marine Sanctuary is established as the first United States National Marine Sanctuary.
In 1979, A Varig 707-323C freighter, flown by the same commander as Flight 820, disappears over the Pacific Ocean 30 minutes after taking off from Tokyo.
In 1982, Richard Skrenta writes the first PC virus code, which is 400 lines long and disguised as an Apple boot program called “Elk Cloner“.
In 1989, The American embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan closes.
In 1991, John McIntire, American actor (b. 1907) dies. He was an American character actor. McIntire replaced the late Ward Bond for the starring role on Wagon Train as the second trail master, Christopher Hale (a role he played from early 1961 to the series’ ending in 1965). The craggy-faced film actor was born in Spokane, Washington but reared near Eureka, Montana. He grew up around ranchers and cowboys, an experience that would later inspire his performances in dozens of film and television westerns. A graduate of USC, McIntire began acting in radio on Tarzan and The Diamond of Asher, where he met his future wife, Jeanette Nolan. He was the voice in the program The March of Time—and then on stage, before he embarked on a lengthy film and television career as a character actor. He was already forty when he made his big-screen debut in 1947, but went on to appear in some sixty-five films, often playing police chiefs, judges, eccentric loners, or other western characters.
In 1994, Péter Lékó becomes the youngest chess grandmaster.
In 1995, Workers from the National Institutes of Health announce the success of clinical trials testing the first preventive treatment for sickle-cell disease.
In 2000, Off the coast of Ivory Coast, Kenya Airways Flight 431 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean, killing 169.
In 2003, The Kingdom of Belgium officially recognizes same-sex marriages.
In 2011, John Barry, English composer and conductor (b. 1933) dies. He was an English composer and conductor of film music. He composed the soundtracks for 11 of the James Bond films between 1963 and 1987, and also arranged and performed the “James Bond Theme” to the first film in the series, 1962’s Dr. No. He wrote the scores to the award winning films Midnight Cowboy, Dances with Wolves and Out of Africa, in a career spanning over 50 years. In 1999 he was appointed OBE for services to music. Born in York, Barry spent his early years working in cinemas owned by his father. During his National Service in Cyprus, Barry began performing as a musician having learned to play the trumpet. Upon completing his national service, he formed his own band in 1957, The John Barry Seven. He later developed an interest in composing and arranging music, making his début for television in 1958. He came to the notice of the makers of the first James Bond film Dr. No, who were dissatisfied with a theme for James Bond given to them by Monty Norman. This started a successful association between Barry and Eon Productions which lasted for 25 years.
In 2013, Naro-1 becomes the first carrier rocket launched by South Korea.
In 2014, Attorney General Eric Holder has authorized federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect. Three people died and 260 were injured in twin explosions of two homemade bombs allegedly planted by Tsarnaev and his older brother, Tamerlan, who was killed in a shootout with police. Tsarnaev, 20, also faces state charges for the murder of MIT Police Officer Sean Collier, whom authorities say the brothers murdered while fleeing.
In 2014, Hundreds of career Justice Department lawyers have broken into open revolt against Attorney General Holder over his support of legislation that would drastically cut back on mandatory minimum sentences for drug pushers. The legislation Holder supports, known as the Durbin-Lee bill, would overturn the current mandatory minimum sentences not only for marijuana violations but for all drug offenses, including major and repeat trafficking in heroin, meth, PCP and other extremely dangerous, and often lethal, drugs.
In 2016, Djokovic captures 6th Australian Open title, keeps Murray winless in 5 finals in Melbourne