Today's 30 December Major Events in History

Photo for the article Today's 30 December Major Events

987 French King Hugo Capet crowns his son Robert the compassionate king
1317 Pontifical decree "Sancta Romania" against spiritualists

Battle of Wakefield

1460 Battle of Wakefield: Duke of York is killed and his forces are soundly defeated by those of King Henry VI in northern England during the Wars of the Roses

Elizabeth Báthory Arrested

1610 Hungarian aristocrat Elizabeth Báthory arrested at Csejte Castle on suspicion of killing and torturing hundreds of young girls and women

Protestation of Parliament

1621 English King James I tears the Protestation of Parliament from the records, objecting to Parliament commenting on a foreign marriage alliance

Peace of Pressburg

1626 Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II and Prince of Transylvania Gabor Bethlen sign Peace of Pressburg (Bratislava) ending uprising against Hapsburgs

1661 Sweden's original Drottningholm Palace burns down, rebuilt from 1662 in its modern form to design by Nikodemus Tessin
1665 "Messiah" Sjabtai Tswi departs to Constantinople
1666 Abraham Crijnssen departs to Suriname
1672 Baron Karl Rabenhaupt occupies Coevorden, Netherlands
1685 Don Francisco de Agurto installed as land guardian of Southern Netherlands
1689 Henry Purcell & Nahum Tate's opera "Dido & Aeneas" premieres at Josias Priest's girls' school in Chelsea, London
1731 One of the earliest music concerts in North America held at Peter Pelham's Great Room in Boston, Massachusetts
1794 French troops conquer Grave, Netherlands
1809 Wearing masks at balls forbidden in Boston
1813 Danzig surrenders to allied armies
1816 The Treaty of St. Louis is proclaimed.
1836 Lehman Theater in St Petersburg catches fire; 100s die
1844 Opera "Stradella" after being rewritten is produced (Hamburg)
1853 A dinner party is held inside a life-sized hollow concrete model of an Iguanodon dinosaur, created by sculptor Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins and biologist Richard Owen in South London
1854 Pennsylvania Rock Oil Co, 1st in US, incorporated in NYC

US Banks Halt Gold Payments

1861 Associated Banks in NYC halt gold payments to government and investors, to disrupt Abraham Lincoln's US bank reform program

1869 Philadelphia Knights of Labor forms
1873 American Metrological Society forms (NYC) weights, measures & money
1875 Andrassy Note calls for Christian-Muslim religious freedoms

The Pirates of Penzance

1879 W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan's comic opera "The Pirates of Penzance" premieres in Paignton, England and at Fifth Avenue Theatre NYC the next day

Symphony No. 7 in E

1884 Anton Bruckner's "Symphony No. 7 in E", premieres led by Arthur Nikisch at the Stadtheater in Leipzig, Kingdom of Saxony

1884 William Morris, Eleanor Marx, and others establish the Socialist League, a revolutionary organization in the UK

Order of the African Star

1888 Belgium's King Leopold II establishes Order of the African Star - for service to the Congo and to promote 'African civilisation'

1892 Dr Miles V Lynk, physician, publishes 1st Black medical journal
1893 Russia signs military accord with France

Execution of José Rizal

1896 Filipino nationalist José Rizal is executed by firing squad in Manila by the Spanish

1896 Stanley Cup, Granite Rink, Winnipeg, Manitoba: Ernie McLea scores a hat-trick as Montreal Victorias beat Winnipeg Victorias, 6-5; first SC Challenge game played outside of Montreal
1897 Province of Zululand annexed to Natal colony
1903 American Political Science Association founded at New Orleans
1903 Electric arc lamp sets fire to Iroquois Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, leaving 602 dead in one of the deadliest single-building blazes in American history
1905 Former Governor Frank Steunenberg is assassinated near his home in Caldwell, Idaho

The Merry Widow

1905 Franz Lehár's operetta "The Merry Widow" premieres at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, Austria

1906 All-India Muslim League is founded in Dacca in East Bengal, British India, later lays the foundations for Pakistan
1906 Iran becomes a constitutional monarchy
1907 Mills Commission, headed by Abraham G. Mills, declares baseball was invented in 1839 by future American Civil War general Abner Doubleday in Cooperstown, New York; widely disproven and now known as the Doubleday myth
1908 Stanley Cup, Montreal Arena, Westmount, Quebec: Montreal Wanderers outscore Edmonton HC, 14-9 in 2 game challenge series

John Wanamaker Store

1911 Philadelphia merchant John Wanamaker's flagship department store is officially dedicated by US President William Howard Taft; the Florentine style building designed by architect Daniel H. Burnham, with nine of its twelve floors for retail, features a grand court housing the world's largest pipe organ and a large bronze eagle statue which quickly becomes a popular meeting place

1913 Barnes takes 17 wickets vs South Africa (8-56 & 9-103)
1915 Cromarty Harbour, Scotland - British cruiser Natal explodes: 405 die
1917 -32°F (-36°C) in Mountain City, Tennessee (state record)
1917 -37°F (-38°C) in Lewisburg, WV (state record)

1919 Lincoln's Inn in London admits its first female bar student.

1922 Creation of the USSR is formally proclaimed in Moscow at the Bolshoi Theatre, organized as a union (U) of the Russian, Ukrainian, Byelorussian and Transcaucasian Soviet Socialist Republics (SSR)

Hubble Announces Other Galaxies

1924 Astronomer Edwin Hubble formally announces the existence of other galaxies at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society

1925 NSW score 705 against Victoria, go from 8-475 to 9-701
1926 Chicago Tribune reports the Tigers threw a 4-game series to the White Sox in 1917 to help Chicago win the pennant (never substantiated)
1926 Paul Eliot Green's "In Abraham's Bosom" premieres in NYC
1927 Japan dedicates 1st subway in Orient (route under 2 miles long)
1929 Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority incorporates
1933 -50°F (-46°C) in Bloomfield, Vermont (state record)
1933 Government disallows NSB-membership for civil service
1933 Jack Badcock scores 274 v Victoria, Tasmania's 1st double-ton
1934 New York Rangers and Boston Bruins battle out a 0-0 tie; first of a 37-game overtime undefeated streak for the Bruins, the longest in NHL history; streak spans over 4 years and includes 27 ties
1935 Italian bombers destroy Swedish Red Cross unit in Ethiopia

Allen and Benny's Feud

1936 Beginning of the "feud" between comedians Fred Allen and Jack Benny on Allen's "Town Hall Tonight" show

1936 United Auto Workers stage 1st sit-down strike, at Fisher Body Plant

Bradman's 34th Double Century

1939 Donald Bradman scores 267 for South Australia against Victoria, a world record 34th first-class double century

1939 O'Reilly takes 14-45 (8-23 & 6-22) as NSW crush Qld in 2 days
1940 California's 1st freeway, (Arroyo Seco Parkway), opens

1941 In an emotional speech to the Canadian Parliament Winston Churchill states Britain will never surrender to "Hitler and his Nazi gang" and that "they have asked for total war. Let us make sure they get it". Afterwards Yousef Karsh captures him in his famous photograph, "The Roaring Lion".

1941 Nazis require Dutch physicians to join Nazi organization

Sinatramania

1942 NYC's Times Square greets Frank Sinatra at Paramount Theater, initiating the term "Sinatramania"

1943 Phillies trade Babe Dahlgren to Pitts for Babe Phelps & cash
1943 Subhash Chandra Bose raises the flag of Indian independence at Port Blair
1944 King George II of Greece, abdicates his throne, appointing Archbishop Damaskinos of Athens as Regent in 1945
1944 Sergei Prokofjev's 8th Piano sonata, premieres in Moscow
1947 King Michael of Romania, forced by Communists abdicates his throne, sending him into exlie
1947 Romanian republic proclaimed
1949 India recognizes People's Republic of China
1950 "Sixty Minute Man" record single released by The Dominoes (Billboard Song of the Year 1951)

Tennessee Waltz

1950 "Tennessee Waltz" sung by Patti Page hits #1 on the Billboard Pop Chart (stays for 9 weeks)

1950 Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia become independent states within the French Union
1951 "The Roy Rogers Show", American Western television series starring Roy Rogers and Dale Evans debuts on NBC; runs for 6 seasons
1952 Tuskegee Inst reports 1952 as 1st yr in 71 with no lynchings in US

Māori King Receives British Queen

1953 Queen Elizabeth II visits the Tūrangawaewae marae in New Zealand, home of the Māori Kīngitanga movement

1953 The first NTSC color television sets go on sale for about $1,175 from RCA
1954 Harold Arlen and Truman Capote's musical "House of Flowers" premieres at Alvin Theater, NYC; runs for 165 performances

1958 French franc devalued
1959 George Washington, 1st ballistic missile sub commissioned
1961 Premiere of Dmitri Shostakovich's 4th Symphony in Moscow (completed 1936)

1963 TV game show "Let's Make A Deal," hosted by Monty Hall, debuts on NBC-TV
1964 Edward Albee's play "Tiny Alice" premieres on Broadway in NYC

1967 Beatles' "Hello Goodbye" single goes #1 & stays #1 for 3 weeks
1967 Great Western Forum opens in LA
1968 -48°F (-44°C), Mazama & Winthrop, Washington (state record)
1968 Frank Sinatra records "My Way" for the first time, based on the French song "Comme d'habitude" with lyrics by Paul Anka
1969 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
1970 The financial cost of the disturbances and riots in Northern Ireland during 1969 and 1970 are today estimated to be £5.5 million
1971 A member of the Irish Republican Army is killed in a premature bomb explosion in Santry, Dublin.
1971 Long Island NHL franchise purchased (NY Islanders)
1971 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan

1972 US President Richard Nixon halts bombing of North Vietnam & announces peace talks

1974 Beatles are legally disbanded (4 years after suit was brought)
1975 Ballon d'Or: FC Dynamo Kyiv forward Oleg Blokhin claims award for best European football player ahead of former winners, Bayern Munich defender Franz Beckenbauer and Ajax forward Johan Cruyff
1975 Constitution of Democratic Republic of Madagascar comes into force
1976 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
1977 Carter holds 1st news conference by US President in Eastern Europe (Warsaw)
1978 Ohio State dismisses Woody Hayes as its football coach
1979 English Progressive rock group, Emerson, Lake & Palmer break up
1979 Togo adopts constitution
1980 "Wonderful World of Disney" last performance on NBC-TV
1980 Ballon d'Or: Bayern Munich forward Karl-Heinz Rummenigge is named best European football player; beats German international teammate Bernd Schuster of FC Barcelona and Saint-Étienne midfielder Michel Platini

That Girl

1981 "That Girl" single released by Stevie Wonder (Billboard Song of the Year -1982)

Fastest 50 Points in 50 Games

1981 Wayne Gretzky scores 5 goals and an assist in Edmonton's 7-5 win over Philadelphia; gives Gretzky 50 goals in 39 games, the fastest 50 in 50 in NHL history; also sets NHL record with 15-game assist streak

1982 Anthony Shaffer's "Whodunnit" premieres in NYC
1982 England defeat Australia by three runs at cricket MCG
1982 US Assay Office in New York City, NY closes
1985 IBM-PC DOS Version 3.2 released
1985 Pakistan restores constitution
1986 Ballon d'Or: Dynamo Kyiv's Ukrainian forward Igor Belanov is named best football player in Europe ahead of Barcelona striker Gary Lineker and Real Madrid forward Emilio Butragueño
1987 Australia hang on for draw v New Zealand at MCG, 1 wkt left 17 runs short

1988 Canadian Senate OK's free trade pact; with US
1988 Former Soviet President Brezhnev's son-in-law sentenced to 12-yr (bribery)
1988 Mercedes-Benz pays $20.2-M fine failed to meet '86 government fuel standard

1989 10th United Negro College Fund raises $12,000,000
1990 11th United Negro College Fund raises $10,000,000
1992 Last day of Test Cricket for Michael Whitney
1992 Washington defenseman Al Iafrate becomes first player in NHL history to have his shot officially break 100 miles per hour; records 101.4 mph during the Capitals Superskills competition
1993 Vatican recognizes Israel
1995 Lowest ever UK temperature recorded of -27.2°C iat Altnaharra in the Scottish Highlands, equaling the record set at Braemar, Aberdeenshire on February 11, 1895 and January 10, 1982

Mass Workers Protest

1996 Proposed budget cuts by Benjamin Netanyahu spark protests from 250,000 workers who shut down services across Israel.

1996 United Nations announces that a total of 21 contracts have been approved for the limited Iraqi oil sales under Resolution 986
1997 An abandoned building collapses on NY's 42nd St, no one hurt
1997 In the worst incident in Algeria's insurgency, the Wilaya of Relizane massacres, 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.
2003 U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft recuses himself and his office from the Plame affair.
2004 A fire in the República Cromagnon nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina kills 194.
2005 Tropical Storm Zeta forms in the open Atlantic Ocean, tying the record for the latest tropical cyclone ever to form in the North Atlantic basin
2006 Madrid Barajas International Airport is bombed.
2008 NFL head coach Mike Shanahan is fired by the Denver Broncos
2012 19 people are killed by a suicide bomber in Balochistan, Pakistan
2012 9 people are killed and 26 are injured in a tour bus crash off interstate 84, Oregon, US
2012 The opening of Line 6 of the Beijing subway makes it the longest metro network in the world at 442km
2013 15 people are killed in a trolley-bus bomb attack in Voglograd, Russia
2013 NFL head coach Mike Shanahan is fired by the Washington Redskins
2016 83rd Orange Bowl: #10 Florida State beats #6 Michigan, 33-32
2016 A ceasefire organised by Russia, Iran and Turkey between Syria's government and opposition groups takes effect
2016 British singer-songwriter Ray Davies, of The Kinks, is awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II
2016 Last day Indians are able to deposit in banks 500 and 1,000 rupee notes which were scrapped only 50 days earlier in an anti-corruption measure
2017 84th Orange Bowl: #6 Wisconsin beats #11 Miami (Florida), 34-24

Mahomes's Double Record

2018 Patrick Mahomes becomes only the 2nd quarterback in NFL history to throw for 5,000 yards and 50 touchdowns during KC Chiefs' 35-3 win over Oakland Raiders; achieves both marks with 3rd quarter 89-yard TD pass to Demarcus Robinson

2019 86th Orange Bowl: #6 Florida beats #24 Virginia, 36-28
2020 Argentina is the first major Latin American country to legalize abortion (signed into law 14 Jan 2021)
2020 San Antonio assistant Becky Hammon becomes first female to coach an NBA team after Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich is ejected in a 121-107 loss to the LA Lakers
2021 Rare winter wildfire destroys nearly 1000 homes at the base of the Rocky Mountains, Colorado, in suburban neighborhoods between Boulder and Denver [1]
2022 "Queen" guitarist and astrophysicist Brian May (75) receives a British knighthood for his service to music and charity [1]

Biggest Salary Ever in Football

2022 Cristiano Ronaldo joins Saudi Arabian club Al Nassr for the “biggest salary ever in football”, leaving Manchester United after criticizing it publicly [1]