On this day in History - Dec. 30

• 39 - Tito Flavio Vespasiano was born , Roman emperor.
• 0274 - St Felix I ends his reign as Catholic Pope.
• 1460 - Wars of the Roses: The Duke of York is defeated at the Battle of Wakefield.
• 1525 - Jacob Fugger (66), German banker and merchant, died.
• 1591 - Pope Innocent IX dies (b. 1519).
• 1644 - Jan Baptista van Helmont dies [ b. 1580]; Belgian chemist, physiologist, and physician who recognized the existence of discrete gases and identified carbon dioxide. He was part medieval alchemist and part scientist.
• 1691 - Robert Boyle dies [b. 1627], Irish chemist and natural philosopher noted for his pioneering experiments on the properties of gases and his espousal of a corpuscular view of matter that was a forerunner of the modern theory of chemical elements ( See Boyle's law ).
• 1703 -Tokyo hit by Earthquake; about 37,000 die .
• 1741 - Bartolomeo Giacometti, composer, was born.
• 1781 - John Needham dies [b. 1713]; English naturalist and Roman Catholic priest.
• 1788 - Francesco Zuccarelli, Italian rococo painter/etcher, dies at 86.
• 1819 - Theodor Fontane, was born, German novelist and poet (d. 1898).
• 1850 - John Milne was born [d. 1913]; English seismologist and geologist who invented the horizontal pendulum seismograph and promoted the establishment of seismological stations.
• 1851 -Asa Griggs Candler was born [d. 1929]; U.S. soft-drink manufacturer who developed Coca-Cola®.This soft drink began in 1886 when a druggist named John "Doc" Pemberton started selling the syrup that he used in his drugstore fountain drinks. When he died, the formula (still a very well kept secret) was sold to Asa Candler, a marketing genius.
• 1852 - future U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes married Lucy Ware Webb in Cincinnati.
• 1853 - The United States bought some 45,000 sq mi of land from Mexico in the Gadsden Purchase, 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.
• 1861 -US, banks stops payments in gold.
• 1862 - USS Monitor sinks off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
• 1865- Rudyard Kipling, was born in Bombay, India; British writer ("Jungle Book" and "Soldiers Three") and recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature 1907 (d. 1936).
• 1868 - Capitulación de las tropas paraguayas ante el duque de Caxias. Francisco Solano López no se rinde y acompañado por un puñado de combatientes, emprende al retirada hacia el norte de Paraguay .
• 1873 - the American Metrological Society was formed in New York City.
• 1873 - Alfred E. Smith was born, U. S. politician (d. 1944).
• 1879 - The Pirates of Penzance is first performed (Paignton, Devon, England).
• 1880 - The Transvaal becomes a republic and Paul Kruger, its first president
• 1882 - Nace Ángel Roffo, investigador y médico argentino
• 1883 - John Henry Dallmeyer dies [b. 1830] German-born British inventor and manufacturer of lenses and telescopes.
• 1883. Nascimento do filósofo português Leonardo Coimbra (1883-1936) em Lixa, Amarante. Foi um dos fundadores da Renascença Portuguesa.
• 1884 - Hideki Tojo, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1948).
• 1890 - The Dressel Missions fight happens today.
• 1890 - Adolfo Ruiz Cortines, naissance ; président du Mexique, entre 1952 et 1958 (d. 1973) .
• 1896 - José Rizal was executed by firing squad in Manila.
• 1897 - Natal annexes Zululand.
• 1897 - Alfredo Bracchi, was born, Italian author.
• 1898 - Luís da Câmara Cascudo, nascimento deste escritor e folclorista brasileiro.
• 1899 - Helge Ingstad, Norwegian explorer, discoverer of the only confirmed Viking settlement in America (d. 2001).
• 1899 - James Paget, dies [b. 1914] English surgeon and physiologist who is considered (with Rudolf Virchow) to be a founder of the science of pathology. Paget discovered (1834) in human muscle the parasitic worm that causes trichinosis. In 1877, he described Paget's disease of bone (osteitis deformans), a chronic disease of bones.
• 1900 - Battleships are sent to Tangiers by the Spanish government as the first part of its intended invasion of Morocco.
• 1903 - A fire at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago kills 600.
• 1906 - Iran becomes a constitutional monarchy.
• 1911 -Sun Yat-sen was elected the first president of the Republic of China.
• 1913 - Tungsten filaments: Dr William David Coolidge patented a method for making ductile tungsten for the purpose of making filaments for electric lamps
• 1917 - Un cataclismo de grandes dimensiones asola Guatemala, cuya ciudad capital quedó convertida en ruinas.
• 1918 - La liga Espartaco liderada por Rosa Luxemburgo toma el nombre de Partido Comunista Alemán.
• 1919 - Lincoln's Inn in London admits its first female bar student.
• 1920 -Albania was admitted to the League of Nations as sovereign and independent state
• 1922 - The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) is formed.
• 1923 - Sara Lidman, Swedish writer (d. 2004) .
• 1923 - Inauguración del primer servicio público aéreo en Argentina (de Buenos Aires a Montevideo).
• 1924 - Edwin Hubble announces the existence of other galaxies.
• 1927 - The Ginza Line, the oldest subway line in Asia, opened in Tokyo.
• 1931 - Tyrone Power Sr, actor (Big Trial, Test of Donald Norton), dies at 62.
• 1933 - O primeiro-ministro da Roménia, Íon Duca, é assassinado por um membro da Guarda de Ferro.
• 1933 - El ministro Javier Burgos establece la división de España en 49 provincias.
• 1934 - Del Shannon, singer (d. 1990)
• 1935 - Sandy Koufax , was born, baseball player
• 1936 - The United Auto Workers union stages its first sit-down strike.
• 1938 - An electronic television system was patented by V.K. Zworykin.
• 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.
• 1944 - Romain Roland, French writer/pacifist (Nobel 1915), dies at 78.
• 1946 - Singer Patti Smith, was born.
• 1947 - Alfred North Whitehead dies [b.1961]; English mathematician and philosopher, who collaborated with Bertrand Russell on Principia Mathematica (1910-13).
• 1947 - King Michael of Romania is obliged to abdicate and the Romanian republic is proclaimed.
• 1948 - The play Kiss Me, Kate opens for the first of 1,077 performances.
• 1949 - India recognizes People's Republic of China.
• 1950 - Vietnam, Laos & Cambodia become Independent states in France Union.
• 1953 - The first color television sets go on sale for about USD $1,175.
• 1954 -1.st use of 24-sec shot clock in pro basketball (Rochester vs Boston) .
• 1957 -Israeli government of Ben-Gurion, resigns.
• 1961 - Ben Johnson, was born ; Canadian athlete.
• 1963 - Alessandra Mussolini, actress (Ferragosto OK), was born in Naples, Italy.
• 1965 - Ferdinand Marcos becomesPresident of the Philippines
• 1972 - Vietnam War : President Nixon halted the heavy bombing on North Vietnam.
• 1974 - Beatles are legally disbanded (4 years after suit was brought) .
• 1975 - Tiger Woods was born, golfer.
• 1975 - Constitution of Democratic Republic of Madagascar comes into force.
• 1976 - Actress Meredith Monroe was born.
• 1978 - Singer Tyrese was born.
• 1979 - Rock group, Emerson, Lake & Palmer break up
• 1979 - Togo adopts constitution.
• 1980 - Actress Eliza Dushku was born.
• 1982 - Kristin Kreuk was born, Canadian actress.
• 1983 -A 7.2 earthquake killed 26 people in Afghanistan (14) and Pakistan (12).
• 1985 -Pakistan restores constitution.
• 1987 - The Transkei government is overthrown in a bloodless coup led by General Bantubonke Holomisa, commander of the Transkei Defence Force.
• 1987 -Premier Mugabe elected President of Zimbabwe.
• 1989 -Dmitri Volkov swims world record 50m freestyle (27.15 sec).
• 1993 -Israel and the Vatican signed an agreement of mutual recognition to put an end to Jewish-Christian hostilities.
• 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.
• 1997 - In Spain a judge accused 36 Argentine military and police officers of involvement in torture and the disappearance of 600 Spaniards during the dirty war from 1976-1983. Most of those named served in the ESMA, a torture center used by the military regime.
• 1997- In Italy Danilo Dolci, advocate of nonviolent social reform, died at age 73. His writings and poetry chronicled Sicily’s beauty and despair. His books include: “Report From Palermo,” “Waste,” and “Sicilian Lives”.
• 1999 - O ex-beatle George Harrison foi esfaqueado no tórax dentro de sua mansão em Londres por Michael Abram, de 33 anos. Houve luta corporal. Ele foi internado e liberado dias depois.
• 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.
• 2001 -Pakistan arrested Hafiz Saeed, leader of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (Army of the Pure) as India moved more troops to the border.
• 2002 - Eleanor Jack Gibson dies [b. 1910]; American psychologist who studied learning processes in children. She is remembered for her “visual cliff” experiment which showed how an infant's depth perception helps prevent injuries and falls.
• 2003 -The Bush administration announced it was banning the sale of ephedra, and urged consumers to immediately stop using the herbal stimulant linked to 155 deaths and dozens of heart attacks and strokes.
• 2003 - John Gregory Dunne, American novelist and screenwriter dies.