TODAY IN HISTORY: DECEMBER 30

 

December 30

534 – The second and final edition of the Code of Justinian comes into effect in the Byzantine Empire.

999 – Battle of Glenmama: The combined forces of Munster and Meath under king Brian Boru inflict a crushing defeat on the allied armies of Leinster and Dublin near Lyons Hill in Ireland.

1066 – Granada massacre: A Muslim mob storms the royal palace in Granada, crucifies Jewish vizier Joseph ibn Naghrela and massacres most of the Jewish population of the city.

1419 – Hundred Years' War: Battle of La Rochelle.

1460 – Wars of the Roses: Lancastrians kill the 3rd Duke of York and win the Battle of Wakefield.

1702 – Queen Anne's War: James Moore, Governor of the Province of Carolina, abandons the Siege of St. Augustine.

1813 – War of 1812: British soldiers burn Buffalo, New York.

1816 – The Treaty of St. Louis between the United States and the united Ottawa, Ojibwa, and Potawatomi Indian tribes is proclaimed.

1825 – The Treaty of St. Louis between the United States and the Shawnee Nation is proclaimed.

1853 – Gadsden Purchase: The United States buys land from Mexico to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest.

1890 – Following the Wounded Knee Massacre, the United States Army and Lakota warriors face off in the Drexel Mission Fight.

1896 – Filipino patriot and reform advocate José Rizal is executed by a Spanish firing squad in Manila.

1896 – Canadian ice hockey player Ernie McLea scores the first hat-trick in Stanley Cup play, and the Cup-winning goal as the Montreal Victorias defeat the Winnipeg Victorias 6–5.

1897 – The British Colony of Natal annexes Zululand.

1902 – The Discovery Expedition under Robert Falcon Scott attained a Farthest South at 82°17′S in Antarctica.

1903 – A fire at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, Illinois kills at least 605.

1905 – Former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg is assassinated at the front gate of his home in Caldwell.

1906 – The All-India Muslim League is founded in Dacca, East Bengal, British India (later Dhaka, Bangladesh).

1916 – Russian mystic and advisor to the Tsar Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin is murdered by a loyalist group led by Prince Felix Yusupov. His frozen, partially-trussed body was discovered in a Petrograd river three days later.

1916 – The last coronation in Hungary is performed for King Charles IV and Queen Zita.

1922 – The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) is formed.

1927 – The Ginza Line, the first subway line in Asia, opens in Tokyo, Japan.

1935 – The Italian Air Force bombs a Swedish Red Cross hospital during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War.

1936 – The Flint sit-down strike hits General Motors.

1943 – Subhas Chandra Bose raises the flag of Indian independence at Port Blair.

1944 – King George II of Greece declares a regency, leaving the throne vacant.

1947 – Cold War: King Michael I of Romania is forced to abdicate by the Soviet Union-backed Communist government of Romania.

1952 – An RAF Avro Lancaster bomber crashes in Luqa, Malta after an engine failure, killing three crew members and a civilian on the ground.

1954 – The Finnish National Bureau of Investigation is established to consolidate criminal investigation and intelligence into a single agency.

1958 – The Guatemalan Air Force sinks several Mexican fishing boats alleged to have breached maritime borders, killing three and sparking international tension.

1967 – Aeroflot Flight L-51 crashes near Liepāja International Airport in Liepāja, Latvia, killing 43.

1972 – Vietnam War: Operation Linebacker II ends.

1987 – Stella Sigcau, Prime minister of the South African Bantustan of Transkei, is ousted from power in a bloodless military coup led by General Bantu Holomisa.

1993 – Israel establishes diplomatic relations with Vatican City and also upgrades to full diplomatic relations with Ireland.

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, the Wilaya of Relizane massacres, 400 people from four villages are killed.

2000 – Rizal Day bombings: A series of bombs explode in various places in Metro Manila, Philippines within a period of a few hours, killing 22 and injuring about a hundred.

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 Airport is bombed.

2006 – The Indonesian passenger ferry MV Senopati Nusantara sinks in a storm, resulting in at least 400 deaths.

2006 – Former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein is executed.

2009 – A segment of the Lanzhou–Zhengzhou–Changsha pipeline ruptures in Shaanxi, China, and approximately 150,000 L (40,000 US gal) of diesel oil flows down the Wei River before finally reaching the Yellow River.

2009 – A suicide bomber kills nine people at Forward Operating Base Chapman, a key facility of the Central Intelligence Agency in Afghanistan.

2013 – More than 100 people are killed when anti-government forces attack key buildings in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.