What happened on December 30 ?

1218 - Richard de Clare, 4th Earl of Hertford, English politician (b. 1162)

1460 - Richard, Duke of York, claimant to the English throne (killed in battle) (b. 1411)

1525 - Jacob Fugger, German banker (b. 1459)

1572 - Galeazzo Alessi, Italian architect (b. 1512)

1573 - Giovanni Battista Giraldi, Italian writer (b. 1504)

1591 - Pope Innocent IX (b. 1519)

1640 - John Regis, French saint (b. 1597)

1644 - Jan Baptist van Helmont, Flemish chemist (b. 1577)

1662 - Archduke Ferdinand Charles of Austria (b. 1628)

1691 - Robert Boyle, Irish scientist (b. 1627)

1769 - Nicholas Taaffe, 6th Viscount Taaffe, Austrian soldier (b. 1685)

1803 - Francis Lewis, signer of the American Declaration of Independence (b. 1713)

1896 - José Rizal, national hero of the Philippines (b. 1861)

1941 - El Lissitzky, Russian artist and architect (b. 1890)

1944 - Romain Rolland, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1866)

1954 - Archduke Eugen of Austria, Austrian field marshal (b. 1863)

1967 - Vincent Massey, Governor-General of Canada (b. 1887)

1968 - Trygve Lie, first United Nations Secretary General (b. 1896)

1970 - Sonny Liston, American boxer (b. 1932)

1971 - Melba Rae, American actress (b. 1922)

1979 - Richard Rodgers, American composer (b. 1902)

1986 - Era Bell Thompson, American journalist (b. 1905)

1988 - Yuli Daniel, Russian writer (b. 1925)

1993 - Giuseppe Occhialini, Italian physicist (b. 1907)

1994 - Dmitri Ivanenko, Russian physicist (b. 1904)

1995 - Doris Grau, American actress (b. 1924)

1996 - Lew Ayres, American actor (b. 1908)

1997 - Shinichi Hoshi, Japanese novelist (b. 1926)

2001 - Eileen Heckart, American actress (b. 1919)

2002 - Mary Wesley, English novelist (b. 1912)

2003 - David Bale, South African-born activist (cancer) (b. 1941)

2003 - John Gregory Dunne, American writer (b. 1932)

2003 - Anita Mui, Hong Kong singer and actress (b. 1963)

2004 - Artie Shaw, American jazz clarinetist, composer, and bandleader (b. 1910)