What happened on December 30 ?

1460 - Wars of the Roses: Battle of Wakefield

1816 - The Treaty with the Ottawa, etc. is proclaimed.

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

1853 - A dinner party is held inside a life-size model of an Iguanodon created by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins and Sir Richard Owen in south London.

1862 - USS Monitor sinks off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

1879 - The Pirates of Penzance is first performed (Paignton, Devon, England).

1880 - The Transvaal becomes a republic and Paul Kruger, its first president.

1896 - José Rizal was executed by firing squad in Manila.

1897 - Natal annexes Zululand.

1903 - A fire at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, Illinois kills 600.

1905 - Former Governor Frank Steunenberg is assassinated near his home in Caldwell, Idaho.

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

1922 - The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is formed.

1924 - Edwin Hubble announces the existence of other galaxies.

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

1936 - The United Auto Workers union stages its first sit-down strike.

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.

1947 - King Michael of Romania forced to abdicate by the Soviet-backed Communist government of Romania.

1948 - The play Kiss Me, Kate opens for the first of 1,077 performances.

1953 - The first color television sets go on sale for about USD at $1,175 each.

1965 - Ferdinand Marcos becomes President of the Philippines.

1972 - Vietnam War: The US halts heavy bombing of North Vietnam.

1977 - Ted Bundy escapes from his cell in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.

1980 - After 25 years, the longest-running prime-time TV series The Wonderful World of Disney is cancelled by NBC.

1981 - Wayne Gretzky scores his 50th goal in 39 games, still a National Hockey League record.

1993 - Israel and the Vatican establish diplomatic relations.

1995 - The lowest ever UK temperature of -27.2°C was recorded at Altnaharra in the Scottish Highlands. This equalled the record set at Braemar, Aberdeenshire on February 11, 1895 and January 10, 1982.

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, 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 - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announces a ban on the sale of dietary supplement ephedra.

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, tying the record for the latest tropical cyclone ever to form in the North Atlantic basin.