Events on January 30 45
Year 1607
An estimated 200 square miles (51,800 ha) along the coasts of the Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary in England are destroyed by massive flooding, resulting in an estimated 2,000 deaths.
Year 1648
Eighty Years' War: The Treaty of Münster and Osnabrück is signed, ending the conflict between the Netherlands and Spain.
Year 1661
Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, is ritually executed more than two years after his death, on the 12th anniversary of the execution of the monarch he himself deposed.
Year 1703
The Forty-seven Ronin, under the command of Ōishi Kuranosuke, avenge the death of their master.
Year 1789
Tây Sơn forces emerge victorious against Qing armies and liberate the capital Thăng Long.
Year 1806
The original Lower Trenton Bridge (also called the Trenton Makes the World Takes Bridge), which spans the Delaware River between Morrisville, Pennsylvania and Trenton, New Jersey, is opened.
Year 1820
Edward Bransfield sights the Trinity Peninsula and claims the discovery of Antarctica.
Year 1826
The Menai Suspension Bridge, considered the world's first modern suspension bridge, connecting the Isle of Anglesey to the north West coast of Wales, is opened.
Year 1835
In the first assassination attempt against a President of the United States, Richard Lawrence attempts to shoot president Andrew Jackson, but fails and is subdued by a crowd, including several congressmen as well as Jackson himself.
Year 1858
The first Hallé concert is given in Manchester, England, marking the official founding of The Hallé orchestra as a full-time, professional orchestra.
Year 1889
Archduke Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian crown, is found dead with his mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera in the Mayerling.
Year 1908
Indian pacifist and leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is released from prison by Jan C. Smuts after being tried and sentenced to two months in jail earlier in the month.
Year 1911
The destroyer USS Terry makes the first airplane rescue at sea saving the life of Douglas McCurdy ten miles from Havana, Cuba.
Year 1916
The McMahon-Hussein Correspondence between Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca and the British official Henry McMahon concerning the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire ends.
Year 1942
World War II: Battle of Ambon. Japanese forces invade the island of Ambon in the Dutch East Indies. Some 300 captured Allied troops are massacred at Laha airfield. Three-fourths of remaining POWs did not survive at the end of the war, including 250 men who were shipped to Hainan Island in South China Sea and never returned.
Year 1943
World War II: Second day of the Battle of Rennell Island. The USS Chicago is sunk and a U.S. destroyer is heavily damaged by Japanese torpedoes.
Year 1944
World War II: The Battle of Cisterna, part of Operation Shingle, begins in central Italy.
Year 1945
World War II: The Wilhelm Gustloff, overfilled with German refugees, sinks in the Baltic Sea after being torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, killing approximately 9,500 people.
Year 1945
World War II: Raid at Cabanatuan: One hundred twenty-six American Rangers and Filipino resistance fighters liberate over 500 Allied prisoners from the Japanese-controlled Cabanatuan POW camp.
Year 1956
African-American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.'s home is bombed in retaliation for the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Year 1959
MS Hans Hedtoft, said to be the safest ship afloat and "unsinkable" like the RMS Titanic, strikes an iceberg on her maiden voyage and sinks, killing all 95 aboard.
Year 1960
The African National Party is founded in Chad, through the merger of traditionalist parties.
Year 1964
In a bloodless coup, General Nguyễn Khánh overthrows General Dương Văn Minh's military junta in South Vietnam.
Year 1968
Vietnam War: Tet Offensive launch by forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army against South Vietnam, the United States, and their allies.
Year 1969
The Beatles' last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert is broken up by the police.
Year 1972
The Troubles: Bloody Sunday: British paratroopers open fire on anti-internment marchers in Derry, Northern Ireland, killing 13 people; another person later dies of injuries sustained.
Year 1975
The Monitor National Marine Sanctuary is established as the first United States National Marine Sanctuary.
Year 1979
A Varig Boeing 707-323C freighter, flown by the same commander as Flight 820, disappears over the Pacific Ocean 30 minutes after taking off from Tokyo.
Year 1982
Richard Skrenta writes the first PC virus code, which is 400 lines long and disguised as an Apple boot program called "Elk Cloner".
Year 1995
Workers from the National Institutes of Health announce the success of clinical trials testing the first preventive treatment for sickle-cell disease.
Year 2000
Off the coast of Ivory Coast, Kenya Airways Flight 431 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean, killing 169.