January 30

1648 - Eighty Years' War: The Treaty of MÃ¼nster and OsnabrÃ¼ck is signed, ending the conflict between the Netherlands and Spain. 1649 - King Charles I of England is beheaded. 1661 - Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England is ritually executed after having been dead for two years. 1790 - The first boat specializing as a lifeboat is tested on the River Tyne. 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. 1820 - Edward Bransfield sights the Trinity Peninsula and claims the discovery of Antarctica. 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. 1835 - In the first assassination attempt against a President of the United States, Richard Lawrence attempts to shoot president Andrew Jackson. 1841 - A fire destroys two-thirds of MayagÃ¼ez, Puerto Rico. 1847 - Yerba Buena, California is renamed San Francisco. 1858 - The first HallÃ© concert is given in Manchester, England, marking the official founding of the HallÃ© Orchestra as a full-time, professional orchestra. 1862 - The first American ironclad warship, the USS Monitor is launched. 1889 - Archduke Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian crown, is found dead with his mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera in Mayerling. 1911 - The destroyer USS Terry (DD-25) makes the first airplane rescue at sea saving the life of James McCurdy 10 miles from Havana, Cuba. 1911 - The Canadian Naval Service becomes the Royal Canadian Navy. 1913 - The United Kingdom's House of Lords rejects the Irish Home Rule Bill. 1925 - The Government of Turkey throws Patriarch Constantine VI out of Istanbul. 1930 - The world's first radiosonde is launched in Pavlovsk, USSR. 1933 - Adolf Hitler is sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. 1943 - World War II: Second day of the Battle of Rennell Island. TheUSS Chicago (CA-29) is sunk and a U.S. destroyer is heavily damaged by Japanese torpedoes. 1943 - Holocaust in Letychiv, Ukraine: The Nazi Gestapo commences mass shootings of Jews from Letychiv Ghetto. 200 surviving Jews from Letychiv slave labor camp are ordered to undress and are shot with a machine-gun into a ravine. Some 7,000 Jews were murdered in Letychiv. 1944 - World War II: United States troops land on Majuro. 1945 - The Wilhelm Gustloff, overfilled with refugees, sinks in the Baltic Sea after being torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, leading to the deadliest maritime disaster in known history, killing roughly 9,000 people. 1945 - World War II: Raid at Cabanatuan: 126 American Rangers and Filipino resistance liberate 500 prisoners from the Cabanatuan POW camp. 1945 - World War II: Hitler gives his last ever public address, a radio address on the 12th anniversary of his coming to power. (A subsequent address on February 24 was not read by Hitler.) 1948 - Indian pacifist and leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is assassinated by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist. 1956 - American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.'s home is bombed in retaliation for the Montgomery Bus Boycott. 1960 - The African National Party is founded in Chad, through the merger of traditionalist parties. 1962 - Two of the high-wire Flying Wallendas are killed when their seven-person pyramid collapses during a performance in Detroit, Michigan. 1964 - Ranger program: Ranger 6 is launched. 1968 - Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive begins when Viet Cong forces launch a series of surprise attacks in South Vietnam. 1969 - The Beatles' last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert is broken up by the police. 1972 - Bloody Sunday: British Paratroopers kill fourteen civil rights/anti internment marchers in Northern Ireland. 1972 - Pakistan withdraws from the Commonwealth of Nations. 1976 - George H. W. Bush becomes the 11th director of the CIA. 1979 - Varig 707-323C freighter, flown by the same commander as Flight 820, disappears over the Pacific Ocean 30 minutes after taking off from Tokyo. 1982 - Richard Skrenta writes the first PC virus code, which is 400 lines long and disguised as an Apple boot program called "Elk Cloner". 1989 - The American embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan closes. 1994 - PÃ©ter LÃ©kÃ³ becomes the youngest chess grand master. 1995 - Workers from the National Institutes of Health announce the success of clinical trials testing the first preventive treatment for sickle-cell disease. 1996 - Gino Gallagher, the suspected leader of the Irish National Liberation Army, is killed while waiting in line for his unemployment benefit. 1996 - Comet Hyakutake is discovered by Japanese amateur astronomer Yuji Hyakutake. 2000 - Off the coast of Ivory Coast, Kenya Airways Flight 431 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean, killing 169. 2003 - Belgium legally recognizes same-sex marriage.