Today is Wednesday, Dec. 30, the 364th day of 2015. There is one day left in the year.
Highlights in history on this date:
1758 – French forces advance against Madras in India.
1777 – Bavaria, on death of Maximillian III, passes to Charles Theodore, Elector of Palatine, igniting the War of the Bavarian Succession.
1803 – Sindhia of Gwalior submits to British in India.
1853 – Gadsden Purchase signed with Mexico to sell southern portion of Arizona and New Mexico to the United States for $10 million.
1880 – Transvaal Boers under Stephanus Kruger declare a republic.
1886 – Germany and Portugal agree on boundaries between Angola and German Southwest Africa.
1903 – Some 600 people die in the Iroquois Theater fire in Chicago.
1911 – Revolutionary Provisional Assembly in China elects Dr. Sun Yat-sen as the nation’s first president.
1922 – Transcaucasian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, consisting of Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, joins the Soviet Union.
1947 – Romania’s King Michael abdicates under Communist pressure.
1949 – France transfers sovereignty to Vietnam.
1954 – French National Assembly ends four years of indecision over West German rearmament by agreeing to bring West Germany into the Western European Union.
1958 – French West African states decide to form a federation within the French community.
1962 – China warns that the cease-fire in border conflict with India is unstable.
1964 – U.N. Security Council calls for an end to all foreign intervention in the Congo, a cease-fire and withdrawal of mercenaries.
1972 – United States halts its heavy bombing of North Vietnam.
1980 – Spanish government agrees to allow the autonomous Basque government to raise taxes in the region and return only about one-third of the revenue to Madrid.
1989 – Polish Parliament approves reforms that allow formation of political parties, protect private property and deny Communist Party guaranteed monopoly on power.
1992 – The California gray whale, a species once threatened with extinction, is removed from the endangered species list.
1993 – Israel and the Vatican agree to establish full diplomatic ties.
1994 – North Korea releases U.S. Army helicopter pilot Bobby Hall, ending a 13-day crisis.
1996 – A powerful bomb explodes inside a packed express train in northeastern India, killing 38 passengers.
1997 – China announces stronger restrictions on the use of the Internet, aiming to curtail the use of email and the World Wide Web among dissidents.
1998 – The U.S. Federal Trade Commission approves the $53 billion merger of British Petroleum Co. and Amoco Corp.
1999 – A man walks into the office of Pakistan’s largest Urdu-language newspaper and confesses to killing 100 children.
2002 – New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg signs a law banning smoking in almost all bars and restaurants in the city starting March 30, 2003.
2006 – Saddam Hussein, 69, the shotgun-waving dictator who ruled Iraq for a quarter-century and was driven from power by a U.S.-led war that left his country in shambles, is taken to the gallows and executed.
2009 – A suicide bomber detonates his explosive vest at a military base in eastern Afghanistan, killing eight American civilians.
2010 -Former Israeli President Moshe Katsav is convicted of rape, a dramatic fall from grace for a man who rose from humble beginnings to become a symbol of achievement for Jews of Middle Eastern origin.
2011 -Hundreds of Sunni Muslims gather in Baghdad to celebrate the withdrawal of American forces, but in a sign of the sectarian divisions that re-emerged immediately after their departure, Shiite Muslims did not join the event.
2013 – Two suicide bombings in as many days have killed 31 people and raised concerns Islamic militants have begun a terror campaign in Russia.
2014 – President Vladimir Putin’s chief political foe is convicted in a fraud case widely seen as a vendetta by the Kremlin, triggering one of Russia’s boldest anti-government demonstrations in years.
Today’s Birthdays:
Rudyard Kipling, English author (1865-1936); Stephen Leacock, Canadian humorist (1869-1944); Carol Reed, English film director (1906-1976); Bo Diddley, U.S. singer/guitarist (1928-2008); Skeeter Davis, U.S. singer (1931-2004); Patti Smith, U.S. punk musician (1946–); Tracey Ullman, British actress-singer (1959–).
Thought For Today:
The meek shall inherit the earth — if that’s all right with you — Anonymous.
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