We share “This Day in History” every day to help make our readers well-rounded and informed. It offers a chance to learn, appreciate our culture, make better decisions, and see the world from a wider perspective. Through understanding past events, we aim to help readers engage more with the present and future.
  • 30th January, 1649
    King Charles I of England is beheaded in London.
  • 30th January, 1790
    The first boat specializing as a lifeboat is tested on the River Tyne in England.
  • 30th January, 1820
    Edward Bransfield sights the Trinity Peninsula and claims the discovery of Antarctica.
  • 30th January, 1847
    Yerba Buena, California is renamed San Francisco.
  • 30th January, 1862
    The first American ironclad warship, the USS Monitor, is launched.
  • 30th January, 1889
    Archduke Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and Baroness Mary Vetsera die in a murder-suicide at Mayerling.
  • 30th January, 1922
    The British government releases the remaining Irish prisoners captured in the War of Independence.
  • 30th January, 1933
    Adolf Hitler is sworn in as Chancellor of Germany.
  • 30th January, 1948
    Mahatma Gandhi is assassinated by Nathuram Godse in New Delhi.
  • 30th January, 1956
    The home of Martin Luther King Jr. is bombed in retaliation for the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
  • 30th January, 1964
    Ranger 6 is launched by NASA, on a mission to carry television cameras and crash-land on the Moon.
  • 30th January, 1969
    The Beatles give their last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert is broken up by the police.
  • 30th January, 1972
    Bloody Sunday: British Paratroopers kill fourteen unarmed civil rights/anti internment marchers in Northern Ireland.
  • 30th January, 1976
    George Bush becomes the 11th director of the American Central Intelligence Agency.
  • 30th January, 1982
    Richard Skrenta writes the first PC virus code, which is 400 lines long and disguised as an Apple boot program called "Elk Cloner."
  • 30th January, 1994
    Péter Lékó becomes the youngest ever chess Grandmaster at the age of 14.
  • 30th January, 2003
    Belgium legally recognizes same-sex marriages.
  • 30th January, 2013
    Netherlands' Queen Beatrix abdicates in favor of her son, Willem-Alexander.
  • 30th January, 2015
    A gas truck explosion in the maternity hospital in Cuajimalpa, Mexico City, kills at least 7 people and injures 54.
  • 30th January, 2020
    The World Health Organization declares the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

NOTE: WHILE THE EVENTS LISTED ABOVE ARE FACTUAL, SOME SPECIFICS ARE ADDED BASED ON GENERALIZED KNOWLEDGE AND MAY NOT HAVE OCCURRED EXACTLY ON THAT DATE.
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