December 30

Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. 

– Proverbs 8:34

December is:

Church Library Month

Born on this Day

• 0039: Titus 10th Roman Emperor, conqueror of Jerusalem
  

• 1642: Vincenzo da Filicaia, Florence, lyric poet
  

• 1851: Asa Griggs Candler developed Coca-Cola
  

• 1869: Canadian economist and humorist Stephen Leacock
  

• 1865: Rudyard Kipling, British author, best known for Jungle Book and Soldiers Three.
  

• 1867: Simon Guggenheim, philanthropist. Everyone flying today is a beneficiary of the Guggenheim team's vision and largesse.   (died aboard the Titanic)
  

• 1884: Tojo Hideki, Japanese Prime Minister during WWII. When the bellicose war minister and most powerful man in Japan, Army General Hideki Tojo, became prime minister in October 1941, there no longer was a chance of avoiding war with Britain and the United States.
  

• 1904: Dmitri Kabalevsky in St. Petersburg.
  

• 1910: Composer and pianist Paul Bowles.
  

• 1914: Former Miss America Pageant master of ceremonies Bert Parks
  

• 1928: Rock `n' roll pioneer Bo Diddley
  

• 1928: Actor Jack Lord (Steve McGarrett-Hawaii 5-0, God's Little Acre)
  

• 1931: Singer Skeeter Davis
  

• 1934: Actor Russ Tamblyn
  

• 1935: Sandy Koufax Dodger pitcher (Cy Young '63, '65, '66)
  

• 1937: Folk singer Paul Stookey
  

• 1937: Singer John Hartford
  

• 1938: Actor Joseph Bologna
  

• 1940: TV director James Burrows
  

• 1942: Singer-guitarist Michael Nesmith
  

• 1942: Actor Fred Ward
  

• 1945: Singer Davy Jones (Monkees-Last Train to Clarksville)
  

• 1946: Singer Patti Smith
  

• 1947: Rock singer-musician Jeff Lynne
  

• 1955: Actress Sheryl Lee Ralph ("Moesha")
  

• 1956: Actress Patricia Kalember
  

• 1956: Country singer Suzy Bogguss
  

• 1957: NBC newscaster Matt Lauer
  

• 1959: Actress comedienne Tracey Ullman
  

• 1961: Runner Ben Johnson
  

• 1962: Singer Paul Crowder (The Adventures-Sea of Love)
  

• 1963: Kim Hill
  

• 1969: Singer Jay Kay (Jamiroquai)
  

• 1975: Golfer Tiger Woods
  

• 1976: Actress Meredith Monroe ("Dawson's Creek")
  

• 1978: Singer Tyrese
  

• 1983: Rachel & Ross Trudeau twins of Jane Pauley & Gerry Trudeau 

Events in History on this day
  

• 0274: Death of St. Felix, Pope
  

• 0961: The Japanese Emperor moved into his rebuilt Palace at Kyoto
  

• 1460: The Duke of York is defeated and killed by Lancastrians at the Battle of Wakefield.
  

• 1501: Marriage of Lucrezia Borgia to Alfonso d'Este
  

• 1573: Giambattista Giraldi, Italian novelist, poet, dramatist dies
  

• 1591: Death of Pope Innocent IX
  

• 1622: Robert Gorges is made Lieutenant-Governor of New England
  

• 1635: Jan Baptista van Helmont, physician, alchemist, dies
  

• 1803: The United States takes possession of the Louisiana area at New Orleans with a simple ceremony, the simultaneous lowering and raising of the national flags.
  

• 1809: Wearing masks at balls forbidden in Boston.
  

• 1853: The United States bought 45,000 square miles of land along the Gila River from Mexico for $10 million. The deal is known ao the Gadsden Purchase. The area is now southern Arizona and New Mexico.
  

• 1862: The draft of the Emancipation Proclamation is finished and circulated around Lincoln’s cabinet for comment.
  

• 1877: Brahms' Second Symphony premiered in Vienna.
  

• 1903: Flames swept the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, killing 602 people. The fire led to safety regulations for theaters around the world.
  

• 1905: Governor Frank Steunenberg of Idaho is killed by an assassin’s bomb.
  

• 1905: "The Merry Widow" was premiered in Vienna and was an instant success for Franz Lehar.
  was born.
  

• 1911: Sun Yat-sen was elected the first president of the Republic of China.
  

• 1922: At the first Soviet Congress, Russia, Ukraine and two other Soviet republics signed a treaty, creating the Soviet Union.
  

• 1924: Edwin Hubble announces existence of other galactic systems.
  

• 1927: The first subway in the Orient was dedicated in Tokyo, Japan. Its last extension was added in 1980, making the Tokyo underground railroad network the sixth longest in the world at 135 miles. It is surpassed only by Washington, DC, London, New York, Paris and Moscow.
  

• 1932: The USSR bars food handouts for housewives under 36 years of age. They must now work to eat.
  

• 1936: The United Auto Workers union staged its first "sit-down" strike, at the Fisher Body Plant Number One in Flint, Michigan.
  

• 1936: The famous feud between Jack Benny and Fred Allen was ignited on this night. After a 10-year-old performer finished a violin solo on "The Fred Allen Show", Mr. Allen said, "A certain alleged violinist should hide his head in shame for his poor fiddle playing." It didn't take long for Mr. Benny to respond. The humorous feud lasted for years on both comedian's radio shows.
  

• 1940: California's first freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway connecting Los Angeles and Pasadena, was officially opened.
  

• 1942: Frank Sinatra opened at New York's Paramount Theatre for what was scheduled to be a 4-week engagement (his shows turned out to be so popular, he was booked for an additional 4 weeks).
  

• 1944: King George the Second of Greece proclaimed a regency to rule his country, virtually renouncing the throne.
  

• 1947: King Michael of Romania agreed to abdicate, but charged he was being forced off the throne by Communists.
  

• 1948: Alfred Drake and Patricia Morrison starred as "Kiss Me Kate" opened at the New Century Theatre in New York City. Cole Porter composed the music for the classic play that was adapted from Shakespeare's comedy, "Taming of the Shrew".
  

• 1954: Pearl Bailey opened on Broadway in the play, "House of Flowers", about two madams with rival bordellos.
  

• 1965: Ferdinand E. Marcos is sworn in as the Philippine Republic’s sixth president.
  

• 1969: Peter, Paul and Mary received a gold record for the single, "Leaving On a Jet Plane". The song had hit #1 on December 20, 1969.
  

• 1970: Paul McCartney sued the other three Beatles to dissolve the partnership and gain control of his interest. The suit touched off a bitter feud between McCartney and the others, especially his co-writer on many of the Beatles compositions, John Lennon. The partnership officially came to end in 1974.
  

• 1972: After two weeks of heavy bombing raids on North Vietnam, President Nixon halts the air offensive and agrees to resume peace negotiations with Hanoi representative Le Duc Tho.
  

• 1976: Governor Carey of New York pardons seven inmates to close the book on the Attica uprising.
  

• 1978: Ohio State dismisses Woody Hayes as its football coach.
  

• 1980: The longest-running series in prime time television history was canceled by NBC. "The Wonderful World of Disney" was canceled after more than 25 years on TV.
  

• 1986: US begins Military exercises in Honduras
  

• 1987: Manufacturers of all-terrain vehicles agreed to withdraw the three-wheel model from dealers' inventories, but stopped short of a recall, as demanded by groups who felt the ATV's were dangerous.
  

• 1988: Forty-nine-year-old director Peter Bogdanovich weds twenty-year-old Louise Hoogstratten, the younger sister of his murdered fiancée, Dorothy Stratten.
  

• 1988: President Reagan and President-elect Bush were subpoenaed to testify as defense witnesses in the pending Iran-Contra trial of Oliver North. (The subpoenas, however, were subsequently quashed.)
  

• 1989: A Northwest Airlines DC-10, which had been the target of a telephoned threat, flew safely from Paris to Detroit with 17 passengers aboard amid extra-tight security.
  

• 1990: Iraq's information minister (Latif Nussayif Jassim) said President Bush "must have been drunk" when he suggested Iraq might withdraw from Kuwait, and added: "We will show the world America is a paper tiger." 
  

• 1992: President Bush embarked on the final foreign trip of his term in office, heading to a Black Sea summit with Russian President Boris Yeltsin, with a stopover in Somalia to visit US troops helping famine victims.
  

• 1993: Israel and the Vatican agreed to recognize each other. Hollywood agent Irving "Swifty" Lazar died in Beverly Hills, California, at age 86.
  

• 1993: Israel and the Vatican agreed to recognize one another.
  

• 1994: US Army helicopter pilot Bobby Hall walked to freedom 13 days after he was captured by North Korea in a shootdown that claimed the life of co-pilot David Hilemon.
  

• 1994: A gunman walked into a pair of suburban Boston abortion clinics and opened fire, killing two employees and wounding five other people (John C. Salvi the Third was later convicted of murder; he committed suicide in prison)
  

• 1995: A US military policeman, Martin John Begosh, became the first American injured in NATO's fledgling Bosnia peace mission when his Humvee hit an anti-tank mine. 
  

• 1996: About three dozen people were killed when a bomb exploded on an Indian commuter train; a militant group claimed responsibility.
  

• 1997: The single deadliest massacre in Algeria's insurgency began in four mountain villages as armed men killed 412 men, women and children in an attack that lasted from dusk until dawn the following morning.
  

• 1998: Weak but radiant with pride, Nkem Chukwu, the mother of the Houston octuplets, went home from the hospital.
  

• 1999: In Tampa, Florida, a gunman opened fire inside a hotel, killing four workers before shooting a fifth person dead as he tried to escape. (A suspect, Silvio Izquierdo-Leyva, has pleaded innocent.) 
  

• 1999: Sarah "Sadie" Clark Knauss, listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest person with a verifiable date of birth, died in Allentown, Pennsylvania, at age 119.
  

• 1999:  Former Beatle George Harrison fought off a knife-wielding intruder who broke into his mansion west of London and stabbed him in the chest. (Michael Abram was later acquitted of attempted murder by reason of insanity.)  
  

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