/year

January 30 in history

207 sourced entries recorded on January 30, from 330 BCE to 2025 CE. Every line is quoted from the revision it came from.

Events

  • 330 BCEAfter gaining the Pass of the Persian Gates, Alexander enters Persepolis. There he ceremonially burns down the palace of Xerxes I, as a symbol that the Panhellenic war of revenge is at an end.source
  • 9 BCEThe Ara Pacis ("Altar of Augustan Peace"), which was voted for by the Senate four years earlier, is dedicated.source
  • 1018The Peace of Bautzen: Emperor Henry II signs a peace treaty with Bolesław I the Brave, Duke of Poland, ending the German–Polish War. Poland keeps Lusatia – the Holy Roman Empire keeps Bohemia. With this peace agreement, Bolesław redirects his forces on an offensive against the Kievan Rus'.source
  • 1164King Henry II tries to delimit spiritual and royal jurisdictions in the Constitutions of Clarendon, written in large part by his councilor Richard de Luci.source
  • 1165Closeted Emperor Go-Shirakawa holds an opening ceremony for the Sanjūsangen-dō, a temple built by Taira no Kiyomori in Japan.source
  • 1226King Louis VIII of France takes the cross to resume the Albigensian Crusade against the Catharism movement in Languedoc in southern France.source
  • 1287Wareru creates the Hanthawaddy kingdom (modern Myanmar) following the collapse of the Pagan Kingdom. He is crowned king on April 5 and declares himself independent of Pagan.source
  • 1321The Welsh Earls of Hereford, Arundel and Surrey, and 26 other people are forbidden from attending any meetings to discuss matters affecting King Edward II.source
  • 1349Günther von Schwarzburg is elected Holy Roman Emperorsource
  • 1375(28th day of 12th month of Bunchu 3) Emperor Go-En'yū is enthroned in Kyoto as Emperor of Northern Japan, after having succeeded his father, Emperor Go-Kōgon, in 1374.source
  • 1380Simon Sudbury, the Archbishop of Canterbury, becomes the new Lord Chancellor of England, succeeding Baron Scrope of Bolton. Sudbury will continue in office as both archbishop and lord chancellor until his assassination on June 14, 1381, during the Peasants' Revolt.source
  • 1384Margaret III becomes the Countess of Flanders upon the death of her 53-year-old father, Count Louis II. Margaret and her husband Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, become co-rulers of both Flanders and Burgundy.source
  • 1413The First Scutari War between the Kingdom of Zeta (part of modern-day Albania and Montenegro) and the Venetian Republic comes to an end.source
  • 1415(19th day of 12th month Ōei 21) Shoko is formally enthroned as the new Emperor of Japan, more than two years after the abdication of his father, the Emperor Go-Komatsu.source
  • 1447Giano di Campofregoso is elected as the new Doge of Genoa the day after his family forces Barnaba Adorno out of the city.source
  • 1465Charles VIII of Sweden is deposed. Clergyman Kettil Karlsson Vasa becomes Regent of Sweden.source
  • 1475An alliance between the Duchy of Burgundy (ruled by Charles the Bold), the Duchy of Savoy (ruled by Filiberto the Hunter) and the Duchy of Milan (ruled by Galeazzo Maria Sforza) is created by the signing of a treaty at the city of Moncalieri, in Savoy near Turin.source
  • 1509French ambassador Janus Lascaris leaves Venice, after being recalled by king Louis XII in the eve of the War of the League of Cambrai.source
  • 1517Cairo is captured by the Ottoman Empire after a three day battle, and the Mamluk Sultanate falls. The Abbasid Caliphate, reestablished in 1261, falls to the Ottomans and the last Caliph, Al-Mutawakkil III, is deported along with his family to Constantinople.source
  • 1554Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, one of the English conspirators in Wyatt's rebellion, leads troops from Leicester to Coventry, but the group finds that the gates of the city are closed because the rebellion has been exposed.source
  • 1594Joyous Entry into Brussels and Antwerp of Archduke Ernest of Austriasource
  • 1598In Italy Cesare d'Este moves the capital of the Duchy of Modena and Reggio to the city of Modena, after the Duchy of Ferrara is declared by Pope Clement VIII to be at an end.source
  • 1607Coastal flooding around Britain, probably a storm surge, including Bristol Channel floods in which a massive wave sweeps along the Bristol Channel, killing an estimated 2,000 people.source
  • 1615Japan's diplomatic mission to Europe, led by Hasekura Tsunenaga, meets with King Philip III of Spain at Madrid and presents an offer of a treaty.source
  • 1631Gaston, Duke of Orléans, breaks with Cardinal Richelieu and leaves the court.source
  • 1644Battle of Ochmatów: Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth forces under hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski secure a substantial victory over the army of the Crimean Khanate under Tugay Bey.source
  • 1644Dutch explorer Abel Tasman departs from Batavia in the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Jakarta in Indonesia) on his second major expedition for the Dutch East India Company, to map the north coast of Australia. Tasman commands three ships, Limmen, Zeemeeuw and Braek, and returns to Batavia at the beginning of August with no major discoveries.source
  • 1647Scots hand over King Charles I to England in return for £40,000 of army back-pay. Thomas Fairfax meets the King beyond Nottingham and escorts him to Holdenby House in Northamptonshire.source
  • 1648The Dutch and the Spanish sign the Peace of Münster, ending the Eighty Years' War. The Spanish Empire recognizes the Dutch Republic of United Netherlands as a sovereign state (governed by the House of Orange-Nassau and the States General), which was previously a province of the Spanish Empire. The treaty is ratified by the Netherlands on May 15.source
  • 1649Prince Charles Stuart declares himself King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland. At this time none of the three Kingdoms have recognised him as ruler. Parliament this day has passed an "Act prohibiting the proclaiming any person to be King of England or Ireland, or the Dominions thereof".source
  • 1649Prince Charles Stuart declares himself King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland. At the time all three Kingdoms had not recognised him as ruler.source
  • 1649HMS Garland (of Topsham), carrying some of the royal possessions into exile, is wrecked in St Ives Bay (Cornwall) with only 2 survivors of about sixty passengers and crew.source
  • 1658The "March Across the Belts" (Tåget över Bält), Sweden's use of winter weather to send troops across the waters of the Danish Straits at a time when winter has turned them to ice, begins. Within 17 days, Sweden's King Karl X Gustav leads troops across the ice belts to capture six of Denmark's islands as Swedish territory.source
  • 1658The March across the Belts begins when the harsh winter weather, which has also forced the Danish fleet to port, enables a Swedish army of 9,000 cavalrymen and 3,000 foot soldiers to move across the ice of Little Belt from Jutland to Gunen.source
  • 1661the bodies of Oliver Cromwell, Henry Ireton, John Bradshaw and Thomas Pride are exhumed and subjected to a posthumous execution. Oliver Cromwell's head (with the others') is placed on a spike above the Palace of Westminster.source
  • 1661The body of Oliver Cromwell is exhumed and subjected to a posthumous execution in London, along with those of John Bradshaw and Henry Ireton.source
  • 1679The Orthodox Confession of Faith is drafted up in the Buckinghamshire Assembly and signed by 54 messengers and elders of all Baptist churches in Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, and Oxfordshire, in England.source
  • 1688January 30 (January 20, 1687 old style) – King James II of England and Scotland issues a proclamation offering amnesty to pirates in the West Indies who surrender to Sir Robert Holmes.source
  • 1689The first performance of the opera Henrico Leone composed by Agostino Steffani takes place in Hannover to inaugurate the new royal theatre in the Leineschloss.source
  • 1692English Army General John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, a close adviser to King William III of England, is fired from all of his jobs by the English Secretary of State, the Earl of Nottingham, on orders of Queen Mary II.source
  • 1698William Kidd, who initially seized foreign ships under authority as a privateer for the British Empire before becoming a pirate, becomes an outlaw and uses his ship, the Adventure Galley, to capture an Indian ship, the valuable Quedagh Merchant, near India.source
  • 1703The famed Forty-seven Samurai avenge their leader, Asano Naganori out of loyalty by attacking and killing Kira Kozuke no Suke Yoshinaka, despite being ordered not to. (Traditional Japanese Date: Fourteenth Day of the Twelfth Month, 1702)source
  • 1744Execution of Skinnar Per Andersson.source
  • 1790Olowalu Massacre: American Captain Simon Metcalfe opens fire with cannon towards villagers in canoes, killing about one hundred Hawaiians, and wounding many others.source
  • 1790The first boat specialized as a rescue lifeboat is tested on the River Tyne in England.source
  • 1799Congress passes the Logan Act, forbidding unauthorized citizens from negotiating with foreign governments, in response to George Logan's unofficial attempt to negotiate peace between the U.S. and France.source
  • 1803Monroe and Livingston sail for Paris to discuss, and possibly buy, New Orleans; they end up completing the Louisiana Purchase.source
  • 1803George Bass asks Governor King of New South Wales for a fishing monopoly from a line bisecting New Zealand from Dusky Sound to Otago Harbour extending south to include the subantarctic islands. It is not granted but shows the sealers' area of interest at this time.source
  • 1803Napoleon authorizes the celebration of a Joan of Arc feast in Orléans on 8 May.source
  • 1816wrecking of the Sea Horse, Boadicea and Lord Melville (military transport ships) off Tramore in a gale with the loss of over 500 persons.source
  • 1816Wrecking of the Sea Horse, Boadicea and Lord Melville (military transport ships) off the coast of Ireland in a gale with the loss of around 570.source
  • 1819An informal agreement was written between the Temenggong and the British and the Union Jack is raised with a little ceremony.source
  • 1820British Royal Navy captain Edward Bransfield, an Irishman, becomes the first person to positively identify Antarctica as a land mass.source
  • 1820Royal Navy captain Edward Bransfield in the Williams is the first person to positively identify Antarctica as a land mass.source
  • 1826The Menai Suspension Bridge, built by engineer Thomas Telford as the first major suspension bridge in world history, is opened between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales.source
  • 1826Opening of the Menai Suspension Bridge, designed by Thomas Telford.source
  • 1827The first public theatre in Norway, the Christiania Offentlige Theater, is inaugurated in Christiania (modern-day Oslo).source
  • 1827The Rosanna leaves the Hokianga Harbour for Sydney signalling the end of the attempt by the 1825 New Zealand Company to settle New Zealand.source
  • 1829Massacre at the Russian Embassy in Tehran.source
  • 1835Attempted assassination of Andrew Jackson: The first assassination attempt against a President of the United States is carried out against President Andrew Jackson at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., by English-born delusional unemployed house painter Richard Lawrence; the attempt fails when his pistols misfire due to humidity.source
  • 1836the Intrinsic sinks off Kilkee with the loss of all fourteen on board.source
  • 1841El Salvador proclaims itself an independent republic, bringing an end to the Federal Republic of Central America.source
  • 1841A fire destroys two-thirds of the city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.source
  • 1841A fire destroys 300 of the 500 housing units in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, Spanish Empire.source
  • 1846The City of Milwaukee is incorporated in Wisconsin, merging Juneautown, Kilbourntown and Walker's Point following the Milwaukee Bridge War of 1845. Solomon Juneau is elected first mayor.source
  • 1847Lord Elgin, Governor, arrives at Montreal.source
  • 1847Yerba Buena, California, is renamed San Francisco.source
  • 1862American Civil War: The first U.S. ironclad warship, USS Monitor, is launched in Brooklyn.source
  • 1868January 27–31 – Battle of Toba–Fushimi: forces of the Tokugawa shogunate and the allied pro-Imperial forces of the Chōshū, Satsuma and Tosa Domains clash near Fushimi, Kyoto, ending in a decisive victory for the Imperial forces (although in the January 28 naval Battle of Awa, the Shogunate is victorious against Satsuma).source
  • 1869the new magazine Vanity Fair publishes the first of a long series of colour lithographic caricatures of public figures, initially by Carlo Pellegrini, portraying Benjamin Disraeli.source
  • 1883England defeats Australia 2–1 in the 1882–83 Test cricket series, reclaiming "The Ashes" of English cricket.source
  • 1886SS Fulmar sinks off Kilkee with the loss of all 17 aboard.source
  • 1888The Presbyterian Church of New South Wales establishes its first school, the Presbyterian Ladies' College, Sydney.source
  • 1888The first strike in Romania takes place when 300 workers at the Romanian Railways Workshop in Galați walk out in solidarity following the dismissal of a colleague, Ioan A. Ionescu.source
  • 1889Mayerling incident: Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria, and his mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera commit a double suicide (or a murder-suicide) at the Mayerling hunting lodge in the Vienna Woods.source
  • 1893The Federal Bank collapses, starting the Australian banking crisis of 1893.source
  • 1893Old Head coinage introduced.source
  • 1900Luis Gálvez Rodríguez de Arias is restored to the governorship of Acre.source
  • 1902The Anglo-Japanese Alliance is signed.source
  • 1905The U.S. Supreme Court renders its unanimous decision in the landmark case of Swift & Co. v. United States, allowing the federal government to regulate monopolies.source
  • 1905The Supreme Court renders its unanimous decision in the landmark case of Swift & Co. v. United States, allowing the federal government to regulate monopolies.source
  • 1906The proclamation of Frederick VIII as King of Denmark.source
  • 1908Mahatma Gandhi is released from prison by Jan Smuts after having been tried and sentenced to 2 months in prison earlier in the month.source
  • 1913The Ottoman Empire replied to the ultimatum of the Great Powers at the end of the First Balkan War and agreed to give up most of Edirne except for the Muslim shrines, but it refused to surrender its Aegean islands.source
  • 1924January 20–30 – Kuomintang in China holds its first National Congress, initiating a policy of alliance with the Soviet Union and the Chinese Communist Party.source
  • 1925January 27–February 1 – The 1925 serum run to Nome (the "Great Race of Mercy") relays diphtheria antitoxin by dog sled across the U.S. Territory of Alaska to combat an epidemic.source
  • 1930Pavel Molchanov launches a radiosonde from Slutsk in the Soviet Union.source
  • 1931Charlie Chaplin comedy drama film City Lights receives its public premiere at the Los Angeles Theater with Albert Einstein as guest of honor. Contrary to the current trend in cinema, it is a silent film, but with a score by Chaplin. Critically and commercially successful from the start, it will place consistently in lists of films considered the best of all time.source
  • 1933Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany by President of Germany Paul von Hindenburg.source
  • 1933Édouard Daladier forms a government in France in succession to Joseph Paul-Boncour. He is succeeded on October 26 by Albert Sarraut and on November 26 by Camille Chautemps.source
  • 1933The Zionist Youth Aliyah movement is founded in Germany with the aim of arranging the resettlement of Jewish youth in Palestine in kibbutzim and youth villages, where they would be trained for agricultural work.source
  • 1937The Moscow Trial initiated on January 23 is concluded. Thirteen of the defendants are sentenced to death (including Georgy Pyatakov, Nikolay Muralov and Leonid Serebryakov), while the rest, including Karl Radek and Grigory Sokolnikov are sent to labor camps and later murdered. They were initially spared for implicating others, including Rykov, Bukharin and Tukhachevsky, setting the stage for further trialssource
  • 1939Hitler gives a speech before the Reichstag calling for an "export battle" to increase German foreign exchange holdings. The same speech also sees "Hitler's prophecy", where he warns that if "Jewish financiers" start a war against Germany, "the result will be the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe".source
  • 1939Hitler gives a speech before the Reichstag calling for an "export battle" to increase German foreign exchange holdings. The same speech also sees Hitler's "prophecy" where he warns that if "Jewish financers" start a war against Germany, the "result will be the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe".source
  • 1943Yenice Conference, a meeting between İsmet İnönü and Winston Churchill in which the British side tried to persuade Turkey to join war.source
  • 1943January 29–30 – WWII: Battle of Rennell Island – The Imperial Japanese Navy resists the United States Navy's attempt to interrupt the withdrawal of Japanese forces from Guadalcanal, in the last major naval battle of the Guadalcanal campaign.source
  • 1944Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees is founded.source
  • 1945Raid at Cabanatuan: 121 American soldiers and 800 Filipino guerrillas free 813 American prisoners of war from the Japanese-held camp in the city of Cabanatuan, in the Philippines.source
  • 1945Adolf Hitler makes his last public speech, on broadcast radio, expressing the belief that Germany will triumph.source
  • 1948Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi: Indian pacifist and leader Mahatma Gandhi is shot by Nathuram Godse in New Delhi.source
  • 1948The 1948 Winter Olympics open in St Moritz, Switzerland.source
  • 1948South Korea sends ski athletes for the 1948 Winter Olympics.source
  • 1957The General Assembly of the United Nations calls on South Africa to reconsider its apartheid policy.source
  • 1959Danish passenger/cargo ship MS Hans Hedtoft, returning to Copenhagen after its maiden voyage to Greenland, strikes an iceberg and sinks off the Greenland coast with the loss of all 95 on board.source
  • 1959M/S Hans Hedtoft sinks on the way back to Denmark. 95 lives are lost.source
  • 1961President John F. Kennedy delivers his first State of the Union Address.source
  • 1964General Nguyễn Khánh leads a bloodless military coup d'état, replacing Dương Văn Minh as Prime Minister of South Vietnam.source
  • 1964January 29 – February 9 – The 1964 Winter Olympics are held in Innsbruck, Austria.source
  • 1965The state funeral of Sir Winston Churchill takes place in London with the largest assembly of dignitaries in the world until the 2005 funeral of Pope John Paul II.source
  • 1968Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive begins as Viet Cong forces launch a series of surprise attacks across South Vietnam.source
  • 1968The Ellenborough Market is destroyed in a fire, causing S$253,000 in damages and affecting about 1000 hawkers and stall-holders. The market is demolished a few years later.source
  • 1972Bloody Sunday: The British Army kills 14 unarmed nationalist civil rights marchers in Derry, Northern Ireland.source
  • 1973The 7.5 Ms Colima earthquake causes 56 deaths, 390 injuries, and a non-destructive tsunami in Mexico.source
  • 1975Turkish Airlines Flight 345 crashes in Marmara Sea due to airport infrastructure problems.source
  • 1982The first computer virus, the Elk Cloner, written by 15-year old Rich Skrenta, is found. It infects Apple II computers via floppy disk.source
  • 1983Chinese newspaper People's Daily reports that the nation will run out of food and clothes by the year 2000 if the state's population control efforts are not successful.source
  • 1983The Washington Redskins defeat the Miami Dolphins to win Super Bowl XVII at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.source
  • 1993The Red Line (later known as the B Line) officially begins service in Los Angeles, becoming the first underground rapid transit line to open in almost 70 years.source
  • 1996President Samper calls a special Congress into session and admits that money tied to drug trafficking aided his 1994 election campaign, but insists he was deceived. He demands that Congress investigate the situation and himself to determine responsibility.source
  • 1999Anwar Hossain, leader of Khulna Jubo League, is shot dead.source
  • 2000Kenya Airways Flight 431 crashes off the Ivory Coast into the Atlantic Ocean, killing 169 people.source
  • 2002Journalist Orlando Sierra Hernández is shot in the head twice while walking with his daughter in Manizales, Caldas. He dies in the hospital the following day.source
  • 2005January 26–30: World Economic Forum in Davossource
  • 2006Jennifer San Marco goes on a killing spree in Goleta, California, United States, that leaves seven people dead before she takes her own life.source
  • 2007Windows Vista is released to consumers by Microsoft.source
  • 2007Ban Ki-moon, the new Secretary General of United Nations visits Kenya.source
  • 2008FBI director Robert Mueller visits Vietnam and Cambodia on a mission to expand legal cooperation. In Phnom Penh, he is to open a new FBI office.source
  • 2008A 6.6-magnitude earthquake shakes Maluku, Indonesia, and triggers a tsunami alert, which is later lifted. The epicenter was on the sea bed about 160 miles northeast of Dili.source
  • 2012A US drone airstrike kills 15 members of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Lawdar in the Abyan Governorate.source
  • 2016Jamaican health officials confirm the country's first case of the Zika virus in a 4-year-old child who recently returned from a trip to Texas.source
  • 2017Morocco rejoins the African Union.source
  • 2025A court in Cotonou convicts businessman Olivier Boko, his brother-in-law Rock Nieri, who is in hiding, and former sports minister Oswald Homeky of plotting a coup against President Patrice Talon and sentences them to 20 years' imprisonment and a fine of 60 billion CFA francs ($95 million).source

Births

  • 133Didius Julianus, Roman emperor (according to Cassius Dio) (died 193)source
  • 1410William Calthorpe, English knight (died 1494)source
  • 1520William More, English courtier (died 1600)source
  • 1563Franciscus Gomarus, Dutch theologian (died 1641)source
  • 1573Georg Friedrich, Margrave of Baden-Durlach (1604–1622) (died 1638)source
  • 1580Gundakar, Prince of Liechtenstein, court official in Vienna (died 1658)source
  • 1581Christian, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (1603–1655) (died 1655)source
  • 1590Lady Anne Clifford, 14th Baroness de Clifford (died 1676)source
  • 1615Thomas Rolfe, only child of Pocahontas and her English husband (died 1675)source
  • 1617William Sancroft, 79th Archbishop of Canterbury (died 1693)source
  • 1628George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, English statesman (died 1687)source
  • 1649Lionel Tollemache, 3rd Earl of Dysart, British politician and nobleman (died 1727)source
  • 1697Johann Joachim Quantz, German flautist and composer (died 1773)source
  • 1720Charles De Geer, Swedish industrialist, entomologist (died 1778)source
  • 1775Walter Savage Landor, English writer and poet (died 1864)source
  • 1781Adelbert von Chamisso, German poet and scientist (died 1838)source
  • 181330 January (in England): William Charles Cotton, missionary.source
  • 1816Nathaniel P. Banks, American politician, general (died 1894)source
  • 1818Artúr Görgey, Hungarian military general, politician (died 1916)source
  • 1882Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States (died 1945)source
  • 1884Pedro Pablo Ramírez, president of Argentinasource
  • 1894King Boris III of Bulgaria (died 1943)source
  • 1909Saul Alinsky, American community organizer (died 1972)source
  • 1915Joachim Peiper, German Waffen-SS officer (died 1976)source
  • 1927Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden (died 1986)source
  • 1937Boris Spassky, Russian chess grandmaster (died 2025)source
  • 1941Dick Cheney, 46th Vice President of the United States (died 2025)source
  • 1951Phil Collins, English rock musician and producersource
  • 1960Claude Wiseler, politiciansource
  • 1967Toni Duarte, footballersource
  • 1968King Felipe VI of Spainsource
  • 1972Mike Johnson, 56th Speaker of the US House of Representativessource
  • 1987Becky Lynch, Irish professional wrestlersource

Deaths

  • 232Hua Xin, Chinese official and politician (born 157)source
  • 680Balthild, queen of the Frankssource
  • 970Peter I, emperor of Bulgariasource
  • 1164William of Anjou, viscount of Dieppe (born 1136)source
  • 1181Takakura, emperor of Japan (born 1161)source
  • 1230Pelagio Galvani, Leonese cardinal (born 1165)source
  • 1314Nicholas III of Saint Omer, Latin noblemansource
  • 1344William Montacute, 1st Earl of Salisbury (born 1301)source
  • 1384Louis II, Count of Flanders (born 1330)source
  • 1486Jacques of Savoy, Count of Romont, Prince of Savoy (born 1450)source
  • 1486Jacques of Savoy, Count of Romontsource
  • 1497Lê Thánh Tông, Emperor of Vietnam (born 1442)source
  • 1512Reinhard IV, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg (1500–1512) (born 1473)source
  • 1528Maharana Sangram Singh, Rana of Mewar (born 1484)source
  • 1574Damião de Góis, Portuguese philosopher (born 1502)source
  • 1606Robert Wintour, English conspirator (executed) (born 1568)source
  • 1606Everard Digby, English conspirator (executed) (born 1578)source
  • 1608Jon Jakobsen Venusinus, theologian, naturalist and historian (born c. 1558)source
  • 1645Mary Ward, English Roman Catholic Religious Sister and Venerable (born 1585)source
  • 1649The deposed King Charles I is beheaded outside the Banquet Hall in the Palace of Whitehall, London. The Commonwealth of England, with a republican form of government, replaces the monarchy as the form of government of England and members of the Long Parliament serve as government. Charles, Prince of Wales declares himself as King of England, Scotland and Ireland pending restoration of the monarchy.source
  • 1649King Charles I of England, Scotland, and Ireland (executed) (born 1600)source
  • 1652Georges de La Tour, French Baroque painter (born 1593)source
  • 1664Cornelis de Graeff, Dutch mayor (born 1599)source
  • 1703January 30 (December 14 of previous year in the Chinese calendar) – Akō incident: In Japan, forty-seven rōnin (independent samurai) assassinate daimyō Kira Yoshinaka, the enemy of their former lord Asano Naganori, at his own mansion as a vengeance; for which they are compelled to commit suicide on March 20.source
  • 1705Janet Cornfoot is killed by a mob, and Thomas Brown is starved to death, for accusations of witchcraft at Pittenweem subsequently exposed as perjuries.source
  • 1716Marie Casimire Louise de La Grange d'Arquien, French-born Polish consort to King John III Sobieski (born 1641)source
  • 1730Emperor Peter II of Russia (born 1715)source
  • 1730January 30 (January 19 O.S.) – At dawn, Emperor Peter II of Russia dies of smallpox, aged 14 in Moscow, on the eve of his projected marriage.source
  • 1730Peter II of Russia, Emperor. (born 1715)source
  • 1738Benoît de Maillet, French diplomat and natural historian (born 1656)source
  • 1836Betsy Ross, maker, designer of the first American flag (born 1752)source
  • 1867Emperor Kōmei of Japan dies suddenly, age 36, leaving his son Mutsuhito to succeed him.source
  • 1867Emperor Kōmei, 121st Emperor of Japan (born 1831)source
  • 1867January 30 (Keiō 2, 25th day of the 12th month) – Emperor Kōmei dies of smallpox. He had suffered a fatally violent bout of vomiting and diarrhea. Since he had consistently opposed the anti-bakufu forces this was distinctly convenient for them and it was rumored that he was assassinated, either by radicals from Choshu or radical officials in the court. However, there is no evidence of this and it is generally believed that he was simply one more victim of what was a worldwide pandemic at the time.source
  • 1918Meir Meivar, Israeli politician and businessman, Haganah commander during the Civil War in Mandatory Palestine (died 2000).source
  • 1945MV Wilhelm Gustloff, with over 10,000 mainly civilian Germans from Gotenhafen (Gdynia) is sunk in Gdańsk Bay by three torpedoes from Soviet submarine S-13 in the Baltic Sea; up to 9,400, 5,000 of whom are children, are thought to have died – the greatest loss of life in a single ship sinking in history.source
  • 1948Mahatma Gandhi, Leader of Indian independence movement, (assassinated) (born 1869)source
  • 1948Orville Wright, American co-inventor of the airplane (born 1871)source
  • 1962Two of the high-wire "Flying Wallendas" are killed when their famous seven-person pyramid collapses during a performance in Detroit.source
  • 1983Fritz Machlup, Austrian-born economist (born 1902)source
  • 2006Coretta Scott King, 78, American civil rights leader, widow of Martin Luther King Jr., ovarian cancer.source
  • 2016January 16 – 30 people are killed and 56 injured in terrorist attacks in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, targeting a hotel and a nearby restaurant. A siege occurs and 176 hostages are released afterwards, by government forces.source