December 30th is

National Bicarbonate of Soda Day

Candy Cane Cocktail Day

No Interruptions Day

 
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MORE! Rudyard Kipling, Rosalinde Hurley and Paul Stookey, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Dominican Republic – Santo Domingo:
Florida Festival of Chariots

Madagascar – Republic Day

Philippines – Rizal Day *

United States – Hakalau HI:
Wailea Village Mochi Pounding

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On This Day in HISTORY

1066 – A Muslim mob storms the royal palace in Granada, crucifies Jewish vizier Joseph ibn Naghrela and massacres most of the Jewish population of the city

1678 – William Croft baptized (birth date uncertain), organist of Westminster Abbey, composer of  Musica Sacra, the first collection of church music to be printed in the form of a score

1816 – The Treaty of St. Louis, actually a series of treaties signed between the U.S. and representatives of the Council of Three Fires (Ottawa, Ojibwa and Potawatomi) in which the tribes ceded all claims to a 20-mile strip of land connecting Chicago and Lake Michigan with the Illinois River (previously ceded to the U.S. by the Sac and Fox tribes) is proclaimed

1842 – Osman Hamid Bey born, Ottoman administrator, painter-archaeologist, founder of the Istanbul Academy of Fine Arts, now called the Mimr Sinan University of Fine Arts, and the three interconnected Istanbul Archaeology Museums

1850 – John Milne born, English seismologist-geologist who invented the seismograph

1853 – The U.S. buys 29, 670 miles of land along the southern borders of Arizona and New Mexico from Mexico in a treaty signed by American Ambassador to Mexico James Gadsden, known in the U.S. as the Gasden Purchase, and in Mexico as Venta de La Mesilla (sale ofLa Mesilla)

1865 – Rudyard Kipling born, English author, journalist and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (1907), Kim, Just So Stories, The Jungle Book, Captains Courageous

1869 – Stephen Leacock born in England, Canadian political scientist-writer-humorist-teacher, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, Arcadian Adventures With the Idle Rich

1873 – Al Smith is born, American statesman, 4-term Governor of New York, and Democratic candidate, and first Catholic nominee, for U.S. president in 1928. He lost to Herbert Hoover

1896 – Rizal Day * – Filipino patriot and reform advocate José Rizal is executed by a Spanish firing squad in Manila

1897 – In SE Africa, after the Boers take over almost half of Zululand and form the Republic of Vryheld, the British Colony of Natal annexes the remainder of Zululand

1899 – Helge M. Ingstad born, Norwegian explorer. In 1960, he and his wife, archaeologist Anne Stine, find remnants of a Viking settlement in Newfoundland, and became the first to prove that Greenlandic Norsemen had crossed the Atlantic Ocean to North America roughly 500 years before Christopher Columbus or John Cabot

1904 – Dmitry Kabalevsky born, prolific Russian composer, founding and prominent member of the Union of Soviet Composers

1910 – Paul Bowles born, American expatriate composer of theatrical and orchestral music and author of fiction and journals, The Sheltering Sky, who lived most of his adult life in Tangiers, Morocco

1919 – The Middle Temple, one of the four Inns of Court in London, admits its first female bar student, Helena Normanton, after the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 receives Royal Assent and becomes law on December 23, 1919. The act amended all laws that prevented ‘persons’ by sex or marriage “from the exercise of any public function, or from being appointed to or holding any civil or judicial office or post, or from entering into or assuming or carrying on any civil profession or vocation, or for admission to any incorporated society….” It also said “a person shall not be exempted by sex or marriage from the liability to serve as a juror.” Women over age 30 who met minimum property requirements got the right to vote in 1918, but universal suffrage for women over age 21 didn’t come until 1928

1922 – The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is formed

1924 – Edwin Hubble announces the existence of other galactic systems

1927 – The Ginza Line, the first subway line in Asia, opens in Tokyo, Japan

1928 – Bo Diddley born, American R&B singer-songwriter-guitarist

1929 – Dame Rosalinde Hurley, British microbiologist, medical researcher, ethicist and barrister

1934 – John Norris Bahcall born, American astrophysicist, collaborator on creation of a neutrino detector, establishment of the Standard Solar Model; received NASA’s  Distinguished Public Service Medal for his work on the Hubble Telescope

1936 – The United Auto Workers union stages its first sitdown strike

1937 – Noel Paul Stookey born, American singer-songwriter and activist,  ‘Paul’ of the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary; co-founder of Hugworks, which produces music designed as music therapy for special needs children; wrote  “The Wedding Song (There is Love)”

1939 – Felix Pappalardi born, Americansinger-songwriter-bassist, music producer, Cream, beginning with Disraeli Gears

1940 – California’s first freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway, between Pasadena and downtown Los Angeles, officially opens

1945 – Davy Jones born, English singer-songwriter-actor, The Monkees

1946 – Patti Smith born, American Punk Rock singer-songwriter-poet

1950 – Bjarne Stroustrup born, Danish computer scientist, C++ programming language

1959 – Tracey Ullman, English-American television, stage, and film performer, screenwriter- producer-director, and author; The animated TV series, The Simpsons, was originally a spin-off from The Tracey Ullman Show

1965 – Ferdinand Marcos becomes President of the Philippines

1972 – The U.S. halts heavy bombing of North Vietnam

1980 – The Wonderful World of Disney, the longest-running series in prime-time television history, is cancelled by NBC after more than 25 years on the air

1993 – Israel and the Vatican agree to recognize each other

1997 – Algerian insurgency after the military cancellation of the 1992 elections escalated again after the 1997 elections into massacres, the bloodiest being the Wilaya of Relizane. In the Ouarsenis Mountains 150 miles west of Algiers, on the evening of the first day of Ramadan, armed assailants disguised as ‘Afghans’ swept through four villages indiscriminately killing whole families, including children and babies. Between 250 and 400 people are killed

2000 – On Rizal Day in Manila, Philippines, a series of bombs explode killing 22 and injuring 100

2006 – Former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein is executed

2015 – An investigation by The New York Times shows how the richest U.S.families have avoided paying billions of dollars in taxes by quietly building a “private tax system.” The rich have reportedly exploited esoteric loopholes in the current tax system while pouring millions into lobbying for policies to pay even lower taxes, such as repealing the inheritance tax. The result has been billions of dollars in lost taxes. Twenty years ago, the 400 richest families paid 27 percent of their income to federal taxes. In 2012, the 400 richest families paid only 17 percent. 

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Visuals

• National Bicarbonate of Soda Day
• Candy Cane Cocktail
• Do Not Disturb sign 
• International flags
• Massacre of Jews in Granada 1066 – artist uncredited
• Dragon of Marduk, relief from Ishtar Gate – Istanbul Archaeology Museum, Turkey
• Rudyard Kipling with history quote
• Paul Bowles with limitless quote
• Political cartoon – Tax Cuts for the Wealthy

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