On January 30th in world history: 1648 — During the Eight Years War, the Treaty of Münster and Osnabrück was signed, ending the conflict between the Netherlands and Spain. 1649 — In London, King Charles I was beheaded for treason. Charles ascended to the English throne in 1625 following the death of his father, King James I. In the first year of his reign, Charles offended his Protestant subjects by marrying Henrietta Maria, a Catholic French princess. He later responded to political opposition to his rule by dissolving Parliament on several occasions and in 1629 decided to rule entirely without Parliament. In 1642, the bitter struggle between king and Parliament for supremacy led to the outbreak of the first English civil war. The Parliamentarians were led by Oliver Cromwell, whose formidable Ironsides force won an important victory against the kings Royalist forces at Marston Moor in 1644 and at Naseby in 1645. As a leader of the New Model Army in the second English civil war, Cromwell helped repel the Royalist invasion of Scotland, and in 1646 Charles surrendered to a Scottish army. In 1648, Charles was forced to appear before a high court controlled by his enemies, where he was convicted of treason and sentenced to death. Early in the next year, he was beheaded. The monarchy was abolished, and Cromwell assumed control of the new English Commonwealth. In 1658, Cromwell died and was succeeded by his eldest son, Richard, who was forced to flee to France in the next year with the restoration of the monarchy and the crowning of Charles II, the son of Charles I. Oliver Cromwell was posthumously convicted of treason, and his body was disinterred from its tomb in Westminster Abbey and hanged from the gallows at Tyburn. ---------- 1661 — Oliver Cromwell, was ritually executed two years after his death, on the anniversary of the execution of the monarch he himself deposed. 1790 — The first boat specializing as a lifeboat was tested on the River Tyne. 1820 — Edward Bransfield of Britain sighted the Trinity Peninsula and claimed the discovery of Antarctica. 1826 — The Menai Suspension Bridge, considered the world�s first modern suspension bridge, connecting the Isle of Anglesey to the north West coast of Wales, opened. 1841 — A fire destroyed two-thirds of Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. 1889 — Archduke Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian crown, was found dead with his mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera in Mayerling. 1911 — The Canadian Naval Service became the Royal Canadian Navy. 1913 — The House of Lords rejected the Irish Home Rule Bill. 1925 — The Government of Turkey threw Patriarch Constantine VI out of Istanbul. 1930 — The worlds second radiosonde is launched in Pavlovsk USSR. 1933 — President Paul von Hindenburg named Adolf Hitler leader—or fuhrer—of the National Socialist German Workers Party (or Nazi Party), as chancellor of Germany. ---------- 1943 — The British Royal Air Force began a bombing campaign on the German capital that coincided with the 10th anniversary of Hitlers accession to power. The Casablanca Conference, held from January 14 to 23, saw Prime Minister Winston Churchill, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the Combined Chiefs of Staff meet in Morocco to discuss future war strategy following on the success of the North African invasion, which heralded the defeat of Vichy forces. One of the resolutions of the conference was to launch a combined and sustained strategic bombing effort against the Germans. Strategic bombing was the policy of using bombers to destroy an enemys warmaking capacity, also referred to as area bombing. Churchill described it as an absolutely devastating, exterminating attack by very heavy bombers...upon the Nazi homeland. To celebrate the anniversary of Hitlers 1933 appointment to the office of chancellor by then-President Paul von Hindenburg, both propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and head of the Luftwaffe Hermann Goering planned to give radio addresses to the German masses. Goebbels intended to bolster morale by hailing an impending victory in Russia: A thousand years hence, every German will speak with awe of Stalingrad and remember that it was there that Germany put the seal on her victory. As the speeches were broadcast, RAF fighters rained bombs on Berlin, the beginning of devastating attacks on German cities that would last until the very end of the war. To make matters even worse for the Germans, the next day a massive surrender of German troops occurred at Stalingrad. ---------- 1945 — During World War II, the Wilhelm Gustloff, overfilled with refugees, sunk in the Baltic Sea after being torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, leading to the deadliest known maritime disaster, killing approximately 9,000 people. 1945 — A vital supply route linking India to China through Burma was finally cleared for Allied military transports. The first convoy of 133 trucks under British General Mountbatten left Ledo several weeks earlier, but could not enter China until the Americans were able to remove the last Japanese troops, retreating southward from a Chinese counter-offensive. Chinese General Chiang Kai-shek said the road had broken Japans siege of China. 1945 — Hitler gave his last ever public address, a radio address on the 12th anniversary of his coming to power. 1948 — Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the political and spiritual leader of the Indian independence movement, was assassinated in New Delhi by a Hindu fanatic. 1960 — The African National Party was founded in Chad through the merger of traditionalist parties. 1962 — King Abdullah II of Jordan, was born. 1965 — Thousands of people paid their last respects to Britains greatest wartime leader, Sir Winston Leonard-Spencer Churchill, who was buried on this day after a full state funeral. Silent crowds lined the streets to watch the gun carriage bearing Sir Winstons coffin leave Westminster Hall as Big Ben struck 0945. The procession travelled slowly through central London to St Pauls cathedral for the funeral service. Sir Winston died six days earlier, following a stroke earlier in the month from which he never regained consciousness. A total of 321,360 people filed past the catafalque during the three days of lying-in-state. 1969 — The Beatles performed in public for the last time in a 45-minute gig on the roof of their Apple Records headquarters in London. 1972 — In Londonderry, Northern Ireland, 13 unarmed civil rights demonstrators were shot dead by British Army paratroopers in an event that becomes known as Bloody Sunday. The protesters, all Northern Catholics, were marching in protest of the British policy of internment of suspected Irish nationalists. British authorities had ordered the march banned, and sent troops to confront the demonstrators when it went ahead. The soldiers fired indiscriminately into the crowd of protesters, killing 13 and wounding 17. The killings brought worldwide attention to the crisis in Northern Ireland and sparked protests all across Ireland. In Dublin, the capital of independent Ireland, outraged Irish citizens lit the British embassy aflame on February 2. The crisis in Northern Ireland escalated in 1969 when British troops were sent to the British possession to suppress nationalist activity by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and to quell religious violence between Protestants and Catholics. In April 1972, the British government released a report exonerating British troops from any illegal actions during the Londonderry protest. Irish indignation over Britains Northern Ireland policies grew, and Britain increased its military presence in the North while removing any vestige of Northern self-rule. On July 21, 1972, the IRA exploded 20 bombs simultaneously in Belfast, killing British military personnel and a number of civilians. Britain responded by instituting a new court system composed of trial without jury for terrorism suspects and conviction rates topped over 90 percent. The IRA officially disarmed in September 2005, finally fulfilling the terms of the historic 1998 Good Friday peace agreement. It was hoped that the disarmament would bring with it an end to decades of politically motivated bloodshed in the region. ---------- 1972 — Pakistan withdrew from the Commonwealth of Nations. 1979 — A Varig 707-323C freighter plane disappeared over the Pacific Ocean 30 minutes after taking off from Tokyo. 1996 — Gino Gallagher, the suspected leader of the Irish National Liberation Army, was killed while waiting in line for his unemployment benefit. 1996 — Comet Hyakutake was discovered by Japanese amateur astronomer Yuji Hyakutake. 2000 — After takeoff, a Kenya Airways Airbus A-310 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the Ivory Coast on this day in 2000. Only 10 people out of the 179 on board survived because the passengers did not have time to put on life jackets. 2005 — Iraqis voted in their countrys first free election in a half-century.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 21:15:25 +0000
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