About Today in History January 30
1. Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi—considered the father of his country and internationally esteemed for his doctrine of nonviolent protest (satyagraha) to achieve political and social progress—was assassinated on this day in 1948.
2. California became the first state to celebrate Fred Korematsu Day, which honoured the Japanese American activist who was convicted in 1942 of violating an exclusion order requiring him to relocate; his subsequent legal appeals were denied.
3. Flooding forced the evacuation of more than 100,000 people from low-lying areas of the Netherlands.
4. A demonstration by Roman Catholic civil rights supporters in Londonderry (Derry), Northern Ireland, turned violent when British paratroopers opened fire, killing 13 and injuring 14 others (one of the injured later died); Bloody Sunday, as it became known, precipitated an upsurge in support for the Irish Republican Army.
5. The greatest maritime disaster in history occurred as the German ocean liner Wilhelm Gustloff was sunk by a Soviet submarine, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 9,000 people.
6. American politician Dick Cheney—who held various government offices, most notably the U.S. vice presidency (2001–09)—was born.
7. President Paul von Hindenburg named Adolf Hitler chancellor of Germany.
8. The fictional character the Lone Ranger was introduced on radio station WXYZ in Detroit, Michigan.
9. The American silent romantic-comedy film City Lights had its world premiere, and it is considered by many to be Charlie Chaplin's crowning achievement in cinema.
10. Barbara Tuchman, one of the foremost popular historians in the United States in the second half of the 20th century and a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, was born.
11. American trumpeter Roy Eldridge, one of the great creative musicians of the 1930s, was born in Pittsburgh.
12. Previously known as Yerba Buena (the name of a plant, meaning “good herb”), San Francisco was given its current name.
13. The Truce of Andrusovo ended the Thirteen Years' War between Russia and Poland.
14. Charles I, king of Great Britain and Ireland (1625–49)—whose authoritarian rule and quarrels with Parliament provoked the English Civil War—was executed in London.
15. The Roman emperor Augustus dedicated the shrine Ara Pacis (“Altar of Peace”).