Today in History, Dec. 30
Today is Saturday, Dec. 30, the 364th day of 2017. There is one day left in the year.
On Dec. 30, 1922, Vladimir Lenin proclaimed the establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which lasted nearly seven decades before dissolving in December 1991.
In 1853, the United States and Mexico signed a treaty under which the United States agreed to buy some 45,000 square miles of land from Mexico for $10 million in a deal known as the Gadsden Purchase.
In 1905, the Franz Lehar operetta “The Merry Widow” premiered in Vienna.
In 1916, Grigory Rasputin, the so-called “Mad Monk” who wielded considerable influence with Czar Nicholas II, was killed by a group of Russian noblemen in St. Petersburg.
In 1936, the United Auto Workers union staged its first “sit-down” strike at the General Motors Fisher Body Plant No. 1 in Flint, Mich. (The strike lasted until Feb. 11, 1937.)
In 1942, a near-riot of bobby-soxers greeted the opening of Frank Sinatra’s singing engagement at the Paramount Theater in New York’s Times Square.
In 1947, King Michael I of Romania agreed to abdicate, but charged he was being forced off the throne by Communists.
In 1954, Olympic gold medal runner Malvin G. Whitfield became the first black recipient of the James E. Sullivan Award for amateur athletes.
“Work is a dull thing; you cannot get away from that. The only agreeable existence is one of idleness, and that is not, unfortunately, always compatible with continuing to exist at all.”
– Rose Macaulay, English poet and essayist (1881-1958).