Today in History, December 30th
On December 30, 1922, four republics formed the Soviet Union. Plus the Gadsden Purchase, the Iroquois Theater fire and the Flint sit-down strike.
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December 30 is best known for the founding of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922. The date also saw the Gadsden Purchase signed in 1853, Chicago’s deadly Iroquois Theater fire in 1903 and the start of the Flint sit-down strike in 1936.
The big story: The Soviet Union is founded (1922)
Five years after the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia, the new regime gave itself a formal shape. On December 30, 1922, four Soviet republics joined to create the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. They were the Russian and Transcaucasian federations plus Ukraine and Belorussia. Moscow became the capital, and Vladimir Lenin’s Communist Party held the real power at every level. The union’s first constitution followed in January 1924. On paper it was a partnership of equals; in practice the party’s Politburo and its general secretary ran things. The map kept changing. The Transcaucasian federation was split in 1936 into Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and the union eventually counted 15 republics, from the Baltic states to Central Asia. The state born that day lasted nearly seven decades, until it came apart in 1991.
More events on December 30
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1853 | U.S. minister James Gadsden and Mexican president Antonio López de Santa Anna signed the Gadsden Purchase in Mexico City, adding about 30,000 square miles of what is now southern Arizona and New Mexico. |
| 1896 | Spanish authorities executed Filipino writer and reformer José Rizal by firing squad in Manila. He became a hero of the Philippine national movement. |
| 1903 | Fire swept through Chicago’s new Iroquois Theater during a matinee, killing some 600 people. Most of its exits were locked; it remains the deadliest theater fire in U.S. history. |
| 1936 | Autoworkers began a sit-down strike at General Motors’ Fisher Body plant in Flint, Michigan. After 44 days, GM agreed to deal with the United Auto Workers. |
| 1947 | Romania’s King Michael was forced to abdicate as the communists took over, and he went into exile. |
| 1965 | Ferdinand Marcos was inaugurated as president of the Philippines. His rule lasted 20 years and included martial law, declared in 1972. |
| 1968 | A student taped Led Zeppelin’s fifth U.S. show, at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, making the first known live recording of the band. The newspaper ad called them “Len Zefflin.” |
| 2006 | Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging at an Iraqi military base after his conviction for crimes against humanity. |
| 2020 | British regulators approved the Oxford University/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for use across the UK. |
Born on December 30
- 1865: Rudyard Kipling, British writer and 1907 Nobel Prize winner, born in Bombay (now Mumbai), India.
- 1946: Patti Smith, American singer, songwriter and poet, born in Chicago.
- 1975: Tiger Woods, American golfer, born in Cypress, California.
- 1984: LeBron James, American basketball star, born in Akron, Ohio.
Keep reading
Sources
- Soviet Union, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- USSR established, History.com
- This Day in History: December 30, History.com
- José Rizal, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Michael, king of Romania, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Death of a Dictator: Ten Years Since Saddam Hussein’s Execution, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
- Oxford University/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine approved, UK government
- Rudyard Kipling, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- LeBron James, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Tiger Woods, Biography.com
How interesting; exactly the position of the Tea Party in the U.S. today.
You missed one of my favorite events of the day. This is the anniversary of the 1924 publication by Edwin Hubble of his observations, showing that what had been thought to be “clouds” in the stars were actually other galaxies, much like our own Milky Way — in short, the universe is much bigger and more populated by stars than anyone had really imagined. It’s Hubble Day!