Today in History
January 30
1820 British explorer Edward Bransfield becomes the first man to sigh the Antarctic mainland.
1875 After the fall of Napoleon III, France adopts the Third Republic.
1889 Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria commits suicide.
1902 Britain and Japan sign treaty providing for independence of China and Korea.
1928 First radio telephone connection between the Netherlands and US.
1933 Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany.
1943 Soviets destroy German army southwest of Stalingrad in World War II.
1948 Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi is assassinated in New Delhi.
1962 UN General Assembly adopts Asian-African resolution calling on Portugal to halt repressive measures against Angola.
1964 South Vietnamese General Nguyen Khanh seizes power in coup.
1970 Two students are killed and more than 200 wounded as demonstrators storm presidential palace in Philippine capital of Manila.
1972 Thirteen Catholic civil-rights marchers are shot to death by British soldiers in Northern Ireland.
1979 Rhodesia agrees new constitution to eventually give blacks control of the nation.
1984 Egypt reactivates its membership in Organisation of the Islamic Conference.
1985 US ambassador to the United Nations Jeane Kirkpatrick resigns her post and said she would return to private life.
1989 US closes embassy in Afghanistan.
1990 Communist Party loses majority in Czech parliament, which it dominated for four decades.
1992 Britain and Russia sign a declaration to the peaceful settlement of disputes, control of weapons of mass destruction and nuclear non-proliferation.
1995 Israel withdraws from most of the Jordanian land it occupied for 27 years.
2000 Kenya Airways flight 431 crashes near Ivory Coast, killing 170 people.
2005 A general election is held in Iraq to elect a National Assembly, the first general election since the 2003 invasion and the first free election for 50 years.
2006 Coretta Scott King, the widow of civil rights leader the Rev Martin Luther King Jr, dies.
2007 UAE football team wins the 18th edition of the Gulf Cup in Abu Dhabi.
2010 United States tennis player Serena Williams receives her 12th Grand Slam at the Australian Open
2012 Emirati Jalal Bin Thaneya arrives in Makkah after 2000 kilometres of walking from Dubai to raise funds for special needs
2013 South Korea successfully launches a satellite into space after third attempt.
HIGHLIGHT
2001
MP dies after brawl in Turkey parliament
A parliamentary fistfight that ended in the death of an opposition deputy sent a shudder through Turkey’s political establishment, raising new questions over government ability to master urgent reforms. A 56-year-old opposition True Path Party (DYP) deputy Fevzi Sihanlioglu being punched on the head during a chaotic brawl in the parliamentary debating chamber. The fist shown in Radikal newspaper was evidently that of Cahit Tekelioglu, member of the Nationalist Action Party (MHP), rightist coalition partner of leftist Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit. Other MHP deputies are shown bearing down on him. Sihanlioglu, head of a powerful southeastern family, fell to the floor clutching his chest. Little more than an hour later, in a nearby hospital, he was declared dead from a heart attack. DYP leader and former Prime Minister Tansu Ciller demanded Ecevit’s resignation, accusing him of failing to halt the fray.
