January 30th - Everything

On this day, in every year, lots of interesting things happened. The Eight Years War between the Netherlands and Spain ends when all involved decide things got out of hand. EdwardBransfield sights the Trinity Peninsula and claims Antarctica for all and sundry as long as they are called Edward. An attempted assassination of US President Andrew Jackson is foiled by senators with serious chutzpah. Fire destroys two thirds of a town inPuerto Rico and no one in the western world notices or cares. Yerba Buena is renamed to San Francisco beating out the other contender Yerba Guena 2. USS Monitor, the first successful iron-clad warship is launched and presumably sank because iron and salt water make rust. The Canadian Naval Services become the Royal Canadian Navy and cause the largest purchase of new letterheads in Canadian naval history. Adolf Hitler is sworn in as Chancellor of Germany and things in Germany seem to take a turn for the better, at least in the short-term. A refugee boat is sunk by the Soviets killing 9000 people who might not have deserved to die. The FlyingWandellas' human pyramid collapses killing two Wandellas and spooking a giraffe. In Vietnam, the Tet offensive is launched by the Viet Cong, which is later depicted in the excellent film, Full Metal Jacket. The Beatles perform their last public performance on the roof of Apple Records before the police disperse the audience at the order of the Rolling Stones. Pakistan withdraws from the Commonwealth of Nations citing personality conflict. George Bush Sr becomes the director of the CIA and immediately orders that he become President. In 1989, the American Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan closes in preparation for the American invasion two decades later. The flautist known as the GreatQuantz is born. King Charles I is beheaded and killed. The first life-boat is tested and is deemed much better than using a drowned body as a flotation device. The first modern suspension bridge is opened linking Wales with the British mainland. TheUK's House of Lords reject the Irish Home Rule and accept a pay rise for Lords. Gandhi is assassinated by a Hindu extremist who wasn't in to badminton. Martin Luther King Jr'shome is bombed in retaliation for the Montgomery Bus boycott and because he is black.