Wednesday, December 30

By The Associated Press

updated 7:00 p.m. ET Dec. 22, 2009

Today is Wednesday, Dec. 30, the 364th day of 2009. There is one day left in the year.

Highlights in history on this date:

1758 - French forces advance against Madras in India.

1777 - Bavaria, on death of Maximillian III, passes to Charles Theodore, Elector Palatine, igniting the War of the Bavarian Succession.

1803 - Sindhia of Gwalior submits to British in India.

1853 - The Gadsden Purchase signed with Mexico to sell southern portion of Arizona and New Mexico to the United States for $10 million.

1880 - The Transvaal Boers under Stephanus Kruger declare a republic.

1886 - Germany and Portugal agree on boundaries between Angola and German Southwest Africa.

1903 - Some 600 people die in the Iroquois Theater fire in Chicago.

1911 - Revolutionary Provisional Assembly in China elects Dr. Sun Yat-sen as the nation's first president.

1922 - The Transcaucasian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, consisting of Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, joins the Soviet Union.

1947 - Romania's King Michael abdicates under Communist pressure.

1949 - France transfers sovereignty to Vietnam.

1954 - The French National Assembly ends four years of indecision over West German rearmament by accepting to bring West Germany into the Western European Union.

1958 - French West African states decide to form a federation within the French community.

1962 - China warns that the cease-fire in border conflict with India is unstable.

1964 - U.N. Security Council calls for an end to all foreign intervention in the Congo, a cease-fire and withdrawal of mercenaries.

1972 - The United States halts its heavy bombing of North Vietnam.

1980 - The Spanish government agrees to allow the autonomous Basque government to raise taxes in the region and return only about one-third of the revenue to Madrid.

1988 - Yugoslavia's Premier Branko Mikulic and entire Cabinet resign following mounting criticism of how they handled the nation's economic crisis.

1989 - Polish Parliament approves reforms that allow formation of political parties, protect private property and deny Communist Party guaranteed monopoly on power.

1990 - Albanian Jews are allowed to begin emigrating to Israel for the first time.

1991 - Meeting in Minsk, Belarus, leaders of Commonwealth of Independent States fail to preserve unified military, allowing each republic to form its own army.

1992 - The California gray whale, a species once threatened with extinction, is removed from the endangered species list.

1993 - Israel and the Vatican agree to establish full diplomatic ties.

1994 - North Korea releases U.S. Army helicopter pilot Bobby Hall, ending a 13-day crisis.

1995 - Italian Premier Lamberto Dini submits his resignation, but wins a chance for a second year in office when Italy's president tells him Parliament should decide if he stays.

1996 - A powerful bomb explodes inside a packed express train in northeastern India, killing 38 passengers; the death toll from days of bitter cold, snow and ice across Europe reaches more than 140.

1997 - China announces stronger restrictions on the use of the Internet, aiming to curtail the use of e-mail and the World Wide Web among dissidents; armed men massacre 412 men, women and children in four mountain villages in Algeria.

1998 - The U.S. Federal Trade Commission approves the $53 billion merger of British Petroleum Co. and Amoco Corp.

1999 - A man walks into the office of Pakistan's largest Urdu-language newspaper and confesses to killing 100 children.

2000 - A passenger breaks into the cockpit of a British Airways flight and grabs the controls, sending the Boeing 747 into two violent nosedives before the crew regains control. The plane eventually lands safely.

2002 - New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg signs a law banning smoking in almost all bars and restaurants in the city starting March 30, 2003.

2004 - Israeli warplanes fly over large parts of Lebanon, prompting the United Nations to again urge the Jewish state to stop sending its military aircraft over the Arab country in breach of the U.N-drawn Lebanese-Israeli border.

2006 - Saddam Hussein, 69, the shotgun-waving dictator who ruled Iraq for a quarter-century and was driven from power by a U.S.-led war that left his country in shambles, is taken to the gallows and executed.

2007 - Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki wins a second term amid allegations that the government stole the vote from opposition candidate Raila Odinga, sparking deadly riots for weeks that kill at least 500 people.

2008 - Ugandan rebels have killed more than 400 people in northeastern Congo since Christmas, aid agency Caritas says.

Today's Birthdays:

Rudyard Kipling, English author (1865-1936); Stephen Leacock, Canadian humorist (1869-1944); Carol Reed, English film director (1906-1976); Bo Diddley, U.S. singer/guitarist (1928-2008); Skeeter Davis, U.S. singer (1931-2004); Patti Smith, U.S. punk musician (1946--); Tracey Ullman, British actress-singer (1959--).

Thought For Today:

The meek shall inherit the earth — if that's all right with you — Anonymous.

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