Today in History in 1862 the ship USS Monitor sinks off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina; in 1953 the first color TV sets go on sale; and in 1972 the US halts the heavy bombing of North Vietnam.

The On This Day In History archives at “Simple English Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia” contains over 200,000 events, birthdays and deaths from 6,000 years of history. Here is a roundup of a few of them:

December 30 is the 364th day of the year (365th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There is one day remaining until the end of the year.

EVENTS

1066 – In the Granada Massacre, a Muslim mob storms the royal palace, killing most of the city's Jewish population.

1460 – During The Wars of the Roses, the Battle of Wakefield takes place.

1661 – In Sweden, Drottningholm Castle is destroyed by fire.

1702 – Queen Anne's War: James Moore, Governor of the Province of Carolina, abandons the Siege of St. Augustine.

1813 – War of 1812: British soldiers burn Buffalo, New York.

1816 – The Treaty of St. Louis between the United States and the united Ottawa, Ojibwa and Pitawatomi Native American tribes is proclaimed.

1825 – The Treaty of St. Louis between the United States and Shawnee Nation is proclaimed.

1853 – Gadsden Purchase: The US buys land from Mexico for railroad building in the Southwestern United States.

1862 – The ship USS Monitor sinks off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

1880 – Tahiti becomes a French colony as part of French Oceania.

1896 – Filipino National hero Jose Rizal is executed by a firing squad.

1897 – The British colony of Natal takes over Zululand in present–day South Africa.

1901 – 2000

1901 – Antarctica exploration: Robert Falcon Scott, Ernest Shackleton and Edward Adrian Wilson reach a South latitude of 82 degrees, 11 minutes, which was the farthest south anyone had been up until then.

1903 – Around 600 people are killed in a fire at the Iroquois Theatre in Chicago.

1905 – Governor of Idaho Frank Steunenberg is assassinated by a bomb attack on his home in Caldwell, Idaho.

1906 – The All–India Muslim League is founded in Dhaka. It later plays an important role in the creation of the new state of Pakistan.

1915 – Armored ship Natal sinks in the Cromarty Firth off the coast of Scotland, killing 405 out of the 705 people on board.

1916 – The last coronation in Hungary is performed for King Charles VI and Zita.

1916 – Grigori Rasputin is killed.

1919 – Lincoln's Inn in London admits its first female bar student.

1922 – The USSR is founded.

1924 – Edwin Hubble announces the existence of other galaxies.

1927 – The Ginza Line, the first subway in East Asia, opens in Tokyo.

1936 – The United Auto Workers union stakes its first sitdown strike.

1940 – California opens first freeway.

1943 – Subhas Chandra Bose raises the flag of Indian independence at Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

1944 – King George II of Greece declares a regency, leaving the throne vacant.

1947 – King Michael of Romania is forced to abdicate the throne.

1948 – The Cole Porter Broadway musical Kiss Me, Kate opens at the New Century Theatre.

1953 – The first color TV sets go on sale.

1958 – The Guatemalan Air Force sinks several Mexican fishing boats alleged to have breached maritime borders, killing 3 people and sparking international tension.

1965 – Ferdinand Marcos becomes President of Philippines.

1972 – The US halts the heavy bombing of North Vietnam.

1975 – Didier Ratsiraka declares the Democratic Republic of Madagascar.

1977 – Ted Bundy escapes from jail.

1981 – In the 39th game of his third NHL season, Wayne Gretzky scores five goals to take his total for the season to 50, tying records held by Maurice Richard and Mike Bossy.

1993 – Israel and the Vatican establish diplomatic relations.

1996 – In Assam, Bodo separatists bomb a passenger train, killing 26 people.

1996 – Proposed budget cuts by Benjamin Netanyahu spark protests from 250,000 workers across Israel.

1997 – In Algeria, The Wilaya of Relizane massacre kills 400 people from four villages.

2000 – A series of bombs explode on Manila's Metro, killing 22 people.

2004 – A nightclub fire in Buenos Aires kills 194 people.

2005 – Tropical Storm Zeta forms in the North Atlantic Ocean, tying for the latest–ever hurricane in one season.

2006 – Madrid's Barajas Airport is bombed.

2006 – Saddam Hussein is executed in Iraq.

2006 – A shipping disaster in the Java Sea kills over 400 people.

2008 – Herman Van Rompuy becomes Prime Minister of Belgium.

2011 – This day is skipped in Samoa and Tokelau, as the International Date Line is shifted, intended to improve trade relations with Australia and New Zealand.

2013 – A suicide bomb attack on a bus in Volgograd, southern Russia, kills 14 people, just a day after a train station in the same city was also targeted by a bomb attack.

2013 – Over 100 people are killed when government forces attack key buildings in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.