Holidays Calendar for January 30, 2019

January 30 is a special observance, founded by a Spanish poet. It's School Day of Non-violence and Peace (acronym from Spanish DENIP).

Every year on January 30 the customs officers in Azerbaijan celebrate their professional day – Day of Azerbaijani Customs.

Indonesian Primate Day (Hari Primata Indonesia) is celebrated annually on January 30. It is a working holiday that was established in 2014 to raise awareness of the need to preserve and protect Indonesian primates and their habitats.

Saudade is a specific feature that can be found in the culture and national character of the Portuguese, Brazilians and Galicians. This word is used to describe a deep emotional state of longing for an absent something or someone that one loves. In Brazil, Saudade Day is celebrated on January 30.

Tajikistan is the only country where four ancient Iranian holidays associated with the change of seasons – Sadeh, Nowruz, Tirgan and Mehregan – have an official status. Sadeh is a midwinter festival celebrated annually on January 30.

India observes several Martyr's Day on national level. January 30 is one of such days and it commemorates the assassination of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in 1948.

Fred Korematsu Day, also known as the Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution, is celebrated on January 30, primarily in California. It is dedicated to a Japanese-American civil rights activist. It is the first day in the United States history named after an Asian American.

January 30 is National Croissant Day, so celebrate it by indulging in a delicious warm croissant with a generous helping of butter.


This Day in History

  • 2024 Died: Chita Rivera, American actress, singer, and dancer who received numerous accolades including two Tony Awards, two Drama Desk Awards, and a Drama League Award.
  • 2020 The World Health Organization declared the outbreak of COVID-19, centered on Wuhan in central China, a public health emergency of international concern.
  • 2018 Died: Mark Salling, American actor and musician best known for his role as Puck on Glee. He committed suicide after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography.
  • 2008 Died: Jeremy Beadle, English television host and producer, a prominent person during 1980s. At that time he was the first mainstream television presenter to have a physical disability.
  • 2007 Died: Sidney Sheldon, American author and screenwriter, who became popular for his novels Master of the Game, The Other Side of Midnight, and Rage of Angels.
  • 2000 Kenya Airways Flight 431 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Ivory Coast. 169 people were killed.
  • 1995 Died: Gerald Durrell, Indian-English zookeeper, author, and television host, founder of the Durell Wildlife Conservation Trust and Durell Wildlife Park.
  • 1994 Died: Pierre Boulle, French author, best known for his novels The Bridge over the River Kwai and Planet of the Apes. Both novels were made into award-winning films.
  • 1991 Died: John Bardeen. American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate in Physics for the invention of the transistor and the BCS theory.
  • 1980 Born: Lena Hall, American actress and singer. She originated the role of Nicola in the Broadway musical Kinky Boots and won the Tony Award for her performance as Yitzhak in the 2014 revival of Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
  • 1979 A Varig Boeing 707-323C freighter disappeared over the Pacific Ocean 30 minutes after taking off from Tokyo. The aircraft, cargo and 6 crew members haven't been found.
  • 1974 Born: Olivia Colman, English actress who has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards, two Emmy Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards (as of 2024).
  • 1974 Born: Christian Bale, English actor known for his versatility and physical transformations for his roles. He has received various accolades, including an Academy Award for his supporting role in The Fighter.
  • 1972 British Paratroopers opened fire on and killed 14 unarmed civil rights and anti-internment activists during a march in Derry, Northern Ireland.
  • 1969 The Beatles gave their last public performance on the roof of Apple Records in London. This impromptu concert was broken up by the police.
  • 1968 Born: Felipe VI, King of Spain. He was born during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco and ascended the throne in 2014 upon the abdication of his father, Juan Carlos I.
  • 1959 MS Hans Hedtoft, said to be the safest ship afloat, struck an iceberg on her maiden voyage and sank, killing all 95 people aboard.
  • 1956 Born: Anne Dowd, American actress known for her roles as Patti Levin on The Leftovers and Aunt Lydia on The Handmaid's Tale, as well as numerous film roles.
  • 1956 American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.'s home was bombed in retaliation for the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
  • 1951 Died: Ferdinand Porsche, Austrian-German engineer and businessman, founder of the Porsche car company. He is also known for creating the first gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle, the Volkswagen Beetle, and the Mercedes-Benz SSK.
  • 1951 Born: Phil Collins, English singer-songwriter, producer, and actor who gained fame as the lead vocalist and drummer of Genesis. He is regarded as of the most successful songwriters and performers of all time.
  • 1949 Born: Peter Agre, American physician and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate for the discovery of aquaporins, water-channel proteins that move water molecules through the cell membrane.
  • 1948 Died: Orville Wright, American pilot and engineer, co-founder of the Wright Company.
  • 1948 Indian pacifist and leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was shot by the Hindu extremist Nathuram Godse.
  • 1937 Born: Vanessa Redgrave, English actress. Throughout her career spanning over six decades, she has garnered numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Tony Award and two Primetime Emmy Awards.
  • 1935 Born: Richard Brautigan, American author and poet, best known for his novel Trout Fishing in America.
  • 1933 Adolf Hitler was sworn as Chancellor of Germany.
  • 1929 Died: Louise Weber, French can-can dancer, known by the stage name La Goulue. She was one of the favorite subjects for Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who immortalized her by portraits and posters of her dancing at the Moulin Rouge.
  • 1928 Died: Johannes Fibiger, Danish physician, Nobel Prize laureate for his discovery of the microorganism Spiroptera carcinoma that caused cancer in mice and rats.
  • 1925 Born: Douglas Engelbart, American computer scientist, known as the inventor of the computer mouse.
  • 1925 Born: Dorothy Malone, American actress. Malone started with small roles, mainly in B-movies, but hrt role as Marylee Hadley in Written on the Wind brought her nationwide fame.
  • 1899 Born: Max Theiler, South African virologist, Nobel Prize laureate for developing a vaccine against yellow fever.
  • 1882 Born: Franklin D. Roosevelt, American politician who served as the 32nd President of the United States.
  • 1866 Born: Gelett Burgess, American author, poet, and critic, a very important figure in the San Francisco Bay Area literary renaissance of the 1890s. Burgess is best known as the writer of nonsense verse and the Goops books.
  • 1836 Died: Betsy Ross, American seamstress remembered as the designer of the American Flag.
  • 1820 Edward Bransfield sighted the Trinity Peninsula, the extreme northern part of the Antarctic Peninsula, and claimed the discovery of Antarctica.
  • 1775 Born: Walter Savage Landor, English writer, poet, and activist. His best known works were the prose Imaginary Conversations, and the poem "Rose Aylmer".
  • 1615 Born: Thomas Rolfe, the only child of Pocahontas by her English husband John Rolfe. His maternal grandfather was Chief Powhatan, the leader of the Powhatan tribe in Virginia.
  • 1607 Massive flooding destroyed 1200 square miles (51,800 ha) along the coasts of Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary, resulting in about 2,000 deaths.