December 30 in Pop Culture History

Only two Atlantic storms/hurricanes were ever observed to span two calendar years: Alice (Dec 30, 1954 – Jan 6, 1955) and, exactly 51 years later, Zeta (Dec 30, 2005 – Jan 7, 2006)

1903 – Iroquois Theatre Fire, Chicago, Illinois – over 600 people were killed.

1916 – Grigory Efimovich Rasputin was murdered. He was a family friend and confidant of Russia’s Czar Nicholas II and Czarina Alexandra.

1922- Russia, Belorussia, Ukraine, and the Transcaucasian Federation formed the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics).

1948 – Kiss Me, Kate (Musical) Opened on December 30, 1948 and closed on July 28, 1951 at the New Century Theatre. It was based on Shakespeare’s play The Taming of the Shrew.

1950 – #1 Hit December 30, 1950 – March 2, 1951: Patti Page – The Tennessee Waltz

1953 – The Wild One, starring Marlon Brando was released.

1967 – #1 Hit December 30, 1967 – January 19, 1968: The Beatles – Hello, Goodbye

1968 – The Gonzaga ’68 bootleg was recorded at a western Washington State gym. The music was of the opening act, Vanilla Fudge, and was one of the earliest performances by Led Zeppelin. They were locally advertised as ‘Len Zefflin.’

1993 – Israel and Vatican City establish diplomatic relations.

1994 – Anti-abortionist John Salvi III killed two people and injured five more at an abortion clinic in Brookline, Massachusetts.

2011 -If you happened to be in Samoa at the end of 2011, you never experienced December 30, 2011. The country decided to change timezones, thus switching sides of the international date line and skipping December 30th altogether.