Currently is Wednesday, Dec. 30, the 365th day of 2020. There is 1 day remaining in the 12 months.

Spotlight in Background:

On Dec. 30, 1903, about 600 persons died when hearth broke out at the recently opened Iroquois Theater in Chicago.

On this day:

In 1813, British troops burned Buffalo, New York, in the course of the War of 1812.

In 1853, the United States and Mexico signed a treaty underneath which the U.S. agreed to obtain some 45,000 square miles of land from Mexico for $10 million in a deal acknowledged as the Gadsden Acquire.

In 1860, 10 days after South Carolina seceded from the Union, the state militia seized the United States Arsenal in Charleston.

In 1865, creator Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay, India.

In 1922, Vladimir Lenin proclaimed the establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which lasted nearly 7 a long time right before dissolving in December 1991.

In 1936, the United Vehicle Personnel union staged its to start with “sit-down” strike at the General Motors Fisher System Plant No. 1 in Flint, Michigan. (The strike lasted right up until Feb. 11, 1937.)

In 1940, California’s initially freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway connecting Los Angeles and Pasadena, was officially opened by Gov. Culbert L. Olson.

In 1972, the United States halted its large bombing of North Vietnam.

In 1994, a gunman walked into a pair of suburban Boston abortion clinics and opened fire, killing two staff. (John C. Salvi III was later on convicted of murder he died in prison, an clear suicide.)