30 December 186

Supporters of Congolese religious leader Paul-Joseph Mukungubila carried out a series of attacks on television studios, the airport and a military base in Kinshasa.

Pro-government counter-demonstrators held rallies (pictured) in several Iranian cities in response to recent anti-government protests on the holy day of Ashura.

The Indonesian ferry MV Senopati Nusantara sank in the Java Sea during a storm, killing at least 400 people.

Basque nationalist group ETA detonated a van bomb at Madrid–Barajas Airport in Spain, ending a nine-month ceasefire.

Saddam Hussein, the former president of Iraq, was executed after being found guilty of crimes against humanity by the Iraqi High Tribunal.

Tropical Storm Zeta (pictured) became a tropical depression, making it the record-breaking 28th tropical cyclone of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, the most active in recorded history until 2020.

The Guatemalan Air Force fired on Mexican fishing boats that had strayed into Guatemalan territory, triggering an eight-month conflict.

The Finnish National Bureau of Investigation was established to consolidate criminal investigation and intelligence into a single agency.

The Arroyo Seco Parkway, one of the first freeways built in the U.S., connecting downtown Los Angeles with Pasadena, California, was officially dedicated.

Second Italo-Ethiopian War: In retaliation for the execution of an Italian prisoner of war, the Italian Air Force destroyed a field hospital of the Swedish Red Cross in Dolo.

The All-India Muslim League, a political party in British India that developed into the driving force behind the creation of Pakistan as a Muslim state on the Indian subcontinent, was founded in Dhaka.

In one of the deadliest single-building fires in United States history, the Iroquois Theatre fire in Chicago killed more than 600 people.

The Discovery Expedition under Robert Falcon Scott attained a new Farthest South point in Antarctica.

The University of Galway, University College Cork and Queen's University Belfast were established as part of the Queen's University of Ireland.

War of 1812: British forces captured Buffalo, New York, and burned down nearly all its buildings.

Queen Anne's War: James Moore, the British colonial governor of Carolina, abandoned a siege against St. Augustine in Spanish Florida and retreated to Charles Town in disgrace.

Wars of the Roses: At the Battle of Wakefield, Lancastrian forces destroyed the Yorkist army and killed Richard of York at Sandal Magna in West Yorkshire, England.

More than 100 people are killed when anti-government forces attack key buildings in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

A suicide bomber kills nine people at Forward Operating Base Chapman, a key facility of the Central Intelligence Agency in Afghanistan.

Madrid–Barajas Airport is bombed.

The Indonesian passenger ferry MV Senopati Nusantara sinks in a storm, resulting in at least 400 deaths.

Former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein is executed.

Tropical Storm Zeta forms in the open Atlantic Ocean, tying the record for the latest tropical cyclone ever to form in the North Atlantic basin.

A fire in the República Cromagnon nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina, kills 194.